I was able to do some fiddling this weekend, and I gotta say the Stormtrooper is incredible, as SA Stormtroopers should be. The poseability is outstanding, and just kinda made me bummed about the 5POA. I've gotten most of those for less than their retail cost, otherwise I'd not have purchased them I think. And now having SA Ren and Stormie in-hand, they're just so much more fun (I didn't buy a 5POA Ren though as a comparison).
The figure just felt like a sigh of relief upon sitting around messing with it.
It's probably the only direction this film release I'd bitch, is the 5POA line vs. better articulated figures. I think both could have a place, but honestly I'd preferred they just dumb articulation down to 30AC levels, sell figures for less than $13 but more than $7, and just lower the expectation that EVERYTHING will be SA... These SA figures though, they kinda took the wind out of my sails on the 5POA I do have. As it is, I'd been kinda picking on them lately because they ironically don't stand well. I can't think of any outside of the pilots that actually do stand well in this line.
The flame and regular trooper both topple easily as does Rey... The Finn I got seems ok though. That just seems kinda funny to me given that being one of the supposed improvements. To me, if the feet are sculpted flat, there's no problem. It's when Hasbro gets all fancy pants on trying to have a slight step to the figure's stance that they can ruin even low articulation on stability. Look at POTF2 Ceremony Luke, Ponda Baba, and others... Things back in the day seem to be remembered with some rose colored glasses I think. Hell, original Han from 78 fell over pretty easily. Chewbacca too, Luke... I feel that's a "plus" to lower articulation that needs nixed from the list, just my opinion.
I will say, if these were pre-orderable, and you were guaranteed to get your figure, and the line weren't 60+ figs a year, I'd be fully behind that. I'm not against a lesser line and collector grade stuff relegated to an exclusive role, just wishing it was an exclusive with a pre-order online available is all.
Anyway kind of on a tangent there. I really had fun fiddling with these this weekend. I hope they're widely available.
