I’m a pretty big Star Wars fan, but I’ve got my blind spots in the franchise. Oddly enough my blind spots line up pretty well with most of the Gaming Greats releases so far, namely the Knights of the Old Republic and Force Unleashed games. Even though I’m not familiar with the game, The Stormtrooper Commander from The Force Unleashed still called to me with his Clone Wars style paint markings. Let’s take a look!
The box is a slight twist on the usual Black Series packaging with a splash of blue that matches the character well. As much as I like those new boxes shown for the Rebels crew re-releases, I think I’m going to miss the illustration style from these boxes.
The Commander comes with the standard stormtrooper weapons, a smaller blaster rifle that fits securely in the holster and a larger rifle. The smaller rifle is mostly black with a little silver detail while the larger rifle has a silver drybrush. The drybrush is pretty messy, but I like how it brings out the detail. One thing I did notice is that the larger rifle is a bit gummier plastic than these usually are, but it didn’t warp.
If you have ever bought a Black Series Stormtrooper, you know what your getting here sculpt-wise. It’s a good representation of a Stormtrooper, though I know some hate the helmet shape on this figure, I’ve always liked it. I think what I don’t care for is that the neck is a little high and there is an overlarge gap between the shoulders and bottom of the helmet. I think it’s because the body was ultimately designed for the pauldron wearing trooper.
Articulation is the same as always with the shoulder outward hinge movement hindered by tight ratchets and the shoulder armor bells and the hip’s forward leg movement is hindered by the crotch piece. One of the pegs is loose on my figure’s double knees, but it’s holding together. I’m going to eventually have to heat it up and fix it though. The commander has:
- Swivel/hinge shoulders, wrists, hips, ankles
- Double hinged knees and elbows
- Ball and socket head and mid-torso
- Swivel thighs and biceps
- Hinged neck
Paint is what makes this figure and it’s pretty good. I really like how some of the scratched-up blue design tampos look, especially on the helmet and the chest. It’s less effective to me in spots where they use blue paint as the base and paint white over it for scratches like on the shoulder bells or the right leg. It’s also got a nice and precise paint work on the details of the helmet that I appreciate.
Overall, I like this figure okay. I do like the color scheme and the design of the stripes on this guy, though not as much as I like the red Imperial Shocktrooper design. I’m glad to add him to the shelf, I just wish he was more reasonably priced or came with more stuff. Gamestop had him for 24.99 plus shipping costs and that feels like a lot for a repaint with nothing new. I wish he came with the blast effect from the deluxe Stormtrooper.
