I love building armies of troops in the Black Series line, but the good guys are far outnumbered by Stormtroopers. Sure that does fit with the story somewhat, but Rebel Troopers have long been a mainstay of Star Wars collecting, so I was glad to see Hasbro go back to the trooper well with the Hoth Rebel Soldier. Let’s take a look!
The Hoth Rebel Soldier comes on a fantastic vintage style card that I almost hate to mess up. Almost. I think this guy is rumored for an upcoming regular carded wave, so maybe I’ll hold off army building until then and leave this beauty for the carded collectors. Maybe.
The figure comes with two blaster rifles, a removeable pack, scarf, goggles, and an extra face plate. The two blasters are a little plain cast in flat dark gray with no paint detail. I am glad to get the larger A280C rifle in this line finally as it is one of those guns I really like in Battlefront II. I love that the smaller rifle fits in the holster and the only thing I would have liked different on this one is a carrying strap.
The backpack plugs into a peg hole on the back and there are soft plastic straps that loosely fit into holes on the inside of the pack to simulate straps. It’s a nice detail that didn’t need to be done and I appreciate the extra care that it took to add the straps.
The coolest feature on the pack is that it has a little storage bin area for the extra face plate. With the bearded one in there it totally takes me back to Zartan’s backpack and I am so happy that Hasbro went the extra mile to add a little storage spot for such an easy to lose piece. There’s some real thoughtfulness and love coming through on the design of this figure.
Speaking of thoughtful, Hasbro was really catering to army builders in a great way with the design of this figure with the face plates, goggles, and scarf. They can be swapped to create quite a few combinations that should add a nice variety to my Rebel army. The face plate swapping is accomplished by popping off the hat and then the front plate. Once you put the hat back on, it holds the plate in securely.
The head also pops off at the neck ball joint. In this way you can slide the mask/neckerchief onto the figure. I feel like it works a little better as a mask than a neckerchief, but I like the variety for sure. The goggles have an elastic band so they can be worn on the top of the head or on the face. The combinations are wonderfully numerous, though I miss that pop of green if I don’t include the goggles.
The sculpting on this guy is very sharp with a ton of great wrinkles and cloth texture detail. They did a great job capturing all the different materials of the costume and the metal parts stand out sharply. One nice inclusion is his boots have the peg up near the toe to help him stay on a Tauntaun if that’s what you want.
The face plates look like two different guys and the face printing works well at a distance, but close up in these photos I noticed the right eye on my figure is slightly mis-aligned. Shouldn’t be a problem for the troopers I put goggles on, but I hope it’s not a line wide issue and I can pick up a better one later.
Poseability is very good with this figure. I was worried about leg movement because of the skirt, but it’s not really as restrictive as I was anticipating. It does impede kneeling with the right leg forward since the skirt is attached to the holster at the leg. Articulation is as you would expect and functional and includes:
- Swivel/hinge shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, and ankls
- Double hinged knees
- Ball and socket head, neck, and mid torso
- Hinged pecs
- Swivel thighs
Paint is solid, though not flashy with most details applied cleanly without slop. Like I mentioned before, the guns have no paint and seem a little plain and I had that faceprint misalignment. A wash of some kind would have been nice, but this is a good looking clean figure.
Overall this is another great effort from Hasbro. As an army building fan, I really appreciate how much they catered to my niche interests here with a solid, versatile figure. I do think I’ll need to outfit one with a Quarren head and Heavy weapons to match my favorite Hoth Battlefront II look and it is already feeling like the type of figure I won’t be able to pass without buying when I see one on the pegs. I hope the Endor and Scarif troops can one day get a similar treatment!
