Review: Star Wars: The Force Awakens - The Vintage Collection First Order Storm Trooper (VC118)

Since I have discovered the greatness that is Star Wars especially when it's on clearance at GameStop, I have been buying pretty often and that's a problem, not a good thing because, when it comes to army building, it's something that I have always wanted to do. I did it for the first time with the Basher Bots from Ninninger/Ninja Steel and I just got 6 and trust me, I wanted to buy more. And now since Troopers and Soldiers mean many of the same one, I have to get more Stormtroopers. I got a couple Black Series 6" ones and I said that I would only get the 6" ones. I saw Black Series Enfys Nest's Swoop Bike a couple months ago and I have wanted to get it for some time now so I got the Vintage Collection one for about $12 and I got the standard Swoop Bike with the 3.75" basic figure so I could she could ride it and that led to another downward spiral. Now I want to get more basic figures since they have variations of the characters that I want. Wait. No. Need. Anyway, I got found these on clearance for $10 and since they had an additional 50% off I got the 3 for $15 plus tax. There were only 3, and I've been hunting in different places for them like Wal-Mart and other GameStops but no luck, they're $12 and for me that's too expensive for such a small figure. Even though eventually I'll end up paying full price for some of these or even a little extra much like I do with the Black Series. I've been too spoiled by discounts and FiveBelow to pay full price for these things. Anyway, let's get to the review.

Since they're an uneven number and I need at least two to flank my Kylo Ren, which I still haven't taken pictures of, I kept one carded and boy does this look nice. I always thought it was pretty dumb to keep figures or collect them carded since they're toys and even if you don't play with them, they're articulated for a reason! Anyways, I do like the packaging, you have the Kenner logo as a callback to original packaging for the figures that came out way back when. Artwork of the First Order Stormtrooper, the logo for The Force Awakens and the name of the figure in English and in français. 

The back has pictures of other figures that are available: Kylo Ren, Rey, and Rebel Soldier which I own and the other two that I'll get around to. From what I understand, these are just repackaged Black Series figures to continue the Vintage Collection Line which originally ended before the 3.75" Black Series line came out. The only difference is the packaging. Some figures only had Vintage Collection releases like Enfys Nest. I'm not sure if I'll hunt down the original Vintage Collection stuff though, very tempting. Enough of the packaging, let's look at the figure.

Out of the packaging, the figure is quite impressive. I love these and I want to carry one with me everywhere but I know I'll get weird looks so I haven't in a while! I didn't expect to like these as much as I did since the 6" Black Series ones are a lot nicer. The amount of detail on this tiny figure is amazing but the paint is a little sloppy on both of the ones I took out. The paint on the helmet was the sloppiest one since that's where most of my attention will be. The black around the upper thigh is also sloppy and it's distracting since the you can clearly tell it wasn't painted all the way. I do like the design of the figure, a much smoother version of the Imperial Stormtrooper, very futuristic. Kinda like Showa Mechagodzilla and Heisei Mechagodzilla. The Toopers come with two accessories. 

The first is the F-11D Blaster Rifle, which has a nice sculpt and color scheme. He can hold it decently, mine doesn't really want to stay in all the way so it's a little floppy.

Of course, for me the quality of a Stormtrooper comes down to the ability to hold the Blaster with two hands. These figures can! But it looks weird if it comes up above the shoulders and from certain angles. Seriously, the elbows on these figures are atrocious! They should go to at least 90° or be double jointed. Thank god for the elbow swivel because I would go crazy if they couldn't hold their blaster with both hands. It does bother me. 

Bring it around the waist and they can hold it no problem, it is a little tricky since if they hold with two hands they wont hold the grip properly.

They also come with an SE-44C Blaster Pistol which he can also hold with ease, just don't expect them to hold with two hands since it's so small, then again I haven't really tried but I don't think they could or would. The Blaster Pistol is nicely painted and sculpted.

Both look great and they also have a peg on the left side, one weapon can be stored at a time, either the Blaster Rifle or Pistol and they can hold the other in hand.

 Let's get to articulation, and it's pretty good! For the most part. The arms go in and out, forward and back. The elbow swivel which comes in handy, poor bend at the elbow. The wrists are both on a swivel and they hinge differently, the right hand has gun-slinging action and the left is standard flex and tilt. Ankles go forward and back and are on a swivel, although slightly limited due to the cuff around the ankle. Knees swivel and bend decently. The hips are horrible, I hate them, they're attached from the top and not the side, the legs go out just fine, going forward is a big issue. You have to turn the thigh to go forwards and swivel the knee so it looks "natural" but it doesn't, it's a big turn off but the rest is so perfect and this just ruins it for me.

 Again, this is a 3.75" figure as you can see with the ruler that I'll try to use more often.

 Here it is with the 6" Black Series First Order Stormtrooper and the Disney Store Imperial Stormtrooper with Blast Effects. Not that much different from the First Order Trooper, the head might be a little too big on the Vintage Collection one. Again, like I said before this one is a repackaged Black Series 3.75" so it's the same as far as I'm aware.

 Here it is next to other figures from the line, the Rebel Trooper is repackaged original Vintage Collection figure and Enfys Nest was not in the 3.75" Black Series line.

Here's how it scales with other smaller figures, 4 inch Megaforce Red and 5 inch Ninja Steel Red. Both of which have decent articulation but an elbow and knee swivel would have been nice. 

Here it is next to a basic figure, it fits in just fine. In the end, I do really like the figure, I need about another 97 until I'm satisfied so I'll keep hunting, definitely worth the $5 haha, but if not I guess I'll pay about $10 or $12 if I have to but it's still a little too pricey for me.