Star Wars: The Black Series: Imperial Speeder Bike and Scout Trooper

There are some characters in the Star Wars universe that are more or less defined by something other than themselves. Things or other characters maybe that provide us with more information on the primary character than the character themselves do. Oh, look: a Scout Trooper, with his signature accessory, the Imperial Speeder Bike, from Return of the Jedi. What could possibly say ‘specialized scout and recon guy’ than a wildly high-speed vehicle for use on a heavily forested planet?

This is a figure I’ve been wanting to write on for a while now, and it seems I finally got around to it. I got this set almost a year ago when one of those stupidly overpriced calendar/random toys for Christmas stores at a mall was closing for the season, so everything was 50% off. That made the price of this guy something like $20, which at the time was a really good price, as I was used to seeing this in stores for around $36.

 

The Speeder Bike is a gorgeous realization of the vehicle, complete with some weathering detail and control surfaces. The rear stabilizer flaps move, as does the laser underneath the nose. Included is a clear yet unstable stand that the bike rests on, and it is possible to pose the bike to some degree, so you can have the Scout leaning into turns or swooping downward or upwards. The weight of the figure throws off the balance of the bike however, and it frequently falls over: the stand is not the thickest or sturdiest of plastic, and is a smoky kind of clear, probably in an attempt to present the illusion of the bike hovering. Too much time with the bike tilted in any direction and the plastic will start to stress a bit, although as far as I can tell, either removing the bike or settling it in a straight, horizontal position will relieve the stress and the plastic will return to normal. The steering arms don’t move at all other than a slight amount of wiggle room made possible by not being made from a stiff plastic, although I have concerns that leaving them bent in any fashion for too long will cause them to warp. There are some very nice details, vents and switches and such, on the body of the bike, and the undercarriage is pretty well sculpted as well. Again, as with the First Order TIE Fighter, I’m glad they didn’t junk this up with a missile launcher or anything, although most of the time I spend with this, I get nostalgic for the 1980s release of this toy in the 3.75” scale, with the exploding gimmick. You’d press down on the saddle bag, and the bike would pop apart into like three or four pieces, the natural result of hitting on of Endor’s giant and durable trees.

I’m pretty sure that this set was the only way to obtain the Scout Trooper. This is an Imperial unit that really never got much of a backstory, but boy have they been squeezed into fiction in the decades following Return of the Jedi. In that film, they were the guys on Endor who rode the Speeder Bikes; but in the Battlefront games they’re also snipers, they’re the sort of jungle combat Clones in Revenge of the Sith. I think it’s a bit hard to remember, but back in the Original Trilogy days, the Scouts were basically the third armor type, accompanying the Snow- and regular Troopers, and I remember being a kid and feeling all excited that there was a NEW Trooper.

The Black Series Scout is a nice addition to the Imperial ranks, all decked out in his galactic BMX gear. Like the Sandtroopers, the Scout has some dirt in the grooves of the chest armor and on the boots, and his kneepads are dirty and that is just the nicest attention to detail for me on this figure. Makes sense: being constantly hunched over on that bike is going to result in some splashback of mud being kicked up by all that extreme racing. He doesn’t come with any accessories other than that little pistol the Scouts carry in their boot holster, and I’d almost rather that he didn’t. The gun is too small for him to actually hold and when he does, it looks like a taser or something pretty lame. The holster part isn’t deep enough to really hold the weapon, and while it doesn’t fall out unprovoked, my fear moving the figure from place to place is that it will fall out and get lost. But, if you’re adding this to your Black Series collection, I’d wager you’ve got a Stromtrooper or Clone or two, and that means you’ve got a surplus armory already, so the Scout’s lack of weapon is pretty easily solved.

This set is pretty great at the right price. I really like it, and this regular release lets you appreciate both figure and mount for their details far better than the Shadow Squadron box set does, where everything is lost in the matte black scheme. I think the largest determining factor in whether to buy this or not is the price. At the $20-whatever I got it for, man is it great. It’s a great figure that you can’t otherwise get, and it’s a really cool blown up version of a fairly renown vehicle. In truth, why we’ve not gotten the Speeder Bike rereleased with Endor versions of Luke and Leia yet, I don’t even know; swap in a generic human head and there’s the Rebel Endor solider, and I’d say this mold would have paid for itself. Prior to the release of the enormous TIE Fighter, the bike was the only vehicle for the 6” line, and that made it something a little extra cool to own.

But, at the $36 or whatnot that it was originally retailing for, it may be a little much. Thanks to details like the weathering, the Scout ends up being a bit more to look at than the regular Stormtrooper. But I don’t know how well these Black Series box sets sell. I spent last weekend checking Amazon in the hopes of finding the Hoth Han and Luke sets go on some lightening deal thing, so that I could snag a Tauntaun and Wampa on the cheaps, but with no luck. The Speeder Bike shared a case with a no-frills, bare bones Jabba the Hutt that sat at my local stores for about a year. I’m not sure what the future or even present of these sets is, and I think this could be a real neat set up for this line; what other things would get released in this format, I can’t yet say, but the Endor Luke and Leia seem like an easier and topical start, and they would give the Scout and Bike a bit more context for people outside of the Imperial collectors (if there are such . . . people). But on its own, this set is something of an odd bird, I think hinting at something different in the future of the line but at the moment seemingly out of place for many. 

Ewoks are hard to come by, so here's Remus instead.