I’ve been a little busy planning a wedding and I’m getting over a nasty head cold. Now that I’m better, what better way to celebrate with a new Stormtrooper! This Target exclusive is part of the Rogue One set of figures, though I don’t actually remember ever seeing this trooper in the film. Speaking of the film, the home DVD/blu ray release is this Tuesday, April 4th. So there’s no time like the present to revisit Rogue One’s new Imperial trooper variants!
The newest trooper, pictured far right with other Rogue One troopers, is a bit of a mixture of previous Rogue One Imperials. His armor largely matches both the Occupier Assault Tank driver and the Scarif shore troopers, with the belt and torso armor more closely matching the tank driver. The helmet is a repainted shore trooper helmet in white, with a red Imperial insignia on the front and a large red square painted on the back. The torso armor features new paint as well as new painted unit markings on the shoulders.
The AT-ACT driver’s legs match those of the tank driver, but thankfully the weathering gives them a different enough tint to distinguish them from one another. A small detail that is just my personal head canon regarding these figures is that this particular trooper’s E-11 blaster looks newer and cleaner than those of the other Rogue One troopers – I’d imagine you use your personal blaster less (and therefore it isn’t as weathered) when you’re stationed on a top-secret base in a towering AT-ACT with plenty of firepower at your disposal. I’m not sure if this was an intentional difference or not, but this figure features a standard E-11 Stormtrooper blaster instead of an E-22 blaster, which is included with the 3.75 in. version of this figure.
Some may complain that this figure is a kit bash of other troopers. Honestly, it doesn’t bother me one bit in this case. Yes, it isn’t exactly a brand new trooper. But other Imperial variants use pieces from each other’s kits all the time. TIE pilots and AT-AT drivers are largely the same outfit, but in different colors. Shadow Stormtroopers are Stormtroopers but black. Other troopers like Magmatroopers are just Stormtroopers with more accessories, and so on. It makes sense for the Imperial troops to share common pieces of gear. And in this case specifically, it makes sense for the AT-ACT driver to have more armor than a standard AT-AT driver, given the sensitive nature of their duties on planets such as Scarif.
I would recommend this trooper overall, even if he may not be an essential or immediately recognizable given he doesn’t appear in the film. (Edit: Rewatched the movie, drivers appear for about two seconds) If you want to pick one up, rarity does not seem to be an issue right now. Many reddit posts show dozens available at local users’ Target stores. And since the figure maybe isn’t as desirable as say the Target exclusive Death Trooper specialist (reviewed here by yours truly), it shouldn’t be hard at all to find. Personally I would say the figure is more desirable because it doesn’t appear in the film, and is instead part of the expanded canon. I’d love to see more figures like this that fill roles not seen in movies, or first appeared in books and comics. If you’re a trooper-lover like me, pick this figure up when you get the chance. You won’t be disappointed.
As always, thanks for reading! I’ll be working on some more reviews as time permits (wedding takes precedence, even over Star Wars) and I plan to start work soon on a custom Lego build of a TIE Reaper from Rogue One. Stay tuned!
-David
TheEmpiresElite.com 