Sculpt--3/5
The sculpt of the Hoth Trooper is a mixed bag. The details are great--they're well defined with lots of attention paid to the little badges, buckles, and textures. Unfortunately the pose and proportions of this figure is straight from 1996's POTF2 Hoth Rebel Trooper. First off, the shoulders are way too broad. Secondly, this guy's stance is too wide for my tastes and far too similar to the older Hoth Trooper figs. And third, this guy is just too freakin' short! He is dwarfed by all other male figures to the point that he looks utterly ridiculous whenever he's standing next to another figure. This guy is only slightly taller than Bespin Escape Leia! And to think that I thought Hasbro had finally started to pay better attention to accurate heights for their figures. And what's with the non-functioning holster? We've seen non-functioning holsters before, but this one bothers me because they've molded the gun inside it, teasing us with what should have been.

Articulation--2/5
The most disappointing aspect of this figure is its average articulation. He only has the standard six points: neck, shoulders, waist, and hips. I'm giving this a below average score because this is an army-building figure which by all means should at least have a bicep-cut or something to help vary the pose. Army-builders should be capable of many different poses like the Super Articulated Clone Trooper or the Imperial Officer. Come on Hasbro, think a little! When it comes to army-builders you really just want to make one good figure and then be done with it. Now we've got to wait for them to do this figure right--again.

Features--NA/5
There are no features associated with this set.

Accessories--3/5
You get the Hoth Trooper's blaster rifle, backpack, and a display base. The blaster rifle is the same one that came with the Saga Endor Rebel Soldier except it's not painted at all. The backpack looks pretty much exactly like the POTF2 version except that it's about 25% smaller. The display base is an updated version of the clear ones we saw with some of the Saga re-releases. These new bases, which are now in solid dark gray, have three slots at the front to give you more options as to how you can connect multiple bases. Unfortunately, when you connect two bases, they don't seem to want to lay perfectly flat.

Paint--4/5
This is probably one of the stronger points of this figure. They did a really good job with the badges on his right shoulder and chest, and I especially like the commlink detail on his left wrist. His eyes and eyebrows also look pretty clean. There is a bit of bleeding here and there, but it's not too bad.

Overall--2.5/5
This is one of the worst army-building figures Hasbro has put out. Ever. It is an extremely disappointing figure and I honestly don't know how this figure got approved. It offers practically nothing new over its POTF2 counterparts and the height of this figure is simply laughable. Usually, I like buying multiple army-building figures, but in this case one is more than enough.

--Photos and review by Garett Yoshimura
garett@carrotnetwork.com

Special Thanks to Cloud City Collectibles and AllTroops.com for helping me get this figure!