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Instagram @ajg232 With these SDCC exclusives Hasbro really seems to be celebrating the new guard and the old in the galaxy far far away. From the 6 inch Black Series Line we get the preview of the Sith Trooper from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. With a very strong follow up we’ll also be getting a look at a wonderful Luke Skywalker figure 3 Pack from the Vintage Collection 3.75 inch line. Both are great pieces for reasons both shared and unique. Sith Trooper: Star Wars The Black Series. 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 summed up 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. Luke Skywalker 3 Pack: Star Wars The Vintage Collection Now, admittedly this pack holds a bit more nostalgia in many cases. Celebrating 3 iconic looks for arguably the greatest fantasy hero of all time this 3 pack is fantastic. What we have is Luke’s Death Star 1 stormtrooper disguise, the X-Wing pilot jumpsuit, and his Jedi Knight getup from the beginning of Return of the Jedi. Unlike the Sith Trooper just about everything that can be known is well known when it concerns the “son of Skywalker”. This is also my first look at the face printing technology being applied to the 3.75 inch figures and I have to say that it’s impeccable. Let’s start in simply with accessories. Each figure comes with a small set of their own accessories. Starting with trooper Luke he comes with the standard E11 blaster and the helmet to finish his armor. One thing that should be pointed out is that trooper Luke does have the holster for the E11 on the back of his belt and even though the thing is hollowed out and ready to go it really doesn’t seem like it's designed to actually hold the gun. With a good push it seems you can get the blaster a little less than halfway in. A little annoying but it’s small potatoes for a figure this good. Next we’ll look at X-Wing Luke. Very simply, he comes with a simple DL-44 blaster that he grips perfectly and his wonderful pilot helmet that we’ll talk more about in just a bit. Now the gun doesn’t have a spot to be holstered so that’s a bit annoying but nothing truly detrimental. Now what’s great about his pilot helmet is that it’s made of a very rubbery adaptive plastic. It makes the helmet unintentionally modular and great for other figures therein. If you wanna take your ROTJ Luke and do the 30 seconds of screen time with Luke leaving Tatooine to seek out Yoda on Dagobah, for the 2nd time then look no further. It’s very doable. Speaking of ROTJ Luke let’s talk about him. He’s the only Luke of the 3 to come with a lightsaber (His green saber to be specific). In addition to this he has the blaster he yanked off one of Jabba’s goons along with what is possibly the best soft goods I’ve seen Hasbro produce to date. The blaster fits in his right hand with no problem. The lightsaber goes in both without issue. Luke’s Jedi cloak is stitched in some way, shape, or form that makes it hug to his head in the exact right way. It’s truly impressive. Just to get it out of the way the faces on all three of these Lukes are magnificent. The old time GI Joe faces are officially a thing of the past. In terms of articulation each stands in a category all their own. All have good ball jointed heads with the exception of X-Wing Luke with a two sided ball joint and some magnificent head movement as opposed to being simply good. All have tried and true hinged shoulders with good reliably deep single joint elbows. All have hinged hands with the exception of trooper Luke who’s relying only on the 360 degree swivel. Both X-Wing and trooper Luke have good deep torso articulation with the feature being absent on ROTJ Luke though it’s admittedly not very missed. All but Pilot Luke have a waist swivel. Now getting down to the hips They all start the same where it’s a rotating hinge that you move in the right direction and then hinge in your preferred direction. Exceptionally, Pilot Luke also sports a slightly clumsy thigh swivel. Beyond that all 3 figures go down to some single joint knees and hinged feet. On the whole very well articulated. Some particularly good articulation comes from trooper Luke. The next time Vader is looking to aggressively hide an apprentice’s existence it’s important to note that trooper Luke does fine with some Gears of War crouches. Hasbro also made him a Tae Kwon Do black belt... for the good it will do him. For scale there’s not much to be surprised about with these 3 figures. Here we have the 3 up against a c3po from the Revenge of the Sith line along with a 5 inch Batman and a Pizza Spider-Man. Besides some points of articulation there’s not much that’s shocking when it comes to these 3 figures. All the same these 3 figures are great and classic in all the right ways. If you ever see any of these figures either single packed or in this great 3 pack I would highly recommend that you do yourself the favor.

This 3.75 inch Vintage Collection Range Trooper is probably just as nice as it’s bigger brother from the Black Series line.

Again The Vintage Collection kicks butt with this Imperial Assault Tank Driver!

3.75 inch Star Wars The Vintage Collection Solo. I really liked the Solo film, it’s a shame it didn’t do so well at the box office.