Black Series Review: Range Trooper | Solo: A Star Wars Story

Repel the Marauders attacking the Conveyex with the elite cold weather Imperial troops of Solo: A Star Wars Story

In Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, we were treated to some awesome new Imperial troopers like the Death Troopers and Shoretroopers and in Solo: A Star Wars Story, we’re being introduced to a host of additional new troopers, and leading the line is the new Range Trooper. These troops are the elite cold weather troops assigned to the defence of the Conveyex, an armoured multi-tiered cargo “sky train” that transports fuel and munitions between Imperial installations.

It’s a new type of Snowtrooper, there are clear similarities with the body armor and the color palette of its Empire Strikes Back predecessor but the rest differs. The armor has some weathering. These troopers employ bulky magnetic boots which allows them to walk along the exterior hull of the Conveyex and defend it from pirates and marauders. I think it was challenging for Hasbro to design these boots for their action figures and have them maintain the ability to stand their own but they succeeded at this task and even managed to afford it ankle articulation!

Speaking of the boots, they’re nicely detailed with a great paint app! The kama has been designed to have its plastic sculpted in two different ways – the interior and the edges have a fur effect while the exterior has more of a winter jacket feel. However, they did use faux fur to reproduce fur for the color and it’s really cool! I would say it’s as awesome as this figure gets! I don’t think it would have worked with plastic the way it did with the kama so it was a good decision to use fake fur for the collar.

The Figure:

You can see some resemblance in the helmet design to the Rogue One Shoretrooper, it upholds a certain style with the contemporary special Imperial troops. And for the first time, this trooper has a yellow visor and it works well, it mixes nicely with the white color and the fake fur effect.

Up Close:

This figure has 14 points of articulation but because of the hardened plastic kama, the legs suffer from a limited movement. This figure is an amazing addition to the Imperial troop’s collection, thanks in part to an awesome and original design!

Final Thoughts:

My main problem with the figure is the blaster – it’s the wrong color and the grip isn’t rolled out like it is in the movie. Traditionally, Hasbro spends a great deal of time and effort replicating these characters in intricate detail and it’s surprising they got this weapon completely wrong.

However, I have the solution for you – with a steady hand you can do a repaint, it’s easy and it doesn’t take long. You need three things – cotton buds, a white matt paint, and a gray matt paint. First, you need to paint the blaster white. When it’s dry, you can apply the gray paint at the three different spots circled in red in the picture below. Then the work is done!