Stormtrooper - Elite Series

Stormtroopers are elite shock troops fanatically loyal to the Empire and impossible to sway from the Imperial cause. They wear imposing white armor, which offers a wide range of survival equipment and temperature controls to allow the soldiers to survive in almost any environment. Stormtroopers wield blaster rifles and pistols with great skill, and attack in hordes to overwhelm their enemies. Along with standard stormtroopers, the Empire has organized several specialized units, including snowtroopers and scout troopers.

We have finally entered the Original Trilogy in the Disney Store Elite Series line…. but will you care? It is very hard to not possess a noncommittal attitude with these figures. We have to ask ourselves do we really need another scale? There are so many different scales across Star Wars now that it is becoming sensory overload. We have ridiculously gigantic figures from Jakks Pacific, the standard bread and butter from Hasbro and Sideshow Collectibles, and now Disney is producing multiple ranges of their own. At some point we have to reflect upon what has already been offered and wonder if a new scale is what we need…. or the last thing we need. There is no doubt that there is an eager market supporting the Elite Series figures. They sell through very briskly and in all honesty look very nice packaged in their high end window boxes. Add to that a fair MSRP, collectors get value and quality in one fell swoop, something that isn’t a guarantee in the Hasbro brand. So there is some merit to a die cast figure line. We wonder however is Disney might have been more successful with a 3.75” die cast metal figure collection, or does that directly conflict with Hasbro’s line, even though Disney is over them now. It becomes too confusing at this level.

We say all that to say that the Elite Series Stormtrooper is a nice figure, but it may not be relevant for your own Star Wars collection. The Disney Elite Series, like The Black Series 6” line by Hasbro, are starting to look very cookie cutter in that the same articulation systems and inhibited movements of the joints are interfering with the aesthetics of the figures. For example, hinge-jointed knees and elbows are essentially useless. If they don’t pivot in all directions, you cannot recreate natural human movement. And you’re left with a very limiting action figure. Even the design of the armor is problematic. While Disney worked in ball-socket hips, the armor interferes with their full range of movement and as a result the legs are barely able to move out from the body in any real meaningful way. We also should comment that the even the ball-socket head has extremely limited movement. We were unable to turn the helmet aside for a few millimeters to the left and right and maybe slightly up and down. But there isn’t any true movement in these isolated parts. The ball-jointed feet aren’t any better either. While the potential for great movement is there, the armor once again conflicts with the integrity of the intended articulation.

Where the Stormtrooper mostly scores positive reviews from us is in the sculpt This looks like a pretty nice Original Trilogy Stormtrooper, but not all is perfect. The holster is just floating in the middle of his left thigh armor. We don’t see it attached to the belt in any way. (Maybe Disney got mixed up by the First Order troopers?) And the right hand is sculpted too widely where the weapon doesn’t stay firmly in place when posing the figure. But aside from these two issues, the rest of the Stormtrooper is very nice. We even think that Disney did an admirable job on the helmet. The armor has a shininess to it which looks sublime, and the black bodysuit underneath is diminutive without overtaking the whiteness of the character. In our opinion the included E-11 blaster is too big, but we might be off on this a little bit. We just think it looks too big in the Stormtrooper’s hand. As with all Elite Series figures, the Stormtrooper comes with a Star Wars display stand. It honestly isn’t too useful with this figure because the hips varely spread out on this figure, but it keeps the line uniform and is appreciated nonetheless. And as you know, the Stormtrooper is Swiss cheese from the back side. Those holes for the screws are just too much to bare.