It’s no secret that I love Stormtroopers. In fact, I’ve probably started a previous Star Wars review saying those exact words, but I’m waaaay too lazy to go back and check. Either way, when I saw that we were getting the Solo Mimban Stormtrooper from both Hasbro’s Black Series and Bandai’s S.H. Figuarts line I figured it was time to break my vow to skip SHF troopers and compare the two.
See, I’ve always viewed the Bandai troopers as small. For some reason they’ve always skewed their armored characters to the short side for one reason or another. The original Vader, Jango, etc. And if you’re planning to comment “They’re actually in scale within the line, you shouldn’t be mixing and matching different lines like a caveman”, don’t. There is no way you can convince me that original Vader should have been nearly the same height as Luke. There’s a reason they did a 2.0. Anyway, that’s my reasoning for sticking to the human type figures in the line.
Until the Rogue One Stormtrooper. I still didn’t get it but I was told by a lot of people that it was slightly larger, fitting in better to a mix display like mine. And I was intrigued. Not enough to actually buy one at the time because….I actually don’t have a good excuse. Maybe it was the funds at the time, maybe it was the crotch plate. That crotch…
That and the slightly stylized helmet. But I really believe all the proportions would fall into place if the belt was dropped just a teeny tiny bit. Less crotch, more abs, boom, badass trooper. All that didn’t stop me from grabbing the Mimban with this same exact body though. Apparently you can cover a figure in dirt or sand or mud and I’m a pig in slop.
Now the Hasbro Black Series Mimban trooper is actually a Walmart exclusive that hasn’t actually hit yet, so ol’ uncle Robo was a dumbass and ordered one from overseas eBay. Paid too much but I had to have it. It’s a Star Wars figure, it’s a trooper, my curiosity got the best of me.
Comparing the two, each has their positives and negatives. I feel like the Hasbro is more realistic with the mud effects, actually looking like a trooper who has waded into a boggy field, while the Bandai looks like a stone statue or is covered in metal dust. It’s since been pointed out to me that promotional images of the actual Mimban Stormtroopers look like the Bandai, that it’s actually a gray clay planet, not mud.
But there’s also this, so who knows.
I think the Hasbro helmet is more accurate but the Bandai is more defined. The lenses could be painted better on the SWBS, the right isn’t quite painted to the actual sculpt, making it smaller than the left.
The cloth cape on the Hasbro is much more pleasing than the stiff plastic drape on the Bandai, but I understand there is a lot of personal preference in that statement. You either love or hate the cloth. Or the plastic simulating cloth. You do you.
Each figure is essentially the previous bodies with resculpted heads, so articulation is no surprise here. Both move nicely, but it surprises me that the Black Series trooper can pull off a better two handed weapon pose. It’s all in the elbows, boys. But that also means the SHF Mimban inherits the crotchiness.
But for some reason it’s not as crazy in your face when covered in dust. Except that clean spot. What’s he been rubbing against?
Basically….I like them both. Hell, it makes me want to go back and trach down that Rogue One Stormtrooper. Which is okay. I have never heard anyone say “MORE THAN ONE STORMTROOPER ON THE SHELF?? HOW DARE YOU!!” Unless that person can’t find a Stormtrooper for themself. That’s understandable.
And now, because I’m done writing, I can stop constantly typing “Stromtrooper” and then having to correct it.
Bandai package
Hasbro package
Bandai figure
Hasbro figure
Bandai hands
Bandai weapons
Hasbro weapon
Comparisons
Action
