Han Solo (In Stormtrooper Disguise) - POTJ - Action Collection

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Han attempts to save Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia from being crushed by the walls of the Death Star's trash compactor, before it's too late.

When it comes to Star Wars characters, there are many outfits and disguises they were. But what often gets overlooked is the “in-between” stages of these said outfits. For example, when you think about Leia Organa in her Echo Base uniform, you’ll find that half the time she is wearing gloves (like when on Echo Base). And then the other half of the time she isn’t wearing gloves (like during her escape from Hoth in the Millennium Falcon). All of these slight variances in costume are important to Star Wars collectors when completing dioramas, or placing them in specific scenes within their collections. Hasbro now pays attention to these differences in costume, and are not only incorporating these specifics into the 3.75” line but also the Action Collection line. The Power Of The Jedi Han Solo (In Stormtrooper Disguise) figure is an example of Hasbro taking a previously offered version of this character in this scale and tweaking it based on “other” moments within A New Hope. Here we have a scene-specific interpretation of Han Solo from the trash compactor scenes. You’ll find that although Han Solo (In Stormtrooper Disguise) represents the iteration of the character INSIDE of the trash compactor, Hasbro went light on the deco. 1998’s POTF2 [FB/CT] Luke Skywalker perfectly shows what Hasbro should have done with Han Solo, because Han Solo is too “light” in the deco department.

After the heroes fall into the trash compactor pit, they get covered in debris. And after the trash compactor gets turned on, they work together to support the walls from closing in on them, to little or no avail. This version of Han Solo (In Stormtrooper Disguise) inspired Hasbro to create the 2001 POTJ Han Solo (In Stormtrooper Disguise) Action Collection figure. We’ll say upfront that this isn’t a great Action Collection figure. Whenever the approach is sowing on soft plastic armored parts to recreate the Stormtrooper uniform that the aesthetics are not going to turn out well. Already using a bulky body buck, the addition of a black body glover and thick armored parts gives Han Solo (In Stormtrooper Disguise) an unnecessarily out of proportion body and the armor doesn’t fit close enough to the athletic frame the character has in the film. As a result, Han Solo (In Stormtrooper Disguise) doesn’t come off too well in the Action Collection line. We feel that it would have been better to approach a different character altogether. Han Solo (In Stormtrooper Disguise) comes with an all-new portrait that looks great at some angles, but wonky at other angles, we have a noncommittal opinion that it looks “alright” to us – not bad and not good. It falls somewhere in the middle.

We never understood why Hasbro decided to tool armor parts and sew them onto a body glove. Why couldn’t they approach armored characters like Kenner did in the Large Size Action Figures line? Tooling an Action Collection figure with armor as part of the tooling instead of adding separate parts would allow Hasbro to produce lean and athletic framed characters. It’s unavoidable to make them look like functioning soldiers of the Galactic Empire any other way. Han Solo (In Stormtrooper Disguise) fails because of this. Han Solo comes with extra paint operations of speckled dirt to recreate the filth of the trash compactor (yes, it’s barely noticeable and doesn’t look that believable on the figure). He also comes with an accessory, which gives us an Action Collection-scaled support beam to help stop the walls from closing in, Han Solo (In Stormtrooper Disguise) has some good points, but ultimately doesn’t meet collectors’ standards because of poor aesthetics. Han Solo comes with an E-11 blaster that first perfectly in the included holster on his belt. The figure also has a removable helmet that fits over the figure's head, but it fits a little too loosely and doesn't have a great aesthetic. Han Solo (In Stormtrooper Disguise) doesn’t have the same impact on us as other figures in the Power Of The Jedi Action Collection line. We like the accessory here, but is that enough for collectors to buy this?