1/6 Sideshow Snowtrooper Commander

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Re: Hot Toys Snowtrooper Commander

Story aspects aside, the simple fact is that the designers involved in TFA were nowhere near the level of the "perfect storm" artist combo of John Mollo (military historian background) Joe Johnston/Nilo Rodis (industrial design background) and McQuarrie (60's space program/fantasy illustration background.)

Yeah, that almost goes without saying -- that's why I referenced Dieter Rams earlier. That kind of iconic design has a certain pedigree and heart to it. The TFA designers did good work, but it's too much of its time yet paradoxically constrained by having to hit a lot of nostalgic beats. Tough gig.
 
Re: Hot Toys Snowtrooper Commander

You just have to get over the hump. By the sixth time it's all smooth sailing. Like a barge over Tatooine.
 
Re: Hot Toys Snowtrooper Commander

Hopefully TFA isn't the best of the ST in eventual hindsight.

Rian Johnson is a far more interesting filmmaker than either JJ Abrams or Gareth Edwards, so VIII should be interesting.
 
Re: Hot Toys Snowtrooper Commander

I've still not watched it again, despite getting the blu Ray on day one.
Sold kylo the other day so the only piece I have from tfa is a bb8 knock off.

I just don't like it. I wanted to but just can't. The new troopers leave me cold and I feels like a fan film.
Hoping and praying that rogue one is good.

Ivebeen rereading the Eu.

Rebels is good thou - not perfect cough maul but better than clone wars which got as much wrong as right.


Back on topic for sec think I might need to add this to the growing list.
 
Re: Hot Toys Snowtrooper Commander

Unfortunate to see so many not liking TFA now. For me, it's easily in the category of "can throw it on anytime and love it." It's everything I could've dreamed of in terms of modern day Star Wars. Everything the prequels should've been, and more. :clap

The plot elements being similar doesn't really bother me, because we knew Disney had to play it safe, at least for this movie. A lot was riding on it. After the extremely good reception, now they can do something original and completely new. Kylo has the potential to be the strongest and most hated villain in the entire saga. If he kills Luke in 8, no doubt he's the most hated.

What makes TFA so great are the amazing performances and classic style action. :yess:

It's Star Wars. :) Sometimes you just gotta learn to let go of the OT and accept the new. We're living in an amazing time to be a Star Wars fan.
 
Re: Hot Toys Snowtrooper Commander

I've still not watched it again, despite getting the blu Ray on day one.
Sold kylo the other day so the only piece I have from tfa is a bb8 knock off.

I just don't like it. I wanted to but just can't. The new troopers leave me cold and I feels like a fan film.
Hoping and praying that rogue one is good.

I sadly feel exactly the same. I watched it 3 times at the flicks. The first time while we we're sat waiting for the film to start, I was nervous/ exited/ anxious. Then after the first 20-30 minutes I felt embarrassed and let down. After the first half an hour of the film I think it gets better. The second time I watched it I relaxed and had the mindset of trying to watch it as a "nutreul" and as a "stand alone" film and that time I really enjoyed it on a casual level. The third time was fine but you start to realise that it's just a film and nothing more. Being 42 and having watched the original trilogy at the cinema as a kid, you can't help but feel under awed by The Force Awakens. Let's face it the original trilogy was a beautiful decade of ground breaking cinematic history that I don't think will ever be equaled let alone surpassed. Films these days have so many amazing ways to "wow" you with there CGI effects, that as a viewer you seem to become almost immune to being surprised as to what can be achieved. The thing that made, and still makes the original trilogy so magnificent is the combination of truly mesmerising "original" models and costumed characters and ( more importantly ) a fantastic script which draws you in and makes you feel human emotions like excitement/ sadness / belonging / love etc.. It's just a great mystical set of story telling films, that no amount of CGI can ever replicate. That's the thing with any film. You can make it look like the most visually stunning film ever made but without the substance of a fantastic script being portrayed by believable characters it will always feel hollow as TFA left me feeling. Don't get me wrong I love that the Star Wars world is still alive and kicking but the new films will always be for me at least peripherals to the Original Trilogy.
 
Re: Hot Toys Snowtrooper Commander

Yeah, if viewed as a standalone film (or ST) TFA is a fun enough nostalgic experience. It was a little perfunctory - the obligatory set up of new-but-very-familiar characters going forward, the same story played over.

But the OT had deep, deep cultural relevance - it was about a new more spiritual/humanist generation coming out of the sixties rejecting the ideology of their father's generation who created war. And it was also a replaying of WWII infused with the genres that were deeply resonant but becoming forgotten - Westerns and swashbuckling adventure.

TFA is post Cold War and in the age of terrorism, which has very murky bad guys and good guys, far trickier to have it be relevant. TFA is also in an era where people don't go to the movies for something new anymore (which they did 35 years ago.) They go for a twist on the familiar, so in that sense TFA really was exactly what it needed to be.
 
Re: Hot Toys Snowtrooper Commander

Yeah, if viewed as a standalone film (or ST) TFA is a fun enough nostalgic experience. It was a little perfunctory - the obligatory set up of new-but-very-familiar characters going forward, the same story played over.

But the OT had deep, deep cultural relevance - it was about a new more spiritual/humanist generation coming out of the sixties rejecting the ideology of their father's generation who created war. And it was also a replaying of WWII infused with the genres that were deeply resonant but becoming forgotten - Westerns and swashbuckling adventure.

TFA is post Cold War and in the age of terrorism, which has very murky bad guys and good guys, far trickier to have it be relevant. TFA is also in an era where people don't go to the movies for something new anymore (which they did 35 years ago.) They go for a twist on the familiar, so in that sense TFA really was exactly what it needed to be.

That's a great summary of opinion. Excellent post :wink1:
 
Re: Hot Toys Snowtrooper Commander

Since we are going into the philosophy of why we like SW I can say that OT has a very special place in my heart. I live in a former communist country where SW was extremely important for some of the kids back then who wanted to break free of the iron curtain. I grew up with SW as an integral part of my life, it was like a beacon of freedom for me. We were able to dream of a different better world through the characters in SW, and that influenced me to this day. It's not just about the special effects, characters and acting, the script and story, but also about what impact did it have overall. No other new SW movie (or other non-SW movies) will have the same impact like the OT had on me, no mater if Prequels, TFA, Rogue One, you name it.
 
Re: Hot Toys Snowtrooper Commander

I liked it.

But it's pastiche. Resembling a two hour advert for future merchandise. Which is essentially what all these kinds of films are today.

It was the same with ESB and ROTJ, of course, once the success of the film and merchandise from Star Wars had been established. But there was more purity back then, because it was still new.

A contemporary film has to be really special now to catch my imagination enough to get me to buy figures from it. It has to call deeper than the knowledge that it's largely a brash exercise in selling stuff to you (the Malibu Barbie 'with new hat' syndrome which is how I react to TFA's various ducktroopers or Rogue One's Baywatch troopers).

And then, out of nowhere, comes a HT Snowtrooper Commander, and he's pre-loaded with over thirty years of nostalgia.

It's called expanding the universe. A lot changes in 30 years time. They can't leave it all the same, and without adding anything new and fresh to these films why bother making them in the first place?
 
Hot Toys Snowtrooper Commander

If they didn't bother we likely wouldn't have any of these OT Hot Toys figures, or at least not to this degree. So like the prequels the huge influx of merchandise has benefits too.

I think they did some things really well with TFA, created some huge frustrations, borrowed too heavily from ANH (and even drew attention to at times "it's just another Death Star"), but ultimately delivered something the prequels didn't for me, a watchable Star Wars movie. I had some immediate negative reactions but a lot of viscerally positive ones to counterbalance those when watching the movie.

I've severely cooled to the idea of collecting TFA stuff though, but I think that's normal. The movie can't just become as important to the OT, even good it doesn't stand a chance. I've been collecting OT related stuff for a long time, whether it be figures, props, models. That connection can't be instantly recreated for me where I want to buy everything up.

At the moment I'll pick up two figures definitely -- Rey and Han if he looks as good as the proto. The rest I'll either pass on, or maybe check out and then sell off. Just too much good OT stuff out there.
 
Re: Hot Toys Snowtrooper Commander

So who's going to be snagging this one then? I certainly will be! Not sure about the Snowtrooper though. I'd love to get both but I'm pretty happy with my SSC snowtrooper and my wallet is taking such a heavy pounding with all these superb OT figure releases I'm not sure I can justify it.
image.jpg
 
Re: Hot Toys Snowtrooper Commander

So who's going to be snagging this one then? I certainly will be! Not sure about the Snowtrooper though. I'd love to get both but I'm pretty happy with my SSC snowtrooper and my wallet is taking such a heavy pounding with all these superb OT figure releases I'm not sure I can justify it.
View attachment 282441
I think I can't pass on it but I agree there's so much goodness and so little money
 
Re: Hot Toys Snowtrooper Commander

Unfortunate to see so many not liking TFA now. For me, it's easily in the category of "can throw it on anytime and love it." It's everything I could've dreamed of in terms of modern day Star Wars. Everything the prequels should've been, and more. :clap

The plot elements being similar doesn't really bother me, because we knew Disney had to play it safe, at least for this moovie. A lot was riding on it. After the extremely good reception, now they can do something original and completely new. Kylo has the potential to be the strongest and most hated villain in the entire saga. If he kills Luke in 8, no doubt he's the most hated.

What makes TFA so great are the amazing performances and classic style action. :yess:

It's Star Wars. :) Sometimes you just gotta learn to let go of the OT and accept the new. We're living in an amazing time to be a Star Wars fan.

Whilst I totally disagree with you m glad that it's pleasing people. No one wants Star Wars to fail and to be fair my kids loved it. I guess I'm too old and too OT!
 
Re: Hot Toys Snowtrooper Commander

Unfortunate to see so many not liking TFA now. For me, it's easily in the category of "can throw it on anytime and love it." It's everything I could've dreamed of in terms of modern day Star Wars. Everything the prequels should've been, and more. :clap

The plot elements being similar doesn't really bother me, because we knew Disney had to play it safe, at least for this movie. A lot was riding on it. After the extremely good reception, now they can do something original and completely new. Kylo has the potential to be the strongest and most hated villain in the entire saga. If he kills Luke in 8, no doubt he's the most hated.

What makes TFA so great are the amazing performances and classic style action. :yess:

It's Star Wars. :) Sometimes you just gotta learn to let go of the OT and accept the new. We're living in an amazing time to be a Star Wars fan.

I feel exactly the same. :duff
 
Re: Hot Toys Snowtrooper Commander

So who's going to be snagging this one then? I certainly will be! Not sure about the Snowtrooper though. I'd love to get both but I'm pretty happy with my SSC snowtrooper and my wallet is taking such a heavy pounding with all these superb OT figure releases I'm not sure I can justify it.
View attachment 282441

Definately getting this and the Snowtrooper. And Sandtrooper Sergeant. Death Star Trooper and Gunner are last on my trooper list.
 
Hot Toys Snowtrooper Commander

TFA was an interesting experience for me. I'll preface this by saying it was a piece of entertainment, and I welcome whatever gets created for this property as such.

That being said...I loved the film when I saw it in the theatre twice. I forgave the reboot/retread elements as a marketing decision.

But upon viewing the film at home I couldn't sit through it a third time.

The narrative as-is requires most of the elements we see, but it strikes me now as deeply cynical. The good guys were supposed to win. But not only did they not, they also get crappy marriages, murderous kids, and genocides five times the scale of Alderaan?

Lame. Once the art direction wore off, so did the charm. I'm not kidding myself, I'll watch the rest of the ST and even enjoy it for what it is -- but I won't be buying any merch. I have no personal connection to what Disney has done and I'm fine with it, life goes on. Of course we can never go back, that's okay too.

I share some of those sentiments. I enjoyed it for what it was in theatres. I will admit that I left the theatre a bit disappointed in some respects. Now I'm trying to watch it on Netflix and I'm actually a little bored by it. I'm not sure why. I think it is a decent enough movie and will probably come into its own in the next 2 films. But I doubt I'll be as enchanted and in love with this new trilogy as the old one. Those movies were made in a different time. And Star Wars broke new ground...nothing had ever been done like that before. I feel like the last Sci-Fi movie to do that was Guardians of the Galaxy. And I think because SW has that ground-breaking label that ppl take that with them into each new SW movie that comes up. But really it is a rarity that will happen and TFA definately played it safe and gave us a slightly different A New Hope.

I'm a big Star Wars fan and I like it all for what it is. I don't 100% agree with the prequels, the alterations done to the OT in the special editions...I still enjoy it as a whole. I mean what can I do....the making of these films are way out of my grasp. Of course if you or I made a SW movie it would be different...as individual as there are people. So I concentrate on making my own stories thru comic books...because I have control there.

I think I was a bit disappointed by TFA because when the previews, clips, pictures come out I will kind of make up my own idea of what the film will be like based on those things and with knowledge of the other SW movies and lore and I thought I would have seen something different come out of the movie. Regardless...I think they did do a good job. Had a lot of attention to detail and probably the best acting of the entire franchise. I enjoyed the new characters in some respects...but didn't like what they did with some of the old characters.

Here...these are my main problems with TFA:

Han Solo was a hero and finally had his love Leia at the end of . only to revert back to the beginning of ANH smuggler Han who left the Rebellion/Resistance, and Leia (who lost her son as well)

Luke was the last Jedi...was the altruistic farm boy turned Rebellion hero who destroyed the first Death Star and probably got credited for defeating Lord Vader and the Emperor and thus crippling the Empire. And in TFA he runs away from the resistance while a growing evil in the First Order rises (tho this may be more fleshed out as to why in episode 8)

The whole freighter scene I hated. Like so bad...I don't know why but I hated it. Seemed so unlike SW and felt more like the also JJ Abrahams directed Star Trek. Also I felt that would have been a good place to have one of the old bounty hunters (Boba Fett anyone) appear instead of those run of the mill space thugs.

Snoke...the name, the CGI...I understand a lot was rehashed in the movie...but this just seemed like the Emperor...but like way crappier

The renaming of the Rebellion and The Empire not being explained. Like is the Resistance and Rebellion the same or is the First Order the Empire. I don't know.

Finn being so shocked by the killings at the beginning of the movie and yet having no problems with killing stormtroopers (who he would have grown up with and perhaps there were more like him in there but hey maybe he killed them too).

Rey knowing the force in an instant whereas Luke had to go through some years between ANH and ESB having knowledge of the force and than training with the greatest Jedi master and even Rey was still more proficient in the force.

Kylo Ren seeming to be an amazing Swordsman/force user and yet has trouble facing former janitor Finn and first time lightsaber user Rey.

Captain Phasma had so much buzz (cool design, seemed very cold and efficient) but was really useless and I do not know how she would be back for a sequel after being in the trash compactor and the planet being blown up.

Again with Finn but him as a Stormtrooper and how that reflects the First Order as a whole. In the movie I did like Finn...very likeable, funny, relatable. But that is never how I pictured a Stormtrooper. Maybe that gives us sympathy to the other troopers...but than that message is shot down by how many troopers are killed in the movie and how an entire planet of them perish at the end.

Anyways I could go on. I find the movie kinda stumbles in some areas but like I said...it is an admirable effort and I'm excited for the next lot of movies.


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