The original Star Wars trilogy did a good job of moving the main cast through several different environments for peak dramatic effect, from the desert to the swamp to the forest to space stations and so on. Of them all, the environment that resonated the most and had the most significant impact on me was the frozen landscape of the planet Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back. This was in large part due to the fact that, while the desert and the swamp were completely out of reach to me in my upstate New York neighborhood, wintertime meant the entire neighborhood was transformed into Hoth as soon as the first snow hit, and my imagination went into overdrive. The Hoth-related Star Wars toys became my favorites of the line, chief among them the Tauntaun and the Imperial Snowtrooper, the latter of which has been given a spiffy new update from Hasbro in the latest wave of the 6-inch Star Wars Black Series. Let’s take a look!
Packaging is standard. The artwork is excellent as always and I continue to love the consistency in design from figure to figure, wave to wave. Now, when I first received my package from Amazon, it was a bit jarring to see all that beige against the white, red, and black.
I remember the Snowtrooper being more of an all-white color, and the original Kenner figure certainly wasn’t as prominently two-toned as this one is. But, as I was soon to learn, this actually nails the original design of the character as it was intended to be in the movie. Filters used while filming bleached the uniform out some, creating a white/slightly off-white look on screen, when the uniform’s true colors were what we see here. This works well for the figure, though, as it creates a nice distinction between armor plates and cloth uniform. (It also prevents the figure from looking like a potential KKK member, but … I didn’t say that.)
There was always something so ominous about that helmet and hood, and nothing about that has really changed. While I do like this head sculpt, part of me really is curious to see how well a soft goods hood would have worked here. I mean, it probably would have been terrible, but as-is this head feels like such a big lump of plastic.
For accessories, he comes with a backpack and two weapons: the standard-issue Stormtrooper rifle, and a larger, more formidable gun. What’s annoying is only his right hand has a trigger finger, so I pose him with just the smaller rifle since that’s the gun I prefer because to me it looks more “Star Wars.”
Articulation is standard, but somewhat aggravating, at least from the waist down. He has double-jointed knees, but the “skirt” is a rather still plastic that completely limits what you can do with his legs. The crotch armor is a soft plastic that doesn’t get in the way too badly, but that combined with the skirt renders his legs practically immobile. His mid-torso point of articulation is also limited by his armor. It moves somewhat, but not in any substantial, meaningful way. From the chest up he has a ball-jointed head (which gets more movement than you’d expect, but still not great due to the hood), ball-and-socket shoulders (with a nice range of motion), “elbro” elbows, and ball-and-socket wrists.
In comparison with the First Order Snowtrooper, the Imperial Snowtrooper looks downright grungy. There is little slick gloss, Hasbro made a rather successful attempt at weathering, and he just looks more primitive and, well, just more intimidating. But that could be my own natural preference for the original trilogy speaking.
I’m happy to have this figure, but when I ordered him from Amazon back in August, I made the mistake of ordering only one. I’d like at least one more to pose with my vintage AT-AT for sweet pics once the snow hits later this year. Fortunately, this wave seems to be popping up at stores and on Amazon off and on as we speak, so another should be within arm’s reach soon.
For now, if you’re on the hunt, I’d keep an eye on Amazon.
