Star Wars: The Black Series Mimban Stormtrooper (Solo: A Star Wars Story)

 Ha ha! The great Star Wars tradition of making figures of characters who got less than three seconds of screen time strikes again, this time in the form of the ever so briefly depicted Stormtroopers deployed to the muddy surface of Mimban in this springs’ spin off movie, Solo. Even my loving wife couldn’t play along and pretend that she noticed this guy in the movie: when I showed it to her, all she could ask was “who?”

She, and you too, can be forgiven for not immediately recognizing this slightly modified OT Stormtrooper, whose only distinctions come in the form of a cape and a slightly different helmet. Why, you probably missed them as they walked by in the background, half out of focus, because Han was talking the Beckett in the foreground. You probably have to take my word for it that this guy was actually even in the movie. But, would I lie to you? Of course not.

The Mimban Stormtrooper is a Walmart exclusive, and is probably most noteworthy for coming in a different Black Series packaging: I’ve already thrown mine away, but the insert is a brown or copper-ish color instead of the usual red. The figure itself is another use of the OT Stormtrooper, this time painted with what is supposed to be mud, along with a soft cape and a blaster that resembles those of the Shoretrooper from the Rogue One series, and again, a modified helmet. The helmet has a more pronounced forehead, that has some real tiny molding on it that implies the larger forehead is some kind of moveable piece, like a blast shield, that would cover the eyes. The piece does not move on the figure, was not moved in the movie, and this appears to be nothing more than speculation on my part. To further that speculation, it would make sense if this unit were like a paratrooper or jet pack having one, and then the large forehead could have been like a crash pad or some type of shock absorber, but that doesn’t appear to be the case either. It would have been nice if the piece moved, as that may shed more light on its purpose, but it is hard to imagine Hasbro sculpting that detailed of a piece for a literal background character. These troopers don’t even do anything of note in the movie. I’d honestly thought this figure was going to have the regular Stormtrooper helmet, as this thicker part would have been deemed cost ineffective to even bother making a new head. Frankly, the alteration to this head is barely visible unless you’re staring directly at it and know it’s supposed to be different than what you’re used to.

The cape is nice, but it’s little more than a few scraps of wrinkled fabric. There is some paint on it to indicate mud, but one has to question the rationale behind wearing a cape on a planet that is essentially mud, as Mimban is depicted in Solo. Such an accessory could be used to indicate status in-universe, as Solo does depict another Imperial military unit, the standard grunt, who like young Han, basically gets a chest protector and open faced helmet with a gas mask. The Stormtroopers appear as something higher in the pecking order than these basics, and perhaps the cape is intended to further signify the separation between troops. I don’t know, just flinging an idea around here. Being fabric, the cape is not poseable or anything, and just hangs over the one shoulder like a cape. The blaster we’d gotten before, but it is always cool to get a newish weapon: the Star Wars Battlefront games introduced us to a whole armory of blasters, but The Black Series keeps giving us the same old four of them.

Past figures with weathered paint jobs have usually gotten some praise here, but the Mimban Trooper fails to impress. This time around, we get OT armor with some splotches of brown, thicker on the legs, splatter on the torso, and then completely painted shoes. It’s, at best, uneven, and at worst, just crummy. Lazy, I think is what I really want to say. It just feels lazy. The base figure is just the OT Stormtrooper, nothing more or less.

I have to wonder what the real benefits of putting a high amount of effort in to a throw away trooper like this, but then, this a store exclusive. For better or for worse, that means that once the initial allotments are sold out, hunting for this figure becomes a matter of scouring the secondary market, where this $20 retail figure is already hitting prices in the $30s. No indication that people are paying that, as a convergence of factors means that this figure will probably not be in very much demand. Solo was not the most popular of films, even though I personally think it is unfairly maligned, and even if it were, these troopers literally stand in the background of fewer than four scenes, making exposure an issue. The paint is generally weak and the cape and new helmet don’t generate much hype. Even for me, a dedicated Imperial troop collector, this figure is bland and unmemorable. The lazy paint apps make it seem like a perfectly good Stormtrooper was wasted to make this. If someone was customizing Stormtroopers into these Mimban ones, then this may be a workable effort, but as an actual figure, it’s hard not to feel disappointed. And to make it an exclusive? Granted it’s not the first exclusive that lands with more of a thud than any positive feelings, but that thud is always a downer. I was lucky enough to have someone find this in the wild and pick one up for me, so I didn’t exert any effort or pay over retail to get it. If I had, I would be remorseful. As it stands, I’m just in possession of a Mimban Stormtrooper.

This is a totally easy pass of a figure. It’s only real value comes from its being a store exclusive, and that’s only worth whatever it’s worth to you personally. Again, I don’t have regrets because someone found it for me and sold it to me at cost, but there’s no way I’d be ok with paying more than the retail price for this, or just finding it at a store instead of having to make any more of an effort than that to obtain one.