Review – Galaxy Empire Stormtrooper Knockoff

As you know, stormtroopers are awesome. That white armor, menacing features, and endless number of special soldiers makes them the absolute best part of the Star Wars saga. No doubt the lack of stormtroopers/clone troopers is the reason why Episode One is the worst movie in the series; if Lucas had tossed in a few stormtroopers I’m certain that the movie wouldn’t have sucked so much.

With that in mind, how could a stormtrooper toy be bad? Watch and learn, padawan.

When you’ve got a global success like Star Wars, you’re gonna get ripped off. It’s just the nature of things. Don’t believe me? Take a look at this collection of bootleg Star Wars toys. Astounding. And I’m sure this is an incomplete listing.

Let’s take a look at this giant (in comparison to the 3.75-inch scale) stormtrooper knockoff.

Imitation Stormtrooper

You know, the photos here don’t do this toy the injustice that it deserves. In these pictures it actually doesn’t look so bad, with a custom paint scheme making it look like some sort of special stormtrooper officer or commander. Unfortunately, actually holding the toy immediately reveals that it’s a cheap knockoff, since the plastic feels cheap and the casting is pretty bad; the head, especially, is ragged in places with bits of plastic protruding from the helmet.

Based on the Power of the Force stormtrooper from the 90s, this Galaxy Empire stormtrooper bootleg looks like it’s an exact copy — only enlarged — of the official action figure. I guess it is possible that someone at the factory smuggled out one of the large-scale models — part of the process involves sculpting/tooling at a larger size and then using a mechanical process to reduce the figure — but if that happened, I bet Hasbro — and Lucasfilm — were pissed off. In China, though, I guess anything is possible. I mean, consider the recent Mattel post about theft (discussed over at www.poeghostal.com if you’re interested).

The plastic is cheap, the paint sloppy (you can see spots of blue on the white armor), the casting is as sloppy as the paint, and the thing just feels cheap in my hands. Overall, it’s a crappy knockoff toy.

Luckily for it, it’s also a stormtrooper.

Closing Thoughts

Not much to add. As a bootleg toy, it’s exactly what you would expect: cheap, bad, and totally covered in copyright infringement. As a toy, it feels like something you’d pay $1 for at a flea market or cheap dollar store. It’s junk, plain and simple, and you don’t need one. Unless, of course, you just have to have a giant stormtrooper in your collection (and you can’t afford one of the Sideshow stormtroopers).

Philip Reed needs to track down more bootleg and knockoff stormtroopers. Some of those vintage stormtroopers from Mexico — especially the blue ones — look really bad. And, as you know, bad is good.