Thursday, June 2, 2011

Stormtrooper [1995, POTF2]


...with Blaster Rifle and Heavy Infantry Cannon!

I'm really loving how all these first wave descriptions end with exclamation points. So dramatic! So in your face! If only they would have put EVERY WORD IN ALL CAPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So here we have the iconic Stormtrooper, a bit more dynamic than the no-neck vintage figure, more detailed, more accurate gun, action pose, a cannon. Another cannon. A bit muscular for armor, but in keeping with the POTF2 figures.

Five reasons to get this figure:

1. The head moves! The head moves!

2. Finally, a big honkin' gun to go with the more bad-ass look.

3. Every needs at least 20 of these for many Star Wars scenes.

4. C'mon! You want to be the only person out there with out one?
You: "No, I never got one of those."
Your friend: "You are a a pariah and will be shunned all you days."

5. Anyone can pull off bright white after Labor Day when its body armor.

Backstory:

Stormtroopers grew out of the surviving clone troopers that served in the Clone Wars. By the time of the first movie, about 1/3 of stormtroopers were from Jango Fett's original DNA, the rest were from other DNA sources and humans recruited in the traditional manner.

A stormtroopers armor was made of a plastoid composite fitted over a black body glove. This gave some protection from blaster shots (obviously not a lot given the movies' body count) and protection against most climates. In fact there was a limited air supply built in and troopers could survive in the vacuum of space for short periods. The E-11 blaster rifle was standard issue for most troopers (the one that came with the figure).

When not in the white armor, stormtroopers wore a black dress uniform, seen mainly in the first movie aboard the death star. About the only variation that stormtroopers had were the shoulder pauldrons to show rank (see the stormtroopers on Tatooine in the first movie), otherwise the Empire wanted an across-the-board uniform appearance.

The stormtroopers were a feared force...until Endor. After their defeat by a handful of Rebels and primitive natives, two things changed. One, the stormtroopers were no longer seen as such an imposing force, and two, stormtroopers finally got some camouflaged armor - white was a glaringly obvious target.

Want more? His Wookieepedia article

2 comments:

  1. One of may favourites, even now. I will never get used to the small blasters that come with the figures today.

    ReplyDelete

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