I thought I was okay with skipping MAFEX’s Force Awakens First Order Stormtrooper, thus the lack of timeliness with this review. I have a couple of the Hasbro troopers, which are serviceable, and I have the Figuarts one, which was all kung fu up in my business with articulation, so this was just “one more” in a string of them. If your needs are met by other offerings, why get something that may be superfluous?
Ask a stupid question …
MAFEX seems to be on a pretty good streak lately, so I’m almost tempted to skip over the whole “hesitancy” aspect of buying a MAFEX. With VeeBee’s recent review of the just-released Rey figure and a decent string of hits like Kylo, Phasma, and a pair of Fetts, is it safe to say MAFEX has worked out the bugs? I will say that this figure continues to build my confidence.
Despite some minor quibbles, some of which are MAFEXian in nature, the experiment seems to be a success, because this is a fun figure overall. Let’s take a closer look and see how he does.
FO Stormtrooper’s overall sculpt:
The sculpting on the armor is smooth and sharp, with clean-looking lines and appropriate details. There’s a decent bulk to it to suggest an actual person in the armor, and the proportions all look just right. He runs a bit taller than the Hasbro FO Stormtrooper, but he seems to fit in with the MAFEX Kylo and Phasma. He might be just a little taller than he needs to be compared to those two figures, but it’s in the ballpark.
FO Stormtrooper’s head:
In terms of accuracy, if there’s a few microns off here or there in details, I’m not going to be the person that can scrutinize and tell you. It looks pretty accurate to me, and that’s what’s important. The articulation features a ball into the head and a ball jointed neck, so he can gets a very wide range of motion.
FO Stormtrooper’s torso:
Troopy — can I call him Troopy? — features a double ball at the armor break, and a ball joint at the waist, so there is a ton of movement. Side to side, twists, crouches, backward and so forth is all available. The sculpting is sharp and armoriffic, and doesn’t seem to have the “sports bra” effect that I heard about with Figuarts, that I didn’t have an issue with.
FO Stormtrooper’s shoulders:
The setup here is the ball joint into the torso with a ball and disc, into the bicep, all of which allows him to reach out and put his hands together in front of him. The shoulder pauldrons are a semi-flexible plastic that, while not hinged, doesn’t seem to impede the movement. I don’t know how durable the plastic connector is, so I’m not sure if it will snap off with overuse. Time will tell on that one.
FO Stormtrooper’s arms:
Troopy has a bicep swivel, a double-jointed elbow, and ball-jointed wrists. Due to the armor, his wrists don’t get a huge amount of wiggle room, but there is enough there to satiate most posing needs.
FO Stormtrooper’s hands:
You get a little spoiled here with four sets of hands. You get a set of fists, a set of trigger hands, a set of open hands, and a set of “gripping” hands, so he can wield his traitor-smacking baton in each hand. MAFEX still hasn’t implemented any type of mushroom or ball on the peg, so they come off a little easier than on other figures, but there is at least a snugness so they don’t just drop off.
FO Stormtrooper’s hips:
Troopy’s hips drop down, and you will need to do so if you want him to do any type of kneeling. He does not feature the poseable pouches that the Figuarts trooper had. Those made me swoon like a schoolgirl, while this make me grunt. The pouches have no give to them at all, not even a bit of flex, so you have to work around them. Otherwise, the hips do their job.
FO Stormtrooper’s legs:
Double-jointed knees and ball-and-disc ankles finish up the articulation part of the review. Both points get a very nice range of motion. Either the smaller blaster or the deactivated baton peg onto the side of his right leg.
FO Stormtrooper’s accessories:
Other than the already-covered hands, Troopy comes with his blaster rifle, his blaster pistol, his shield, and two versions of his electric baton. The deactivated baton can either be pegged to his leg or carried around menacingly, but when Troopy spots a dirty traitor he can whip it out to start kicking ass for the Order, or activate and elongate it for even more ass-kicking. There was no way I could make any of that sound less dirty. Both fit snugly into the accompanying grip hands.
The shield does seems a bit small based on stills from the movie, but only by a little. It seems like it should be a bit more rectangular than square.
Despite not thinking I needed a MAFEX version, I was very pleasantly surprised once I started fiddling around with him. I kind of want one more now. Just one. Or thirty.
