Imperial Rocket Trooper - TBS [P4] - Six Inch Figures (GG01)

An elite squadron within the Imperial ranks, jumptroopers (also known as rocket troopers) were outfitted with jetpacks and utlized in tight spaces. They were trained to act in unison, often swarming and overwhelming their targets.

Wow. Hasbro didn’t even try with this one. The Black Series 6” line is feeling the wrath of the Hasbro repacks. It’s inevitable for an action figure line to reuse existing parts to make new characters. But when the new character looks nearly identical to the current character, one has to wonder if Hasbro is looking for the most accessible ways to add new 6-inch figures to the lineup. The GameStop exclusive Imperial Rocket Trooper is a repaint of the GameStop exclusive Imperial Jumptrooper. Why is there a change in the character’s name? The first exclusive was based on a character from Star Wars Rebels. Now, the Imperial Rocket Trooper is based on characters we see in Star Wars: Battlefront II. Unfortunately, there are few differences between the two characters, making the subsequent release get passed off as a new exclusive, yet it is a very dull release. What’s more, Hasbro once again uses the 2013’s TBS [P1] Stormtrooper (#09) to bring us a new 6-inch character in 2021, and the parts feel old and tired. It’s time to stop using this old tooling.

We’ll concede that Hasbro did a fantastic job of converting the Stormtrooper into an Imperial Rocket Trooper. But that doesn’t help with the articulation system that isn’t nearly as practical as the updated bucks have. Since the line’s inception, Hasbro accumulated an extensive catalog of parts throughout the years. They could have approached this figure differently with better tooling. They seamlessly blended old and new parts when they developed this figure a couple of years ago. They work together well and bring collectors a fresh take on a new character while saving on tooling parts simultaneously. But why couldn’t they have used the new Imperial Stormtrooper tooling instead? The new head sculpt (with adjoining tubing and jetpack) and new shoulder armor still hold up well. But they look like new parts on a junker vehicle. Also disappointing is that all of the various white armored parts have varying degrees of discoloration. It doesn’t have a smooth on-color look, which is very unsettling. Despite the old body sculpt, the Imperial Rocket Trooper attains most poses you choose, but there are limitations here.

The Imperial Rocket Trooper only comes with an E-11 blaster, which houses itself in a functioning holster hanging from his back when not in use. The previous Imperial Jumptrooper came with this accessory as well. And disappointingly, it doesn’t come with the clear triangular-shaped display stand. That display piece allowed you to pose this figure in some more exciting ways. Now you can’t do that with this release. Its exclusion is a disappointment here, but it’s not the end of the world. We still aren’t confident how many collectors will be interested in another one of these figures with so few changes. At least the previous version comes with some orange coloring. This version is all black and white. For The Black Series [Phase IV] line, Hasbro decided to dump all video game characters into a Gaming Greats-themed source. They’re housing them under the aqua/teal packaging color coding. It will make things easier for those collectors looking to display them as books, with spines exposed to create a display scene with the “bindings.” Either way, the Imperial Rocket Trooper is just “meh,” in our opinion. But you may have a different view here.