Stormtrooper Commander - TBS [P3] - Six Inch Figures (Exclusive)

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed follows Darth Vader's secret apprentice, trained to hunt down and destroy Jedi, while Stormtrooper Commanders lead Imperial troops into battle.

You may or may not recall the train wreck the promotion for The Force Unleashed was in 2007 through 2008. Hasbro planned a dedicated wave of The Force Unleashed characters for their highly-popular 30 (77-07) line. But Lucasfilm delayed the release of the video game, forcing Hasbro to scramble and replace The Force Unleashed wave with a micro collection of repacks and repaints to make up the difference. Eventually, the long-awaited The Force Unleashed line saw release in 2008, but by that time, the game still wasn’t released, and collectors had new characters but didn’t know what to do with them. It didn’t matter much. The cast of characters produced for the 3.75” line was warmly received, and collectors loved the new takes on familiar characters like Darth Vader and Emperor’s Royal Guards. What poured salt into the wound with The Force Unleashed, however, was the days’ advanced notice GameStop exclusive release of the 3.75” TAC Stormtrooper Commander action figure. Claims existed that more units would arrive, but the sheer low-produced Stormtrooper Commander didn’t meet a fraction of demand. So, Hasbro promised they would re-release the figure. But instead of reissuing the same figure in the same packaging, they used the current (and boring) Legacy Collection much to the chagrin of collectors.

A great deal of time has transpired between the original 3.75” Stormtrooper Commander, its reissue, and this The Black Series [Phase III] Stormtrooper Commander GameStop exclusive. It’s been over a decade. Always a favorite character of ours, despite the Stormtrooper Commander’s highly-publicized controversy a decade ago, and is one of the worst-handled exclusives between Hasbro and GameStop, Hasbro seemed to do right after the past sins made against the collecting community. It’s important to note the figure’s history because, now, this is the best Stormtrooper Commander action figure that money can buy. It’s so good that we hope Hasbro gives us a super-articulated 3.75" version using The Vintage Collection Imperial Stormtrooper (VC140) tooling. But until they do, this is not a figure to miss. The Stormtrooper Commander is a rework 2014’s TBS [P1] Stormtrooper (#09) figure. It’s been completely repainted with color flashes of blue to match the video game character perfectly. The Stormtrooper Commander figure comes with the same 30 points of articulation as other Stormtrooper figures. And you can get a great range of motion from many of the joints, and it can attain almost any pose you desire without any difficulty. We tried extra hard to come up with some pretty unique poses and gravity-defying stances, and we think we have accomplished that in our Photo Gallery.

Lightly accessorized, the 6” Stormtrooper Commander comes with an E-11 blaster and larger blaster rifle, the same one IG-88 used in The Empire Strikes Back. The figure can hold both guns excellently, and the E-11 blaster can be placed in the functioning holster when not in use. Hasbro has utilized this tooling multiple times already, but we hope they keep beating out other Stormtrooper variations as the years move forward. We’d very much like to see the Spacetrooper from A New Hope next in The Black Series 6” line, but we digress. The Stormtrooper Commander has more color and battle-damage markings than the 3.5” versions. Looking a lot like a 501st Legion Clone Trooper, the Stormtrooper Commander has navy blue color flashes all over his armor. Hasbro did a great job of making the navy blue paint look clean and crisp. And the best feature for us is the non-removable helmet. It keeps the 6” aesthetic pure and unadulterated. It’s quite amazing how excellent paint applications can make the same figure look completely brand new. Hasbro gave the blue color flashes the royal treatment. They are full of scratches and speckles that allow the armor to have an incredible level of realism. Overall, we know 6” collectors will love the Stormtrooper Commander action figure. Many will want to army build this release, but we have yet to see how widely available it is.