Welcome to our review of the Star Wars Black Series 6 inch Rebel Fleet Trooper. The Trooper was released in 2018 as part of Wave 18 of the red line (phase 3) packaging. The Rebel Fleet Trooper was first seen in A New Hope, but has gone on to appear in Rogue One and in Rebels and as a playable trooper in Battlefront II.
Packaging 3/5
Packaging is standard Red Line design with gloss black box and red side spine and backing insert for the figure. The Trooper is number 69 in the line and is part of Wave 18 alongside Han Solo Bespin and Beckett.
The artwork is impressive and actually matches the head sculpt on the figure. This artwork is repeated on the rear of the card along with a short bio about the Troopers in general.
"Drawn from many homeworlds and species, Rebel troopers were the Alliance's front-line soldiers in the war against the Empire. They defended the Alliance's leaders on countless worlds and durig many operations, changing uniforms and tactics to meet each challenge."
Our Trooper slides out from top or bottom flap the inner tray sits inside the red cardboard sleeve with the figure held in only by the tray itself - no awkward twisty ties. The helmet is packed off to the side and this is an odd choice considering the definitive look of the Trooper is with helmet on? Blaster and Death Star Plans sit under the helmet.
Paint & Sculpt 4/5
The Rebel Fleet Trooper, like the Imperial counterpart, is a non-descript generic release. However, Hasbro have employed the face print technology and the base I think is one of the unnamed Rebel Fleet Troopers from the first scenes of A New Hope - he gets a few close up shots as they prepare to be boarded.
Without a clear likeness to compare to I would say the features on the Trooper are excellent with a battle weary look to his face and intense eyes beneath a furrowed brow. Even the hair, which on normal trooper figures is a shaved head, is sculpted to be matted and messy,
The outfit is made up of three distinct parts, starting with a plain blue collared shirt. Over this sits a separate black waistcoat piece, again single colour but with a lot of sculptural detail in the pockets, pouches and seams.
We then have a set of grey trousers which look initially to be a single tone plastic. Mine however had some odd brown staining around the joints? Upon closer inspection I think there may be a very subtle brown wash to dirty these up a little. The trousers took into gloss black boots. The final part of the outfit is a belt - sculpted as part of the abdomen piece and mostly hidden by the waistcoat. A flexible rubbery plastic holster hangs off this on the figures right hip.
Accessories 5/5
I am going to talk about the helmet as an accessory, although I was tempted to include it in paint and sculpt as it is the helmet that defines this figure as a Rebel Fleet Trooper.
It is cast in a white hard plastic and this is smooth and rounded nicely like the prop. Sadly my figure had a defect right on the rim of the helmet - either where it was attached to a sprue or similar, or a factory error. I will put it down to battle damage. The black section is painted in a glossy black, this is neat and without concern. The aerieal section is added and paint silver. And we then have the all important semi-flexible chin strap glued inside and coloured black with a white chin piece.
The fit is great, helped of course by the size of the helmet itself. The chin piece works brilliantly and the helmet, with some positioning, becomes part of the figure without looking clunky or oversized.
Our Trooper is armed with a DH-17 carbine blaster, the same used on the Death Star Trooper and on the original Lando (Bespin). It is cast in black plastic which is slightly soft so can lead to some misshaping on the barrel in particular. Said barrel is painted in silver, as is the top part of the sights.
The blaster is designed to fit in the Trooper's right hand where there is a flexible trigger finger to slot into the trigger. When not in use it can also be slid into the holster. The fit here is snug, without being too tight that we get paint rub - or too loose that it falls out.
One genius addition to this figure is the Death Star Plans, making this as much a Rogue One release as A New Hope. The plans are cast in a hard white plastic that resembles a hard drive. There is a gold disc on the top with circular black lines - this appears to be a sticker. Around this disk and onto the reverse are some very intricate black lines and symbols.
The plans fit into the left hand for the Trooper ready for him to pass off as soon as he can before Darth Vader cuts him to shreds.
Articulation 3/5
Our Rebel Trooper comes with the standard 18 points of articulation. The key ones for me were those leg joints as I wanted my Rebel Trooper to kneel in firing position like they do in those first scenes of A New Hope. With a ball jointed hip, thigh swivel, double jointed knees and a solid ankle rocker I am pleased to say this is a pose the Trooper can achieve easily.
The arms are jointed at the shoulder with a ball joint and new butterfly shoulder joints. They have a single rotating elbow, this bends to and just past 90 degrees - we still await the use of double jointed elbows consistently on Black Series figures, but this is one that might have benefitted for weapon posing.
Our final joints are a ball jointed head, but without a pivot joint so we only really get rotation from the neck, no looking up and down - this is a shame for action poses as you can have him looking where he is firing. We finish with a stomach joint which rotates and leans on a ball joint, this helps somewhat in crouched and firing positions.
Summary
Like the Death Star Trooper, the Rebel Fleet Trooper is a nice variation from the armour troop types we have seen to date. The head is well sculpted and printed, even if the likeness is non-specific. The helmet works well, but the choice not to pack it on the figure in the box seems odd when that is the iconic look of the figure.
There are a couple of niggles over paint blemishes and the helmet fault is a touch annoying. Articulation is fairly standard, but the basic neck peg makes the head hard to position. The decision to add the Death Star plans is inspired and makes this a release suitable for a few scenes in the Saga.
I would not be adverse to see Hasbro re-use this body going forward in future waves, with a variant head each time to really pander to Army Builders.
I score the Rebel Fleet Trooper a 4 out of 5.
