Figures That Make Me Happy: Snowtrooper Commander

Posted by Chris on 10/04/24 at 07:05 AM Category: Figures That Make Me Happy

Snowtrooper Commander

This is going to be a little departure from the spirit of previous Figures that Make Me Happy entries. Typically, these articles revolve around three sorts of themes. Some are figures that I desperately wanted in the Kenner line as a kid. Others are oddball tertiary characters that captured my imagination from almost the first time I saw them on screen. Finally there have been long awaited figures that fill in a key diorama. The Snowtrooper Commander is none of those things.

Truth be told, I can't even recall exactly when I first noticed the Snowtrooper Commander. I just know that it was well into my adult collecting years. I was watching The Empire Strikes Back for the eighty thousandth time and I said:

Hey, that Snowtrooper has a rank badge!

Here's the funniest part about that. By the time I realized that there was such a thing as a Snowtrooper Commander, Hasbro had already given us a figure of one. The 2003 Snowtrooper was in fact the commander:

Perhaps it's because that figure is rather terrible, even for the time, that I never questioned the 2-over-2 rank badge (which I think designates a lieutenant). That figure would get a 2004 re-release in the Original Trilogy Collection, and I still didn't sniff out that it was distinct from the rank and file Snowtroopers.

So far, I've been downplaying the significance of this character. So why, then, is it a figure that makes me happy? Currently, the Vintage Collection in an unfortunate era were attention to detail and accuracy take a massive back seat to cost-saving tooling reuse. The upcoming Ahsoka (Peridea) has the wrong upper arms. The Aldhani Cassian has wildly inaccurate boots. Our supposed season 3 accurate Axe Woves is just a repacked season 2 Woves. At times, it feels like there isn't a corner left to be cut. Don't take this as me being too critical of Hasbro. I'm not bashing them for this. It's just the sad reality of the economic constraints on a line that probably doesn't make much money. Shortcuts have to be taken so we don't revert back to ten figures per year.

So why does this figure make me happy? It's because it's a case when Hasbro paid exquisite attention. You see, a Snowtrooper Commander isn't just a Snowtrooper grunt with a rank badge. One, the shoulder armor is inverted. Two, the cowl is rigid unlike the wrinkly pliable cowl of the grunt. Hasbro spent the tooling dollars to make sure both of these details were captured (the 2003 figure also had the accurate shoulders, but missed on the cowl). 2012 found Hasbro in similar belt-tightening circumstances with the 3.75" line, yet they spent the money to get this figure right. I have to applaud that.