Toy Review: Revoltech Stormtrooper

March 24, 2015 at 12:00 am | Posted in Reviews, Star Wars, Toys & Collectibles | 7 Comments
Tags: revoltech

Hasbro’s reign on 1:12 scale Star Wars action figures has come to an end. There are many companies getting in on the action, and one of them is a Japanese toy company called Kaiyodo. They’ve released several Star Wars figures, and have several more planned, in their Revoltech line. The Revoltech line uses their “Revolver Joint” articulation to create a highly poseable action figure. As someone who has jumped into the Hasbro 6-inch Black Series line, I wanted to see how these Revoltech figures would compare. So I decided to pick up the Revoltech Stormtrooper.

If you start shopping around for the Revoltech Stormtrooper, you’re going to notice it costs three times as much as a Hasbro 6-inch Black Series figure. In the box, it doesn’t look like much. It’s not an extremely fancy box, though with how low Hasbro has dropped the bar with their packaging, it’s not hard to beat Hasbro them.

Notice all the Japanese writing on the box. While there is some translation, not everything is translated.

On the bottom of the box is some close-up illustrations of how the “Revolver Joint” articulation works. Sadly it’s all in Japanese, so I have no idea what it says.

Here’s the Stormtrooper out of the box and still in the tray. Note he comes with three sets of hands (closed fists, open hands, and trigger fingers), an E-11 blaster rifle, a DLT-19 heavy blaster rifle and a clear plastic figure stand which attaches to the back of the figure and acts as a third leg for added stability.

Note the clear plastic sheets covering the figure while in the tray. This is to prevent paint rub while in the package. Very nice touch.

There’s also plastic sheets in between the joints to prevent paint rubbing. Now there are two ways you can go about removing the plastic. You can just yank on it and tear it, or you can disassemble the figure and just remove the plastic. I was very surprised by how many parts this figure breaks down into.

Now this isn’t a complete disassembly, but it gives you an idea of how the figure is put together.

The articulated joints are done via odd globe shaped pegs, the “Revolver Joints”. The shoulders use a double globe joint, while the rest are all singles. Each globe is split in half and makes a clicking sound as it’s moved (thus giving a secure hold at each point of movement). This allows each joint to have vertical and horizontal movement. The design of the figure gives each joint a lot of room for movement.

Here you can see how the neck armor hides the “Revolver Joint” for the head.

This shot shows a disassembled elbow. The middle piece slides around one of the pegs to make the elbow look more natural instead of a big round globe.

The shoulder joints are the oddest looking as they are sometimes visible when the figure is posed. The shoulder pauldrons can typically hide them, but not always.

Notice the wrist joint articulation in this picture. Each arm has articulation at the wrist, at the elbow and at the shoulder. Each point can be rotated 360 degrees horizontally, and has a lot of vertical motion with the clicking of the globe joints.

Here’s a good shot of the shoulder joint with the arm turned upside down. Notice this completely exposes the joint. Only when turned upright is the joint completely hidden. If the arms are spread out from his sides, the joint becomes exposed.

Pay attention to the elbow joint.

That additional elbow piece that slips over the peg can be rotated. It’s not the easiest piece to rotate, and it can get in the way when trying to get the arm to articulate in the pose you’re after.

Here’s the arm minus the elbow. The peg for the elbow sticks right into that hole.

Here is the arm with the peg inserted.

Also noticed the figure stand which plugs into the back of the figure. The clear plastic stand has two points of articulation.

The E-11 blaster rifle.

The trigger finger hands have fingers that can slip into the trigger guards for each gun.

The open hands can be used to support the gun in the figure’s off hand.

Now let’s do some articulation…

Here’s the kneeling pose. Look at how much those knees bend.

There’s even some articulation on the toes (albeit very limited).

Okay, the ballerina pose may be getting carried away, but you get the point.

Here’s the Stormtrooper with the DLT-19 heavy blaster rifle.

Sexy pose.

The open hands can also be used to support the trigger finger hands for a nice gun pose.

Here is the Hasbro 6-inch Black Series figure for comparison in the same pose. Yeah, it’s ugly.

Note that while both figures are 1:12 scale, the Revoltech Stormtrooper is a little taller. You can also see some differences in the armor. I’m not an expert in Stormtrooper armor, so I’m not sure offhand if one is more accurate to one movie or not as the Stormtrooper armor design did change film to film.

Here’s a more fair pose, one which the Hasbro figure does well.

One thing the Revoltech figure fails at is the blaster holster. It’s there for looks only and you cannot put the blaster into the holster (it’s not hollow but solid with a clasp that can be undone for some reason).

The knee joints are a little odd looking when the figure stands up straight. The globe design really stands out where as it disappears with the elbow design.

With all the articulation, it can be difficult to get the figure back to normal when each and every part can twist this way and that.

And if you play with your figure, be careful, it’s easy to scuff up the white armor paint. You can see here that it’s already got some scuff marks from posing the figure and having it fall over. It shows up more in the pictures than it does when you just hold the figure and look at it.

Comparison shot of the Hasbro Stormtrooper. The helmet designs are very different styles.

I like the DLT-19 heavy blaster rifle that comes with the Revoltech Stormtrooper, though it doesn’t have the touch of colored weathering that the Hasbro gun has.

“Can you sit like this?”

“Can you do karate?”

Classic karate pose.

Ah, those open hands come in handy when you need to choke the life out of your opponent.

“Victory!”

Victory dance.

Sexy pose #2.

Overall, it’s a really nice figure. Here’s some more basic shots showing off the Stormtrooper in better lighting.

The shoulder pauldrons are removable, though it looks funny without them.

The Hasbro Sandtrooper pauldrons can be slipped on easily to turn the Revoltech Stormtrooper into a Sandtrooper. The Hasbro T-21 repeating blaster is also fully compatible.

As are the lightsabers. The Stormtrooper can actually hold a lightsaber with the open hands.

When I started playing with the Revoltech Stormtrooper, I was quickly blown away by how fun all the extra articulation made the action figure. It totally blew away the Hasbro figures. However, it’s not without some drawbacks. First off, this figure cost three times as much. Secondly, with all those extra pieces, it can sometimes fall apart while you’re posing the figure as the pegs can work themselves out of their holes. Still, all that added articulation increases the possibilities of what you can do with this figure. In the end, the fun factor is worth it. The Revoltech Stormtrooper is definitely worth adding to your 6-inch Black Series collection. While the Revoltech Vader looks really weird with his cape, the Stormtrooper is a good design. It the C-3PO figures turns out this nice, I might have to pick that one up as well. Either way, Kaiyodo’s Revoltech line is worth keeping an eye on.

Reviewed By: Skuldren for Roqoo Depot.

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