Imperial Stormtrooper - TAC - Basic (30 20)

The Empire's elite shock troops, stormtroopers are unswervingly loyal to the Empire and serve without fear or hesitation. Their indoctrination and training are key to upholding the Emperor's bidding and maintaining his control of the galaxy.

If anything could go wrong with a simple plain and white Stormtrooper, it happened with the 2007 Imperial Stormtrooper in the 30 (77-07) line. To be fair, it was one of the best molds Hasbro could have used for a stormtrooper action figure at the time. But despite the plethora of articulation built into this figure, it fails in so many ways. Its root is the 2005 TSC Shadow Stormtrooper exclusive figure. But Hasbro casted this sculpt for this release in white plastic to look like a generic stormtrooper obviously. That was definitely a cool figure at the time, but if we are to be honest about it, it’s legs are too much of a nightmare to be functional. So those same problems were carried forward to the 2007 figure. The Imperial Stormtrooper is a figure that was a clear indication that this mold needed to be retired and that a much better body would need to be designed to take its place. You know our position on removable helmets on Original Trilogy characters. We would prefer that action figures based on these characters do not have removable helmets, but if Hasbro is determined to include this feature, then we ask them to ensure that it’s a snug fit on the figure’s head. Never have we seen a more wobbly connection of head to helmet than on this Imperial Stormtrooper. It really messes with the aesthetics of the figure and have tried and tried but we never could make this figure look right when we posed him.

And the problems really don’t stop there. The legs are poorly constructed due to the fact that they “upside down V” inward a bit and when you move the hips forward, the legs come in even closer contact to each other. This makes any action stance impossible to attain. The stormtrooper, as an action figure, is absolutely one that needs ball-jointed hips to allow for maximum posing and authentic recreation of scenes in the Star Wars films. So while it’s nice for Hasbro to include ball jointed knees and ankles here, they're really rendered useless thanks to the lack of ball-jointed hips. But it seems that we are still quite a bit away from having this become a standard in the basic figure line right now. In short, the 2007 TAC Imperial Stormtrooper just doesn’t cut it. It is awkward at best and doesn’t satisfy in a way it needs to be a good action figure. Matters are worsened thanks to his waist joint. To stand him upright and at a straight posture would require the big "hole" of this joint to be seen. But if you want to hunch him over, you can hide this joint with no problems. (Sheesh!) Honestly, it is quite difficult to for us to come up with any reasons at all why this figure is a necessary purchase unless you’re a one-of-everything collector. Besides not cutting it in the articulation department, the figure overall just doesn’t have a nice form. He seems cock-eyed no matter how we try to get him to stand and it is very difficult to get natural looking pose with him. But despite our feelings on this, we are sure some of you out there will like him. Maybe he isn't the worse Imperial Stormtrooper action figure out there, but he's pretty rough for us. And we’re just not sure how needed he was in this line.

You know about the removable helmet, but you may not know about the head sculpt. It’s a clone head with a body suit around his head that just shows his face. He has scarring on the face but the paint job is inferior. The lines aren’t crisp or clean and his skin tone is too dark. And his eyes make him look like he is coding in a hospital somewhere. At best, this figure makes for an interesting stormtrooper variation as a figure you should pose without the helmet on his head. But then that would make him an Expanded Universe character. While it is cool to have an Imperial Stormtrooper (who is an essential Star Wars character) in the 30 (77-07) line that celebrates 30 years of Star Wars, we would have wished that Hasbro decided to use a sculpt that is a little bit superior to this figure. We would go so far as to say that the stormtrooper in the Capture Of The Tantive IV Battle Packs set is superior to this one. But we have been known to have some weird ideas. There are some positives about this figure if you believe it. It’s ultimately awesome to get a Stormtrooper coin. And that’s the best part about this figure. Harsh, isn’t it? On a more positive note, we know that better “stormtrooper” days are ahead of us. The stormtrooper is such an integral character in the Star Wars universe and it should be a focus for Hasbro to give us a definitive one as soon as possible. But this figure definitely isn’t it.