Endor Rebel Soldier - POTF2 [FF/TKC] - Basic

The Rebel strike team, on a mission to sabotage the second Death Star's shield generator, falls into a trap set by the evil Emperor Palpatine. Surrounded by a full legion of stormtroopers and Imperial soldiers, the Rebel commandos are temporarily unable to shut down the battle station's shield.

When it comes to army builders, Kenner/Hasbro is often at a disadvantage when giving us variety with certain types. When you have a Stormtrooper or Sandtrooper, it’s very easy to bang them up and have collectors scoop them up ad infinitum into their collections. But when it comes to characters who don’t have helmets covering up their faces, they usually don’t produce that many unique human head sculpts to make them different from each other. The excitement was high for the release of 1998’s The Power Of The Force “2” Endor Rebel Soldier, the very first modern “replacement” for the classic 1983 vintage Kenner Rebel Commando figure. The outfits between the 1998 version and the 1983 counterpart have their differences, but neither accurately match the character seen on the card back of the 1983 offering. That point is almost irrelevant. Thanks to updated paint operations, the Endor Rebel Soldier looks more like what the 1983 figure would look like had it the deco technology of 1998. In other words, the enhanced camouflage pattern really gives this character completely unique and screen accurate presence in the modern basic figure line. And we love what Kenner/Hasbro has done with the sculpting and the accessories as well. Endor Rebel Soldier feels like a chunky action figure and has a weightiness to it that other figures in the line just done have.

With a rather scene agnostic facial likeness, the Endor Rebel Soldier could be almost anyone with the Rebel strike teams seen during the Battle of Endor. The costume is pretty darn close to perfection, but a few details like the missing chin strap for example show some of the liberties taken with this action, whether intentional or not. But we’d have to defend the figure despite its imperfections because this is one of the truly standout figures that has a divine paint job among other things and it is hopefully only the beginning of many future Rebels from Endor that we can army build into our collections. Endor Rebel Soldier comes with a removable survival backpack and strapped blaster rifle. Sadly, the blaster rifle’s strap doesn’t hug the figure closely like the vintage Rebel Commando’s did, so it’s a bit uneasy to rest the strap on the figure’s left shoulder without it quickly falling off of him. He can hold the weapon however quite well in his hands and looks good in the few action poses you can position him. The pose is slightly action-like, but not too drastic where you couldn’t pose him in a more reserved setting, like in your Home One dioramas for example. With an excellent sculpt and excellent paint job, Endor Rebel Soldier is definitely one of the highlights in the Freeze Frame phase of The Power Of The Force “2” line. It is for us anyhow.

Endor Rebel Soldier comes with the standard six points of articulation. It would have been nice, based on the roles of these characters, if Hasbro upped the amount of articulation given to them. Holding their weapons up and at the ready is likely what Star Wars collectors are going to wish for with these figures, but right now that option isn’t available to them. And despite the uniformity between them, collectors will likely army build this charcater anyway since you need more than one to have a successful battle on Endor. In just a few short years out from when the modern line started, Hasbro has really come far already and they’ve delivering some pretty stellar action figures to collectors. We feel that Endor Rebel Soldier is a testament to these efforts. Like all Freeze Frame figures, Endor Rebel Soldier comes with a Freeze Frame action slide which captures a very generic snapshot of the Battle of Endor. These collectible pack-ins have gone over very strongly with collectors and they have been almost as fun to collect as the action figures. Hopefully Hasbro will only build upon what they’ve started in the Endor Rebel Soldier for future characters like this. It’s a great modern update to the vintage figure of course, but it’s also just as exciting to see the Star Wars line born again through modern eyes also.