Dark Forces is one of my favorite games of all time.  It was classic LucasArts.  They took a very popular genre (First Person Shooter), and slapped a Star Wars skin on it.  But they made a compelling and deep story, with awesome new characters, ships, and planets.  Put that together and add in the John Williams Star Wars score, and all you do is WIN WIN WIN no matter what. 

The main plot of the game revolves around Rebel agent Kyle Katarn, as he uncovers information about a top secret Imperial initiative, the Dark Trooper project.  At some point in the game, Katarn is attacked by Phase I Dark Troopers, which are prototype battle droids armed with swords and shields.  Sounds kind of lame, but they were tough to defeat at first.  They had this creepy voice that you heard when they were about to attack.  In fact, now that I write this, the sound reminded me of the cybernetic language spoken by the Death Troopers in Rogue One.  Eventually, you came across Phase II troopers, which were droids wearing fully armored suits, and were equipped with a jetpack, blasters, and rockets.  Apparently these suits served as exoskeletons for the battle droids, and could also be worn by living troopers.  Finally, towards the climax of the game, you encountered the Phase III troopers, which were monstrous exoskeletons armed with rockets, grenades, thermal detonators, blasters and a jetpack.  The main antagonist, General Rom Mohc, donned one of these exosuits to fight Kyle in the final battle.  Kyle defeated Mohc, and destroyed the Arc Hammer, the ship which housed the Dark Trooper tech.

This Phase I Dark Trooper was available at Toys R Us as part of the final wave of TLC.  The figure is large and impressively articulated.  It is fully posable, and for the most part, can stand assuredly in almost any position.  The articulation is easy to manage.  The only thing I would have liked added would have been waist articulation.  These days, Hasbro could probably add some more ball joints into the mix, but overall, it holds up very well today.  The sculpt is fantastic.  Lots of details, including hoses and tubes, some of which detach, are all over the appendages.  The sword is removable.  It plugs into the back of the forearm.  It is also attached to a short tube which plugs into the arm.  The only issue here is that if you move the arm around more than just a little bit, the tube unplugs itself.  Not a huge deal, but not the best design.  The shield can be gripped well, and positioned in a number of ways for some medieval style fighting.

Hasbro has now given us an outstanding, and definitive, Phase I Dark Trooper.  This is complemented by two versions of the Phase III model.  One was from 1998’s POTF2 EU sub line, and was pretty hard to find back in the day.  It was later re-released as a greatest hits type figure.  But then for TLC, there was a store exclusive set of 5 two-packs of figures and droids.  If you collected all 5 packs, you could build a Phase III figure that dwarfed the 1998 version.  It is more accurate, superarticulated, and freakin’ huge.  Since it seems unlikely that Hasbro will ever produce a proper Phase II Dark Trooper, I’ve decided that the POTF2 figure is the Phase II version.  So what, wanna fight about it?

This is a fun, interesting, and unique figure from a beloved EU source.  It doesn’t have a ton of room for improvement.  I’m giving it an 8 out of fairness to some of today’s phenomenal figures.  I could have given it a 9 for nostalgia.

Until Hasbro makes a proper Phase II trooper, I’ll go ahead and make the POTF2 figure a stand-in.

Credits

Carded sample on loan from the collection of Matt and Luke Decker.

Build-A-Droid 

Dark Trooper Phase I contains the left leg of BG-J38.  This worker drone droid served as Jabba the Hutt’s personal dejarik and hologames droid.  Source:  Return of the Jedi

Verdict: No Action (Unless a Dark Trooper Exclusive 3 Phase pack?)

Secondary market values are moderately priced, and not nearly as high as some of the this figure’s wavemates from the TRU EU wave.  The figure is excellent as it is, and can be considered definitive, especially given that the the source material is no longer canon.  I wouldn’t recommend Hasbro revisit this figure in the main line, but a nice surprise for fans would be some kind of convention exclusive TVC Special 3-pack that included this Phase I figure, and all new Phase II figure, and the BAD Phase III figure.  Actually, this is now one of my most wanted 3-packs.  I’d rather have this than a new EV-9D9.

Verdict Guide:
Re-sculpt = The figure is not definitive, and a new version should be developed.
Re-issue = This version is definitive (or close enough), and shows sufficient secondary market demand to warrant a straight repack.
No Action = This release does not require new attention.