Stormtrooper (Mimban) - SW [S] - Basic

The toy release for Solo: A Star Wars Story was an interesting one to say the least. Most stores did not have any of the product on the shelves on time, and retail employees weren’t exactly helpful in getting everything into our grubby collecting paws. Thankfully, though, if you did manage to find the toys, you found some good ones. In my opinion, the Solo: A Star Wars Story product launch has some of the best movie-related offerings Hasbro has released in a long while. Several new sculpts, including popular characters and army-building troopers, have infiltrated the line and Hasbro has produced a diverse cast of characters to complement the film. And let us not forget about some of the smart money making decisions Hasbro made like packing Han Solo with the Landspeeder. They know what they're doing. Keeping Han Solo out of the basic figure line (Force Link 2.0) was a pretty smart move on their part. A good Star Wars film has great troopers in it. The Stormtrooper (Mimban) release meets this expectation, although the figure isn't without its set of flaws.

That said, the 3.75” articulated line was snubbed for the launch as no Solo: A Star Wars Story characters were released in the first wave of The Vintage Collection. So we will turn our attention to the single-carded basic figure in the 5POA line; the Stormtrooper (Mimban) today. We are big advocates for articulation, but let’s talk about why this figure is still a decent release. We will also explain why we still need a TVC version later this year. When it comes to sculpting, Hasbro has provided us with a crisp and accurate representation of the new muddy stormtrooper. The blast shield on the helmet is a cool addition to the traditional trooper we are used to seeing. If you’re going to have a minimally articulated trooper, this is the way to do it. The sculpted elbows at least make sure your background figures aren’t just standing there looking unarticulated. Added wrist articulation allows this figure to hold both an E-11 and his new gigantic long rifle. The two included blasters are great, and the cape accessory falls around the shoulders nicely.

Where this figure falls short, aside from full articulation, is in the paint application. He’s nice and dirty, but that’s about it. There’s no definition to any of the features, except the visor lenses and ventilator. It feels like Hasbro stopped in the middle of providing paint operations to this figure. More is needed here. The mud color is greener than the dark grey we see in the promo photos, but this is a small nitpick. It bothered us, and we took the liberty of adding some custom paint detailing to our sample figure and the differences are evident (this custom figure is not featured in our photo gallery). The pre-release images of The Vintage Collection version shown at Toy Fair indeed have this added paint detail on the helmet, which is one thing that makes the figure stand out from this 5POA release. Our wish is that with the TVC release, they will add accessories not included with this figure, but that is seen on the character, such as a shoulder pauldron and a Jedha-style backpack. A great release nonetheless.