Rebel Fleet Trooper

January 7, 2012 | By More


 

The very first time we see rebel soldiers is during the boarding action on the Tantive IV, in Star

 

Wars: A New Hope

 

Luckily, Hasbro decided to re-visit this character class in their Star Wars Vintage Collection, giving us a wholly upgraded Rebel Fleet Triooper (VC52) as part of their seventh wave of figures.

 

The costume design is deceptively simple, consisting on loose fitting cargo pants, a grayish blue shirt and what appears to be a black photographer’s vest.

 

The sculpted detail is nice and shows how good are the Hasbro sculptors at simulating fabric folds and creases on plastic. The head sculpt is interesting and looks as if it’s based on someone’s portrait rather than the generic blank look these characters get sometimes.

 

This Rebel Trooper got the super articulated standard, with the usual 14 points of articulation:

 

Ball jointed neck.

Pegged hinge shoulders.

Pegged hinge elbows.

Swivel wrists.

Swivel waist.

Swivel hips.

Pegged hinge knees.

Pegged hinge ankles.

 

Articulation is very well integrated into the sculpture and the range is good on all of the joints. The hips do get a little reduced range because of the way the lower end of the vest hangs over them, but the Trooper still gets a pretty decent range.

 

Now, the thing that makes this release of the Rebel Fleet Trooper special is the amount of gear he comes packaged with. Right off the bat, he has two pieces of headgear.

 

One is the large white helmet they use in the Blockade Runner scenes, but also included is a grayish fabric cap like the ones issued to the film extras during the shooting of the Award Ceremony scenes because there were just not enough prop helmets for all of them.

 

The Rebel Fleet Trooper also comes with a blaster pistol, the range-finder device we see one of them use while the Millennium Falcon approaches the rebel base on Yavin, and a strap of ammo that goes over the right calf. All of these pieces of gear are nicely detailed and would allow for a fairly diverse looking group, if there were also variant head sculpts to fill up the ranks.

 

Overall, this is a very welcome update on the character class and even though this is not among the most exciting costume designs in the movies, the Rebel Fleet Trooper does deliver in terms of fun and quality.

 

Errex Score: 85/100

 

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Category: Featured, Star Wars, Toy Reviews

About the Author ()

I've been collecting action figures since the original Kenner Star Wars days. Nowadays, I still collect pretty much anything that catches my eye.

Comments (3)

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  1. Bill White says:

    I really like this figure too, but, I would really have traded the ammo holster and scanner for a holster. I am probably alone on feeling this way, as I’m sure most fans like to have a little diversity in their ranks.

    One other nice thing about this figure is that he seems relatively easy to get a hold of in stores. Being a “troop-builder”, and given the distribution issues that have plagued this line, I thought I’d never find him! Incredibly, I see him all the time, just swingin’ on the pegs.

  2. Joseph Tages says:

    Neat figure. I always gave these guys credit for going up against armored Stormtroopers in what amounted to their Sunday best. Historically, rebel troops are always outmatched in the wardrobe department, but I didn’t know the story behind those caps up to now. It’s pretty ironic that we get an extra accessory based on a prop that was created due to a shortage of the much cooler helmets. Nowadays, Lucas would just CGI the helmets all over the ceremony scene.

  3. Engineernerd says:

    I always saw these guys as the match to the grey/black uniformed Imperials, more fighting out of necessity than being hardened combat troops.

    Of course, this thought was probably formed when there was only a Death Star Commander figure in the original 12.

    I know there are Rebel Commandos, but it makes you wonder where was the armor for the Hoth ground troops?