Black Series Imperial Jumptrooper Review

Picked up a new(ish) Black Series figure a couple days ago, so I thought I'd do a quick review. It's the Gamestop exclusive for the year, an Imperial Jumptrooper from the TV show Rebels. I'll admit, I haven't seen episodes with the Jumptrooper yet, having just started the abysmal first season, but I do enjoy my Imperial armor variants!

The figure itself is mostly a repaint of the original stormtrooper mold with a new helmet, gear and shoulder pads. It shares the advantages (great elbow articulation!) and disadvantages (slightly warped feet and legs) as the original, and reuses the peg hole from the sandtrooper backpack for the jetpack. Surprisingly, the large shoulder pads don't seem to hinder the articulation any more than on the standard trooper. Noticeable in this shot is the standard E-11 blaster, which has an excellent drybrush over the entire surface.

The paint application on mine had a couple miscenterings on the belt, but nothing major. The colors (especially on the helmet) look great, the combination of mustard yellow and grey make this character stand out alongside the usually monochrome stormtroopers. I believe the yellow shoulder pad marks him as a commander. The helmet lacks the usual detail around the breathing mask, reminding me of Commander Neyo from Clone Wars.

All in all, it's a good variant trooper with a striking design- perfect to spice up an Imperial display. 

Star Wars Build- Bandai Models General Grievous

In the past six months or so I've started on yet another collection- 1/12 scale Star Wars action figures! Somehow Hasbro's Black Series had escaped my eye till then, and now I've discovered (and purchased) not only those, but Bandai's line of model kits. The Grievous looked awesome (and is a particular favorite character of mine), and so I thought I'd start there.

May I simply say I was very impressed with the build. It was very smooth to assemble (one of the best builds I've had in a long while), and the detail is spot on. I took the above picture after I'd assembled the kit, but before any painting aside from the eyes and lining on the armor. From here out, I'll try something a little different than usual- there's so much detail on the figure I want to focus on the photos, only adding a few comments on the build.

And after! As in the film, I added plenty of battle damage to the armor with washes and lining, scratching up both with toothpicks afterwards.

The war mask and eyes may be my favorite part of the model.

The hands, on the other hand, were probably my least favorite- all of that recessed detail was very difficult to paint.

The lightsabers are all accurate to RotS- I really would have preferred the sabers seen in the latter half of Clone Wars to these, which are all existing hilts like Obi-Wan's and Vader's. Still, painting lightsaber hilts was very enjoyable!

I enjoy taking pictures of my action figures outdoors, and Grievous may be my favorite to do so- he's a character I've wanted a high quality figure of since I was a child, and the wait was well worth it!

Any thoughts on this different style of build and post? Leave a comment, and let me know know which you prefer!

Sign of Things to Come

Bandai Models General Grievous- look for more pics tomorrow!