Review – Star Wars Concept Snowtrooper

“The stormtrooper’s uniform was modified for different environments, yet retains the featureless uniformity captured by McQuarrie in his art. Snowtroopers have additional head, chest, and leg coverings to insulate them against the cold and help them to blend into snowy surroundings.”
— from the back of the card

Back in the early years of the eighties there was one book I owned that loved more than any other: The Empire Strikes Back Sketchbook*. Inside this book I found page after page of sketches and drawings that led me down the path of forever loving concept art. Rough, incomplete, imperfect . . . the quick sketches of concept artwork still to this day excites me more than most finished artwork ever will.

And a few years ago the crew at Hasbro realized that there must be thousands of people out there who love concept art; especially Star Wars concept art since it opened the door to a wave of action figures based on the rough sketches. And today we look at one of those greatest blends ever, the combination of an arctic environment, Stormtroopers, and concept art.

Say hello to the ridiculously perfect Concept Snowtrooper**.

Packaging

With an unusual cut and a great painting on the front side of the card, the packaging for the Concept Snowtrooper comes together to create a far more attractive design than what we’re seeing Hasbro use for Star Wars action figures these days. The basic blister and backer card works fine and looks good enough that MOC collectors can display this with pride. Why anyone would leave this unopened I’ll never understand.

Open that toy, kid!

An Artistic Sculpt

The Concept Snowtrooper clearly follows the concept art shown on the card front, with the sculptor nailing every detail and creating one of the more attractive Stormtrooper action figures in my collection. The baggy snowsuit comes together great, with the sculpted folds giving the suit a sense of bulk that we didn’t get in older Snowtrooper action figures (even the ’90s Snowtroopers failed to perfectly capture the feeling of the padded and insulated suit).

The boots and gloves are also great examples of action figure sculpting, but it has to be the helmet, backpack, and skirt that really makes the figure shine. The backpack and skirt are both separate accessories that are fastened to the figure — I refuse to pull these off because I’m worried I’ll never get them to fit perfectly again — while the helmet is made up of the sculpted head, a separate helmet piece that appears to be glued into place, and a removable face mask (see below).

Poor Articulation Choices

Unfortunately, the Concept Snowtrooper’s incredible sculpt is damaged by the figure’s articulation. Ball-hinge shoulders and elbows are fine, as are the ball-jointed head and twisty wrists and waist, but from the waist down the figure runs into serious trouble.

T-hips would be criminal enough for a modern-era 3.75-inch scale action figure, but the lack of moveable feet seriously damage any poseability options. The ball-hinge knees are okay, but I’ve become so used to the double-hinged knees that single-hinged knees feel inadequate these days. I could overlook the knees and hips if the feet/ankles had some articulation, but overall the lower-half of the Concept Snowtrooper’s body is an articulation nightmare.

Paint!

Most of the figure is cast in off-white plastic, but there’s a surprising number of painted details for what looks like an all-white action figure. Slightly off-white paint decorates the pouches, sleeves, and pants, while blue, orange, gray, and red details give the figure some real depth. And even the off-white details come in a few different shades; it looks like eight or nine different colors of paint were used to make the Concept Snowtrooper look like a hell of a lot more than just the plain white that we saw back in the vintage era collection. Nice job on the paint choices, Hasbro!

Closing Thoughts

Other than the articulation hiccup this is a fantastic and near-perfect action figure. By basing the figure’s design on old artwork Hasbro immediately captured my imagination and attention, and the love put into the sculpt and paint tells me that the toy designers behind this project had every bit as much excitement for the Concept Snowtrooper as I do. The design may not look like exactly what we were given in the movie, but this is close enough that the Concept Snowtrooper doesn’t look at all out of place when displayed with basic Snowtroopers (see the photo, above).

This is a great Star Wars action figure, and one that every Stormtrooper fan should have in his collection. And the Concept Snowtrooper isn’t even all that tough to find these days since it was recently re-released in the Star Wars Ralph McQuarrie Exclusive Concept Series Action Figures Set***.

*Affiliate link: Orders using this link earn battlegrip.com cash, which is applied to buying toys.
**Affiliate link: Orders using this link earn battlegrip.com cash, which is applied to buying toys.
***Affiliate link: Orders using this link earn battlegrip.com cash, which is applied to buying toys.

Philip Reed is now trying to find the newest Concept Snowtrooper action figure. And when will The Clone Wars series get some Snowtroopers? More Snowtroopers, please!