Stormtrooper Commander was one of the crazier releases in the history of the line.  It was planned for the TAC (Thirtieth Anniversary Collection) line in November of 2007 along with the premiere of The Force Unleashed game.  The game was delayed a few times, and was finally released in September of 2008 almost a year later.  Much speculation and mystery surrounded the details of how this figure would be offered.  It wasn’t until the final couple of weeks that Hasbro managed to get official word from Lucasfilm that it would be offered with game purchase at participating Gamestop locations

I’m not normally a carded collector, but I specifically wanted an extra one of these so that I could keep one in the package.  I really like the artwork, and I thought the whole presentation looked great.  TAC was one of my favorite line looks, and this was one of my favorite cards in the whole line.  But getting two, let alone one, wouldn’t be easy.

Here’s the rub with this figure:  It was damn near impossible to get.  Officially, it was to be handed out at participating Gamestop stores if you preordered the game and were present at the midnight opening. However, things didn’t consistently go that way.  Here’s the story, as we had documented back in 2008, during the early days of Banthaskull.com:

The plan seems to be that the figure will only be available at Gamestop locations that will be open for the midnight game release.  These locations seem to be a small percentage of total Gamestop stores. After that, it gets more dicey.  Here’s what we’ve heard from around the web: Play the fun game below to predict the result of a visit to your participating Gamestop location. Choose one item from Group A and then one item from Group B, or bypass both and select an option from Group C:

GROUP A:
1) reserve your game for a $5 deposit
2) reserve your game by paying in full

THEN

GROUP B:
3) Your figure will be held for you when you pick up the game
4) Your figure is handed to you right there
5) A figure is not guaranteed.  You must be in line by midnight and hope there are enough figures left by the time you go to the register

OR

GROUP C:
6) You can purchase a figure for a price, independent of purchasing the game
7) You can purchase a case of figures for a price, independent of purchasing the game

We’ve heard of every one of the above happening. Earlier today, my wife reserved a copy of the game by paying in advance (full price) and she was handed a figure on the spot.  She was told they had only 10 left out of an original allotment of 30.  I tried my luck a few hours later, and was denied a figure.  I was told I had to be in line by midnight, but that there were only 8 left.  After I told him I knew someone who had gotten a figure earlier in the day, he told me they had been making a mistake, and weren’t supposed to give away the figure until the midnight event.  So I went back to the same store later for the midnight release, and was 5th in line outside the door.  I got a figure, but it was the last one, because there were only 5 figures left in the store at that point, and a lot of people were left out.  About 4-5 days after the promotion, these figures were commonly going for around $40 on the secondary market.

Here’s to hoping Hasbro re-releases this figure in some other format in the future, so that every collector has an opportunity to get one. 

Seriously, it was ridiculous. I was VERY lucky because I managed to acquire the two figures I wanted, but it was clearly a total crapshoot.  The nearly year-long game delay, the late press release from Hasbro, and the confusion throughout the Gamestop chain made acquiring this figure a nightmare.  A ton of collectors didn’t get one, and there was a lot of noise asking for a re-release.  Well, about a year or so later, Hasbro did indeed re-release the figure on a Legacy Collection (Red) card as an SDCC ‘09 exclusive for $12.99.  It was the same figure, minus the named stand. 

All that, and it’s really not that exciting of a figure.  It’s a repaint of the TAC 30-20 Stormtrooper from the basic line.  It was decent in 2007 (albeit, with problems) but is kind of craptastic today, especially now that we FINALLY have something approaching a definitive stormtrooper sculpt.  The paint pattern is definitely striking, and personally, I really like it.  But a lot of OT purists at the time bristled at the thought of an OT era Imperial stormtrooper having clone trooper-like color patterns on the armor.  Along with the Jango head under the large and poorly shaped helmet, the unforgiving hands that struggle to hold the blaster realistically, and the very narrow stance, the actual figure wasn’t all that well received.  The real allure was the source, the exclusivity, and the rarity due to the difficulty in acquiring one.  But that was before the re-release, as well as time being unkind to the sculpt.  Now, you can snag one fairly easily for $30 shipped on eBay.

Chris gave the TAC 30-20 stormtrooper a 6/10 when he graded it in 2014.  Surely that score would drop to about a 5 now, but I’ll still give this figure a 6.  I personally like the color pattern.  It displays nicely even if it isn’t all that well articulated.  This, along with the somewhat legendary difficulty in finding it upon release help it stay at a 6/10.  This figure could be lightyears better if the current VC140 sculpt was repainted, but there’s really no reason to do that.  So while the sculpt is outdated, it’s fair to say we’ll never see it updated.  And that’s fine with me.