Bandai: Star Wars Stormtrooper 1:12 Scale Model Kit Review

My love affair with Star Wars may have been rekindled with Hasbro’s Black Series, but Bandai’s model kits are taking it to a whole other level.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still liking the Black series. They are ahead of all the overseas companies in terms of character selection, but they also had quite a head start. And most of the figures have been good, some great, some not so great. But Bandai has raised the bar so far. First with Darth Vader, which wasn’t that high a bar to begin with, and now with the Stormtrooper, which I thought would be a tougher task as I loved the Black Series Stormtrooper. I still like him, but I’ve got a new love now. Hello model kits!

 

If you have Vader you know what to expect in terms of packaging and what you’re going to find in the box. The outside is a shiny gloss black, very eye catching. The artwork on the front is especially great although I was a bit worried that the figure itself would match the green eye lenses of the box art. Which was a silly fear, when you think about it. The edges show pictures of the figure in various poses. All of this gets you excited and then you open the box…

To someone who has never built a model kit this sight can be a little daunting. Hell, I’ve built a couple like this and I still look at it as “What have I gotten myself into?” But have no fear, the instructions are fairly easy to follow even if they aren’t in English. And after the Vader build and a lot of helpful comments on that video I’ve since learned the difference between the two sticker sheets. One is just standard stickers, the other is waterslide decals. This helped me out a lot, especially with my decision to actually use the stickers rather than paint on details like I did with Vader. More on that in a bit.

I’m going to go ahead and throw my video build and review right here. I don’t go through the whole build but I touch on some sticking points I had during the process. Nothing major, but there is a belt issue explained. And me rambling, as always.

But once the figure is complete it’s really a beauty.

Like I said above, I knew the Black Series Stormtrooper would be hard to beat but I really feel that this model kit surpassed any and all expectations. I mean, just look at it. The figure just throws off such a vintage figure vibe. I think it may be the helmet for the most part, but really, I like every single aspect better than the Hasbro offering, and that’s saying a lot. Sculpt, articulation, the fact that there is no paint to smudge between colors. Everything rocks my socks.

On top of all that, all of the articulation points are hidden. No pegholes, it’s even hard to see the hinges work. I go through all the articulation and range of movement in the video, but I have to reiterate it in writing: This thing is really surprising. Okay, the torso could stand to have a little more movement and the knees are hindered by the armor a tad, but that’s only because of how armor would restrict them in the first place. In fact, if there is any hindered movement it’s realistically hindered, if that makes sense. What restricts movement on the figure is what an actual person in real life wearing this armor would experience.

I have to mention the elbows though. The forearms are on a sliding system that allows the hand to actually reach back and touch the shoulder. As you bend the elbow the forearm actually slides away to free up elbow movement, and then when you straighten it out you just push the forearm back up. It doesn’t break the look as it extends. At first I didn’t know if it was done on purpose, wondering why the forearm wouldn’t pop all the way in, but as I started playing around with it I realized what it does. It has to be intentional.

This time around I opted to use the stickers. I didn’t want to go through the headache of painting those blue parallel lines on the sides of the helmet. That would have driven me nuts. The decals made me nervous at first but after a couple I was rocking them like a pro. So easy, so much cleaner, and after application they don’t even look like stickers. So well done. The stickers themselves, not the application, although I’m pretty content with the job I did too. I used the tip of an exacto to peel them off and place them, and then again to gently slide them around into place. After I was happy with placement I used the handle end to press them down.

The kit comes with three weapons, three sets of hands, and a base. The weapons are a E-11 blaster rifle, a SE-14r light repeating blaster, and a DLT-19 heavy blaster rifle. Yeah, I looked those up, calm down. Basically he has a small pistol, a small rifle, and a big rifle. The two small weapons can fit in his holster.

For hands he has two open hands, two trigger finger hands, a left pointy finger hand, and a right fist. Like Vader and the Sprukits you have to take the grippy shooting hands apart and then put them back together around the gun. This works great to keep the weapons in the hands but I get fidgety taking them apart and lining them back up to put them back together so I tend to leave those on the guns. The hands change out easily.

The base is also standard to what we’ve seen with Darth Vader and the Sprukits. Just a square with a mold that fits the foot snugly. Because the figure is hollow it’s very light and can easily hold most any pose you can think of, even one foot up poses.

Now for the comparison to the Black Series Stormtrooper. I still like both but the edge, for me anyway, definitely goes to Bandai. Bandai on the left, Hasbro on the right.

And then with the Bandai Darth Vader.

I am completely satisfied with this purchase. To rehash my Vader thoughts, the build gives such an appreciation for action figures, from the thought process on how this was conceived to the actual articulation breakdown and how everything goes together. Such a joy start to finish. And then to end up with a sweet Stormtrooper action figure with an awesome sculpt and more articulation than you can shake a stick at? Totally worth the $30.

He’s in stock at BigBadToyStore!

I want more. Sure, more Stormtroopers, but I’m also down for more characters. I’ve already preordered the R2-D2/R5-D4 two pack. I’ll do the same when C-3PO, Sandtrooper, and the Biker Scout with Speeder Bike go up too. Because Bandai has won me over. They can take these armored characters and make them beautiful. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still buying the Black Series because I still like those for the most part and they have quite a head start on the overseas companies. I also fear that Bandai won’t get into the human characters with these model kits. How will things like hair highlights, eyes, mouths, and eyebrows be done? Not to mention all the different colors to some of the costumes. But I can picture Zuckuss, IG-88, AT-AT Driver, Death Star Gunner, 4-LOM, ROTJ Boba Fett, and Gonk Droid. Armors and droids.

But surprise me, Bandai. Lando. Bib Fortuna. Gamorrean Guard. Yoda. Anyone and everyone. I’m in for the long haul.