The Force Awakens toy line has been a boon for troop builders, with several variations of Stormtroopers, a couple of TIE Pilots, and even a good-guy Resistance Trooper released in several scales and styles. Today we’ll take a look at the 6-inch Black Series version of one of the more unique troops in the film, The First Order Flametrooper!
Weapons specialists are nothing new in the Star Wars universe, even the original Stormtrooper from A New Hope had a more heavily armed and equipped variant that patrolled Tatooine. Flamethrowers are also used in the Clone Wars cartoon, but there is something novel to me about the standard black and white armored troops brandishing such a horrific weapon as the flamethrower.
Accessories
The Flametrooper comes with a removable pack and a flamethrower. The pack has a flexible hose that plugs securely into the handle of the flamethrower. The pack is a pretty stiff piece of plastic and hods detail well. The pack also has a tiny peg and hole that plug into corresponding peg and hole in the back of the trooper, and it’s arranged so that you can only plug it in one way.
The flamethrower itself is cast in a slightly softer plastic that also holds the gun detail well, but the barrel can be bent and distorted where it is thinnest.
The softer plastic does help a little because the stock can be bent slightly to fit better in a firing pose.
Sculpt
The sculpt looks sharp and accurate, especially with all the detail on the flamethrower and the little lines on the helmet. For some reason they decided to make the standard shoulder pads part of the shoulder rather than a separate piece like on the regular First Order Stormtrooper.
I think it makes for a less realistic look. The Flametrooper’s armor does have a more barrel-chested feel and makes him seem a little stockier than the other troopers, and that’s film accurate, but it reminds me of Dengar.
Articulation
Articulation is pretty much Black Series standard and has:
- Ball-and-socket head and mid-torso
- Swivel/Hinge neck, shoulders, elbows, hips, wrists and ankles
- Double-hinged knees
- Swivel thighs
This trooper also has better range of motion in his elbow bend than the regular First Order trooper, getting just about a 90-degree bend. The mid-torso actually gets some good side to side and crunch movement, but one of my troopers has a stuck joint with only swivel movement.
Paint
The paint is pretty simple with black details on gloss white plastic. They seem to be well done with little slop on the Flametroopers I grabbed. There are a couple detail lines missing from the thigh armor, which look a little to thin for me to do myself, so that’s a little disappointing.
Overall
While the Flametroopers are barely a blip in the actual film, I cannot resist a good troop variant. It’s a good figure. He’s currently packed two-per-case in wave 5, so even at stores that got picked over pretty well, I saw this guy left over. I think I really only need two, maybe four tops.
if you’re concerned about aesthetics, the hinge joint definitely LOOKS better. The elbows on those TBS Stormtroopers look awful. It’s a tradeoff. Ideally, we’d get two sets of interchangeable arms with different levels of articulation so we the consumer can decide what we want.
The decision to move to hinge/swivel elbows on the troops is baffling. Still, great figures though. The Sandtrooper from wave 1 will go down add one of my favorite SW figures ever.
I’d say even without the flame this is a solid 4.5/5 star figure. The only thing the TBS troops are really missing for me is double-jointed elbows. I’ve got no need for Figuarts versions of any of the troops really at this point.
Now if I could only find more of these flame troopers I could have an army!
The troops are constantly delivering on quality. Some of them just need that little extra oomph! This is one figure where that’s definitely the case. One of the best looking BS figures out there. Just a great design put perfectly to plastic.
Oh, ok. That’s the one that’s visible in the Clone Wars figure’s package. That’s why I thought you cut those pieces off. So, you could buy one Clone Wars Flame trooper and use it for 2 separate Black series figures. Cool!
Found this guy the other day, it’s one of those figures where, when I was a kid, I would have ditched the flame thrower and used him as a specal trooper because the base figure is so cool!
Plus: THOSE HANDS. Why didn’t the normal trooper get those hands?? They hold all the normal trooper weapons (especially the baton) waaaaay better. I wana get more flame troopers just to swap out the hands in the normal troopers (ya know, if that wasn’t ridiculous to do).
no. That’s exactly how the Clone Wars Flametrooper flame effect comes. Looks great, doesn’t it? I don’t collect Clone Wars and discovered it accidentally in a collector’s forum when somebody used it for a different custom.
Here’s the second flame effect from the same figure:
Great job on the pics. For that first photo at first glance I thought “Why is he using a shot from the movie for a toy review?”
Did you cut the little off-shoot flames off of the effect?
Glad you like the pics!
Thanks! That would have been nice to have for sure.
Thanks! I am on flickr, but I’ve never been much of a joiner. I love what all the ACBA guys are doing, though.
I got the idea from a customizer who made an OT flame trooper using this pieces. There’s another type of flame effect from the Clone Wars flame trooper that looks pretty cool too. I love the Black Series line but it’s definitely pretty short on accessories.
That actually looks really good. Shame Hasbro couldn’t (or wouldn’t) include one, as that small flourish adds a great deal to the figure. At least there are options!
These are awesome pictures and a great review. I hadn’t thought to buy any more Hasbro figures but your review has ignited my enthusiasm for this figure. You should do Hasbro’s marketing!
I haven’t drilled the hole yet, but this is what it looks like.
Thanks for the suggestion, Arnold. I’ll have to pick up a few Clone Wars figures then.
if you don’t mind customizing a bit, you can get the flame effects from the Clone Wars flame trooper figure, then drill a small hole in the front of the TBS Flametrooper gun. It looks pretty good.
Cool figure. Great pics and review, as always, Matthew. I just wish they had included some kind of flame-effect attachment, to clip on or fit on the end of the gun, like the ones you used on the ground.
Matthew, are you on flickr? You should be and join groups like ACBA. Your pics are always great! Good review too.