Saturday, June 3, 2017

Star Wars: The Black Series AT-ACT Driver






It has been a while since I’ve devoted any time to Star Wars figures, and I do have a few of them to address. So, what better for a Saturday morning than to look at the Target exclusive AT-ACT Driver from Rogue One? A repaint of the Scarif Trooper, this figure should make for some fairly easy conversation.

Who could forget that memorable scene in Rogue One where, for less than a second, we got an in-cockpit shot of an AT-ACT, the Imperial All Terrain Armored Cargo Transport, and were treated to our first glorious split second look at its driver? In true Star Wars figure fashion, that split second of screen time lead to a toy.


The AT-ACT Driver uses the Scarif Trooper body, which is kind of surprising, as a dedicated Hover Tank Pilot figure was released last year. Part of me wonders why the AT-ACT Driver wouldn’t reuse that figure, seeing as they are both heavy vehicle operators. My rationale for this I reckon is that the AT-AT Driver is a different armor type than either the standard Stormtrooper or the Snowtrooper with whom the Driver may be most closely associated in terms of on-screen appearance. The AT-ACT Driver is really just a white Scarif Trooper. Or maybe it’d be better to say that this figure is the Hover Tank Driver body with a white Scarif Trooper head on it, since the AT-ACT Driver has the same belt as the Hover Tank Driver, which neither version of the Scarif Trooper has. The figure is like an optical illusion: whenever I look at it, I see one or the other or both of the figures I’m trying to name as the base for this one, and each one makes sense, and neither one seems wrong.

That inability to pin this trooper down makes me feel bad, as does this entire article. I have already spent time on this figure, and this recent iteration doesn’t do or offer much of anything different. As a Black Series figure, it has some good and useful joints for posing, and comes with the Rogue One Imperial blaster: the usual one, but with that pod on the side of the barrel, like a flashlight or targeting piece or something that’s yet to be explored. The paint on this figure is nice, as it looks different from and nicer than the Scarif Trooper by virtue of it being white instead of tan, and is nicer looking than the Tank Driver by virtue of it having paint details. The white of the armor and the grey on the shoulders in particular help the figure stand out a little, as it is a nice combination of paint, and the little red applications on the chest and helmet make this seem a little more alive. The boots are weathered while the torso is clean, and that’s an interesting juxtaposition as well.

And that, I suppose, brings me to the main section of this article, which is whether or not this figure is necessary for a collection. My initial response to that would be “no,” but I think the AT-ACT Driver is going to wind up on more peoples’ shelves than we might expect. This figure is a Target exclusive, and as such, it came with the instinctual fear that it would be difficult to find or suffer from poor distribution or any of the other myriad issues that pop up with store exclusive figures. Maybe each store would only get a single case, so if you weren’t there at precisely the right moment you’d lose your chance at one forever. So, just as I’d done with a previous Target exclusive Black Series offering, I got word that orders were up on their website, and I ordered one. Ah, now I could rest easy, knowing that, no matter what hardships would befall my fellow collectors trying to obtain an AT-ACT Driver at a physical location, I was assured of one. I think it arrived on a Thursday, because my wife and I stopped at a Target on a Friday, which, in my memory, was the very next day, and found four of these hanging in the toy aisle. Ha ha, I must have stumbled upon the toy aisle shortly after a restock, I thought to myself as I twirled my moustache and adjusted my monocle, thus explaining the availability of this exclusive figure in such numbers. Then, like two weeks later, at a different Target, we walked by the toy aisle and saw several pegs of Black Series boxes hanging, several of which were . . . Target exclusive AT-ACT Drivers. This has been the case at numerous Targets in our area, even still, a few months after the figures’ release.

This continues a trend among Target exclusive figures, that being their prolonged availability. Target must get a boatload of these, as the Rogue One three pack is still easily found in stores, and on occasion, a The Force Awakens Poe and Riot Trooper set is still spotted on a shelf. Unlike, say, Walmart, who apparently really does get a single case of exclusives per location, Target gets tons of them, making them fairly easy to obtain. They don’t ever seem to clearance these items though, which I suppose could be the one real drawback: if you want an AT-ACT Driver, there’s no rush, as supplies are doing just fine. But, if you’d rather not spend $20 on one, then you may have to wait quite a while, as that doesn’t seem to fit into Target’s philosophy. I think the sheer availability of this figure is going to lead a number of people to pick it up, whether for inclusion in a collection or to customize or whatever. I think this is a toy that is going to be many peoples’ “I haven’t found anything in a while” consolation purchase, that kind of “I came all the way to the store and I’m not leaving without a toy” grab that we all make once in a while. There’s no mark up on Target’s website, so ordering one of these guys left me with no negative burdens or consequences, and I didn’t have to pay extra or anything, and despite the availability of the toy in stores, ordering it online allowed me to not have to worry that I’d miss out on it. That’s why I’ve ordered the last two Target exclusives and the Walmart Scarif Trooper online: so that I don’t have to fret about whether or not I’ll ever find one.

As an Imperial collector, I would say that this figure is absolutely worth the purchase. I don’t have a single regret about purchasing one, nor about ordering it online to avoid missing out on it, despite the ribbing I occasionally get from my wife to that end. I would venture to say that the AT-ACT Driver is the best use of the Rogue One trooper body, mainly because it combines the visual interest of the Scarif Trooper and the white armor of the Tank Driver. Pretty much all of the other Rogue One troopers have vanished from stores at this point, with only the occasional remaining Cassians hanging around from what felt like an amazingly brief toy line.  This figure is the best looking out of the three other, non-Death Trooper Imperial soldiers released for the movie, but at the time of its release, it was the third use of the Scarif Trooper body, or fourth, if we do count the Hover Tank Driver as being enough of the same to count as a Scarif Trooper on its own. Timing sort of blunts the enthusiasm for this figure then, which is a bit of a shame.

However, if you have no interest in this figure at all, I don’t think I could blame you. Out of all the Imperial troops released for Rogue One, this one feels particularly frivolous, mainly due to its presence in one second of the movie. While this is commonplace for Star Wars as a merchandising opportunity, this ended up being the trooper that made me sit back and say “cool, but unnecessary.” Again, don’t misinterpret that as apathy or dislike, because it is not. And, in case this has never come up before, I bought the First Order single packed TIE Pilot, the regular release not included with the TIE Fighter, because it was lacking the red strips on the helmet and was, thus, a separate and necessary addition to my ranks, so it’s not like I’m looking at the AT-ACT Driver and thinking it’s superfluous. Sheer availability will cause this guy to be in more people’s collections than not, probably whether they like it or not. I like it just fine, and don’t think it’s a bad buy, even if it ends up being on impulse.

No comments:

Post a Comment