Entertainment Earth swooped in and saved a couple of figures from the last wave of TLJ line.  The line went out with a whimper, barely squeezing out two waves at mass retail, before turning things over rather quickly to the Solo line.  Such is the world of Star Wars figure collecting since Disney took over.

While the C’ai Threnalli figure has some redeemable qualities, it’s hard to suggest a purchase of this First Order Flametrooper figure.  Even though it was seen in action only briefly in TFA on Jakku, and then even more briefly in the background of the TLJ execution scene, Hasbro seems to really dig this trooper.  It first debuted in the basic TFA line, and then a more expensive (and more terrible) version was released in the armor up sub-line.

This figure is basically the same with one major and one minor difference.  The major difference is a positive one:  The figure is now capable of the THWG.  The downside is that since it is 5POA, it is basically preposed into that position.  So while it works much better than the original version, it’s still nothing to write home about.  However, it’s just a slightly more palatable version of the previous releases.  The minor difference is that this newer figure comes with the Force Link chip, albeit only the 1.0 version (for whatever that’s worth). 

We need our trooper figures to have super articulation, and this figure, if released in the TVC line along with a shooting flame effect, would be a winner.  However, at this point, given the tenuous and limited status of the current TVC line, I would strongly oppose any thoughts by Hasbro of doing just that at any point in the foreseeable future.  What we have, while substandard, is enough for now.

In the end, you’re likely paying a premium for this figure from Entertainment Earth, not to mention shipping.  That premium offsets the actual improvements made as compared to previous versions.  It gets a 4, the baseline score for a realistically styled 5POA figure.

If you’re a big fan of this trooper, by all means, go for it.  It’s the best 3.75” version available.  It’s a shame that this was one of the figure choices to close out the TLJ line, which will be argued for generations to come as the least successful Star Wars movie supported line.  It looks like Solo toys (5POA and TVC) are likely going to surpass TLJ toys in consumer desirability, even though the associated film fared poorly at the box office.  There’s a lesson to be learned here for both Disney and Hasbro.

Click here to order the figure from our sponsor, Entertainment Earth