1/6 Hot Toys - Star Wars: Episode VII - Flametrooper

[Centrocal]

HI RES pg 5 post# 41

 

[Invictus Sol]

Pretty cool. All these trooper releases make me happy indeed that I won't be venturing into this line, though. Seems to have really slowed down the OT pre-orders, too, which is great.

 

[loki2371]

So far I think this is the weakest/least interesting looking new trooper design. Lucas designed everything to look and flow together like they belonged. He had nobody to answer to. His designs were made for a movie portraying his vision and story, not for the purpose of selling toys/action figures. Disney is a money making machine. Disney designers are told to make everything look different enough for people to buy merchandise. They have shareholder meetings to show everyone how much money they're all gonna make. As much money as the movie itself will make, they'll still make more money from merchandising. Even if the movie is amazing I still don't think I'd have any interest in this guy... But that's just me....

 

[Invictus Sol]

...Lucas designed everything to look and flow together like they belonged. He had nobody to answer to. His designs were made for a movie portraying his vision and story, not for the purpose of selling toys/action figures...

Boy, really have to disagree, there. Perhaps that was true of Star Wars but Lucas certainly understood the marketing potential for figures by ESB and ROTJ. He's been criticized pretty roundly for letting marketing dictate the fate of characters like Han Solo in ROTJ (wouldn't let him die as it'd be a downer for figure sales... think it was Kasden or someone close to the process that said that). Regardless, I'm just happy as a fan of the franchise that Disney did get it out of Lucas' hands, so we can hopefully get good movies again. $3B is a lot for Disney to make back, so I wish them well.

 

[Mad Old Lu]

Very nice! I think I like this variant and the pilot the best. But I'm still holding off on biting on any of them til I see the movie and til I secure more important figures like Old Han.

 

[loki2371]

Boy, really have to disagree, there. Perhaps that was true of Star Wars but Lucas certainly understood the marketing potential for figures by ESB and ROTJ. He's been criticized pretty roundly for letting marketing dictate the fate of characters like Han Solo in ROTJ (wouldn't let him die as it'd be a downer for figure sales... think it was Kasden or someone close to the process that said that). Regardless, I'm just happy as a fan of the franchise that Disney did get it out of Lucas' hands, so we can hopefully get good movies again. $3B is a lot for Disney to make back, so I wish them well.

Yes Lucas did know merchandising would be huge. I'm sure we all know and have read how Fox laughed at him thinking he was a fool for taking a rather large pay cut in order for him to secure his own merchandising rights.... We know how that turned out for him. But I don't feel it factored into HIS designs for HIS movies. Sure he picked things that would make cool toys, but at the same time he financed 2 sequels and prequels himself. Meaning he didn't have to prove to anyone there would be a rather large return on their investment. SO when it came to making costumes, he reused as many parts as possible for the various troopers to save money on fabrication and design. That is why I feel all the trooper look like they belong. The Stormtrooper, Sandtrooper, Tie Fighter Pilot, AT-AT Driver, all have basically the same designed helmet. The only distinct looking troopers were the Snowtroopers and Biker Scouts. Even in the prequels he didn't go too crazy and redesigned every other clone trooper to look different, and that was even using CGI as opposed to creating actual props.

 

[Weezer]

I think Gary Kurtz said in an article that ROTJ was driven by what George thought would sell as a toy. That's why they went their separate ways after making the OT?

Did ‘Star Wars’ become a toy story? Producer Gary Kurtz looks back [Updated] | Hero Complex – movies, comics, pop culture – Los Angeles Times

Gary Kurtz outlines original, darker, Ewok-less ending for Return Of The Jedi · Newswire · The A.V. Club

 

[loki2371]

I think Gary Kurtz said in an article that ROTJ was driven by what George thought would sell as a toy. That's why they went their separate ways after making the OT?

Did ‘Star Wars’ become a toy story? Producer Gary Kurtz looks back [Updated] | Hero Complex – movies, comics, pop culture – Los Angeles Times

Never read that article.... I'm not saying making toys had no impact on his decision making, but it wasn't his sole driving force. Every writer/creator I'm sure would say similar about how a movie studio tried to change their vision in order to make something more profitable... But this WAS Lucas' story and vision. His world so he could do as he pleases. He didn't have some one telling him how to make things look and feel like most directors have to deal with.

 

[Mad Old Lu]

I’m not that dubious about JJ/Disney’s motives for making all these trooper variants. To me, it just seems like a great opportunity to create this new army with all the sub-departments or what have you. They had a healthy budget to create this new world, why not use it? Lucas’s motives for only doing slight variations between troopers may have been driven by the very tight budget they had. Like you said, it was cheaper to re-use parts from other troopers than it would have been to create new ones from scratch. As far as trooper variations for the Prequels, there weren’t that many different types of troopers onscreen, were there? Not like how we’re seeing very specific situations here like snow troopers and flame troopers? I know the bomb squadron prequel trooper has a distinct helmet, doesn’t he?

 

[Bo Shrek]

You can get your hit of this with the Disney Diecast. Save your $300 folks

 

[dms54nyc]

Jesus christ either buy it or dont wtf is with whining. Like spoiled babies. All i hear is it looks cool i cant afford it let me rip it apart. Stfu already.

Anyway, im glad we live in a time where they make this cool ****.

 

[loki2371]

I’m not that dubious about JJ/Disney’s motives for making all these trooper variants. To me, it just seems like a great opportunity to create this new army with all the sub-departments or what have you. They had a healthy budget to create this new world, why not use it? Lucas’s motives for only doing slight variations between troopers may have been driven by the very tight budget they had. Like you said, it was cheaper to re-use parts from other troopers than it would have been to create new ones from scratch. As far as trooper variations for the Prequels, there weren’t that many different types of troopers onscreen, were there? Not like how we’re seeing very specific situations here like snow troopers and flame troopers? I know the bomb squadron prequel trooper has a distinct helmet, doesn’t he?

Yeah the pilots had distinct open faced helmets in the prequels. But if I remember, all the pilots from various vehicles still had the same looking helmet. Even the clone wars cartoon didn't go too crazy with designs. And yes I agree Disney has this huge crazy budget, but I just hope it all fits somehow and not just done because they can.

 

[Rambler]

Damn HT is wasting no time in churning out all these troopers! I think they look cool, but no way I can afford them. Really glad I'm sticking with OT. Not to say I won't grab a Kylo Ren or basic trooper down the line, just no way I can swing this right now. Too many at one time.

 

[wadeit0ut]

This turned into "First World Problems: The Thread".

Some people are just permanently stuck in the OT nostalgia time warp and will never enjoy new things.

 

[TonTon]

This turned into "First World Problems: The Thread".

Some people are just permanently stuck in the OT nostalgia time warp and will never enjoy new things.

Without seeing these guys in the movies yet, they all just kinda look like toys to me. Maybe in the movies these characters will look like blown up toys rather than vice versa.

 

[Chronos1919]

I've been in for at least two of every trooper so far. Not sure that I need two of this guy though. I'm not sure if it's because it actually looks the least interesting or because we're all just a bit burned out on the design at this point. I agree that they may be holding back on the human characters because of spoilers and probably because the headsculpts take longer due to likeness approvals and what-not.

 

[Xenoburger_]

Except the link with the German Army is undeniable and the German Army like any other has different classes of soldiers with differing uniforms. They even had a Flame-thrower (Flammenwerfer) Division - the Garde Reserve Pionier Regiment or “Deathshead Pioniers”.

You could just refer to all the soldiers as troopers, but they all had different training, skill sets, purposes and uniforms to boot.

If we look at the OT as WWI German Troopers and Ep VII etc as WWII - we should be Thankful there aren't more variants - as we'd all be flat broke.

WWII for eg.

Well that's what I want. Variety. There's so much of it in that image you posted. You don't get that with this Flametrooper.

I was hoping we'd see the kind of variety we saw in the PT:

I never understood why an army with laser guns etc. needed good old fashioned flame throwers but we'll find out. Looks super cool and likely a purchase....it's a trooper..don't need to see the film to decide whether to buy or not as their all back ground characters.

Exactly, I can't imagine how a guy with a flamethrower is going to take down a regular trooper grunt with a blaster.

I think the whole idea of a Flametrooper seems redundant, but if it's going to be a thing it could at least have more features to differentiate itself from the other troopers.

 

[TonTon]

Well that's what I want. Variety. There's so much of it in that image you posted. You don't get that with this Flametrooper.

I was hoping we'd see the kind of variety we saw in the PT:

Exactly, I can't imagine how a guy with a flamethrower is going to take down a regular trooper grunt with a blaster.

I think the whole idea of a Flametrooper seems redundant, but if it's going to be a thing it could at least have more features to differentiate itself from the other troopers.

How does a trooper with a laser gun burn down a whole village to terrorize them? You're also highlighting PT troopers from one movie to highlight all the variety. There were none in the first, only two types in the second.

 

[Xenoburger_]

How does a trooper with a laser gun burn down a whole village to terrorize them? You're also highlighting PT troopers from one movie to highlight all the variety. There were none in the first, only two types in the second.

That's true, but that's not going to change this guy's or the heavy trooper's current designs.

 

[Mad Old Lu]

Well, the only thing I can think of is that they could have a droid or a ship to incinerate or obliterate a village. OTOH, having it be individual troopers doing that is more intimidating because it's more cruel and ruthless.