If you have any of the previous trooper releases, you know what you’re getting with the Star Wars Black Series Amazon Exclusive Stormtrooper 4-pack. All four figures are reuse except for the Phase 2 Clone Trooper head, but the set overall is a great way to troop-build. Review over!
I’m kidding. Kinda. It’s hard to do a full-blown review when everyone has the figures from earlier waves, or has at least seen various old reviews already. You pretty much know what the deal is. But I’m excited to get the set. Why? I’m in total Star Wars whore mode. Again. It’s the late ’90s coming back to haunt me. I had better not get Episode 1’d again.
But on top of that, I’ve always been fascinated with the Stormtrooper armor. It’s just a beautiful design, in all of its variations. It’s something that looks great the more you have of it. And even though I rib the prequels, I can find stuff to like. Clone Troopers, for instance. And to top it off, the First Order Stormtrooper is fast becoming my favorite armor, even above the classic Stormtrooper. So overall, this set tickles my fancy, even though I didn’t pre-order it initially. I waited, just to see if my Star Wars rekindle was going to hold out. It has. Oh man, has it ever.
The package for this set has to be at the top of my list in recent history. And I usually don’t care for the box my toys come in at all.
The box has velcro clasp on the side, and opening it up reveals all four troopers in neutral positions. Kind of like Iron Man’s Hall of Armor, but with Stormtroopers.
The figures aren’t single carded within the box, more like double packed in each side. You can get them out without damaging the packaging so if you ever want to put them back in the mega-box, it’s definitely possible.
Out of the package though, mmm-mmm, troopery goodness.
The high point of the set is the Phase 2 Clone Trooper. Sure, the body is just a reuse of the Phase 1 Clone, but the head is something a lot of people have been waiting for. And it delivers.
I refuse to believe that this will be the only time we see this head. Surely it will see a single card release at some point. And if not, can we get some color variations like we’ve seen with the Phase 1? Squad colors. We have Commander Cody, give us some of his troops. Green. Blue. All of them. I’m such a sucker for those.
We also get a First Order Stormtrooper officer.
This is just the trooper we already have with an added pauldron from the Toys R Us exclusive Snowtrooper. I immediately removed the pauldron from the one I already popped together with my extras of those figures. The squad grows.
Every set has to have a low point, and for me it’s the battle damaged Stormtrooper.
The Black Series Stormtrooper has been demoted to filler on my shelf. I prefer the Bandai model kit. But I still like the BS figure enough to keep it around. And while I appreciate this concept, the “damage” is just painted on too cleanly. It looks more like paintball splatter.
But, if nothing else, it made me fiddle with the Stormtrooper again, which made me sadly realize how much articulation and range of movement has been phased out as this line has progressed. I completely forgot the OG trooper has bicep swivels and double elbows. Gah!
And finally, as much as I dig finally getting the Phase 2 version, my favorite has to be the Phase 1 Clone Trooper. The yellow just does it for me. I told you I was a sucker for this kind of thing.
My one nit here is that someone had yellow paint on their finger and then touched the shoulder pad. It’s not noticeable as a fingerprint unless you get close or take a picture, but even back a bit it looks like a smudge. It will have to be taken care of at some point.
But he goes nicely with the previously released green clone. I thought I had the red, I’ve seen the red in stores, I don’t know why I don’t have it. Now that I realize I need it I probably won’t be able to find it.
Besides the yellow fingerprint, all the various paint applications are fairly clean. It’s mostly black, but as we’ve seen, even black can be messed up. I won’t go into articulation since you know what to expect. But if you fancy video, I also did spoken word version of this review.
All in all, this is a good set if you’re into troop building or are just a huge fan of the troops of Star Wars. The set was $80 on Amazon, and while it looks to be sold-out at the moment I feel like this is something they have to restock soon. New movie and all. It kind of sucks that the first Phase 2 Clone Trooper in the line is in an exclusive box set but like I said, surely Hasbro will reuse it down the line. Surely?
I hope so, we never got red or yellow in the newer more accurate sculpt introduced a few years ago in the 3.75″ range.
It’s a bummer about the smudged pain on the Clone Commander. It seems to be far too common an occurrence for Hasbro. You would believe that an exclusive set would have that but more care taken of it. It’s not like you can pick a better painted set when it’s online only.
I must admit I wish they’d paint the grey gaps on the ‘/’ vent on the Phase I Clone. The original Trooper was much better painted… when the tampo was aligned correctly.
Got one! First Walgreens I hit. Now we need a blue.
At this point, the Black Series, at least when it comes to troopers, are completely supplementary to my collection. I too like the Bandai and MAFEX more, but more generic troops standing behind my main display troops fills out my shelf. Plus it’s cheaper to army build with the BS than the more expensive imports.
I say as I’m waiting for my extra Bandai model kit Stormtroopers and Sandtroopers to come in…
With that reasoning, it would just be easier to grab another FO Stormtrooper and TRU Snowtrooper and make your own with a pauldron switch. Then you have the 2 more unique troopers for half the price. I can totally see that.
I can see that, but from an exclusive standpoint I think the Phase 2 helmet was the big draw here. Plus for someone like me who has different “era” shelves, it’s an army build across the whole display.
Yeah, the third party sellers have really upped the price on this thing. I hear you on the troopers, I’m in full on “fill the shelf up” mode right now so this hit me right in the sweet spot. And the clones are cool, giving some variation with the squad or command colors.
If I strike out on my Saturday run this week I’ll definitely hit you up. It’s so weird, I could have sworn I had him in my pile of unopened, waiting for shelf space figures, but nope.
Got to admit, those Bandai and MAFEX figures raise the bar. Same scale, too!
Seems like it would have been a better idea to to package similar figures together instead of one of each. I don’t like the First Order trooper design and don’t care enough about clones to buy them in two scales so that just leaves one mediocre Stormtrooper. No sale.
Cool review Robo! I don’t have any of the Clone Troopers so this might be a get from me, and I can always use more Troopers of any kind. I checked Amazon though and the cheapest is around $160?? Not sure if the price will drop as more come in or what, but hope so cause I would like to pick this up.
Robo, If you need a red, let me know. The Walgreen’s in my area have had a slew of them.
Zero interest in clones. Agreed, the battle damage looks silly.
So that just leaves the first order officer.
Don’t want him enough to buy the set.
I officially abandoned the Black Series with this set. Just looks bad to me in terms of value and need. Bandai and MAfex for me.