ARC TROOPER (Umbra Operative) - TVC - Basic (VC237)

Celebrate iconic moments from a galaxy far, far away with figures inspired by the Star Wars video games.

The yellow and black attack is back! Holy moly. We never anticipated that Stryper would be the inspiration for a Star Wars action figure, but now we have the evidence thanks to the ACR TROOPER (Umbra Operative) Entertainment Earth exclusive addition to The Vintage Collection. The figure isn’t anything new, and Hasbro broke no new ground. As you’d expect, they are making the most out of their ARC Trooper tooling, and to date, we have received more than we ever anticipated. And we probably should expect quite a few more before it’s all said and done. However, the ARC TROOPER (Umbra Operative) character from Star Wars: Battlefront II catches your attention thanks to its yellow and black warning colors. And it made us reminisce about one of the greatest heavy metal bands from the 80s who used these colors in their costuming and albums to drive home the points of the Gospel. With so many ARC Trooper characters based in white, it’s exciting to receive a “shadow” version of the design, and it’s quickly become one of our favorites in the lineup. This release is the second figure in the line that has a notable misspelling on its packaging. Again, they accidentally spelled “TROOPER” in capital letters, a mistake that Kenner made on 1982’s ESB ARTOO-DETOO (R2-D2) 3.75-inch action figure.

We’ve thrown out the questions many times at this point. How many ARC Troopers does The Vintage Collection basic figure line need? But we will let that question pass when they make them this differently. THE ARC TROOPER (Umbra Operative) figure falls under the “Star Wars: Battlefront II” entertainment logo and Hasbro produced multiple ARC Trooper characters from this source for The Vintage Collection line. Hasbro could make the most of the figure’s tooling by adding refreshed or all-new parts, but as usual, they’re lazy and decided to repaint the entire figure without adding any newness. Compared side by side, many of these ARC Troopers are seemingly identical, save for their unique paint jobs. But this shouldn’t be any surprise for anyone collecting Star Wars action figures since the advent of the Prequel Trilogy. The beautiful yellow and black color flashes make the character appear unlike the other ARC Trooper figures in the line thus far. The tooling holds up well, and Hasbro is improving the Photo Real technology on 3.75-inch action figures. Collectors will undoubtedly embrace this action figure as a candidate for their collections.

ARC TROOPER (Umbra Operative) has four weapons, a removable pauldron/backpack combination, and a removable helmet with an articulated rangefinder. That’s a lot of accessories for a 3.75-inch action figure. We’re proud of Hasbro for not cheapening out on us here. ARC TROOPER (Umbra Operative) comes with exquisite card art. Hasbro ensured they translated the character’s likeness into a realistic style well. Hopefully, enough video game enthusiasts will take to this figure and want to add it to their collections. ARC TROOPER (Umbra Operative) is a rework of the figure from the 501st Legion ARC Troopers (Echo/Fives/Jesse} Special Action Figure Set, which was a “convention” exclusive for 2020. Hasbro still has trouble properly sizing the Phase II bucket, and the helmet on this figure still appears too large. It’s not as bad as the earlier Phase II Clone Troopers in The Vintage Collection, but a sizing issue still exists. Like the other previously released ARC Trooper figures, we prefer to display this figure with the helmet removed. This ARC TROOPER still has articulation issues despite its 28 points. But you might now care, depending upon how you display this figure.