Two years ago the Thanksgiving holiday was spent intensely playing Star Wars Battlefront. This year, Battlefront II has been taking up a significant portion of the break. Seemed like a good time to talk about this Gamestop exlcusive game tie in figure.
Inferno Squad is a super-elite Imperial commando group of three soldiers. The squads’ commander, Iden Versio, is the focus of Battlefront II’s single player campaign mode, but this is not an Iden Versio figure. This is a repainted TIE Pilot. Based on the game, Inferno Squad troops don’t have the connecting tubes running between the helmet and chestbox, and Iden in particular has a little droid that attaches to her back when it’s not flying around opening doors or electrocuting enemies.
Gotta admit, not too thrilled with this figure. The Black Series TIE Pilot is a good figure on its own, and has, in some form or another, been covered here before. And, like other Imperial armors, a little bit of paint and detail helps an otherwise fairly bland appearance turn into something excellent, as the red stripes and Inferno Squad logos on this one prove. But, unlike the Battlefront exclusive tie in figure, the Shock Trooper, the Inferno Squad member feels lazy and unsatisfying.
By now, the standard Black Series articulation should be assumed, and the Inferno Squad trooper has nothing that would impede it. These figures are apparently all packaged with the left hand curled inwards towards the forearm, and the wrist joint is stiff. All you do is flip the wrist out, and the “issue” is solved, but it is a strange thing to afflict apparently a large number of samples. The trooper comes with the standard issue Imperial blaster and no other accessories, so it really is just a repainted TIE Pilot. You’d really think that a different blaster at least should be rolled out by now, especially for something to do with Battlefront or II, seeing as these games have taught so many of us what the designations for the various blasters even are. This copy of the figure, as well as one a colleague obtained, had some plastic flash along the gloves and boots, a first in my Black Series experience. It was easily enough removed, but still: something like that really, really adds to the general feel of this toy, which is that it is a quickly tossed out promotional figure, and as a result, it ends up being the first Black Series exclusive that feels cheap.And it is with a heavy heart that “cheap” is used here, because if you follow the Coffin’s works on Black Series exclusives, you know that they are generally very well-loved and appreciated here. Four differently colored Clones? Hell yes! Troopers who gotthree seconds of screen time? Please! So for the Inferno Squad trooper to be such a letdown has to count for something. As soon as this figure was discovered, it was known it would be tracked down and added to the Imperial ranks, but it’s arrival was not met with enthusiasm.
Why that is is somewhat tough to explain. It is a good looking figure, no doubt about that. The base mold is still a good one, and the splashes of red paint and the reddening of the eyes on the helmet does make it seem different and more interesting than the stark black of the original. The red along the arms and legs is roughed up a bit, like this trooper has seen action, and that is a nice touch. The figure really does fit the pattern of adding color to OT Trooper armor and making it look totally new, as even the modified look of Iden Versio’s armor in the game appears to be totally different, even though it is just TIE Pilot armor. Perhaps what was expected was an Iden Versio figure, and even the package for this one says that it is “just” a trooper in the squad, not any of the three named ones in the game in any way. So, maybe the problem is that expectations were too high, or unrealistic? Possibly. But afterall, this is a game tie in figure, and apparently, although it seems ludicrous to me as both a player of games and a collector of toys, there is not a big cross over market between the two subgroups, so it could be assumed that a straight repaint would satisfy the gamers, while its’ status as an exclusive entices the collectors. The status of tie in figure also sort of eliminates the possibility of it being an entirely new or even substantially reworked figure and, depending on the general reception the character receives, an Iden Versio figure may come along sometime down the road. It may have been too much to expect a new character be exclusive to GameStop. If there is an eventual Iden Versio figure it would probably be pretty cool, as it would almost certainly have a removable helmet and the ID-10 droid she carries around. So maybe the general weakness of this figure is a portent of something better yet to come. Who can say.
Overall there is not too much to be said about this figure really, and so as a parting comment, consider this: when this figure was obtained, the best way to describe the feeling experienced was disappointment. Thought it was going to be something better, thought it was going to be something different. The paint looked nice, but the plastic flash was really puzzling. And, how much was this? Like $24? Not that much more than a normal Black Series figure, so alright. Glad to have gotten one, because who knows how easily GameStop exclusives can be found after the fact, so, better safe than sorry. But no real strong feelings in the positives column, and mainly apathy in the negatives column. As part of an Imperial collection which, based on the campaign mode of the game, bridges the gap between Original Trilogy and the new movies, between the Empire and the First Order, there is certainly room in the display for the Inferno Squad Trooper. But we have come to expect so much more out of Black Series figures, and this one just doesn’t live up. On a personal note, I do not regret buying this figure, and I would but it again had I not done so, like if I’d passed on the preorder, but found a reasonably priced one on the secondary market. I don’t hate or dislike it, but I’m not very happy with it in general.
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