I think we all know going in that this figure is going to be a disappointment because of the lack of articulation.  But can it hold its own with the other features and accessories that are included?  Will it be worth adding this figure to your collection?  The answer is…complicated.

The universe demands that all Imperial Stormtrooper figures be super-articulated.  This one is, of course, not.  You might have already decided that based on the wide availability of many very good collector-grade stormtroopers over the years, this one isn’t worth your time.  At a glance, the figure actually has a nice sculpt.  Admittedly it looks pretty good standing at attention.  For full disclosure, I am not one of those stormtrooper nerds that can tell you every nuance that makes each stormtrooper different from each frame of every OT-era film.  That said, the sculpt here looks pretty good to me.  It is straightforward, and is not burdened with any awkwardness that might accompany a removable helmet.  The figure holds his weapon tightly, and probably would look good in a formation of duplicate figures, were you so inclined to purchase many.

Upon a little bit closer inspection, the helmet paint is not nearly as sharp is you would hope it would be.  On my sample, the black details are not crisp, and bleed and fray across the brow, and the chin application actually missed a bit, and is off-center.  The blue (oh, I hope it’s blue) side vents are actually done nicely, but that’s the strongest application of color here.  Problems with the paint are not limited to the helmet area.  The exposed areas of the black bodysuit are also badly applied, and you can see discrepancies at the shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees.  There is no paint applied to any of the armor components on the “belly” of the trooper.  Overall, this is just poor.  For a figure that should be simply painted, it fails in the “do your job” category.  Other than that, the blaster is fine, and fits securely in the hand, but unfortunately, there is no holster, which is a shame.

Then we get to the accessory.  Frankly, I would have preferred a big lime green jet pack / food processor / galactic leaf blower / ice missile launcher.  What was included is nothing short of mind-bogglingly bizarre.  To the body of the trooper, you add a piece of upper chest armor that appears to simulate battle damage of some odd type.  This piece extends down to the waist, where there exists a small “lever”, poorly disguised as the “belly” controls that it covers.  So at this point, you basically have a battle damaged torso overlay, so the trooper looks like an up-armored version of himself.  We’re already in bad shape here, but the next step is to then put a second, smaller piece of chest armor over the battle damaged part.  This piece has a weird orange half-pauldron.  Once applied the trooper is now up-up-armored.  Then you can manually poke the “lever” mentioned earlier that is part of the first up armored piece, and it causes the half-pauldron chest piece to “explode” off the trooper, which then essentially reveals the blasted battle damaged armor underneath.  Now, in theory, this should give you 3 display options for one trooper:  Basic stormtrooper, pauldron trooper, and battle-damaged trooper.  But the accessories are so clumsily executed as to make the whole endeavor laughable. 

Most of the “throw in” accessories are silly, while some add value.  Since the trooper comes with nothing other than the basic blaster besides these strange chest pieces, then the value of the figure is actually harmed by the included crap. 

Bad choice for 5POA, questionable paint applications, horrendous accessories, no holster.  It might only pass (with some allowances) as background fodder on a shelf.

I hate this figure.