We’re getting close to finally finishing off the basic 5POA TFA line, which is great, because then we can pretend it never existed.  One of the last TFA basic single carded figures featured in a gallery and review is the First Order Stormtrooper Squad Leader.  It was a pretty tough figure to find, apparently.  It came in a wave later in the line with unmasked Kylo Ren and Nien Nunb.

Fans and collectors have obsessed over all the different variations of OT stormtroopers and PT clones.  Even the most minute details that differentiate the same trooper type from different films within each trilogy don’t escape the watchful eye of the discerning fan.  Frankly, I’m not one of those fans.  I don’t know the difference between ammo pouches, eye lenses, and crotch armor from trooper to trooper.  If you want to know more about that, ask my colleague, Chris.  He is an expert on stormtrooper crotches.  Now when it comes to the variants in the sequel trilogy, is it just me, or is there just a whole lot less interest in such things?  Collectors obsess over the screen accuracy of which Sandtrooper with which color pauldron was doing what in each scene.  I’m certainly not knocking this, as we just did a whole series analyzing the characters present at the Battle of the Pit of Carkoon.  I’m just saying, at this point, I don’t care which First Order Stromtrooper had the white, black, or orange pauldron, and where they were located in each scene.  Basically, I know there were stormtroopers and flametroopers on Jakku, and lots of every variety probably somewhere in that shot with Hux giving his inspiring speech.  I’m not a good judge of numbers, but there had to be at least 12 or 13 troops in that scene.

So, in a nutshell, I neither know, nor really care, in which scene the white-pauldroned stormtrooper with the ammo vest appeared.  I blame this on the 5POA line, because if these figures were available in SA form, I’d be a lot more interested in army building them into accurate shelf displays.  But here he is.  If someone cares enough to let us know in the comments specifically where he is in The Force Awakens, please let us know.

The figure is a repack of the TFA basic First Order stormtrooper, with 2 additional accessories, and one slight change in paint applications.  The figure itself is one you’ve seen a few times in the line.  Nothing special.  It’s a good sculpt, with a slightly non-neutral pose (which I dislike).  It is painted fairly well, with a bit of bleeding and overspray.  The helmet is nicely sculpted.  The figure stands sturdily, and grips the included blaster well.  The blaster also fits in the standard hip notch. 

The squad leader here, comes with a removable ammo vest, which looks cool, and can be swapped onto a different figure if you like such things.  This figure also comes with a removable white pauldron.  A different color pauldron and the same vest come with the TLJ stormtrooper officer from the Kohl’s 4 pack, although you probably know the TLJ stormtroopers are a different sculpt than the TFA ones. The other difference with the basic trooper is that for whatever reason, Hasbro added a few black details to the belt of this trooper.  Meh.

Finally, the figure comes with a big stupid build-a-weapon part.  At first glance, I thought this was supposed to be the Z6 riot baton, but sadly, it’s just a piece of crap.  In fact, this would have been Hasbro’s opportunity to do a FN-2199 (TR-8R) figure, but in the end, it’s 5POA so who cares?

I gave the TFA basic stormtrooper a 3.  I’ll give this one a 4 because it is the same figure, but with the two swappable accessories.  It’s still lame.