AJG230 takes a look at the
2019 SDCC Exclusive Black Series Sith Trooper figure from The Rise Of Skywalker
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Not much is known, as of yet, about this strikingly red stormtrooper. There is a bit of a blurb from Lucasfilm that can be found here and there on various fan sites. All that is to really be gleamed from it is that these stormtroopers are of a class all their own, under Kylo Ren, and that they have some sort of association with the Sith and the dark side of the force. On the surface there’s not much going on but it leaves fans with plenty to be excited about in the build up. For my money I’d say that throw away line in ep.7 about the First Order using a clone army might not be quite so insignificant.
If the theorizing doesn’t hook you on this new trooper installment then maybe you can be won by sheer cool factor of which this figure has tons. Before you even get into the figure itself it should be said that it comes with an absolute arsenal of ranged and melee weapons alike.
On the ranged side of things the new trooper comes with two medium sized rifles (One with a stock and one with a scope) along with what must be the sci fi fantasy equivalent of a mini gun. For beating up on all the Jedi scum our guy has a way cool reverse grip sword along with a similarly reverse gripped pincer of some kind. The only real negative in the accessories is how cumbersome the mini gun handle can be on whatever you deem to be the dominant hand. If you really want that guy toting full fire power the hand will be stretched to accommodate. Not the end of the world but a minor nitpick in this big pile of cool. One huge positive that might just be to my own taste is just how well he holds all the other weapons and that the tabbed leg holster functions perfectly. It’s very often the case that a figure can be pushed into the “great” category when the grip on the accessories is fully realized and when you don’t want it their there’s someplace to hold onto it.
Now the accessories are very cool on this Sith Trooper but there’s something that’s a little more shocking on this figure. The articulation on this trooper far exceeds all expectations I had for an armored character.
Did our guy drop his sword before he finished the fight? Well, it’s a good thing Hasbro made him a Tae Kwon Do black belt too. All joking aside the articulation is far better than I could’ve imagined. The torso joint isn’t revolutionary but to be honest if I tried to call it “limited” that just wouldn’t be an applicable adjective. The shoulders are equipped with butterfly joints. If you team this up with the deep cut single joint elbows all shapes and sizes of gun play are no problem. The legs are leaps and bounds better than I would’ve guessed by looking at the armor. The hips go way up just short of 90 degrees and the knees bend all the way back. Obviously, by the picture, the hips go way out to the side as well. The hands have a vertical gun style hinge the same way you’d want it in any trooper. Admittedly the head doesn’t move much with just a 360 horizontal swivel. The feet hinge in and out with a good ankle pivot the way all 20$ figure feet should nowadays.
It should also be mentioned that the Sith Trooper doesn’t have anything particularly crazy going on in the scale department. He goes pretty well with everyone you’d want him to be in scale with.
This figure can honestly be best up summed by the fact that it’s striking visually but secretly it’s impressively functional. If you want all the extra weapons I wouldn’t dissuade you from getting this SDCC version but when the standard rerelease comes through the articulation will still make that trooper into a whole lot of figure."
