Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,917: Elite Squad Trooper (The Vintage Collection)

ELITE SQUAD TROOPER Not quite black, not quite clone
The Vintage Collection Hasbro Pulse / Shop Disney Exclusive
Item No.: No. F2886
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: #211
Includes: 3 more clones, 2 blasters
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $62.99
Availability: January 2022
Appearances: The Bad Batch

Bio: Elite Squad Troopers were special forces troopers who served the early Galactic Empire prior to the termination of cloning production on Kamino. (Taken from Wookieepedia. There is no bio on the figure's packaging.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

Availability: Click here to buy it at Amazon now!

Commentary: One of very few unpunched carded vintage figures, this Elite Squad Trooper is part of an Amazon-exclusive The Bad Batch 4-pack loosely modeled after an old German exclusive package. You get a big box with 4 carded guys inside, all of which are effectively repaints/tweaks of existing figures. Since it has Rex in it, it's going to be a hit. This figure is technically not a clone, but it does wear clone armor, thus making it easy/fast to manufacture with no new tooling. That's a real time- and money-saver in this business.

Complete with glued-down helmet, this black repaint has a green visor, plus accessories. Firearms fans will enjoy a small DC-17 pistol, and a standard DC-15A blaster rifle. As always, they fit the hands just fine.

The base figure is the Clone Trooper mold we first got around 2011 with a Phase 2/Revenge of the Sith-style helmet. This is kind of funny, because that means the base mold is 11 years old. To put that in perspective, Kenner's original Star Wars figure line ran from 1978-1985, so what we consider to be the newest and best mold is, in toy industry years, positively ancient. It's still pretty good - the hip joints are a little antiquated given what we've seen as of late, and neck and shoulders are a little stiff, but he's generally thinner and looks better than his forebears. Despite not having rocker ankles, he looks pretty good! Unfortunately figures from that era weren't designed with balancing well in mind, so he may look a little awkward and stand a little funky if removed from the packaging.

Given what I assume was Hasbro's mandate - use existing tooling to make The Bad Batch action figures in a hurry - they did a good job. (Why we got 6-inch molds of the actual batch and not 3 3/4-inch, I can only speculate.) From a development perspective, this is a good figure. But it's also an army-builder, which means putting one of them in a gift set is just irritating to anyone wanting a second or third black trooper. Hopefully Hasbro will either release singles or a multi-pack of black troopers later, but given how The Vintage Collection has gone and we've only had a couple of Imperial Stormtrooper multi-packs for army builders over the course of 44 years, I wouldn't hold your breath. Just get this one now, or the 6-inch one if you prefer, because it'll probably be a long wait before they put out something else in this size. (Also the set is kind of expensive for what you get - about $15.75 per figure before tax.)

Collector's Notes: I got mine on Amazon.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,917: April 19, 2022

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,864: Elite Squad Trooper (The Black Series 6-Inch)

ELITE SQUAD TROOPER 6-Inch Debut
The Black Series 2020 Line Look Dark Red Star Wars: The Bad Batch Packaging
Item No.: Asst. E8908 No. F2960
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: #03 - Star Wars: The Bad Batch
Includes: Blaster
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $19.99
Availability: February 2021
Appearances: Star Wars: The Bad Batch

Bio: After the formation of the Galactic Empire, a small group of highly skilled enlisted recruits is tasked with neutralizing anti-Imperial insurgents throughout the galaxy as a means to prove the effectiveness of conscripted soldiers. (Taken from the packaging.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

Availability: Click here to buy it at Entertainment Earth now!

Click here to buy it at Amazon now!

Commentary: Back in the 90s and early 00s, I complained Hasbro didn't do enough repaints - for when they made sense. This Elite Squad Trooper does a great job proving that times have changed. In the 1990s, Hasbro never repainted its earliest R2-D2 or C-3PO molds to give us other robots, and many of their Stormtrooper variants used a lot of new parts - heck, it took a while for them to really get the swing of Clone Trooper repaints too! Of course, now they have no such hang-ups. The Bad Batch Trooper is a "kitbash" of the Clone Trooper (Kamino) [FOTD #2,749] - so it's a bit more than a repaint. The torso and arms were used for numerous Clones from 2020 to today, but the legs are the ones from the earlier releases - you'll notice the older copyright markings on the feet and the double-jointed knees, plus a lack of the floating patella-covering armor piece that was on some of the other releases. I think the build is sturdier as a result.

In some respects the figure is perfect, in others it's a letdown. It costs more than the original release of the molds. It has less paint. It has one of the two blasters. You don't feel like you're getting a good deal here, but you are getting a good representation of one of the Empire's first expendable troopers - in the show, they're brought on to prove (for some reason) made-to-order clones are no longer necessary. Of course, they're very necessary for budgeting reasons - these things aren't cheap to make, so being able to sell fans the same molds a dozen or more times really helps finance other projects and keep these things coming when there are no movies. And they sell! This guy came out in February and I haven't seen a single one in a store. The dark grey, shiny armor looks great and the green visor is excellent.

Hasbro found a great way to cut corners and provide fans an authentic experience - I'm impressed! The leg swap choice is a surprise, but it also looks good and I assume freed up the leg tools for some other figure(s.) I don't need to go into the details of this mold too much, but I will say it's largely free of paint and has no visible battle damage I can see. If you're collecting The Bad Batch 6-inch figures, you should get it - but like so many of you I'd rather have these as 3 3/4-inch figures. I am not going to build any 6-inch armies. But I totally like the generic trooper, and I assume some day they may decide to make them with the alternate, unmasked heads we briefly saw in the show. Or not. Hasbro has been kind of erratic on "completing" any sets anymore, with increasingly haphazard character selections making it difficult for fans to get an entire shelf of similar toys without having to call in favors or pay eBay prices for at least a few figures. So if you can get it for a fair price, you totally should - heck, buy a few, if you can luck into that Imperial deco of Crosshair. (And if you do, call me, I got cartjacked out of quite a few pre-orders this year.)

Collector's Notes: I got mine from Entertainment Earth.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,864: October 14, 2021