Since Disney restarted the Star Wars films Hasbro has released a SDCC exclusive figure that served as a sort of preview for the new December released films. We got a First Order Stormtrooper, Jyn Erso, and a Rey and Luke set in this manner and this year it’s the Sith Trooper from the upcoming The Rise of Skywalker. Let’s take a look!
The Sith Trooper reveal last month kicked off a Firestorm of speculation about The Rise of Skywalker. Red troopers are nothing new to Star Wars. There was a red armored captain named Cardinal in the recent Captain Phasma book an a red armored pilot on Star Wars resistance. The Black Series had a red Lava Trooper and of course, the Royal and Praetorian guards wore the color as well.
The name itself holds a lot of weight as the new trilogy hasn’t really talked much about Sith, in fact the producers went out of their way to state Kylo and Snoke weren’t Sith. I can only assume that these new troopers have something to do with that cackle we heard at the end of the trailer for The Rise of Skywalker, but who knows.
The trooper comes in a striking red slip cover box with a brand new Sith symbol on the side. The graphics match with the other preview figures (and an exclusive Rex) well and look nice as a set if you are into that sort of thing. I’m not normally, but this pic from Yakface is pretty darn cool.
Inside the slip cover is kind of neat because there are little side drawers that slide open and contain all five of the Trooper’s weapons. It’s a unique display piece that shows off all of the sculpting pretty well.
The weapons are an interesting bunch, with three blasters and two melee weapons.
The smaller melee weapon reminds me a little of the riot gear trooper’s baton, but with a knife edge. I’m thinking it probably has a laser edge like the weapons the Praetorian Guards use in The Last Jedi. It fits solidly in the hand and looks pretty wicked.
The larger weapon, well I’m not even sure it is a weapon. It’s a clamp of some kind which has me thinking about Clamp Champ from Masters of the Universe. I suppose it could be used to handle hazardous materials or as a Jaws of Life situation but the clamp is hinged, so you can clamp other figures with it, which is kind of fun.
The two smaller blasters look like they are based on the standard Stormtrooper blaster rifle, just with some modifications to the muzzles and stocks.
It has me thinking these guys are some kind of specialist commandoes. These both have sharp details, solid plastic, and can hook onto the slot on the leg.
The final gun is a red variation on the First Order FWMB-10 repeating blaster. The large flat piece below the trigger guard transforms to a support stand for the FWMB-10s in the version from The Force Awakens and the version from the deluxe figure came with that piece, but it doesn’t appear to be removeable with this version.
The overall sculpture is fantastic on this guy. Sure, he’s a red Stormtrooper, but the designers gussied him up a bit more with lots of interesting groove texture lines across the surfaces of the armor.
The articulation works pretty well here too. The Sith Trooper has the following articulation:
- Swivel/hinge shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips and ankles
- Ball and socket head, neck, and mid-torso
- Double hinged knees
- Thigh swivel
- Butterfly hinged shoulders
The old FO stormtrooper had some notoriously bad arm articulation, so I’m happy to see a nice range of elbow motion on this guy. The shoulder armor plates are really soft and attached at the upper bicep, so the shoulders also move well. The shoulder pads are almost too soft so I’m concerned they might lose their shape if left bent for too long. I was also very glad to see how well the hips moved since sometimes that movement gets blocked by the armor.
The head doesn’t get as good a range of motion as I would like. He looks down well, but not up. I also can’t tell what’s going on where the neck attaches to the body. I feel a little give there, but it’s not quite a ball and socket joint and I can’t quite figure out if it’s meant to be and mine is defective or it’s just not a joint.
The paint is minimal since he’s mostly red plastic. Having not seen the film, it’s tough to say that the red is inaccurate, but the plastic doesn’t quite have the deep red I saw on the armor at SDCC. It’s slightly lighter. See the below costume pics from SDCC for comparison.
Preview figures are always a weird proposition for me. I’m a Star Wars fanatic, so I’m most likely going to want the figure anyway, but you never know if the character is really minor, uninteresting in the film or just plain isn’t in the thing.
Fortunately this trooper works solely on a cool figure basis for me. The weapons are neat and the figure wields them well and is fun to pose.
I think the addition of the butterfly joint at the shoulders is a nice touch and it helps him hold the FWB-10 much better than previous Stormtroopers have been able to.
The main downside for me is that I only have the one figure. Over the years I’ve really enjoyed building Black Series armies, so I’m looking forward to the eventual retail release for this guy.
