S.H.Figuarts First Order Stormtrooper

Last year saw the triumphant return of Star Wars to the big screen with the first of Disney's sequels, The Force Awakens. Thirty years after the events of Return of the Jedi the Galactic Empire may be gone but in it's place the First Order has risen to follow in the Empire's footsteps. With it is a new generation of the ubiquitous Stormtrooper.

And I do mean ubiquitous. Not just on screen. There's Stormtrooper merchandise at every scale and price point. At the 1/12th scale there's Hasbro's Black Series, Bandai's model kit, the upcoming Mafex figure and the subject of today's review - S.H.Figuarts take on the First Order Stormtrooper.

Packaging:

The S.H.Figuarts Star Wars line has gone with the bare bones when it comes to packaging. A big window in the box shows you the figure you're getting. There's enough space to fit in the swappable hands and the Stormtrooper's blaster. The back has a few pictures showing off the toy. And that's it.

I'm personally not a MINT collector. I play with my toys. So for me this sort of minimal packaging is great. Cut one piece of tape, slide out the tray, remove the figure and you're good to go. Little fuss, straight to the fun stuff.

Scult:

The sculpt on the Stormtrooper is very sharp. All the little clasps holding the pieces of armor are molded in. The belt and undersuit have been given a ribbed texture when they easily could have been left flat. For the most part the armor hides the joints giving the Stormtrooper a very clean look.

Paint:

Most of the figure has been cast in the appropriate plastic colors. The main armor in white and the joints and undersuit in black. This helps keep everything very clean. Paint has only been used to pick out the small details on the armor. Most of the applications are very clean. The only place I've noticed obvious smudging is on the Stormtroopers belt and it's present on both of the Stormtroopers I bought.

Articulation:

Like all S.H.Figuarts toys the articulation on the Stormtrooper is excellent. Two joints in the neck give the essentially faceless Stormtrooper a lot of ability to express itself. The shoulders are ball jointed where they meet the torso the hinged for outward movement. The shoulder pads themselves are on their own dedicated joints so you can move them out of the way when raising the arms. Swivels at the bicep and forearm work with double jointed elbows allow the arms to move in a very natural way. A similar set up with the legs works just as well.

One of the most impressive things is the face that the pouches on the hips are each on their own dedicated joint. This lets them be moved out of the way of the legs where they'd otherwise hinder the figures poseability.

Any limitations on poseability rise more from the design of the suit than the articulation of the figure itself. There are other toys whose double jointed knees bend further. The Stormtroopers leg armor only allows the knee to move so far before the plates collide. The biggest hindrance is on the ankle articulation but I feel this is again due to the armor design rather than the engineering of the toy. That said I haven't found a pose I can't get the Stormtrooper to do.

Accessories:

The Stormtrooper comes with the bare minimum here. Three pairs of hands - fists, open grip and trigger hands - and the F-11D blaster. The hands pop on and off of ball joints of the Stormtroopers wrist easily. At no point have I been worried the joint can't handle the stress of swapping hands.

The blaster is nicely detailed but seems a little oversized. It's not a big deal though. The Stormtroopers still look fantastic holding it. The blasters foregrip also folds down which is not something I remember seeing in the movie. I honestly think the Stormtrooper looks silly holding the blaster with it folded down so that's a feature that's going to go unused.

Sadly the blaster cannot be holstered on the Stormtrooper's leg armor. As far as I know every other First Order Stormtrooper at this scale is able to holster it's weapon. I'd say this was done to keep the sculpt as accurate as possible but it's a real shame this feature wasn't included.

Final Thoughts:

I'm really happy with S.H.Figuarts take on the First Order Stormtrooper. On their own they look great. Their size means they'll fit in well with other 1/12 scale Star Wars lines. As the Stormtroopers of the First Order were conscripts taken at birth you can mix and match from different toy lines without too much worry.

They are more expensive than the other options. A premium price for a premium figure. It all depends on what you're looking for. They easily beat the Black Series figure in terms of poseability but the Black Series is certainly easier to army build. I certainly don't regret buying them and am very much looking forward to getting S.H.Figuarts Captain Phasma to lead them.