Looking every bit like the love child of Darth Vader and a Stormtrooper, the Death Trooper is the coolest design to come out of the new Star Wars resurgence this side of homicidal droids and Kylo Ren’s lightsaber.
I’m at the point where anything Figuarts makes me giddy. I was already at the point where anything 6 inches and Star Wars made me giddy, so put the two together and there’s a nonstop party in my pants parts. My only problem is that there just isn’t enough. Thankfully, the past few months have been fairly resplendent in new toys, so my giddy factor has stayed pretty high. And congratulations on suffering through the highest use of the word “giddy” that I have ever and will ever achieve.
I bought two of the Hasbro Death Troopers when they came out, because two felt like a good number. I still don’t have a Krennic yet, but I knew that two Troopers flanking Krennic was going to feel right. I liked the figure, but he felt a bit … stretched out. The Hasbro Death Troopers legs seemed thin, but it was the weird stretched-out quality I noticed the most. I knew that this was the type of thing that Figuarts would be tackling, and the only question was how awesome was it going to be.
Pretty awesome.
From a purely superficial view, the figure is gorgeous, with shiny black plastic that looks right out of the Imperial Handbook for Armor Polishing (IHAP). The armor is all sharply sculpted, with hard edges and razor sharp detailing. The helmet looks like it might be just a bit small for the body, which seems to be a common problem among various troopers, but it doesn’t bother me too much. It’s very possible that it’s extremely form-fitting. It gives him a sleek look anyway, as if you’re not really sure if there’s a person under there.
If you’ve been collecting any of the Figuarts Star Wars offerings, then you know to expect a large amount of articulation, even from armored characters. While the First Order Stormtrooper remains the benchmark to beat in terms of fully functional articulation thanks to his articulated pouches, the Death Trooper doesn’t do too badly. He doesn’t have the aforementioned poseable pouches for some reason, which is a shame because that would have ratcheted his hip motion up quite a bit. But otherwise I don’t ever have as much naturalistic, pure fun when I’m posing Figuarts stuff.
He has a wide amount of range in his neck and torso, his elbows can get much more than 90 degrees, his hips still have a respectable range of motion, and his double-jointed knees get a large range. His ankles are the most inhibited, with a very wide side to side but very little forward and backward, mostly due to the design of the armor. That’s kind of to be expected, so I can’t really fault them for that.
The Death Trooper comes with three sets of hands: pointing/gun holding, open “carrying” hands, and fists. These can be mixed and matched for a variety of different expressive posing and playing options. These are quite sturdy and take some force to remove, so be careful. I’ve had some Figuarts where the hands almost pop on and off too easily, and I’ve had some where it seems as if I’m going to break the figure trying to swap hands. These rest right in the middle, at least on mine.
In addition to the hands, he comes with both his rifle and his pistol, just like the Hasbro Trooper. I was a bit confused for a second because he comes with a second scope, and then I figured out that one scope attaches to the pistol when he’s holding it, and the other attaches when you want to have the pistol resting at his side. He comes with a separate piece that pegs into his side when you want it to look as if he’d just drawn his weapon. Make sense? Good. It’s a cool effect, but unfortunately both options can inhibit his ability to put his leg out to the side. Luckily it is optional, so you can leave off the pistol and/or the unholstered piece altogether if you find it just gets in your way. That’s most likely the option I’m going with so I don’t have to worry about losing the little thing.
The rifle fits easily into either hand, and he can hold it in a variety of poses, many many more than are available with the Hasbro Trooper.
As you can see, he is a bit shorter than the Hasbro Trooper, but he still dwarfs Jyn. I wish I had Krennick so I could see how he scales with him, but I don’t, so you’ll have to do some figuring on your own.
With Hasbro’s Death Troopers already released, this Figuarts figure, Bandai’s model kit, and the MAFEX version coming in August of 2017, there are a lot of options for those of us who like our Troopers black and shiny. The bitch about Figuarts is they’re (obviously) much more expensive than Hasbro, so I only get one figure for the price of Hasbro’s two. If I want a second for flanking, It’ll be a costly affair. But it might just be worth it.
You can pick up the Figuarts Death trooper from Big Bad Toy Store
