Hasbro loves Endor Rebel Trooper variants. The old POTF2 trooper was eventually given a beard (in exchange for being bald) as a variant.  The original trooper was also offered as a “trooper builder” mail-away 4 pack, which was pretty nifty at the time.  Later, Hasbro created a running change when they released the Endor Rebel Trooper in the (blue) Saga line.  One version was clean-shaven, and the other had a beard.  That bearded fellow is actually none other than Hasbro legend Mark Boudreax.  (I’m not sure if the clean shaven version is based on a Hasbro employee.)

For the Saga Collection in 2006, Hasbro opted to give us an update to this character.  However, In yet another step-foward / step-back effort by Hasbro in TSC, they chose to retool the existing (blue) SAGA figure.  New legs with ball jointed knees and ankles were added to the upper body from 2002.  That would normally be a huge improvement.  On paper, it is.  But in reality, it’s just annoying.  The all new legs are positioned in a poorly designed wide stance. Coupled with the bulky and bulbous knees that don’t have a particularly good range of motion, you don’t really get as much posability out of this figure as you would hope.

The upper body, which was carried forward, was very much dated by this point, with swivel shoulders and elbows, that essentially limited the figure to the preposed rifle firing stance.  It’s not terrible as a statue, but it’s bad for army building.  Sadly, despite the better legs, the figure isn’t really improved upon a whole lot.

But there are some good aspects.  First of all, once again, Hasbro went for a running change.  The first variant gave us a new head sculpt in the form of a black guy, something sorely lacking from the Rebel lineup.  As if that wasn’t good enough, the running change (a white guy) is actually not a ground trooper like the first.  This one has a different paint job and a different headsculpt that includes a headset and power cable.  This figure is actually a gunner, and was from a cut scene on the Millennium Falcon, not unlike General Madine or Colonel Cracken.

While the figures are underwhelming, they do add some very nice variety to your Endor forces.  The figures are not up to modern standards by any stretch, but they are worth keeping around to help flesh out your Endor displays.  The frustrating articulation and preposed nature of the figures knock them back a few points, but the running change and two distinct soldier types gain some of that back.  6/10.