Preface:  This is definitely “TL;DR”, but c’mon.  It’s the Snowtrooper.  Just read it.

Imperial troops have entered the base.  Imperial troops have enter…[kssssssht]

Yes, I know that everyone who has posted pictures of the new Snowtrooper thus far has used that exact quote.  I don’t care.  It’s too perfect not to use.  With respect to this figure, this is me right now:

Can I just end the review there?  No?  Okay, I’ll continue.  Mr. Nomadscout got this figure before I did, and he found it a little frustrating, but that was admittedly after only spending a few minutes working with it.  I got mine a few days later, and he immediately asked what I though about it.  Similarly, after only few minutes engaging the articulation, I felt a very minor pang of disappointment.  I told him it was good, but not great.  He smugly nodded over text.  I’m not sure how he did that.  But this is why we don’t write reviews after only a few minutes of playing with a figure.

We were both wrong (but Mr. Grumpypants hasn’t realized it yet).  The 2007 Snowtrooper can not truly implement a two handed weapon grip (THWG), which is was I’ve been calling for an upgrade. My biggest concern was whether or not this new release could do a THWG.  Right out of the package it could be achieved, and could be done easily.  That was a huge win in and of itself.  The problem was that I thought I could only achieve one THWG pose, which is the one where the figure has the weapon slung low across its body shooting from the hip.  That’s the way the Snowtrooper on the film out is posed, and, to be fair, it’s the way a lot of Stromtroopers shoot.  Maybe that’s why they’re such notoriously bad shots.  I didn’t think the arms and hands could work their way around more realistic rifle poses where the trooper is at least attempting to look down the sights.  I was wrong.

One issue is the protruding chest plate.  This is obviously accurate to the character, and if you pay close attention in the movie, some of the extras are even having trouble working the E-11 around the chunky armor.  Perhaps this is why so many opt for the hip slung shooting pose.  I just had to rethink my posing strategies with the elbows and shoulders to work around the barrel chest.  The other issue is that the wrist hinges on my sample were a little stuck.  I first thought it was a range of motion issue which was feeding my initial disappointment.  Once I freed the hinge, it was like the universe unlocked for this Snowtrooper (for me at least).  I started having a blast.  I didn’t want to stop taking photos.  I just wanted to keep playing with my new toy.

It’s not perfect (and we’ll get to the 10 score despite that in a bit), but I think one of the fan concerns can be dispelled straight away.  Some were thrown by the ivory color of the duster and pants.  I too thought it was questionable.  Perhaps it’s another case of the community being prejudiced by previous toys were those items were either gray or white.  I was planning to research whether or not this was accurate for the review, but it turns out I didn’t have to.  While watching Empire to see what diorama shots I could set up for the gallery, I caught this guy stepping into a well lit portion of Echo Base:

That freeze frame doesn’t do it complete justice, but seeing this satisfied me that the figure is accurate.  It’s more compelling watching it in real time.  He’s the leftmost Snowtrooper carrying the E-Web crate.  Check it out for yourself (35:30 mark).  If you’re still not convinced, the 501st Costuming Guide says these items should be ivory as well.  So that frequent gripe is mitigated as far as I’m concerned, but the other one is not.  The helmet is definitely too flat on top.  The actual Snowtrooper helmet does flatten on top, but the taper is much more gradual and curved than on this figure.  On film, it does look flatter at some angles, but nothing approaching the tabletop appearance of this sculpt.

The barbell hips work too well.  I’m not trying to be cute and sneak a positive into a negative like on a job interview.

Interviewer:  Mr. Johnson, what are your negatives?
Mr. Johnson:  Well, I work too hard and I care too much.

I mean it literally.  At times I was trying it engage the torso crunch, or bend the knees, but instead the hips flared out like the Snowtrooper was auditioning to be Jean-Claude Van Damme’s stunt double.  This became an annoyance during posing, but nothing that couldn’t be overcome.  I love that we get a wash applied to the boots.  It brings out so much of the sculpt, but it’s perhaps overdone.  I think we know where the missing wash from Luke’s boots went.  That darn factory skipped Luke and doubled up on the Snowtrooper.  Who else but the factory?

The aforementioned flatness of the helmet is my big negative, but I don’t feel it’s worth a full point deduction.  This figure is a 9.5, and by the rules of math, it rounds up to a 10.  I absolutely love it, and I hope this isn’t the last time we see this tooling, Hasbro.  If you need ideas, see HERE and HERE.  I’m not even going to complain about the O96 name not being used in the name pill, which makes the parenthetical sub designation superfluous.

Update that was erroneously omitted from the original review:  The shoulder armor is not part of the arm sculpt.  It’s actually a soft vinyl overlay.  The attachment point is very thin, and could lead to breakage if you’re not careful, but it has the benefit of not impacting the range of motion.  Another benefit is if Hasbro needs to invert the shoulder armor for some reason in the future, they wouldn’t have to retool the arms.  They’d just have to make a new overlay.

Like everyone on the back nine of life, there’s little I wouldn’t give to be young again, but not at the expense of having been born later.  I wouldn’t trade anything for having grown up with the Original Trilogy as it was released.  Getting to see The Empire Strikes Back in theater during its inaugural run at seven years old was pure magic.  Thank you to Steve, Emily, Jing, Patrick, and anyone else who had a hand in bringing this figure to market.  For a little while when I was shooting this gallery, I was seven years old again.

This Snowtrooper is sold out on Pulse, Amazon and Game Stop.  The initial allotment sold out on Entertainment Earth quickly (this rarely happens for TVC).  Then a second allotment sold out.  Unreal.  Imagine making this incredibly bad take on Mr. Stevie’s Instagram post announcing this Snowtrooper:

The OT is still king in TVC, folks.  That doesn’t mean that all OT figures will sell because they won’t.  But the right ones will, and the sales success of this Snowtrooper proves it beyond a shadow of doubt.  The line absolutely needs the rest of the Bad Batch too, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of the most successful TVC figure in recent memory, or any OT core character for that matter.

Amazingly, at the time of this writing, preorders for the Snowtrooper are now open on Entertainment Earth for the third time.  If you haven’t done so already, you should jump on the bandwagon:

Click HERE to preorder the Snowtrooper on Entertainment Earth (sponsored)