Child Sized Coffin: Star Wars: The Black Series: FN-2187 (Stormtrooper Finn)

A quandary: how does one, devoted solely to collecting Imperial-esque figures, incorporate a non-Imperial character into one’s collection without having to explain why there’s a deviation from the purely Imperial inclusions?

A resolution: one waits for the Stormtrooper version of said character.

Not really screen accurate, but...

After seeing millions of jacket-wearing Finns plugging up store space for months, I found a Stormtrooper Finn, First Order designation FN-2187. I had to buy it, because he’s a Stormtrooper. This had been my justification since I’d first found out about the toy: I can just keep his helmet on, just like troopers Han and Luke. And, he also adds some context to my Poe, obtained thanks to his inclusion in a two pack.

Hey, it's Phasma's big scene!

FN-2187 is probably the best of the First Order standard Stormtroopers. Again slightly different from other First Order figures, FN-2187 is most distinguished by the blood streaks on his helmet, from the opening sequence of The Force Awakens. He comes with both the pistol and the blaster rifle. He has all the same joints and limitations as the other First Order Stormtroopers do, but is another example of a trooper that fixed the leg and foot issues that the standard Stormtrooper had. I think that, maybe, there is just an issue with the Stormtrooper(s) I bought in this regard, as subsequent versions generally didn’t suffer from stance or standing issues. The Snow- and Flametroopers have different legs and feet, so they are sturdier in a general, comprehensive sense. Captain Phasma has different boots, and so is more stable.

So deep.

FN-2187 is a little bit shorter than a regular First Order trooper, a little short for a Stormtrooper in general. (See?? The Force Awakens was just a rip off of A New Hope!!!! Lol.) It is a very, very slight difference, the kind that makes you stare and really ask yourself if there is a height difference at all. There is. I have no idea if this is the intention of that height difference, but what happens is you realize there is something different about FN-2187, but it’s hard to tell precisely what it is. That’s kind of the deal in the opening scenes of the movie as well: for the first time, the camera pulls in on a single Stormtrooper, and you are supposed to wonder what the deal is with this individual soldier, a concept that has never happened in a Star Wars film before, an individual Stormtrooper. FN-2187 makes you look just a little longer to figure if there is anything that makes him different from the other First Order soldiers, and when you notice it, you look again. Almost like they're trying to say something.....

Something that has been mentioned as a criticism of Black Series figures with actual faces has been either the poor quality of the face or their dead eyed nature. On the first point, this FN-2187 looks just fine. He looks like John Boyega, he looks like Finn in the film. The sculpt is good, and it is well painted. As for the second point, short of giving a dedicated facial expression, like a smile or a look of surprise or anger, there isn’t too much that a plastic face can do to not appear lifeless. While these figures do indeed have a thousand yard stare, I almost don’t know how anything could really be done to resolve that. I have seen, on very, very rare occasion, a Black Series figure with misaligned pupils or something, but it’s much more the humorous outlier than anything approaching a trend. Again, my collecting in regards to this line does not include very many examples of faces, but I’ve never had any issue with the ones I do own.

Much like the troopers Han and Luke, FN-2187 does a great job of being just a Stormtrooper. The blood on the helmet doesn’t stick out any more or less than something like the blaster burns on the trooper from the Amazon exclusive set, and so he can be placed on a shelf in a First Order lineup without jumping out in front and commanding attention. This is on one hand a Finn figure, and on the other, another body in your army, and that is a nice quality. Not being too different or anything makes this the kind of figure that pretty much any type of Black Series collector can get behind.

It also legitimizes my Poe, who found a second life once FN-2187 got out of the box. Now I am free to recreate all the great scenes from the budding bromance of The Force Awakens.Depending on what other toys you have, you can insert Poe and Finn into them. This presents another potential display use for the enormous TIE Fighter, or just have them paling around, bein' space bros and staring deeply into each others' eyes. The possibilities are endless.

Overall, FN-2187 is a good multipurpose figure. I now own a non-Imperial character, but most importantly he gives me another Stormtrooper, and a distinctive one at that. The blood smear on the helmet is a distinctive three streaks too, not just some blotch of red paint. It’s kind of hard at this point to find new things to say about a trooper that I have talked about several times, but I think that this is going to be a pretty hot figure, if or when the waves ever come out in force. While Finn is only FN-2187 for a brief time in the movie, the figure here is a good representation.