Review of Executioner Trooper
Star Wars The Last Jedi sixth scale action figure

Introduction

There's been great Star Wars movies (ANH, ESB, Rogue One) and there's been awful Star Wars movies (all three prequels). There's also been a couple mediocre attempts with ROJ and TFA. But there's never been one quite like The Last Jedi, and the dichotomy of opinions is proof of its unique nature.

There are people who love the new film - there are those that hate it. Perhaps it's merely a sign of the current times, where everyone needs to be on an extreme to feel valid, but I'm not quite sure either is entirely right. For me, TLJ was a very good movie - very good. I'm juggling it with Rogue One for my third best Star Wars movie right now...but I need to see it a time or two more to properly place it in the list. What it is definitely not is 'the worst movie ever', although it is unique, and fans who have a fairly tight window of acceptance with what can and can't be allowed to happen within the universe are going to be disappointed.

Far less arguable is the involvement of Hot Toys with the license...yes, Virginia, they'll be hitting this movie hard. While many of their announcements had to wait until the film's release (like Luke and Leia), they did manage to get the Executioner Stormtrooper up for pre-order far enough in advance to be shipping the figure while the film was still in theaters.

I'm not quite sure why I bought him, to be honest. As regular readers know, like Iron Man, I've cut way back on my purchase of Trooper variations. But something about the design on this guy caught my eye, and hey - it's a TLJ release, something we won't see a lot of for awhile. And then we'll see A LOT.

He's shipping now, and will run you around $205 depending on the retailer.

Packaging - ***
Nothing too unique or exciting here. It's all collector friendly, and sports the same tepid design we've seen with most Star Wars product, no matter who the vendor is.  They do have the cigar band label on the front cover, but the way they broke up the word 'executioner' is a bit jarring to the eye.

Sculpting - ****
It is possible to see a photo of any Hot Toys Stormtrooper and mistake it for a full scale dude in a suit. This does not require special photography skills or cunning digital manipulation. Even macro photos look like the real thing.

There's a good reason for this - a super sharp, super detailed sculpt. Nothing is soft or rounded, and edges are crisp, with well defined lines and contours. Proportions are excellent, as is the internal scale. The grid around the 'mouth' of the helmet is just about perfect, and the translucent lens catch and reflect the light in natural ways.

This guy is a little shorter than some of the troopers, coming in at 12" tall. He'll fit in nicely, and the thicker appearance of his legs gives him a unique but appropriate look on the shelf. In other words, he'll stand out as unique but not out of place.

The armor design mixes some of the best elements, and like the helmet, everything is sharply sculpted and defined. This armor, including the new belt, is not designed to be removed. While that might disappoint some customizers, it does make for a tighter, better executed fit.

The hands are sculpted to work with the accessories, and their scale is good. Swapping is a problem, but more on that in the Articulation section.

Paint - ****
One of the features that makes this Trooper stand out is the black highlights on his armor. They used a matte finish that almost perfectly matches the matte finish of the cloth undersuit, creating a much more seamless look to the overall figure.

The application is impressive as well. Edges are razor sharp, particularly on the helmet where any slip in the black edge would be obvious. The bright, shiny white makes for a great contrast, and this beautiful paint job heightens the overall realism of his appearance.

Articulation - ***
Now we get to the weirdness - the area where things went oddly wrong for me.

This is actually a very well articulated figure. In fact, I had less trouble getting poses out of the hips, shoulders, elbows, knees, and ankles than with earlier Troopers, and I think a big part of the reason is a newly designed, tough but flexible  body suit. He can take medium stances, and he can even walk - like in the photo below - which is a pose that can be tricky. Even the mid torso joint worked better than before, and the ball jointed neck had no trouble with tilt and lean movement. So what's the problem?

The wrists. The hands are very hard, and the wrist joints are not designed to come out of the forearms, due to the way the body suit wraps around them. Because the hands are hard, the posts will want to pull out of the forearms rather than the hands, but the suit won't let them come all the way free. They'll come out of the forearm, no problem, but the suit is tightly wrapped around the ball with a hole just big enough for the small peg to protrude. I tried swapping hands without heat (you shouldn't be required to use heat to so something so necessary) and I ended up snapping a right wrist peg. They supply extras of course, just like with every figure, but I had to cut the hole in the body suit open to allow the whole wrist peg to be removed, something you really don't want to do. After that I used a hair dryer every time I wanted to swap a hand, and I feel that shouldn't be required. This is not normal, and the hands should be made from a material soft enough to swap. It's not like other figures from Hot Toys (and other companies) haven't managed it.

If I hadn't had the wrist issue, I would have gone another half star higher here. While he's still not super poseable, the new body suit allows for a lot more posability than earlier Trooper releases.

Accessories - **1/2
I ran into another breakage issue with the accessories, making this a rare occasion.

He comes with a nice assortment of hands - he is wearing relaxed hands out of the box, and there's a specially designed tight grip set, a set of fists, a set of gun grips, and a splayed left. They are hard to swap - I already whined about that. There's a couple extra wrist pegs just in case, and they came in handy for me.

He also has a very cool blaster, with a ton of small detail sculpting and paint work. The gun attaches to his right hip thanks to a magnet. The area it attaches to isn't as form fitting to the gun as I expected it to be, but it's a minor nit since the magnet is strong enough to hold it in place nonetheless.

What makes him special is his executioner's 'blade', or axe. The prongs on either side open up, and you can attach electricity effects to create the look from the film. It's a great looking accessory, and makes this guy stand out with the rest of the Troopers.

These effects actually snap onto tiny ball pegs on the tip of each silver prong. There are two short ones for the side with the smaller prongs, and two longer ones for the side with the large prongs.  My first complaint is with the length. The shorter effects are just about right, but the longer effects are simply too long, creating a weird circular look to the arc. There's no good way to make the two look consistent, thus creating a less realistic impression.

More importantly, those tiny ball pegs are REALLY fragile. It mentions it in the sparse instruction book, but I had no idea just how fragile they meant. I ended up breaking two without even knowing it. Once they are broken, you have no real choice but to glue the effects in place if you plan on using them long term.

Finally, there's a basic Star Wars display stand for consistency. It works well enough, but with tight joints and decent posability, it's not a necessity.

Outfit - ***
Another strike in this category, but it's not a surprise since I already mentioned the problem earlier in relation to the wrist joints.

I've already raved about the armor, both in terms of sculpting and paint, and it's not really included here. In fact, the only things I've consider for this section are the body suit and the belt, separate items from the armor itself.

The belt looks great, and is a nice add that helps differentiate the look of the Trooper a bit. It's not removable, but you can adjust it slightly on his hips.

And then there's the body suit. This new suit is a marriage of cloth and the stiffer material we've seen before. There's really only one issue, and without it this suit is a real improvement over past releases. It is strong and sturdy, and thanks to the use of cloth material (rather than the more rubbery stuff) around the crotch and other key areas, it is much more flexible and less restrictive than previous attempts. The non-cloth areas are also very sturdy, but that feeds into the wrist/ankle issue.

At both the wrist and ankles, the suit material wraps completely around the ball joint, only leaving a hole large enough for the tiny peg to stick through. This material is strong and tight - there's no easy way to slip the ball joint through. It's not a huge issue at the ankles, since the only reason to remove the feet is to remove the plastic wrapping they've included around the ankle itself, and you can just tear that free instead. But to swap wrists, you have to pull - and pulling can dislodge the post from the forearm. You do NOT want to pull that post through the body suit, since getting it back in place can be a nightmare.  Use heat to swap the hands!

This is a failing of the suit design, which is why they get dinged in this category. I realize that in some ways they are caught between a rock and a hard place, and by wrapping the suit around the ball, they create a nice tight fit on the arms and shoulders. But if you have any trouble with the wrist pegs at all, you're going to regret it. Like the Articulation score, if I didn't have any wrist problems, this guy would get another half star in this category.

Fun Factor - **1/2
Because of the difficulty and danger with swapping hands, and the ease with which the little ball pegs on the weapon can break, this guy was a lot less fun to work with long term.  You'll most likely find a pose you like and stick with it to avoid any issues.

Value - **1/2
It's nice to see the price of the Trooper variants stay close to $200, about $20 or so less than the market average. That feels about right, considering the amount of re-use.

Things to Watch Out For -
I've already discussed the two critical issues, but it's worth repeating them here.

When swapping hands, USE HEAT. I used a hair dryer after my initial problem every time I switched hands, and while it will get old (and make it less likely that you'll re-pose very often), it did reduce the risk.

Don't pull off the feet to remove the plastic between the foot and leg. You'll risk pulling the ankle peg through the suit as well, and it's not worth it. Just tear the plastic free and toss it.

And finally, be very careful when handling the axe when the electric effects are in place. I had no trouble snapping them on and off, and the breakage did not occur then. Rather, it was when I was moving him around and I bumped the effects against something else. Two of the ball pegs on one end snapped clean off, with very little pressure. And since they warned you, I doubt they'll be taking returns on it.

Overall - ***
This isn't a bad looking figure. In fact, he looks terrific, and the improved body suit allows for much better posing than we had with the earlier troopers. There's a decent number of accessories, and the price is right.

But he had two issues that pulled the score down. First, there's the need to always heat up the hands to avoid wrist issues. This was a combination of the hard hands, which require a lot of force to remove, and the way the body suit is wrapped around the wrist pegs. While not a deal breaker, it does reduce the amount of posing and re-posing you'll do. 

Second, there's the very fragile pegs on the ends of the axe prongs. More than average care must be taken, again reducing how much you'll handle this guy once he's on the shelf. This is really the biggest issue, because if they break, there's not much you can do short of gluing them in place or not using them at all.

Much like the movie, this figure could have been great but fell just a little short for me. I can't imagine going for a lot of other Troopers from TLJ (I don't recall any others that stand out), so it's nice to have this one. And the new body suit has potential, if they soften up the hands a bit, making it easier to swap them on future releases.

Score Recap (out of ****):
Packaging - ***
Sculpting - ****
Paint - ****
Articulation - ***
Accessories - **1/2
Outfit - ***
Fun Factor - **1/2
Value - **1/2
Overall - ***

Where to Buy 
Online options include these site sponsors:

- Sideshow has him for $204 as well.

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
Other recent Hot Toys Star Wars figures include Jyn Erso, Force Awakens Luke Skywalker, K-2SO, ESB Yoda, the deluxe Deather Trooper Specialist, the regular Death Trooper Specialist, the Shoretrooper, Chirrut Imwe, the most recent Darth Vader, the Jedha Patrol Trooper, the Resistance Outfit Rey and the regular Rey with BB-8, a fantastic set.

I've covered lots of other Hot Toys Star Wars figures, including the Battlefront Shock Trooper, Finn and Riot Control Trooper, Captain Phasma, the FO Flametrooper, the FO Snowtroopers, and the First Order Shock Trooper, and of course their regular Imperial Stormtroopers. Other Hot Toys Star Wars figures include Kylo Ren, Darth Vader, C-3PO, Tatooine Luke Skywalker, Luke in his Stormtrooper Disguise, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Han and Chewbacca from ANH. If you'd like a bit more of a regular Shock Trooper, they've done him as well, along with a Blackhole version.

You should also hit the Search Reviews page, in case any other applicable reviews were done after this one was published.

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