Dark Trooper - EU - Basic

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It is a period of Civil War. The Rebel Alliance struggles to free the galaxy from the clutches of the evil Galactic Empire. Discovering that Imperial forces have begun developing a new type of stormtrooper, the Rebels call on mercenary Kyle Katarn. His mission: seek out and destroy the secret Imperial project called Dark Trooper.

Known as phase III, this most powerful of the Dark Troopers is actually a figure known as General Mohc. Practically unstoppable, he represents the greatest threat to the success of the Rebel Alliance.

The Dark Trooper is a great figure for 1998, and for many a long-awaited answer to prayer. One of the most difficult of all the Expanded Universe figures to find because of a Collection 2 backlog at the retail level, Kenner stepped up to the plate and made the figure (and many others) available through alternate sources so that demand could be better met. With larger than life sculpt and accessories that include a removable backpack, assault rifle and removable shoulder armor (where the left and right is joined by a bar and is one piece instead of separate pieces), the Dark Trooper brings some additional dimension to the Expanded Universe and pretty darn cool action figure for collectors of all ages to enjoy. The revised tag line entitled “The Kenner Collection” that we saw on most Freeze Framer era products came to an end with the Expanded Universe line. That was alright though because a new logo would soon be plastering itself on all the new Star Wars products coming out after. Kenner was officially swallowed up by Hasbro and the need to keep the Kenner logo alive on their products didn’t seem necessary (to them) anymore.

Despite your feelings on the packaging, the Dark Trooper is in its own right a force to be reckoned with due to its sheer size and its relative magnitude in the basic figure line. This is one chunky action figure and it dwarfs nearly every other action figure in the line by way of its width (but not necessarily by its height). The figure is weighty and while we love it as an action figure, it may not exactly reflect every nuance of the actual video game character because some of the proportions seem slightly off, but not terribly if that makes sense. The figure comes with the standard six points of articulation. So while you can make it hold up its large blaster, you won’t be able to get any believable action poses out of the figure because that is sadly limited here. The paint job is very interesting, and again we’re not sure how accurate it is. But think of a metallic light gray with hues of baby blue. That is about the best description we can give the color of this action figure. The paint operations are very clean and the metallic texture of the figure is very even and without bumpiness or sloppiness. We’re just not sure if the color is remotely close to what this should truly look like.

As with all Expanded Universe figures, the figure’s packaging converts into a 3D diorama. It has been suggested that the diorama is the first person view of Kyle Katarn, but we’re not so sure if we are able to back that up with any proof. There is a dead (or wounded) 1995 POTF2 [R] Stormtrooper laying on the ground towards the left of the image, but it’s clear that this is meant to be some screen capture of some video game console. We think a drawing would have been much more beneficial here, and fit in better with all of the other dioramas released in this line to date. Due to its sheer size, the Dark Trooper doesn’t have much “play space” like the other figures in their corresponding dioramas, but the Dark Trooper figure still looks pretty awesome in what’s provided nonetheless. (Editor’s Note: It’s worth mentioning that the a repainted and slightly retooled (date stamp change only) version of the Darktrooper (now with a misspelled name) was the reigning champion in the Fans’ Choice 2007 30 (77-07) Saga Legends line poll hosted by Rebelscum.com. The figure surprisingly won and beat out many other viable candidates. The figure also came with a special gold Expanded Universe coin and #1 Fans’ Choice call-out sticker to acknowledge its win.)