This was the first release of the character in this scale.  Naturally, it doesn’t compare to the super-articulated version that came later in the Walmart 3.75” Black Series, but is it good enough?

The figure looks pretty good, but frankly, as a simply painted army-builder, it doesn’t really do much for me.  It can stand, which is a start.  But the stance is a little wide (something that happens with many of the 5POA figures), so it’s not as neutral as it could be.  If you have a couple of these lined up, they look more like a bunch of guys doing some kind of hamstring stretches than they do soldiers either in action or standing at attention.  The paint applications are sloppy, with too much overspray and bleeding occurring.  The helmet is pretty good, but as you can see in the comparison shot, the style was altered slightly for The Last Jedi.  Hasbro worked to replicate the differences.  Time will tell which look fans prefer.  Right now, I’m actually leaning towards the TFA version, but we’ll see in the long run.

The good things:  The blaster fits well in the trooper’s hand, and there’s a nice little notch on the right hip to attach the blaster, which replaces an actual holster.  There.  That’s about all that stands out.

The gallery above shows off two different packages and accessories, as the figure was released later in the run with a different card, although both shown were part of the “Space” groupings (which were essentially nonsensical).  Each accessory is meant to interact with the figure either on its own, or combined as a larger 3-part accessory. 

You’d have be a diehard completist to get all of the accessory parts in the line, because if you were only interested in collecting “new” characters (most of which were not offered in the SA line), then you still had to buy 5POA versions of characters like Vader and Bespin Luke, or some Rebels characters that were sculpted cartoon-style.  You know, some former completists have to draw the line somewhere, despite owning thousands of figures made by Hasbro since 1995.  Some former completists will not buy cartoony figures, nor will they buy the 5POA nonsense of characters they already own 14 different super-articulated versions of.  Maybe if Hasbro just stuck to one aesthetic and remained consistent across the line, we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now.  Maybe if Hasbro just re-focused their efforts on continuing what they started over 20 years ago, we wouldn’t be in this position of having to play catch up with 2 cartoon series, and 2 (soon to be 4 by May) movie releases.  There is essentially no hope that we will ever have anywhere close to the acceptable number of characters that should already exist in super-articulated 3.75” form.  By about 2014, when Rebels premiered, and just before the sequel trilogy was coming, we really had gotten just about every reasonably marketable character in SA form, with only a few measly exceptions from the films and some The Clone Wars figures. 

BY MAY 2018 WE WILL PROBABLY HAVE, WHAT, 100+ CHARACTERS FROM NEW MEDIA THAT ARE UNMADE IN SA FORM?  WE WERE SO CLOSE!  AND NOW WE’LL NEVER CATCH UP!  NEVER!!!  IS ANYONE STILL READING THIS?

3.  This figure gets a 3.  Now leave me alone.