Hot Toys Unveils Amazing Dark Troopers Figures!
If you had told me about five years ago that we would be seeing a live-action version of the Dark Troopers, I am not sure that I would have believed you. These droids were first introduced in the 1995 video game Star Wars: Dark Forces, where they were basically the menacing Terminators within that game. They were very threatening; when I encountered them in the game, I was on the edge of my seat trying not to get killed by them. Other iterations of the Dark Troopers have appeared in other media, such as 2005's Battlefront II video game, and in the animated series Rebels via the DT-series sentry droids. In the case of the latter, I did not find them very menacing, and was disappointed that this seemed like the closest that canon would ever get to trying to replicate the menace of the Dark Troopers.
I do not say this often, but I am glad that I was wrong. The Dark Troopers as they are presented in the live-action Disney+ series The Mandalorian are formidable foes, not easily disposable at the hands of the non-Force-sensitive characters of the series. Their design and aesthetic feels like a natural evolution within the Star Wars timeline after seeing B2-series super battle droids in many battles throughout the Clone Wars and the towering KX-series security droids during the reign of the Galactic Empire. The Dark Troopers feel like a solid threat.
Of course, in true Star Wars fashion, something this cool had to be turned into a toy, and an impressive one, at that. Hot Toys has just revealed its detailed and authentic-looking Dark Trooper figures! Here is their description of the figure and its features below:
"-Finely crafted Dark Trooper helmet with LED light-up function (red light, battery operated)
-Glossy black armor painting and metallic silver joints with LED light-up chest panel (red light, battery operated)
-Approximately 32.5 cm tall
-Newly developed body with over 25 points of articulations
-Highly poseable advanced exoskeleton body structure with detailed mechanical design
-Six pieces of interchangeable hands including:
-One pair of fists
-One pair of relaxed hands
-One pair of hands for holding rifle"
If I were an avid toy collector, there is no doubt in my mind that this would go right in my collection. It just looks too good not to have. Check out the photos included below if you are still on the fence.
Each one is priced as $260. At the moment, it can be pre-ordered, and the estimated arrival would be sometime between April 2022 and June 2022. That does seem like a long wait, but there are bound to be fans who will want to order this right away. We are not sure when we might ever see the Dark Troopers on the screen again, but to have had them on the screen at all and replicated through these figures is something to be thankful for, among other things that have been presented in and inspired by The Mandalorian. The hype for the show, as well as the franchise, does not seem to be dying, as there is still plenty more content in the works to fill out the next few years, from the looks of it. Where there's a Star War, there is a toy, and the cooler the toys, the better. There will certainly be no shortage of toys inspired by the franchise, making it all more of a good time for the avid toy collectors. May the Force be with us all!
Source(s): ComingSoon.net, Sideshow