I was very much looking forward to doing this review.  Not because I particularly care about the subject, but because it’s a repack.  That meant that all I had to do was copy nomad’s gallery of the deluxe release, copy the relevant part of his review, and then write a blurb about the card and rubberiness of this release compared to the first.  I should have been watching the final two episodes of The Terror on Netflix and downing brews before the sun even went down, but noooooo! One older brother had to go and screw it up by flunking your driver’s test only packing one set of hands with the single carded release.  This 2024 version only comes with one trigger hand and one closed fist.  If I used nomad’s gallery showing off both sets of hands, it would have been false advertising.  Or false gallerising.

So I shot a quick gallery of the 2024 release and then stole his diorama photos.  I will post the relevant parts of nomad’s original review, and my updated comments will follow.

Original Review by Bret (01/03/2023):

Good, but disappointing.  There, now you can skip reading this review and move on to something more fun, like folding your laundry, or cleaning the grout in your shower.  Consider yourself lucky, because this review is quite long.  For those of you that don’t fold laundry or take showers, then feel free to keep reading.

I thought it was a super cool callback in The Mandalorian when Dark Troopers were pulled from the Legends Netherworld of one of my favorite video games, Dark Forces.  Yes, I know that officially, Dark Troopers appeared in some Disney-era online games, so they were already canon.  But I didn’t play those games, and neither should you have, nerd!  For me this was the first time I’d seen these troopers since I faced them as Kyle Katarn back in the day.  Their appearance in The Mandalorian was impressive, as they demonstrated their sufficient toughness when one nearly single-handedly demolished Din Djarin.  And the thought of the heroes facing a platoon of them should have given the viewer pause that they might not all survive the encounter.  Of course none of this was particularly challenging to a certain Jedi (Coming Soon, Kids!).  Actually, now that I think of it, the Dark Troopers didn’t defeat anyone.  In the end, they performed one child abduction and then dented a blast door.  So Luke robbed us of seeing these guys perform to their potential.  Oh well.

Once the figures arrived to my home, I excitedly opened up the first one, and was simultaneously impressed and disappointed.  The figure, like the promo images, looked great, but it seemed to lack size and heft.  However, I’ve been able to do some reconciling. 

First of all, my expectation of the size of the character is definitely impacted by previous figures that were released by Hasbro based on Dark Forces appearances.  The first figure was from 1998, and it’s quite a bit larger than other figures in the line, even the original Hasbro “He-Man”-style releases.  Later, in 2009, Hasbro released an updated build-a-droid version, and it’s one of the largest figures in the 3.75” line.  Wookieepedia has the “Legends” Dark Trooper Phase III as being being a whopping 9’-3” in height, which actually makes the 1998 figure woefully underscaled.  With those figures in my collection for decades, this TVC version seems like a Lego mini-fig. 

Second, if you rewatch the scenes from “The Rescue,” there are almost no clear shots of the Dark Trooper standing next to a human character.  Even during his deathmatch fight, Din Djarin is almost never on his feet, as he is manhandled or on his back/knees the entire time, up until he jams the Beskar spear through the droid’s neck.  The only reasonable shot is when Din locked the blast doors, and sees the platoon of troopers through the window, but the perspective of the shot makes him look significantly shorter, relatively to the troopers, than he probably is.  Another check of Wookieepedia shows that the canon Dark Trooper is 6’-3”, which is really just like an above average person, not the behemoth that was the Legends version.

So while the “facts” seem to show that the Dark Trooper isn’t really that large of a character, the visuals and camera angles of the episode would make one think it’s enormous.  But it is not.  So I guess the figure isn’t inaccurate in that respect, and my expectations were misplaced.

Having reconciled the size, I could move on to other aspects of the figure.  It looks amazing, and quite screen accurate in sculpt.  The red eyes are supplemented by an old-fashioned window in the back of the head that allows light to make the eyes appear to glow.  The articulation is excellent, and is the droid equivalent of human super-articulation.  All the joints are about as dynamic as a droid will allow, including rocker ankles and ball jointed hips and wrists.  The figure interacts well with the large blaster, which can also be stowed on a notch on the right hip (in a style like the First Order stormtroopers). 
 
The figure has an outstanding shiny black coat of paint, with a few silver details (aside from the translucent eyes). Interestingly, this “standard” figure has a few less paint apps than the near-simultaneously released “battle damaged” version from the Rescue Set (review coming soon). 

One of the more disappointing aspects of the figure is that it just isn’t “fun” to pose.  Based on how the figure looks and feels in hand, I would have thought it was much more posable, but I found that the joints were a little difficult to engage to get it to stand upright.  The shot I took of the squad of troopers marching to the bridge doors wasn’t particularly easy to set up.  The figures were not easily matched into identical standing poses, which droids should do.  I found the ankles to be a little off, and in some samples, the hips were difficult to maneuver to get the droid to stand perfectly upright.

I’m somewhat frustrated by issues I had with posability, and it lacked a certain “fun” factor that precludes it from top marks.  I’m giving it an 8/10.  It’s cool, but a still, just a little disappointing.

Updated Review by Chris (09/11/2024):

The reason nomad had difficulty posing this Dark Trooper is the rubberiness of the plastic used for the joints.  Instead of movinig, they almost pull like taffy.  It was hoped that this single carded release would fix that issue, but it does not.  The joints are just as rubbery if not more so.  In fact, both knees on my sample were fused at first.  I actually popper the lower leg off the first time I tried to bend the figure’s knee.  This is very disappointing.  I bought an army (ten) of the deluxe version:

(click for the full sized image)

As you can see from the image above, I was so disappointed with that 2022 release that I only opened two of them.  I still have eight boxed.  If this singled carded release used sturdier plastic, I could have justified picking up a couple to finally realize that Dark Trooper army.  Sadly that dream has been kicked down the road again.

The only reason to buy this is if you want a basic carded Dark Trooper.  In that regard I think it looks great.  I will definitely be adding a carded sample to my collection.  If you want a loose version, just buy the original deluxe release.  You can still get it for around $20 to this day, and you get a lot more accessories.  Nomad gave the deluxe release an 8 out of 10.  Because of the paucity of accessories with this single carded offering, I’m further lowering the score to 7.