...IMPROVING THE HASBRO STORMTROOPER
I have always been a big Sci Fi nut and some of my favorite characters are from the Star Wars saga, which for those of you into Star Wars, is a collection of stories that goes way beyond what is in the movies; we call it THE EXPANDED UNIVERSE. That expanded universe gives fans a lot of license to create their own characters or different versions of well known characters. The release of Medicom and Sideshow’s Stormtroopers and Clone Troopers thrilled the hearts of Star Wars fans (until we saw the price). They priced me right out of the market. Not too long ago I got my Hasbro figures out of a box in the basement and began wondering whether or not I could improve some of my figures. I knew I could never get them to the quality of the items that are being release now, but I thought I might be able to make considerable improvements.
The expanded universe certainly gave me a little license to “replace” some items with pieces from the scrap box. The picture to left shows an original boxed Hasbro figures. The basic problem with the Hasbro figure out of the box was the bulkiness of the pieces because Hasbro placed them on a HALL OF FAME figure (remember those? shudder...). For the project to be a success, I would need to be able to cut down the armor and fit it onto a smaller figure. Each of my armor pieces overlaps in back and has a simulated “velcrotype” closure system to make it look plausable. It works pretty well as far as the look goes (not your standard stormtrooper armor, but perhaps something used on the backwater worlds of the “Outer Rim”).
I found with my first figure that the armor will tighten up nicely around a Dragon figure and they look pretty fair compared to the Sideshow version. I immediately began scouring the internet and managed to pick up four additional Hasbro Stormtroopers to fill out the ranks of my squad. All together my investment in stormtroopers is less than the price of one Sideshow figure. That does fit into my budget.
One other problem with the Hasbro armor was that there was no shoulder piece armor. I created mine by cutting apart a 21st Century German helmet (one helmet per shoulder). It is not accurate, but since my unit is a specialized unit, I can create a reason for the special armor (ah... that expanded universe). The Hasbro body suits not only have an opening in the back which is stiched together, the legs of the suit are glued to the figure and consequently the boots. These need to be carefully removed so that you still have a body suit when you are done. This is probably the most time consuming part of the entire process. One other warning, the original Hasbro troopers are still fairly cheap, but there is also a later “Trilogy” version which has a few improvements and a much higher price.
This is my communicator trooper without helmet, prior to getting his radio backpack. None of the graphics had been added yet.
Partially completed Sergeant with chest graphic. All my graphics on finished troopers are hand painted, or are computer generated and glued on. The Mandalorian Sculls take a bit of time to paint, but they are not really that hard to do.
Finished officer figure is your basic Hasbro uniform on a Dragon figure with a better pair of boots, a leather belt and a pair of German gloves. I also reworked his insignia and his little data tool.
My weapons are specific to the Mandalorian Mountain Troops. They were created out a variety of German and Modern weapons. It doesn't take a whole lot of analysis to figure out what I used. I tried to go for a family-type appearance to the weapons though, so that they would look like they belong together.
Those of you who have gotten the email UPDATE for the last few months have seen pictures of my finished Stormtroopers before, so I won't bore you with more of them here, I just thought you might like to see how they came about. This is really not that hard of a project and relatively cheap to do in comparison to buying Sideshow or Medicom figures. If you have one, or know where you can pick one up cheap, give it a try. Sci-Fi projects are great because you are not modeling something historic, there is always room for interpretation. I have a few more Star Wars projects in my future (in a galaxy far, far away).
That's it for this week, it all starts again on Sunday night, until next time, have a good one!
Those of you who have gotten the email UPDATE for the last few months have seen pictures of my finished Stormtroopers before, so I won't bore you with more of them here, I just thought you might like to see how they came about. This is really not that hard of a project and relatively cheap to do in comparison to buying Sideshow or Medicom figures. If you have one, or know where you can pick one up cheap, give it a try. Sci-Fi projects are great because you are not modeling something historic, there is always room for interpretation. I have a few more Star Wars projects in my future (in a galaxy far, far away).
That's it for this week, it all starts again on Sunday night, until next time, have a good one!
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