Review: Star Wars TVC 113 Expanded Universe - Republic Trooper (The Old Republic)

Look what the mailman brought today... Being packed only one per case, the Old Republic Trooper is well sought after and commands hefty prices on Ebay. This one I bought from a fellow collector on Hisstank.com at a halfways decent price. The then nameless Trooper was first seen in the trailer "Hope" of the The Old Republic video game when he lead a Squad of troopers into battle against Darth Malgus' Sith army on Alderaan. Needless to say, he became an instant favorite with Star Wars fans. He has now been named Jace Malcom and provided with a background story. Everybody was excited when the figure was announced and well, here he is: The figure is nicely detailed with crisp paint applications, no doubt about it. It will look very cool on the shelf and many people will probably mistake him for a Clone Trooper or a Stormtrooper. Except for the hips and the wrists he is all ball-jointed, no articulation in the waist, though. Personally, I would have preferred him to come with ball-jointed hips, too, so he could be brought into the stance we see him firing his huge Blaster cannon. One thing is very nice: his shoulders have an amazing range of movement, something which most figures with sculpted-on shoulder armor do not have. His elbow range of movement sadly is somewhat limited. You won't be able to bring him to shoulder a rifle without modifying his arms. Compared to other Star Wars figures, his range of accessories is impressive: removeable helmet, removeable crossbelt with shoulder armor attached, a knife sheath with removeable knife and a removeable ammo pouch. The pistol we see him use in the game trailer fits nicely into the holster on his left hip and the gunbelt can be removed when you pop off his torso. There is a little hole on his crossbelt and on the right side of his gunbelt into which you can stick the knife sheath and the ammo pouch. On the stock figure, I would put the knife on his belt and the pouch on the crossbelt since the knife sheath is a little bulky. I'm sure, though, that those collectors with some GI JOE parts in their fodder box will be able to find a slimmer knife sheath which will work better on his crossbelt to attain the look the Trooper has in the game trailer. I'm not too sure about the dimensions and shape of the Blaster cannon, don't think it is game accurate. It is made of too soft a plastic as far as I am concerned and I think I will shorten it or replace it with another bulky weapon altogether. Altogether he's too much of a nice figure to pass on him, so despite the little flaws here and there, I won't hesitate to recommend him.