Spacetrooper - EU - Basic

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Five years after the Battle of Endor, the Rebel Alliance has driven the evil Empire into a distant corner of the galaxy. But a new danger has arisen: the last of the Emperor's warlords has devised a battle plan that could destroy the New Republic.

The ability of spacetroopers to operate exclusively in space made them a valuable asset to the warlord, Grand Admiral Thrawn. These heavily-armed stormtroopers wear full-body armor and have equipment that enables them to function as personal space-capable assault vehicles.

It’s amazing how a character can gain notoriety without even having a clear and concise image of it available. That’s sort of what happened with Kenner’s 1998 Expanded Universe Spacetrooper, an action figure that not too many of us asked for but became part of the inaugural offerings under this new banner. It didn’t matter if this character was popular or not, because once the “regular” facet of the collecting world realized it was a bulked up Stormtrooper, it immediately became one of the most sought after action figures of 1998. Part of Kenner’s Expanded Universe line, the Spacetrooper brings familiarity in an elevated way. With quite a few similarities to the original Stormtrooper, the larger-sized Spacetrooper has revised armor, bulkier features, attached weaponry and enlarged stature. They are an army-builders dream come true and a great starting point for kids to make up their own adventures. Still, it is surprising that this makes up one of the first nine Expanded Universe action figures made for this new basic figure line.

Originally part of the Heir To The Empire novel, we received our first visual image of the Spacetrooper was seen in the comics adaptation of the original novel. Appearing in a tiny square in the Star Wars: Heir To The Empire comics, the only information that could be culled from this character was that he was a new threat to the fledgling Rebel Alliance. The figure itself is a nice design and has some progressive articulation for the current state of the line. Cast in a pearly off-white plastic, the Spacetroopers glistens as much as it does appear flat. The paint details are simple which is great, but even the few it does have are cleanly applied. The figure has two ball-jointed shoulders. This is wonderful articulation and nearly necessary since the shoulder armor completely inhibits the swivel head movement as well as lateral arm movement. Sadly, without articulation in the elbows and wrists, it makes this articulation ultimately not that useful. Still, it’s a good sign that updated articulation is something that will come to the Star Wars line.

Perhaps the most aggressive aspect of the Spacetrooper is the hinge-jointed cannon built into the left arm. Both its design and functionality are warmly welcomed and it’s honestly a nice feature for this action figure. Conversely, we’re disappointed that the Spacetrooper doesn’t come with a gun or any other weapon. With the release of the Spacetrooper and Darktrooper, all of the sub-lines that made up “The Power Of The Force “2" lineup” were consolidated into a single SKU/case assortment. Also, because the Expanded Universe line fell under Collection 2, stores were so overstocked with all of the “yellow banded” Freeze Frame figures that it prevented many, many stores from getting this impactful figures on the shelves. After much frustration, Star Wars Shop eventually made many of them available after the fact. So, these figures have some historical relevance in how the modern Star Wars line was handled subsequently. There are no plans for future “comics” figures or even Expanded Universe figures for that matter, so we’ll all have to patiently wait to see where Kenner takes the line. But one thing is for sure: there is a market for them as long as Kenner makes them.