ARC TROOPER (Lambent Seeker) - TVC - Basic (VC236)

Celebrate iconic moments from a galaxy far, far away with figures inspired by the Star Wars video games.

It appears as of late that many of Hasbro’s most significant retail partners not part of the big-box chains are getting exclusives for The Vintage Collection. Namely, online retailers like Big Bad Toy Store and Entertainment Earth have picked up a couple of the line’s Gaming Greats characters, but they’re nothing more than the exact action figure painted differently. Multiple times. The Fan Channel picked up the ARC TROOPER (Lambent Seeker) action figure. It might be the only figure in the line that gains notoriety for the misspelling on its packaging rather than the glorious paint job Hasbro gave the action figure. They accidentally spelled “TROOPER” in capital letters, a mistake the brand hasn’t made since 1982’s ESB ARTOO-DETOO (R2-D2) 3.75-inch action figure from the Kenner lineup. It’s a decent track record to make a mistake like this every 40 years, so we celebrate their spelling skills and express delight for the fantastic action figure contained within the packaging. ARC TROOPER (Lambent Seeker) will strike a chord with collectors because of its eye-catching color. We all know the tooling well at this point. It’s just a matter of Hasbro choosing stunning paint jobs to make the repetitive figure more attractive. We feel they succeeded here. We admit that getting the same figure gets dull with each successive release, but ARC TROOPER (Lambent Seeker) stands out from the rest. Please take a moment to find out why.

We’ve thrown out the questions many times at this point. How many ARC Troopers does The Vintage Collection basic figure line need? Well, here is another. We understand the need for a couple, but does the line need an obscure video game character that falls under the Gaming Greats sub-line? Because Hasbro already chose the subtitle “Star Wars: Battlefront II” for VC235, they had to consider something distinguished for this release. But it’s important to note that this figure and the Big Bad Toy Store exclusive figure are both from Star Wars: Battlefront II video game. Collectors won’t vary on the quality of this new-ish ARC Trooper tooling. It still holds up well after a couple of years. Hasbro could make the most of the figure’s tooling by adding a refreshed or all-new portrait, but as usual, they’re lazy and decided to repaint the entire figure without adding any newness. Compared side by side, VC235 and VC236 are seemingly identical, save for their unique paint jobs. But this shouldn’t be any surprise for anyone collecting Star Wars action figures since the advent of the Prequel Trilogy. The beautiful chartreuse and grey color flashes make the character appear unlike the other ARC Trooper figures in the line thus far. The tooling holds up well, and Hasbro is improving with the Photo Real technology on 3.75-inch action figures. Collectors will undoubtedly embrace this action figure as a candidate for their collections.

We surmised that Hasbro would milk this character design and continue releasing other ARC Troopers into the line, and we’re proven true with this release. ARC TROOPER (Lambent Seeker) comes with four weapons, a removable pauldron/backpack combination, and a removable helmet with an articulated rangefinder. That’s a lot of accessories for a 3.75-inch action figure. We’re proud of Hasbro for not cheapening out on us here. ARC TROOPER (Lambent Seeker) comes with exquisite card art. Hasbro ensured they translated the character’s likeness into realistic style well. Hopefully, enough video game enthusiasts will take to this figure and want to add it to their collections. ARC TROOPER (Lambent Seeker) is a rework of the figure from the 501st Legion ARC Troopers (Echo/Fives/Jesse} Special Action Figure Set, which was a “convention” exclusive for 2020. Hasbro still has trouble properly sizing the Phase II bucket, and the helmet on this figure still appears too large. It’s not as bad as the earlier Phase II Clone Troopers in The Vintage Collection, but a sizing issue still exists. Like the other previously released ARC Trooper figures, we prefer to display this figure with the helmet removed. It has more personality. This ARC TROOPER still has articulation issues despite its 28 points. The problem is that the molded belt/holster/kama combination piece inhibits the movement of the ball-jointed hips, swivel thighs, and knees. But thanks to the “rocker” ankles, collectors will find ARC TROOPER (Lambent Seeker) offers some flexibility.