Stormtrooper - Unleashed

Anonymous in their white armor, stormtroopers perform their missions with mindless loyalty to the Empire. They are shock troopers who are called in to put down insurrections and maintain order in the galaxy. Not even a flicker of individuality cracks the uniform facade of the stormtrooper ranks. Any vestige of personality has long ago been eradicated from their genetic makeup, and now they move, breathe and live as one being, an arm of the Emperor, wielded with crushing force. Though they have specific equipment and training for various environments, these differences are slight and, in a disconcerting way, only emphasize their inhuman conformity. They cannot be bribed, blackmailed or bullied stepping out from behind their armor and anonymity, for there is nothing left to reveal, not even a fragment of humanity.

Now we’re talking! Lovers of the Unleashed line were waiting with bated breath for when Hasbro would introduce the Empire’s Stormtrooper into the ranks. In early 2005, that wish became a reality and one of the most action-packed Unleashed figure from the line was born. The Stormtrooper not only showcases a beautiful seven-inch scaled version of the Empire’s soldier, it too has been ripped from the scenes of A New Hope during the infamous “Death Star chase” frames of film that has become some of Star Wars fans’ most favorite memories from the film. Think of the point in the film when Luke and Leia are about to swing from the chasm and they are foiled by Stormtroopers from the other side. We believe that is precisely the moment where the Unleashed Stormtrooper figure is based. We only get a single Stormtrooper figure here of course, but the micro environment and the blast effects for us clearly spell out this is the scene attempting to be recreated. In fact, some would argue that the Unleashed Stormtrooper is really a freeze frame of those events. This figure may not have a completely perfect design, but he looks fantastic in this diorama shot and we feel more importantly that this is a rather flawless artistic interpretation of these scenes in A New Hope. Keep in mind these are meant to provide collectors with artistic interpretations most of the time, and not necessarily complete screen accurate authenticity.

Hasbro beautifully tooled a tiny section of the Death Star to accompany the Stormtrooper. If you re-watch A New Hope, you’ll see where they got their inspiration. The same lighting patterns found within the frame of the blast shield doors are immediately reminiscent on this toy. The Stormtrooper is crouched in a fighting position. We think the sculptors at Hasbro did a fine job with this pose. He doesn’t looks silly and actually looks to be fighting in a real battle. It looks like he is experiencing sensory overload as there are more blasts coming at him that shooting out of his E-11 blaster. In fact, he seems as if the Stormtrooper is in mortal danger. The red blasts bypass him dangerously too closely to his plastoid armor. Obviously Luke and Leia (if that’s who shot the blasts) are pretty good with utilizing foreign weapons. All of the blast effects, including the one that attaches itself to the tip of the barrel on the Stormtrooper’s E-11, are cast in clear red plastic and attach via discrete holes in the display base. You would never know how they were attached just by looking at it. The engineering on this piece is quite impressive. We are also quite impressed with how Hasbro has also managed to tool the Stormtrooper so that one foot remains on the display base while the other will rest on the surface on which you display this Unleashed figure. This means that Hasbro took into account the extra height the right leg is compared to the left, yet the figure stands upright perfectly at a straight angle.

Every last detail of the Stormtrooper’s armor is perfectly recreated. The “O” and the “Is” on the back armor are intricately tooled into the figure. They aren’t just simple stamped patterns. The rivets in his forearm armor and the thermal detonator on his belt have all been sculpted with precision and finesse. Oh, and for those of you who think the Stormtrooper avoided all danger think again. Hasbro applied a “burn” mark from the laser blast that flew right over this right thigh. Obviously he isn’t going to remain pristinely white for long. If we had to nitpick, we aren’t fully sold on the helmet sculpt. We don’t like it when the band above the visor touches the visor. We like seeing that white space above where the “eyes” are. It really gives the Stormtrooper its signature appearance. If the black helmet line is touching where the “eyes” are something just doesn’t look right in our opinion. Despite our preference, we still think that there are too many other positive distracters make us focus on something that is once again an artistic interpretation of the classic Star Wars character. Another nice feature that we really appreciate is that the E-11 blaster is a separately sculpted accessory. This is rare for the Unleashed line. It honestly doesn’t do much good when the figure who uses the weapon is pre-posed, but we love having that option. Between the beautiful white and shiny armor to the enhanced black, blue and gray details, the Unleashed Stormtrooper is a bravely aggressive release in this line. It is definitely well done.

As a bonus feature to this review, we have provided the original artwork created for this Star Wars: Unleashed figure. Click the thumbnail to the left to see the amazing illustration.