This figure is infuriating.  But it’s not its fault.  It’s Hasbro’s fault!  By my count, this is the fourth trooper figure sourced from Jedi:  Fallen Order.  You’ve got this one, the Scout Trooper, the Purge Trooper, and, from a certain point of view, the Stormtrooper officer from the troop builder pack.  The infuriating part?  No JFO Cal Kestis.  Sure, we’re getting the character in his sequel outfit soon, but it’s a travesty that we don’t have the main character (nor Second Sister, nor…well, we’ve been over this a million times already…).  But again, this stormtrooper figure is not to blame, and should not be given any grief.  You should get several.  Especially since it may be harder to get the basic version from ANH which is currently a hard to get Walmart exclusive.

Over a very short period of time Hasbro has spread the love with this stormtrooper buck, complete with rocker ankles, which is an upgrade to an already pretty great base figure which first appeared as the Rogue One-sourced VC140.  Along with this Jedi: Fallen Order Heavy Assault Stormtrooper, we also have the VC231 Stormtrooper, the Incinerator Trooper deluxe, the TFU Stormtrooper Commander, the imminent Stormtrooper with E-Web, and the pipelined Artillery Stormtrooper.  Frankly, the collector community should never have enough of this sculpt.  It’s quite spectacular.  I’m sure there are some other variants to come, but most importantly, we need the basic ANH figure used for the Walmart VC231 to see the mass market.  And it certainly couldn’t hurt to get it as part of a re-do to the Stormtrooper Trooper Builder pack. 

So this version is essentially the same as VC231, except for the belt not having a holster.  This is a standard white stormtrooper, and doesn’t have any fancy colored flashes on the armor.  But what it does bring to the table is a removable black pauldron, a Z-6 rotary blaster canon, a blast effect, and a personal shield.  The blaster canon, as far as I can tell, is a new sculpt, although a cartoony version was packed in a multitude of offerings over the years, mostly with Clone Wars cartoon figures.  Here’s a shot of one, and you can see the spring-loaded slot for the projectile.  There was a less cartoony version that came with the Hunt for Grievous set, which you can see in this shot.  But unless I’m forgetting something, this particular version of the Z-6 is new.  Also included is a blast effect, which is a callback to the 2002-2003 Saga line when many figures included them.  Finally, we get a translucent blue shield, which snaps on to the end of the Z-6.  It’s not quite screen accurate, as in the game, the shield is a bit further back on the barrel towards the trooper.  Still, it’s a cool accessory.  When the gun, shield, and blast effect are set up together, it’s a great looking variant to your imperial forces. 

Take the pauldron off and give the figure an E-11, and you have the best possible OT stormtrooper - minus the holster which seems to be exclusive to VC231.  There’s absolutely nothing to complain about here, except the lack of a proper JFO Cal Kestis.  Get this figure.  Get several.