Just came across this thread...I'm fairly new to sideshow collecting but I'm an avid Snowtrooper "enthusiast" and upon discovering the Commander figure at Celebration, I was both excited and disappointed-Obviously for the same reasons concerning the helmet sculpt. This had prompted me to actually email Sideshow directly the week following CE Orlando to provide constructive feedback, a long with various reference pics. While I would like to think it was used for consideration, I'm not the only one to probably have messaged them.
Anyways, I just received the Deluxe snowtrooper 2 pack from Hot Toys, and based on every other figure to date, that figure is without a doubt the most "screen accurate" representation of a snowtrooper in figure form- Yes, there's some inaccuracies for sure, but I have to factor in limitations w/ creating scaled down armor. I'm glad they didn't leave off the helmet Rivet - for both the HT and the SSC's commander figure.
To the commander, it's currently got some more issues than I'd like to admit, but if we're going overall, it's not bad. I saw some complaints about the boot specifically, but I can tell you that they're just about as accurate as we can get. There's very little sufficient visual reference of the commander- and AT-AT which show's their feet. I have spent numerous hours wasting away to identify the boots used for the real costumes- to no avail. That being said, I have to argue that based on my own research and meticulous scrutiny, that the artisans had to implement "light" creativity in the development. The only caveat to this is that I do know LucasFilm has a photo library of costumes that are un-released to the general public specifically to be used in the future for whatever means they desire, and that they provide such reference to licensees for developing their products, which means they may have had other references we are not aware of.
That being said, I'm awaiting for final production pieces. I do own the first SSC snowtrooper figure, but that was a god awful helmet sculpt, and it had some other numerous inaccuracies I won't get into. This figure, however, I hope in it's final form is actual glossy-plastic, non-painted white. The Abdomnial plate is still incorrectly shaped. The helmet is WAY better, but the curve along the bottom could still be cut a bit higher than it is. The gloves are accurate in appearance (stand alone from what you feel the quality of it should be, I'm just stating the physical characteristics). I'll chime in again when I get home, but yea, those are my thoughts
-TC