Captain Cassian Andor/Imperial Stormtrooper - RO - Two-Packs (Exclusive)

The lead combatant of the Rebels and an accomplished Alliance Intelligence officer, Captain Cassian Andor advances into battle against the faceless loyalist soldiers of the Galactic Empire, the Imperial Stormtroopers.

If you’re worried about getting some of the pack-in figures in the Rogue One line, then you probably start worrying a whole lot less. Hasbro appears to be making some of their figures a lot more readily available. This way you don’t have to plop down $50 just to get the exclusive figure that comes with a vehicle (at least in some instances). If you recall, the Rebel U-wing Fighter comes with an “exclusive” Captain Cassian Andor figure. Always a concern that a figure like this won’t see re-release, Hasbro has graciously repacked him (he may be a slightly different in the way he was casted and painted) in a Toys R Us exclusive Two-Pack along with a different version of an Imperial Stormtrooper. The figure isn’t half bad honestly. Yes, it’s a simply-articulated 5POA action figure but it is faithful to the onscreen character. The figure comes with a ball-socket head and swivel shoulders and hips. The figure can’t do much but sit or stand, but that’s all you really need a pack-in figure to do these days. The paint operations fall between average and good. It’s a fair representation of the actor, but we do see some “muddiness” in the hair line as well as the face that probably could have been cleaned or tightened up in the production process. He also comes with a blaster that fits loosely in the functioning holster. He also comes with some extra “heavier” gear including a projectile launcher and a zip line. These pieces are all for the kids.

As you also already know, the Imperial Stormtrooper has a lovely sculpt and a repaint of 2016's RO Imperial Stormtrooper basic figure. The helmet proportions are almost perfect. The helmet looks great from every angle: front, back, left, right. The band above the “eyes” is separated by a thin white area which creates a version of the Imperial Stormtrooper we prefer seeing, versus when the black line and visor are touching. We can’t find any differences between the design of this Imperial Stormtrooper’s armor when compared against the ones we see in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, so hopefully that was intentional and the characters in this film are meant to be seamless with those from Episode IV. Hasbro updated the missing paint details on the basic release of the Imperial Stormtrooper. For instance, the belly dots have finally been painted and it does a world of good for the figure. For extra play value, the Imperial Stormtrooper comes with a few gimmicks that we don’t feel work too well. But Hasbro is intent on bringing additional play features with the 5POA action figures. (We’d just encourage them to add these gimmicks to additional weapons and leave the figure whole.) He comes with removable battle-damaged chest armor (with an articulated/removable belly plate) to make it look like the figure was shot. And this time we get an interchangeable chest plate with a white officer’s pauldron (unlike the orange one we received with the basic figure).

The Imperial Stormtrooper also comes with an E-11 looking blaster. There are already discussions that these weapons are different and we’d have to agree, but we’re not experts in Star Wars weaponry and we’ll just leave it as “different looking.” But because both of these figures are unable to be posed in any meaningful ways, we’re not sure how much joy they’ll bring both kids and collectors. All in all, it is probably true that the Captain Cassian Andor/Imperial Stormtrooper Toys R Us exclusive Two-Packs set will be a hit. And that is for multiple reasons. The Imperial Stormtrooper is going to being a lot of nostalgia back to longtime collectors and a new colored pauldron just makes us want to collect them all. You can’t fault the figure as not looking good because it does. In fact, the Imperial Stormtrooper borders on beautiful. Sadly, most collectors have no use for simply articulated trooper figures. Why Hasbro can’t give these characters super-articulation and then reserve the 5POA for background aliens and B characters is beyond our comprehension. Also, Captain Cassian Andor was previously a pack-in figure that now has more availability thanks to this release. Cleary there is play value here for younger fans (even though we don’t think the figure needs things like this.) Hasbro is definitely focused on a new generation of collectors, but they can capture this audience while making adult collectors happy as well.