After Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm in October 2012, Disney announced they will be doing the Star Wars sequel trilogy with The Force Awakens as the first film of the sequel trilogy. Although the Galactic Empire has fallen after the Battle of Endor, a new organization called the First Order has come to power, and this new military junta employs Stormtroopers to execute its orders.
Jumping on the Star Wars bandwagon, Hot Toys has been busy producing figures from the new movie and the fans are loving it! Maybe it is a good thing as we seriously had enough of another Iron Man figure.
Hot Toys have produced a couple of stormtroopers, from the Officer and Stormtrooper set, Stormtrooper Jakku exclusive, Finn and Riot Control Stormtrooper and the one I got, Stormtrooper and Heavy Gunner Stromtrooper set. Deep down we all know the stormtroopers are all the same with just different accessories or markings but we just love them...haha.
It's the same shoe box design we've seen for the license from Hot Toys, a step down from the Sideshow fifth panel boxes.
In the front you have the picture of the 2 troopers. The artwork insert is pretty nice.
Everything is collector friendly with the double plastic tray, one for the figures / accessories and the other for the stands.
Hot toys is at the top of their game in sculpting and painting human faces.
Most of their human sculpts are first class and top notch.
Even if they do not get full marks in likeness they definitely get it in realism.
So sculpting troopers' helmets would not be a problem for them since even Sideshow does a good job on troopers.
The sculpting is indeed good and the proportion of head to body is also good.
All in all nothing much to complain about.
In the movie, the troopers looked pretty buff in their suits hence Hot Toys tried to replicate the likeness in the figures by adding a fat suit under the black rubber suit and armor. So what does that do...well you guess it...BAD ARTICULATION!
It is pretty difficult to get good dynamic poses out of these troopers.
It is worse for the heavy gunner as I can't even get him to hold his weapon properly.
Accuracy over articulation?
There must be a better balance and I hope Hot Toys figures this out. The price point definitely demands it.
The weapons can be attached to the side of the thigh by magnets.
In terms of accessories, there is the First Order emblem, hexagonal figure stand with First Order trooper nameplate and Star Wars logo, pair of fists, pair of relaxed palms, pair of palms for holding weapons (yar right), gesturing left palm, blaster rifle and blaster pistol. These accessories will be for both the Stormtrooper and Heavy Gunner Stromtrooper (except the blaster rifle). The Heavy gunner gets the extra heavy artillery vest and the articulated megablaster.
These are exciting times for Star Wars and toy collectors.
The Stormtroopers are fundamental Star Wars universe and it is a must to have them in my collection.
However the articulation really gets to me.
It really should not happen.
First Order Stormtrooper
First Order Heavy Gunner Stormtrooper
Now we know what the troopers are carrying is the vests!
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