Everybody has their favorite pop culture thing.  Everybody loves zombies.  Therefore, everybody loves zombies that crossover into your favorite pop culture thing.  It’s the transitive property!  Or maybe it’s Venn diagrams!  Or maybe it’s science!  I’m not sure about any of that.  But for most of us, Star Wars is that pop thing, and since we love zombies, it would make sense that we love Star Wars zombies.  And what better character to be zombified than the Imperial Stormtrooper?  Sure, it’s been done in Star Wars before.  There were some EU stories in which stormtroopers were zombies, or so I’ve heard, since I read very little EU stuff (except for the Zahn Trilogy).  And there was an arc in The Clone Wars where some brain worm would turn people into zombies - like Chuck Barriss Offee.  I gotta admit, I have no interest in zombie stuff.  It just bores me.  I never understood the trope as far back as I first noticed it when they were in the old Castle Wolfenstein first person shooter games.  And for whatever reason, Zombie Mode was popular in Call of Duty games, which I otherwise loved.  I mean, what’s the point of Nazi Zombies?  Are they worse than actual Nazis?  Is it more fun to mow down pixelated zombies than the “actual” kind?  Stupid.

So there’s my old man rant.  Also, as I write this late Sunday night, it’s pouring rain here in Phoenix.  (It’s the first time it has rained here in 16 years.)  So I can only assume the zombie apocalypse is upon us.  How dull.

The concept of Stormtroopers wrapped in cloth strips like so many red mummies wasn’t particularly exciting when I first saw them on screen.  I mean, they did look kind of cool, but I was immediately fearful that at some point they were going to spring to life after being mostly dead.  Well call me Nomadamus, because sure enough, it happened.  Yawn.  Nevertheless, I admit that I am interested in the storyline of the Witches and their history on Peridea, as well as that of those huge statues of The Ones.  The lore is fascinating to me.  Zombies…not so much.

Well enough about me, let’s talk about the figures.  The set was immediately controversial due to the inclusion of a named character in a pack of army builders.  Supremely frustrating, because despite my aforementioned disinterest in zombies, the figures were compelling - particularly Captain Enoch.  Most collectors immediately ranted (myself included) that Hasbro continued to ignore the obvious:  stop including a named character with sets like this [Editor’s Note: or include all named characters like the X-Wing pack should have been.  Just don’t mix and match] .  If you were interested in buying multiples, you would feel robbed of getting a fourth stormtrooper while you stockpiled Enochs; you’d have a squad of Enochs to go along with your platoon of Night Troopers. 

Enoch is the coolest figure of the bunch.  He’s got an all new headsculpt, with the creepy golden faceplate.  The helmet more closely resembles that of the Imperial assault tank driver.  The rest of the figure is that of the VC231 Stormtrooper, albeit with some pretty cool paint apps.  Enoch’s aging armor is missing pieces, which have been replaced with both gray and gold parts, and cracks have been filled in with gold.  Interestingly, his body glove is a dark red, instead of the typical black.  Not sure how he came upon such an outfit on Peridea, but it’s pretty neat. Additionally, Enoch wears a burgundy kama, and a belt with black holster for his custom gold-accented blaster.  If you’re going to repaint a figure, this is an outstanding way to do it.  I love this figure.

The 3 stormtroopers in the pack looked less interesting at first glance.  Unlike Enoch, the figure appeared to be a simple repaint, but it is not.  It is actually a resculpt.  The red ribbons are sculpted onto the base figure, which is great, because a simple paint application would probably have been terrible.  When you compare all 3 stormtroopers, you can see that most of the parts vary between them, and all in all, you can almost build a completely new figure out of the new tooling.  There’s a new torso, left and right shoulders, forearms, shins, and thighs.  The feet, hands, crotch, and helmet are untouched sculpts.  (It’s always a good review when we discuss a figure’s crotch.)  Like Enoch, the troopers have various gold and grey details throughout, and, the newly sculpted parts are mixed and matched well with the original sculpts to give 3 unique soldiers.  If you’re an animal, I’m sure you can figure out how to take these figures apart and mix the parts even further, giving more variety to your legions.  Not my cup of tea, but neither are zombies, so that’s what’s what.

If you take Enoch’s head and kama, along with the ribboned body parts of the other troopers, you almost get one entirely newly tooled figure, which I believe is unprecedented in this “expression” of 4 packs.  I got 3 sets, and would get a few more if they are discounted later. 

Aside from the inclusion of the named Enoch, this is a great set.  I think it would be worth it for Hasbro to further flesh out this “scene.”  We’re getting an Ahsoka styled Thrawn, as well as Ahsoka the White.  We’ve got these Night Troopers, Enoch, and Sabine.  Ezra is probably a character Hasbro should make, even if some fans hate him.  They could take the existing Death Trooper, and give it the same gray/gold paint treatment, and also give the existing Elsbeth a witchy makeover and give her that flaming sword accessory.  Add the 3 Night Sisters (which could maybe just be some retools of each other), and you’ve got just about everything covered there.

Anyway, the figures are great, and have some interesting additions to the 10/10 sculpt from VC231.  Enoch is extra cool.  But it is Enoch’s inclusion that really puts a damper on the desire to buy more of these (unless you’re that nut Tyler, who I believe bought 613 sets.)  Because of that decision, I have to give the set a frustrating 9/10.  But the important takeaway here is that zombies are dumb.