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Rebel Fleet Trooper
Star Wars - Sideshow Collectibles
"The
following is a guest review. The review
and photos do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Michael Crawford
or Michael's Review of the Week, and are the opinion and work of the
guest author."
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Ryan is back tonight with a
look at one of Sideshow's better Star Wars human army builders - take
it away, Ryan!
Thanks again to MWC…
After seeing the recent review of the Henry Jones figure from Sideshow,
we know the level of awesomeness they’re capable of. I’m almost tempted
to get it myself and I’m not even a big Indy fan. They’ve been moving
up the ladder as far as the quality of their product, and in the case
of sixth-scale figures, we’ve seen drastic improvements in sculpting,
paint, and even articulation with the new Prometheus body. But with
this review, I’m turning the clocks back a little bit, to a figure that
was released last year: the Rebel Fleet Trooper, which is currently in
stock at Sideshow on second chance opportunity.
This figure depicts one trooper in particular—Lieutenant Pello
Scrumbas, the older guy whom we see at the very beginning of “A New
Hope” crouched down with his blaster aimed at the sliding blast door,
waiting for the Imperial Stormtroopers to come blasting their way in.
He was fried a couple of seconds later, in a scene that was obviously
meant to show the skill and ferocity of the Stormtroopers (and this is
pretty much the only scene that does it, as the Stormtroopers turn into
bumbling idiots who can’t hit the broad side of a barn from then on).
Since there is currently no review of this guy on the site and I think
he warrants one, I decided to do the honors. |
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Packaging - ****
Sideshow goes with the same packaging as always, and definitely has
made “if it aint broke, don’t fix it” their policy with this. Good
idea. With this figure, there’s only one tray, as the accessories are
imbedded in the plastic beside it. The other side gives information
about the saga (on top) and Rebel Fleet Troopers in general (on the
bottom).
Sculpting
- ***1/2
I kind of wish they had gone for a more general look on this figure
than try to portray one troop/actor in particular, especially one that
so easily stands out from the rest of the bunch. As it is, if you
decided you wanted to get two or three of these guys to battle your
Stormtroopers (assuming you’re Oprah or Bill Gates and can cough up the
cash), you would end up with a bunch of old guys who look exactly alike
(and these obviously aren’t clone troopers). They could have at least
done the same thing they did with their Endor Troopers and made three
different variations. But anyway, now that I’m done ranting, I can look
at the positive side and say that if they were going to do one RFT in
particular, it might as well be Lt. Scrumbas, who seems to be their
leader and the only one who we are given a close-up shot of. Heck,
that’s more than we can say for Captain Antilles, a figure that was
released around the same time and has a few similarities with this one,
which I’ll address as I go along.
After saying all that, I can tell you that this is a very well-sculpted
figure. The likeness to the character isn’t dead-on, but it’s close.
Head and hands are the right size and well-proportioned, the eyes and
nose appear to be the right shape and size, and the facial lines and
wrinkles are all there. They gave him a very very slight open-mouth
expression, which is good, and I definitely prefer it to Jedi Luke’s
gaping “I just wet my pants” expression. The hair is very well-sculpted
also, although we only see the character with his helmet on in the
film. The helmet and blaster are the right size and shape also. I was
particularly impressed with the sculpting on the boots. There are
several wrinkles sculpted into the black pleather, giving them a very
lifelike appearance. Sculpting is usually a strong area for Sideshow,
and this is no exception.
Paint
-
**1/2
Unfortunately, this is another “bad/mediocre paint hurts good sculpt”
situation. The hair is well-painted, with a perfect blend of light and
dark shades of gray. The blaster is exceptionally well-painted as well.
The right eyebrow is very good, while the left is sloppy, at least on
mine. The paint on the bottom lip is sloppy as well, but the point that
really kills this score is the eyes. The right eye is lazy and
off-center. A lazy eye isn’t a good thing when you’re trying to aim and
shoot at Stormtroopers (and no, the actor didn’t have a lazy eye in the
film, so this obviously was not intentional). The paint around the
nails on his hands is also below top-quality. This is one similarity
with Captain Antilles—good sculpt and mediocre paint.
Articulation
- **
It’s the one and only Art S. Buck. At the time this figure was made,
that body was already past its retirement age. Here’s yet another
similarity with Antilles (and Ki-Adi Mundi too I believe)—older body on
a newer figure with a higher price. Arm and leg joints are too tight
while the arms and legs themselves are a little too loose. The head
looks up at a good range, but won’t look down at all. Another issue
with this body that aggravated me here—the hands and wrist pegs. The
freakin’ pegs are once again bigger than the holes that they insert
into. I had to soften the hands with hot water, then use the tip of a
file to make the holes bigger so that the pegs would fit without me
having to shove the hands on them with all my might and run the risk of
breaking the pegs off when trying to remove them. I’ll go
ahead and tell you that the overall score will take a direct hit over
this.
Outfit
- ***
I confess, I never particularly enjoy doing the outfit section. I’m not
sure why. But it’s more than necessary here, since it’s one of this
figure’s stronger points. First, there’s the blue shirt, which folds
across underneath the vest and is fastened with snap buttons. I wish
the sleeves were a tad longer, but that’s a minor nit. The pants are a
little baggy, but the pockets on them are real and not just stitched on
for aesthetic purposes.
I count the helmet as part of the outfit rather than an accessory, and
it fits well on his head via a stretchy fabric band and a chin piece,
which is just the right size. The helmet overall is
well-sculpted, and the antenna is just the right size and helps give it
a cool professional-type look. The boots, as I already mentioned, are
made of a soft pleather and are well-sculpted also, with wrinkles
sculpted into them to make them look more realistic. The gun belt fits
well, but the holster isn’t quite big enough for the blaster. I had to
shove it down in there as hard as I could to make it fit, and then pull
the strap down hard to make it fit over it. The strap is held closed by
a magnet that’s a little weak and embedded too deeply in the holster to
make the strap hold very well. The exceptional magnetic
holsters/straps on the Stormtrooper and Indiana Jones show me that
Sideshow can do better. The vest fits well, but tends to stick up too
much on the shoulders from riding up in the back, making me have to
pull it down. The pockets on it don’t open but they look good anyhow.
Though I have nits with the outfit, they are minor, and overall the
outfit is well-done and one of the stronger aspects of this figure.
Accessories
- *1/2
I love accessories, and thus am not pleased when figures don’t come
with many. With this one you get a blaster, an extra set of hands, and
a display stand. The blaster is cool, and though the extra set of hands
aren’t necessary, I’m glad they’re there, considering the price. Same
goes for the display stand: you won’t need it, but it’s better to have
it than not. Though I’m disappointed with this lack of accessories, I
can’t really think of any other accessory that these guys would have
besides their blasters, but I’m sure that considering the price tag
Sideshow could have came up with something. And by the way,
there is no regular/exclusive with this guy, another commonality with
Antilles (along with the lack of accessories in general).
Value
for money- *1/2
$70--for a figure with only one major accessory, and on the Buck body
that shouldn’t even exist anymore (not to mention the lazy eye). Come
on. That must be the reason why this guy is still in stock at Sideshow.
They had a special limited time deal where they took him down to $60,
and that’s just about an average value, but they’ve since reverted back
to $70. Had this been a major character in the saga, they could have
gotten by with it easier, but when figures like this guy—and Captain
Antilles—who barely make an appearance cost $70 while being on the old
body, sales will be rather slow. I once again took the cheapskate route
and picked him up on ebay for $45, which he’s worth in my opinion. I
don’t mind buying Sideshow’s products directly from them occasionally
though, as long as the price doesn’t exceed the quality by too much,
because this recession is hitting the collectibles market pretty hard
and they probably need all the sales they can get at this point. As for
this guy, I would try getting him at $55 or less.
Fun
Factor - ***
Kids would have fun with this guy, even though he looks like grandpa.
He’s got a helmet and a gun—a rather big gun—so he could be tons of fun
to play with. But as usual with sixth scales, this isn’t a figure for
kids, especially considering the price.
Things
to Watch Out For -
Be careful when swapping the hands. You’ll probably need to run hot
water over them to soften them up and hollow out the holes with a sharp
point like I did to make them fit and come off easier. That’s pretty
much it.
Overall
- ** 1/2
This is a pretty nice figure, and I’m glad I have it. I’m not a
completist on this line by any means, but I like getting figures from
the first film (Episode IV), since it’s classic and original, and this
is the first human character we see when it begins. But I
cannot abide by a $70 price tag on a figure that is still on the older
body and has so few accessories. The mediocre paint job—particularly
the lazy eye—hurts the score also. At anything below $60, this is
certainly a three star figure because of the great sculpt and nice
outfit, but nothing more. I assume many people would consider
him a three star figure anyway, since I tend to be more harsh than
most, particularly on value scores (I still have yet to review a figure
that I believe worthy of a perfect overall score). But I’m a huge
stickler on getting every dime of what you pay for, especially with the
way things are nowadays. Fortunately, Sideshow seems to have since
gotten over the old-body/new-price phase, and if they keep improving
the way they have been, they may ultimately reach Hot Toys territory.
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This product was purchased for the review by the reviewer.
Photos and text by Ryan Kelly.
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