My Overdue Reaction To The Vintage Collection Rebel Soldier (Echo Base Battle Gear) Trooper Pack

Posted by Chris on 06/10/22 at 07:05 AM Category: Vintage Collection

https://www.banthaskull.com/images/news/deck_officer_trooper_pack.jpg

Meh. You heard me. Meh. For a long time now I've contended that Hasbro doesn't know the difference between a squad-builder and an army-builder, and this set goes a long way toward confirming that. Not every nameless (or obscurely named) member of the rank and file is an army-builder. Stormtrooper? That's an army builder. Death Trooper? That's a squad builder. Paddling the school canoe? That's a paddlin'. Having said that, just because something is a squad-builder does not mean that it's not a good fit for this trooper pack format. I would gladly take a trooper pack of Sandtroopers based on the upcoming Walmart Stormtrooper, but I digress.

This Rebel Soldier (Echo Base Battle Gear) is really what is known as the Deck Officer from Echo Base. I don't need a lot of them. You don't see a lot of them on-screen. A squad of them would do, and I was happily able to build up their ranks with the recent re-release of VC68 - Rebel Soldier (Echo Base Battle Gear). This is the case when a squad-builder doesn't make a lot of sense for the trooper pack format: when the figure has been in recent and easy supply. I can still get my fill of this figure for MSRP on Amazon as we speak...err...as I write and you read. If this set was announced before the VC68 re-release, I would have been doing handsprings. So yes, the biggest part of my "meh" reaction is the timing.

I bought one of these mostly for the photo galleries here. This is the same reason I only bought one of the Death Trooper set. The first three sets in this expression were fantastic. The more recent two have felt a little flat. If this set had been four unique head sculpts on the true Hoth Rebel army-builder, VC120 - Rebel Soldier (Hoth), I would have been in for multiple sets. Hasbro, if you really want to recapture the excitement of those first three troop builder packs, put four unique head sculpts on VC26 - Rebel Commando (a.k.a. the Endor soldier). The kids would go apey for that.