The first of three exclusive figure reviews today, the
Walmart exclusive Imperial Shock Trooper is a tie in to the Star Wars Battlefront game. An Original
Trilogy Stormtrooper with red accents, this is a good looking figure to add to
your Imperial line up.
When I first saw pictures of this figure online a number of
months ago, I knew I was going to have to track one down. As should be pretty
apparent by now, here at the Coffin, we’re Imperial supporters and army
builders. One of the best and worst things that has ever happened to me as an
adult collector is the variation among Clone figures that just bust forth in
the Revenge of the Sith toyline, and
the fact that that has never really happened with any OT Troopers. A dash of
olive paint on the shoulders of this guy, and suddenly he’s a totally different
Clone from a different unit or of a different specialization or something, and
I had to have it. I have a ton of 3.75” Clones; I don’t think my wife even
knows how many, content to dwell in the dusky shadows of understanding that I have
‘a lot’ of them. And I’m good with that.
When I first started seeing in hand pictures of the Shock
Trooper, I thought it was a different, new mold. When I first saw one running
around in the game, I felt a little disappointed, because I realized that it
was just a Stormtrooper, repainted.
And then, I got one of my own. Man, as classic as it is in
its stark white and black, the OT Stormtrooper armor is a blank canvas, and the
littlest details or alterations make it seem entirely fresh and new. Some red
boots, red shoulder pads and chest, brand new figure. A by now pretty standard
Trooper takes on a whole new life with the extra paint apps, and that makes you
appreciate the original, plain white design that much more as well.
The real beauty here is the helmet. It has the red in all
the right places, and that gives the impression of being an all new helmet.
When I got him in hand myself, I had to hold the standard Trooper and the Shock
Trooper side by side and really look at the helmets to convince myself that
they were the same thing. Accessory wise, he comes with the dull black blaster
rifle and a silvery pulse rifle, making this release identical to the regular
Trooper on that front.
The Shock Trooper is proof of concept as far as slight
changes to the standard Imperial Trooper making big differences, practically
creating variety where there isn’t any. It is not always necessary to have a
completely different design to add variety to a line up, and this was something
that Hasbro or whoever really learned during that Clone onslaught, extending it
to pretty much all toylines between 2005 and the present. A Clone with a skirt
piece becomes an ARC Trooper, and that can be repainted over and over and over,
resulting in a literal score of unique ARC Troopers. The repaints of OT
Troopers have never reached those same heights, and figures like this Shock
Trooper show that that is wasted potential. The biggest obstacle to this
repainting would probably be the lack of it in the OT films. At least with
Clones, we eventually see them on screen in a variety of decos, so there is precedent
that such markings exist and distinguish. Add in media like The Clone Wars series and this is
practically an indisputable Star Wars truth. The Expanded Universe gave us OT
Troopers of different types, but ironically, the Empire, signified by its
monolithic, uniform and faceless military provides distinct armor to its
various units; unlike the Clones, who all wear the same things.
I really like this figure. I think he looks great, and I think
he’s a great repaint of a good figure. He really does feel like a completely
new toy, and not just another instance of New Hat Syndrome, the way the First
Order Riot Trooper does. The fact that this is theoretically available at retail
and retail prices sweetens the deal. I bought mine online, because let’s be
honest here: “Walmart Exclusive” basically means you should be able to find it
at retail, but you probably won’t, because the store will have four of them,
and they’ll be put out at some completely random time, and if you’re not the
first guy in the store that day, someone else is going to buy the whole load of
them and eBay them. Remember the Transformers Classics Devastator set from like
2004, the Energon Constructicons repaints? At least when Target gets some kind
of exclusive, they have a bunch of them and put a lot of them out on end caps.
Walmart, who knows what they’re doing, but honestly, Walmart has far more
problems than just how they handle their exclusive action figures. If you find this at retail, get this. Totally worth the $20. If you have to track it down online, if you’re going to that trouble already, you know you want it, so you’re going to get it regardless. Minutes after the auction for this ended and I’d won, I was miffed that I had to pay a little more online because I couldn’t find this in a store. And then, minutes after that, I felt really good about winning. Here at the Child Sized Coffin, we are winners; it’s what we do.
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