Rebel Trooper - TSC - Basic (SAGA 046)

Why does Hasbro sometimes go so far updating a figure in an effort to make it better, yet leave the old parts which ruin the update? Why they stop cold instead of finishing the upgrade is so frustrating to collectors. If they bother to take the time to retool or give a figure all new parts, then just finish it is what we say. A great update like super-articulated legs (with ball-joints) gets hampered by the fact that nothing was done to get the upper body to modern standards leaves the figure feeling flat. That’s sort of where we’re at with the 2006 interpretation of the Rebel Trooper, actually better known to collectors as the Endor Rebel soldiers. Hasbro’s toymakers (as well as collectors) have a penchant for all things Rebellion related and its evident by how frequently they bring out the different types to the basic figure line each year. And at first glance, the two new Rebel Trooper action figures in The Saga Collection look like great figures (and they’re good, we’ll give them that), but could have been definitive if a little more work went into the update!

Hasbro actually brought two unique types of Rebel Troopers into The Saga Collection and they’re from two completely different scenes in Return Of The Jedi. In a very clever move, Hasbro created the Rebel Trooper gunner (from the Millennium Falcon cockpit as well as the deleted scenes) and a general Endor Rebel ground soldier. Each has unique gear and colored clothing that makes them specific to their particular scenes. And if you’re just going to display them in your collections, they are actually two awesome action figures. But when it comes to posing and playing with them, well, you’re going to run into some trouble. Your options there are much more limited and despite having so many points of articulation, their upper bodies are literally frozen in a certain pose and you’re basically stuck with what you have out of the package. (It’s very frustrating because all these figures needed were ball-jointed shoulders and elbows and these would have been perfect.) But Rebel Trooper (the black guy) is still hard not to like and the paint job is excellent on him.

We really should have liked the Rebel Trooper action figure a lot more than we did. Although it has awesomely articulated legs, Hasbro dusted off 2002’s SW Endor Rebel Soldier [Version 1] ('02 #33) (and [Version 2] ('02 #33) for that matter) figure and took the complete upper body and placed it on the newly designed legs. Not only is the body cocked in an awkward lean, but the arms are terribly articulated in action and you have little to no options to pose this figure in a way that you’ll desire. This of course created unnecessary frustration. Thankfully, the sculpt of the upper body holds up well after almost half a decade from its original release and from an aesthetic perspective works quite well on the 2006 update. He comes with the same removable helmet and backpack and his blaster can be placed in his functioning holster. We really want to see this legs utilized at some other point in the line because they didn’t get their full use on this figure. They look great and are angled perfectly for great action poses, but we need a figure with the upper body flexibility to do that. Rebel Trooper is a good figure, but it’s unfortunately out of reach from perfection unless Hasbro fixes a few more things.