Resistance Trooper - TFA - Build A Weapon (Space)

Soldiers of the resistance are well trained and well equipped, but must rely on hit-and-run tactics when faced with the overwhelming might of the First Order.

After only a couple of short days out from the launch of Force Friday it was quite easy to tell what action figure was doomed for peg-warming status. And while we admit that it’s much too early in the game to accuse any single action figure for creating a clog on store shelves, it was quite evident that if you went to a store and found a couple of figures still hanging, the Resistance Trooper was undoubtedly the only, or one of the only, figure(s) hanging. The Resistance Trooper action figure from The Force Awakens line is about as good as it is bad. The head sculpt is really the biggest issue however. Once again, Hasbro paints an opaque banana-yellow visor onto the figure’s head sculpt and it is as laughable as it is tragic. With an excellent sculpt below the neck (and even the helmeted portrait is excellent), it’s shame that a poor paint job has rendered this action figure one to avoid by so many. It’s unknown exactly what the Resistance Troopers do in The Force Awakens, but judging from the card back bios it’s seemingly ever clearer that it is some modern form of the Rebel Alliance. With a quasi Endor trooper appearance mixed with what we’ll consider a Ralph McQuarrie flavor, the Resistance Trooper is a figure that maybe shouldn’t be criticized with such scorn as heavily as some have already given it.

This particular Resistance Trooper is a human male with a black skin complexion. This reminds us very much of the old Kenner days when we received both a black and white Bespin Security Guard and the in the modern era when we received multiple running changes of Endor Rebel Troopers/Soldiers especially during the time period 2002-2006. With a ball-socket head, Hasbro has made it easy on themselves if they wish to make a few running changes of this character in the basic figure line, or as a special pack-in figure with a Class I or Class II vehicle. We’ll just have to see where this goes. But we suspect that we will see various different versions of the Resistance Trooper coming in The Force Awakens line shortly. It only makes sense. Again, if you can get past the paint operations on the head sculpt, the rest of the Resistance Trooper has been beautifully sculpted and painted. But a bad portrait is a really hard thing to get past. Hopefully others will be able to overlook this figure’s glaring fault and find remedy with the rest of the figure instead. Take for instance the detail in this figure’s sculpt. The costume has been tooled very nicely and looks like believable military gear. We credit the designers of the costume of course, but Hasbro’s sculptors translated it excellently in the action figure.

The Resistance Trooper comes with a large blaster rifle. It’s been molded in a light-colored metallic gray plastic. Both of his hands can accommodate the blaster rifle. The single accessory is great, but it feels that in 2015 that we should be getting a whole bunch more with our figures, and for a military figure it seems that would mean more related accessories. This would have been an ample opportunity to sculpt a removable helmet, maybe a secondary weapon. And heck, maybe this would have been the appropriate action figure to which a little more articulation could have been attributed. Apparently that wasn’t the way things were meant to go with The Force Awakens line. If more and more cases of Build A Weapon wave 1 arrive to stores (and we strongly believe they will), expect the Resistance Trooper to become a very common find on store pegs. Admittedly he isn’t the most exciting type of character for a basic figure line and this may result in the figure not resonating well with kids and collectors. Also included with the Resistance Trooper is a Build A Weapon part. This pack-in premium also hasn’t seemed to grab collectors too strongly either. But even if we have a few duds in the basic figure line, it seems that many more exciting things are on the horizon.