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Part I: Hot Toys Star Wars Return of the Jedi Scout Trooper MMS611 Review and Comparison



For Part II, see HERE.




Introduction

As I was saying elsewhere, I love the world Lucas created with Star Wars, even if I have various issues with his stories, including the Original Trilogy.  Of its three components, Return of the Jedi is largely my least favorite, but it still belongs and it features plenty to love.  One of my favorite troopers were the Scout Troopers (AKA Biker Scouts), and Hot Toys just released their Return of the Jedi version of this trooper, following relatively quickly upon their Mandalorian version.  Naturally, there is relatively little difference between the two versions, but I will point them out below, along with some comparison to the earlier Sideshow version of the original scout trooper.  I also purchased the speeder bike, after receiving the figure, and will post a follow up with it.  I took a few too many photos, and relegated some of them to a separate topic to keep from making the page too slow, you can check them out HERE.



Packaging

The Scout Trooper comes in the familiar shoebox type container with removable lid featuring a nice image of the figure and enhanced with a cigar band with more texts and images running across the bottom.  Inside is a title card showing off the figure on the speeder bike companion piece (which I will be reviewing separately).  Below this is a single plastic trey with its transparent plastic lid, containing the figure and its accessories.  Everything is safe, snug, and collector friendly.  The bottom of the box features plenty of credits and warnings.



Sculpting

Like the Mandalorian version of the scout trooper, which had an almost identical sculpt, the sculpt is clean and sharp and source accurate.  Of course, there is no human likeness to worry about, just the armor, uniform, and weaponry.  The main difference in the sculpt is the upper body armor, which is substantially shorter on the Original Trilogy scout trooper than on the Mandalorian version, and the Return of the Jedi version features additional detail (four horizontal indents) on the back "hump" of the armor.  The incompletely closed helmet appears to be a carryover from the Mandalorian version, using the same mold.



Paint

The basic color scheme is simple enough, black and white, with just a few details in other colors. Like the Mandalorian version, but far more subtly, this one is given plenty of weathering effects, with worn or dirtied up parts of the armor and boots. The two weapons, especially the blaster rifle are also given some weathering, or rather wear and tear, and their lenses are given a nice gloss.  The main difference in paint between the two versions (amount and type of weathering apart) is the different coloring of the "frown" on the helmet.  The helmet's lenses are translucent green, although it is very difficult to notice or show this.



Accessories

The Scout Trooper comes with an attachable thermal detonator that clips over the belt at the back and, as usual, is difficult to place securely and tends to fall off while one handles the figure.  The small blaster pistol (EC-17) fits into the holster built into the right boot.  There is also a long targeting blaster rifle (DLT-19x) with a cloth sling.  I do not recall the rifle from the film, though it might have been featured in a game.  The thermal detonator that clips onto the back of the belt was mentioned before.  Hot Toys provided a number of spare parts, including, as usual, a pair of wrist pegs, and a total of four pairs of hands (a pair of relaxed hands, a pair of fists, a pair of steering grip hands, and two right gun grip hands for, respectively, the blaster rifle and the blaster pistol).  There is also the standard Hot Toys platformed crotch-grabber stand with the product's name and an optional card printed to resemble the surface of Endor.  There is a small leaflet (not shown) with warnings and instructions as to which gun grip hand goes with which weapon.



Articulation

It seems to be the same thing I keep saying every time I review a Hot Toys action figure.  In theory, the articulation is all there and excellent, but in practice, Hot Toys' insistence on inserting intrusive thick padded garments under the visible clothing and armor severely restricts it.  The soft material used for the upper parts of the boots, however, leaves the ankle articulation virtually unimpeded.  Almost as helpfully, the gloves and gauntlets are a two-part design, allowing for wrist articulation.  The figure is often difficult to pose as desired.  Neither weapon has any movable parts.



Outfit

Apart from the armor, the outfit is made up of a black body suit or overalls and collar, as well as the boots (hard plastic shoe with soft vinyl-like shaft closed with velcro at the back), and the gloves (hard plastic hands and softer plastic vambraces).  Articulation at the shoulder is helped by the fact that the shoulder bells of the armor are attached with velcro, and can be removed and replaced for posing.  Since the shorter upper body armor leaves more of the lower torso exposed, the cummerbund and bags on the Return of the Jedi version are broader/taller than those on the Mandalorian version.  This portion is a little darker and warmer in color than the armor, which is appropriate but possibly a little excessive in degree. The Return of the Jedi body suit or overalls is of a different design than that used for the Mandalorian.  Upper body armor apart, the placement of the otherwise more or less identical knee armor is reversed (flipped) between the two versions, accurate to their respective sources. 



Comparison to other Scout Trooper figures

Excluding the upper body armor, cummerbund, and knee armor, Hot Toys' Return of the Jedi scout trooper is virtually identical with their Mandalorian scout trooper, paint apart.  Both are unusually tall for Hot Toys figures (12.25 inches = 31.1 cm), and in fact taller than the Sideshow version.  Since they are based on the same source, the Hot Toys and Sideshow Return of the Jedi scout troopers are very similar in appearance, although the Sideshow version looks squatter.  It also does not benefit from the wrist and ankle articulation of the Hot Toys figures.



Fun Factor

Good articulation (which would be excellent if the padding is removed), proportions, accessories (up to and including the speeder bike), and figures to interact with (Hot Toys has made Return of the Jedi Stormtroopers, Emperor, Leia and Ewok) all guarantee that this figure can be fun to display or play with.

I placed a number of additional images with other figures HERE, so as to avoid overburdening this topic with too many photos.



Value

Retailing at nearly $230, this is not a particularly cheap set, especially considering the limited number of accessories; then again, it is not nearly as expensive as some of Hot Toys' other sets these days.  The deluxe set including both this and the speeder bike costs a little over $500.  On the whole, the figure is excellent, with very minor shortcomings from an accuracy point of view.  It is probably unlikely that we would get any better scout troopers anytime soon.



Overall

Hot Toys' Return of the Jedi Scout Trooper is a very good rendition of one of my favorite trooper types.  While the reuse of the Mandalorian scout trooper helmet has introduced a technical discrepancy in the accuracy of the appearance, the overall look and proportions of the figure are great, and in my view preferable to those of its predecessors.  I enjoyed the figure and plan on reconstituting one without the padding, so as to take fuller advantage of the articulation potential.

For more photos, see HERE.


For Part II, see HERE.

Where to Buy

You can still find them here (or search eBay):

Timewalker Toys

Big Bad Toy Store (still preorder)

Cotswold Collectibles

Monkey Depot

Sideshow

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I hope this has been useful.

For more photos, see HERE.


#starwars #returnofthejedi #rotj #scouttrooper #bikerscout #galacticempire #scifi #male #military #hottoys

Another of my mini reviews on items I have had for a while.  

This time I am looking at my SideShow Speeder Bike and Scout Trooper.  

I thought it would be good to look at these now as the Speeder Bike has just been re-released, and the Biker Scout is about to be re-released by SideShow.  Typical of SideShow that. I looked for ages to get one of these in reasonable condition and at a reasonable price    

The bike is in my opinion the best detailed version of the speeder bike available.  Sideshow have gone to great lengths to recreate the engine parts and all the controls, and have also done a very sympathetic job on the weathering.  I am aware that some feel that this version is to small and that the Hasbro bike is proportionally better, however after examining as many screen shots, production pictures, and even reproductions of the artwork used to design and ultimately build the real bikes I think this one is nearer to the original film used props.  I have both this and the Hasbro version, and in truth neither are absolutely proportionally correct, and this is a little bit shorter than it should be, where, according to my calculations and measurements, the Hasbro is wider, longer and has an overall more chunky look to it.

The Speeder Bike comes in several pieces which need to be assembled.  Some of the parts are quite thin and fragile so you do have to take care when putting this together or taking it apart.  The thinner parts around the control handles are particularly delicate, but then the overall look is all the better for them being near to scale sizes.
There are a number of moving parts such as the handlebars and pedals, the exhaust covers at the rear and the fins at the front of the bike which helps in getting some very realistic looking poses with this model.

The bike is supported on a single metal rod which slots into the bike and a weighted base which keeps the bike very stable.  The bike can be angled on the base to get some good action poses as if it is turning etc...  
The base comes with some woodland scenery to cover the black plastic with if you wish, and I have also used the similar base cover from the Biker Scout figure to add to this an completely cover the base the best I can.  You can see in the last pic of the bike on display that I have now also added a 1/6 Black Series Rebel commando helmet too just to add to the effect.

The Biker figure is pretty standard SideShow fare.  The costume is very well recreated and due to the sparser armour and no padded suit the joints remain fairly flexible.  Its a reasonably possible figure and can be made to pose on the bile in any number of convincing riding poses.  It comes with boots for standing and the ones seen here which have the toes positioned to sit correctly on the bikes pedals.  There are also spare hands for relaxed look, holding the handlebars of the bike and the included blaster pistol.
As mentioned the base comes with a a cover to make it look like the forrest floor.  

This figure does not need the bike and it does make a very nice stand alone figure, although it is of course nice to be able to display both together.








I hope you enjoyed this mini review, and as always any comments are welcome.

Paul

#starwars #speeder #speederbike #bikerscout #scouttrooper #rotj #movie #scfi