Finn (FN-2187) - TBS [P3] - Six Inch Figures (17)

After his first taste of combat during a brutal First Order night assault on a Jakku village, Stormtrooper FN-2187 defects from Kylo Ren's forces, becoming a fugitive.

Finn in First Order Stormtrooper armor… This is a figure we knew we’d get as soon as we saw the very first teaser trailer for The Force Awakens back in November 2014. Impatient, many fans have gone on to make their own versions by swapping the head of Finn (Jakku) (#01) onto the body of a First Order Stormtrooper (04). When the Finn (FN-2187) figure was announced, many collectors wondered if Hasbro would simply perform the same customizing trick and resell it for $20. Well, the good news is that Hasbro did not take the lazy route with this figure. There’s a lot of new tooling, making it worthy of a separate release.

As with 2015's TBS [P2] Luke Skywalker (12) figure, Hasbro retooled the Stormtrooper armor to make it better fit the character. In this case it makes Finn shorter than the FO Stormtrooper. The most noticeable difference with the armor is that the torso looks larger and sits lower on the waist. This better fits the dimensions of the Finn character, at least as represented in the Finn (Jakku) figure. However, the differences don’t stop there. In fact, we daresay Hasbro did an overall better job with the Stormtrooper armor on this figure. In previous releases, the kneecaps and white pouches on belt were painted white, which resulted in a slightly different and duller shade of white than the rest of the armor. For Finn (FN-2187), Hasbro molded those parts in the same white plastic it uses for the armor, which matches much better. Moreover, the shoulder sockets rest deeper in the torso so the arms don’t stick out as much from the body (a problem with the original Stormtrooper).

Hasbro also took the effort to provide a new head sculpt. Finn’s portrait looks more serious than that of Finn (Jakku). The eyes on Finn (FN-2187 have brown irises and look like they were given a glossy coating, giving them a more lifelike quality. We’re still not sure which Finn portrait we like better, but they’re noticeably different. Hasbro even painted the top of the neck in brown flesh tone to match Finn’s skin. One concern for figures with removable helmets is that the helmets are sometimes made of softer plastic to fit over the figure’s head. We’re happy to report that is not the case here. This helmet looks and feels like it’s made of the same quality plastic as that of a regular First Order Stormtrooper. The helmet is a bit bigger than the normal helmets so it can fit over Finn’s head, but because the torso is also larger than normal we think it actually doesn’t look too big on the body.

If this figure has a drawback, it’s the lack of weathering. Customizers who made their own versions of Stormtrooper Finn added sand and dirt to the armor to resemble what we saw in the trailers. Aside from the bloody streaks on the helmet, Finn (FN-2187)’s armor is spotless. It would have been nice to have gotten some additional paintwork on the figure. That said, with the Tamiya Master Weathering A Set you can add your own weathering as you see fit. Overall, we’re pleasantly surprised with this figure. We sometimes complain about Hasbro cutting corners. Well, this is a case when we pretty much assumed Hasbro would cut corners, but it didn’t. Given how iconic this version of the character has already become, it’s great that Hasbro went the extra mile to make this a worthwhile purchase.

About Arnold Corso: While alive during the reign of the original Kenner figures, Arnold’s collecting habit really only began with the POTF2 line. Given that Hasbro doesn’t always make the figures he wants the way he wants them, he has increasingly taken to customizing his figures. Photos of his customs are available on Facebook under the name Darth Crassus Customs.