Editor’s Note:  This review is edited from that of the same figure released in the Walmart Black Series line, written by Chris on 10/14/2017.  There are no discernible differences between these two figures.  The TVC version is a straight repack.  Nevertheless, additional notes for this specific release are at the bottom of the review.

TBS review (10/14/2017): 

The Death Trooper strikes a classic Star Wars sweet spot for many of us.  The Original Trilogy had many creepy elements, but not creepy in the sense of the frenetic spaghetti monsters from The Force Awakens.  The creepiness in the Original Trilogy was more artful.  It did not originate from what things did, but rather from a sense of unease that these things merely existed.  It was insectoid-looking droids meandering through the interior of the Sandcrawler, little green boogey men who steal Luke’s lamp, or a solitary tentacle doing a Harvey Weinstein impersonation on C-3PO (too soon?).  When something is unsettling just for existing, it’s truly creepy.  Enter the Death Troopers.  From the scrambled cybernetic sounding screeches they use to communicate, to the all black armor, to the “classified augmentations” the subjects underwent, there is a sense of “wrongness” to their existence that adds to the terror they cause.  They are creations that are out of phase with nature, and that darkness falls within the “Goldilocks” zone:  not so nightmarish as to draw too much attention, but enough to simply add to the atmosphere of menace.  To that point, Gareth Edwards actually reeled in his initial design a little.  According to concept artist Christian Alzmann:

[Edwards] wanted to make it clear through the design, to show that the brain was gone by giving them helmets that no human could actually wear. Red lights under the dome. They’d be like Lobot from Cloud City and could be controlled.

That probably would have made the Dark Troopers too unsettling, and the final version strikes the perfect balance.  Edwards saved that gruesome concept of a brainless automaton for the Decraniated which I have never spotted in the film despite looking.  Incidentally, the Decraniated were the work of a certain “doctor” from the cantina who has the death sentence on twelve systems.  It’s no wonder, with hellish creations like that.  Get bent if you think all this interconnectivity makes the Star Wars universe too small.  IT’S FUN!  Like eating breakfast for dinner. 

The figure itself is another home run by Hasbro in the Walmart exclusive (for now) 3.75” Black Series line.  Hasbro has done us the ultimate kindness by delivering a highly configurable figure.  Instead of milking us for two releases:  one with and one without the “squad leader” designating shoulder pauldron, we get one release that can be configured either way.  I put “squad leader” in quotes because I’m not sure that the presence of pauldron-designating rank is canonical.  That seems fan-invented.  It’s more logical that it’s just a load-out option and does not indicate rank at all, as that would be a bizarre way to do so.  Why not a rank-indicating shoe? Regardless of this silliness, the point should not be lost that we can achieve two distinct load-outs with one figure. 

The other accessories are the SE-14r light repeating blaster (commonly referred to as a Dr. Evazan blaster), and the E-11D blaster rifle.  The figure interacts very well with the SE-14r.  It seats well in the figure’s hand and the trigger finger can be slipped into the trigger guard for a natural pose.  I’m not so enamored with the E-11D, and this is the source of the lone point deduction for this figure.  I’m not sure if it’s a case of the rifle being a little too small, or a lack of range of motion in the figure’s upper body.  I really wanted to pose the figure shouldering the rifle, but I could never quite achieve that despite the premium ball-jointed wrist articulation.  You can get close to that pose, but the rifle ends up moving more across the figure’s body as opposed to having the business end pointed at some tangos.  If the list of my criticisms consists of being unable to a achieve a single, specific pose, you know you’re dealing with a pretty good figure. 

The lower body articulation does what you want it to.  The figure can achieve all manner of crouched and kneeling poses as well as aggressive fighting stances.  Conversely, it can also be be posed in a completely neutral standing position should you choose to do so.  This is what we ask of our super-articulated figures.  It can do everything a 5POA equivalent can do, and innumerable things that a 5POA figure can only achieve via hours of “classified augmentations”.  As mentioned above, the slight complaint about interacting with the E-11D blaster rifle keeps this one point away from a perfect score with a 9 out of 10.

Credit to Disqus commenter, Faust, for pointing out that the review originally designated the rifle as the DLT19-D instead of the correct E-11D.

TVC review (9/25/2018): 

As mentioned at the top, this is a straight repack of the Black Series release.  Any changes I can spot are well within the normal variances of the manufacturing process.  The only significant difference my eyes can detect is that the snaps on the pouches on the figure’s left shoulder are much more subdued on my TVC sample.  Whether or not this is intentional is unknown at this time.  The only new photos for this review are the two carded photos and the last two photos of this gallery.  In the comparison shot, the TVC figure is to the left.  Unfortunately the bright photography lamps are masking the shading difference of those snaps.  It’s readily apparent with the naked eye.  I feel the card is tremendous.  It’s a vibrant, high contrast photo which is carried through to the figure’s background surround and name pill.  You can’t go wrong with black on orange, unless you’re the Bengals.  It has definite visual pop and will make a great addition to your carded collection display.  Because it appears that wave 2 is going to be short shipped, and the Death Trooper isn’t carried forward (at this time), tracking down a carded sample may prove challenging, but not impossible.  Hasbro should NOT compensate for this. However many have made their way to brick and mortar at the time of this review is enough.  This figure remains a 9 out of 10.