Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Star Wars: The Black Series Imperial Snowtrooper and AT-AT Driver






  It’s been a while since we’ve talked Star Wars toys here at the Coffin, but given the recent release of Rogue One on video, it felt like the right time to get back into that spirit. Things have been quiet on the Black Series front, following the pretty cool news from New York Toy Fair that the Original Trilogy characters will be rereleased in vintage styled blister cards. I’m actually pretty excited about that, but that’s more for an abandoned article I was putting together which will no doubt see the light of Internet day at some point in the future. The only other real Black Series news recently has been the Target exclusive AT-ACT driver figure from Rogue One, a repaint of the ScarifTrooper.

But, while we’re on the subject of Imperial Troopers and vehicle drivers, let’s talk about these two guys, both rather different figures but not exactly full articles to themselves kind of guys. By now, this blog has spent a ton of time examining various Imperial, First Order and Clone army troopers, so I don’t know what else can really be said about the individual figures. But let’s have some fun and take a look anyway, because we all know how much we’ve missed doing this.


Both of these figures were released in December of last year as part of the Revan wave, which for quite some time seemed like it was never going to arrive. I bought these two and Revan through Big Bad Toy Store, who had preorders listed for the individual figures and the full case. Initially, Revan’s preorders had sold out, so I preordered both of the troopers, figuring that Revan would be restocked and I could then get him. But then, the Snowtrooper preorder sold out. So then, I ordered the full case, figuring I would just sell off the other figures that I didn’t want. Sitting there with two troopers and a full case on preorder, I hit refresh, and found that Revan had gone up for order again. So I ordered him, and then left the case in my checkout for like three weeks before finally dropping it, having secured the three figures that I actually wanted. Cool story.

The Imperial Snowtrooper is my first memory of there being a different Stormtrooper in the Imperial ranks. Sure, what would eventually become known as Episode IV had TIE Pilots, but it made sense for pilots and ground troops to have different outfits. The Snowtrooper from The Empire Strikes Back was the first Stormtrooper with a totally different look, and I was captivated by that as a child. After never having one as a child, I bought probably every Snowtrooper figure released from the Power of the Force line on. The Snowtrooper is kind of just his in-movie designation, as this unit is actually a general hazardous environment soldier, frigid Hoth simply being the setting in which he was introduced to us. The long helmet, often looking like a goggles with a long veil, covers a sophisticated array of survival gear, including breathing apparatus and temperature modulating equipment. The Prequel Trilogy would further establish these guys as the Imperial equivalent of Marines, mainly through their visual similarities to the Clone Marines. So ultimately they are known as the cold weather soldiers, but they are capable of fighting in any variety of climes, and tend more towards the Marine than just winter soldiers.

The Snowtrooper has the basic range of poseability for a Black Series figure, and comes with one of the three  Stormtrooper weapons, this time the pulse rifle. It is nice that the figure is two toned, and not just a solid white. The waist skirt, plastic and not cloth, is white, as is the chest armor and helmet, while the pants are a cream or tan color, really giving some separation between the parts when looking at the toy. From the very first images, I figured the toy would be monolithic Stormtrooper white, but the two different shades make for a much more interesting to look at toy. Again, I am going to reference the Black Series Sandtroopers as the standard bearers of this kind of weathering on the armor, but the Snowtrooper looks dirty, like he’s seen some action, and is in this sense are real far cry from the pristine First Order Snowtroopers. Just like the First Order versions, the waist skirt is plastic, and that does kind of work for this toy. The pants have all kinds of folds and wrinkles in them, which again adds to the general feeling of detail and attention, rather than just being smooth.

Aside from that though, the Snowtrooper is not very detailed. He does have his backpack, which does have some buttons painted on it, but there’s not a lot going on visually here. The helmet looks good, but really is just a Snowtrooper helmet, and doesn’t even have the benefit of being an updated version of a familiar helmet the way the First Order Snowtrooper helmet is. There’s a sense of “Trooper Fatigue” setting in for some people, and I doubt this guy is going to do anything at all to alleviate that. The Black Series is sort of in a strange place right now where I think they’re running low on new characters to produce, at least until Episode VIII gets closer, and so more Troopers or rereleased Troopers are bound to wear down those who aren’t Imperial collectors. Rogue One had what, two waves of figures, one of which was largely rereleases of figures from the first wave, despite not exhausting the roster of new people the movie presented us. For me at least, the Snowtrooper is something different enough to be a new figure, although there are people who see it and think “again??!”, and I cannot really blame them for that response. No, not again, but close enough to again that I understand the apathy. Ultimately this comes at their own personal loss, as the Snowtrooper is a real good figure, a strong example of the general and enduring quality of Imperial figures in the line, and maybe one that will come with a higher price tag in the future. A sort of anti-Sandtrooper Commander, prized and expensive not for its having been part of the initial offering but for being part of a later one, amid fatigue with the overall silhouette, and thus passed over, only to be harder to afford later on.

Similarly, I’m sure there exist those who find the AT-AT Driver boring as well. Those terrible people are just wrong. Again, I wasn’t expecting such a different trooper here, as the AT-AT Driver has always essentially been a white TIE Pilot. And while the two figures are pretty similar they are not the same. The AT-AT Driver is gorgeously painted, with all kinds of chest buttons and painted details on the helmet, which itself is a beautiful sculpt. The boots and gloves are different than those of the TIE Pilot, and the undersuit is a nice strong blue-infused grey while the armor of the vest is a good bright white. It seems strange to write this but for a figure in two colors, man does the Driver pop. The helmet is totally different from that of the TIE Pilot, and that was something I was sort of expecting this figure to reuse. But no! The Driver comes with the standard Imperial blaster accessory, and while that’s not a surprise by any means I can’t help but feel like there could have been something else, something different and better, something more befitting a pilot. What, I don’t know. Almost any idea I may have would require either some mold swapping of accessories or entirely new parts, and I strongly doubt that Hasbro would go to that length for what really does amount to being “another” trooper. Really, the blaster is just a pack in, kind of as it was with the TIE Pilot, as neither of these characters had or have much need for a handheld weapon. But, it’s for display purposes. If the Snowtrooper ends up being expensive because people passed on it, the AT-AT Driver should end up being prized because it is a terrific figure, one that looks great and may eventually be needed to fill out a pairing or a set: the Snowtrooper already establishes Hoth characters, and the TIE Pilot already establishes vehicle operators. And, we’ve got a Rogue One tank driver, and another one coming as a store exclusive, and a First Order pilot, and . . .   But nevertheless, this figure kind of makes me want two things: a Black Series AT-AT Commander, a General Veers in the grey armor with the exposed face, and a Black Series AT-AT. One of those two my wife would have no problem welcoming into our home; the other would never get in the door due to its size and probable cost of one trillion American dollars. 
 
And, while this aside may reappear at some future time, I’m not sure what the holdup is for human Imperial figures. General Hux has made a Black Series appearance, as has Director Krennic, so there are Imperial-ish bucks available. Why can’t we/when are we going to get Grand Moff Tarkin, or Veers or Ossell, or Tagge, or any of the other Imperial commanders? Years ago, a 3.75” box set was released of that scene in A New Hope where all the commanders were sitting around that table in the Death Star, and to this very moment not buying that is high on my list of collector gaffes. I’m thinking of adding it to my C2E2 Hunt List for this year, but I need to do some online hunting for it first, just to get a sense of what it goes for on the secondary market these days. (OMFG HAVE YOU SEEN THE PRICES ON THAT BOX?????) At this point in the line, it seems like most of the Imperial forces are out, so where do we go from here? Is the Black Series going to turn down the general path that 3.75” lines do, and start cranking out 6” background characters? Please, no. But, I’ve said this before, in addition to Imperial brass, we could get ARC Clones, and then the Commandos from that computer game that I can’t remember at the moment. Maybe more Old Republic characters, like Revan.

I’m not going to try and sell anybody on either of these figures. I love them, and I had thought I was developing Trooper Fatigue until I got these two in hand. I think they are terrific versions of their respective units, and the Driver especially is a knock out. There is absolutely nothing at this point in time that would alter anyone’s opinion about or desire for these figures, but given the notion that this wave never saw wide release at stores, at least as far as I know, that could make them desirable from a collector standpoint, regardless of ones’ display sensibilities. I’ve only been to my comic book shop twice since getting these figures, but I never even saw them at my comic shop, which often carries Black Series figures. (And, for the cost of my last trip to the comic shop after two months, I could have bought that Imperial officers box set.) But for me, these figures were a must buy, and if they’re in line with your Black Series priorities, I cannot say you’ll be disappointed at all.

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