Darktrooper

On a similar note, I always say I don't like first person shooter video games, but two of my favorite games all time are just that.  Just so happens "Dark Forces" is one of them.  "Republic Commando" is the the other.  (On a side note, my all time favorite games are the "Tomb Raider" series, followed by the Myst games.)

"Dark Forces" introduced us to Kyle Katarn before he wanted to be a Jedi.  The main plot revolves around helping the Rebellion obtain information about the Darktroopers.  Deadly droid soldiers that would be a mass produced menace to the Rebels.

Appearance:

There are a couple of different versions of the Darktrooper are in the game.  The one the figure represents, I believe is the final boss iteration.  The first time I saw Grevious's body guards, they reminded me of the earlier versions of the Darktrooper in the game.

According to the Wookiepedia, this version could be worn as a kind of battle suit as well as being a battle hardened droid.

While that make for a great game fodder, it doesn't translate well to figure.  It would take somebody the size of Chewbacca to wear this guy as a suit.  So, in my head at least, this guy is a droid. (See Bottom picture)

It's hard to judge how close this guy resembles his video game counterpart.  My recollection of that part of the game is furious thumbs and a large number of four letter words.  The regular bad guys weren't hard to kill, but the darktroopers were nearly impossible.  Well, at least they were back in my Playstation 1 days. 

While there are a number of pieces to the armor and such, the detail on this figure is pretty basic.  His overall appearance reminds me more of something from an animated show or comic book than something hard edged and realistic.  Considering that the figure is taken from a mid Nineties video game, he probably has as much detail as his on screen version had.

The one cool thing about this guy's looks are that he could be from a number of sources.  While he fits in the Star Wars universe, he could easily came from a cartoon or anime source as well. 

For example, his helmet reminds me a of a cross between Cobra Commander's battle armor and the Shredder from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  The armor is generic enough to come from anywhere as well.

Being a re-issue of a POTF2 figure, DT here has limited articulation to interfere with the sculpt. Head, waist, shoulders and hips.

Fun:

The Darktrooper has one of my favorite things to see in a figure, lots  of accessories.  Shoulder pads, a jet pack gun, and a coin.  Being the Fan Favorite, he struck gold with the coin.

Again, similar to the figure there is a lot of gross detailing to the accessory pieces, but not very much fine detail. 

The gun is the best example of this.  It's a unique weapon with a magazine coming out the back.  However, because it's so plain and molded in brown plastic, I think it would look more at home with a bootleg.  A little paint would have helped this for the re-issue.

The jetpack to me seems more like a Robocop item than Star Wars.  It's got some faux wings at the top and moving black nozzles at the bottom.  The shoulder pads clip on with the pack, and wont stay on properly with out. 

Overall:

Back when this figure was new, I would have probably rated him higher.  The lack of fine detail and articulation are really the only downsides I have with him.  Not having an original issue, I'm actually glad to add the Darktrooper to my Imperial Army.  Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go dust off my PS1 and take on some old school video game Stormtroopers.

Engineernerd Score: 85/100

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