Shock Trooper - SW [TPM 3D] - Movie Heroes (MH01)

Shock troopers are members of the Coruscant Guard. They keep order on Coruscant, patrolling public places, government buildings and landing platforms on the planet. Coruscant is the political center of the galaxy, where business of every kind is always being conducted, requiring the shock troopers to be constantly vigilant and swiftly reestablish order whenever peace and stability is threatened.

The Movie Heroes line is definitely perplexing to many collectors. In a now almost infinite catalogue of great sculpts under Hasbro’s belt after years and years of new collections of action figures after another, Hasbro decides in 2012 to rerelease some from what we would call the “bottom of the barrel”. Who doesn’t love an awesome Shock Trooper? But why in the world would Hasbro choose the dig out the running change 2005 ROTS Clone Trooper [Shock Trooper] (III 6) figure with an awful action feature and inaccurate removable shoulder armor piece with the Imperial symbol on it? (Shock Troopers in Episode III never had the Galactic Empire’s symbol on their armor.) Again, it’s all very perplexing. Hasbro has explained that the Movie Heroes line was designed to replace the Saga Legends line. We suppose it did just that, but it replaced it with garbage... at least the first wave is proving this to be true. No longer a collectors’ line that allows us to army-build at light speed, or bring us those short run figures for a second time in greater supply. No, the focus is completely different today and we are at a loss to pinpoint Hasbro’s aim of this line.

If you’re new to collecting, this Shock Trooper is a finely tuned version of 2005's ROTS Clone Trooper [Shock Trooper] (III 6) figure (the running change). Near the end of the line, Hasbro repainted three of the most popular clones from the Revenge Of The Sith line to give us three more. The all-white Clone Trooper (III 6) was repainted to become a Shock Trooper, and that’s what Hasbro brought forth into the Movie Heroes line. Believe it or not, the 2012 SW [TPM 3D] Movie Heroes Shock Trooper is actually a repaint of the original version from 2005. There are definitely differences in the line and colors and the details are much sharper for this release. We think it’s worthy to be considered a new enough update, but that’s if and only if you’re a one-of-everything collector. Likely most of you out there aren’t going to want a figure of this inferior status in your modern collections at this point, but we did want to let you know that it definitely differs from the original release. It was rumored that the right shoulder armor was glued down this time, but this isn’t the case at all. It’s removable just like it was in 2005. We understand the need for kid-focused products, but kids are more “modern” today. We don’t think they’ll fall for the gimmicky action features today.

Despite the silly action feature, the articulation remains quite good on this figure. And it took us having to open the 2012 Movie Heroes figure to do this review to jog our memories of what was included in this sculpt. While the figure comes with no waist joint (so the action feature can function properly), the figure has a remarkable capability to be posed kneeling without looking wonky. It looks truly believable, so much that we’re slightly impressed and wished the 2005 ROTS Clone Trooper (III 41) sculpt could look this good on one knee. The Shock Trooper comes with one DC-15 blaster and one DC-15 blaster rifle. And let’s not forget about the Galactic Battle Game card, stand and die. (We’re surprised how many people are getting into collecting these game cards. We think they’re just about as exciting as 2006’s The Saga Collection miniature hologram figures. Maybe not. Those were pretty boring.) Other than the updated paint operations and the game pieces, there really isn’t much more to write about the Shock Trooper. We think he’s an odd release. In fact, we feel that way about all clones in this line. BUt dang it if some of them don't look cool with the ways they can be posed, because this figure is a perfect example of this. Episode I didn’t have clones yet they’re dominating the line. Oh well, what do we know?