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Starting a Star Wars 1/6 (12") figure collection

Starting a Star Wars 1/6 (12") figure collection

Postby Spack » Sun Oct 18, 2015 3:56 pm

Recently I decided that I wanted to add some 1/6 scale figures to my Star Wars collection, so began researching which figures were worth getting and which to avoid. The general consensus was that the Marmit/Tomy figures (only released in Japan in 2000, small range) were incredibly accurate figures, the SSC and Hot Toys figures are top of the tree (with prices to match), Medicom were nicely details but a little small (closer to 1/7 than 1/6), and Kenner/Hasbro are generally low budget kids toys but with a few exceptional figures that are worth buying.

As a fan of the Imperial side, this was where I decided to focus and I started with the figure I wanted most - the Stormtrooper. I didn't manage to find any at a reasonable price, but did grab a Marmit Sandtrooper at a good price - and all I can say is that the reviews were spot on. The details are great, even down to the lopsided helmet that is a pretty much a miniature version of the full size kit I recently built. There are some shortcomings - the boots are moulded with the shin armour and there are no feet on the figure, so there's no ankle articulation, and the head is just a ball rather than a human looking head. Overall though the figure is excellent, and with his helmet on and stood up straight these two issues are irrelevant. The backpack is very detailed, and the ammo pouches fit neatly into place at the hips and shoulder, with a bright orange pauldron on the left shoulder to complete the look. The armour also has sand coloured blobs and streaks to represent weathering in the deserts of Tatooine.

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I also got a Marmit Stormtrooper shortly afterwards, again an excellent figure with the same two drawbacks as the Sandtrooper. While the figures are similar, they have enough differences that even stood together you can see that they share few components. The armour is obviously almost the same, as it is for the actual on screen suits, with the left kneepad and the ab plate details being the most obvious differences. The helmets are subtly different too, with the Stormtrooper having the "hero" bubble style lenses and lines in the trap areas, and the Sandtrooper with the "stunt" style flat lenses and the trap lines correctly being absent. The Stormtrooper also has the drop boxes at each hip rather than ammo pouches, and a thermal detonator on his lower back.

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Both figures come with an E-11 blaster as the only weapon. On screen the Sandtroopers are also seen with DLT-19 heavy blaster rifles (converted from a German MG-34 machine gun) and T-21 light repeating blasters (a British Lewis machine gun with cooling sleeve, and the round ammo drum removed), so to replicate these in small scale I picked up a Dragon 1/6 scale MG-34 (shown beliw) and an old Palitoy Action Man Lewis gun.

IMG_20150730_190641481.jpg


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Re: Starting a Star Wars 1/6 (12") figure collection

Postby Spack » Sun Oct 18, 2015 4:09 pm

Next up on the list to add to the collection was the Scout Trooper (aka Biker Scout), and of course Darth Vader. Neither of these were produced by Marmit/Tomy, and with the price of the SSC/HT figures sky high I decided to look at reviews for the Hasbro figures.

Despite most of the Hasbro line being mediocre to bad, the Scout Trooper from 2004 is considered one of the best Hasbro 12" figures, and can even hold it's own against similar figures from better quality manufacturers. Tracking one down at a decent price wasn't hard as there are many about, and once in hand the figure certainly didn't disappoint - pretty well articulated including elbow and knee joints, great armour and clothing fit, and pretty accurate to the on screen appearances. The figure comes with a blaster pistol which is the only weapon used in the movies, but I'm looking to print up a E-11S sniper rifle based on the old Battlefront version (basically an MG-34 with a scope, and MG-42 style slits on the barrel housing).

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For Darth Vader I again turned to Hasbro, this time the electronic version from 1998 which includes a removable helmet. The helmet is considered pretty accurate, and in a number of online reviews I've seen it preferred over the SSC Vader helmets. On the whole the figure is pretty good, although the fake leather outfit (pleather) has begun to degrade and flake. Vader is a little taller than the other 1/6 scale figures which fits with his stature on screen. Accessories wise he has a lightsaber with removable blade.

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Re: Starting a Star Wars 1/6 (12") figure collection

Postby Spack » Sun Oct 18, 2015 4:17 pm

Now that I had Vader I had to have a TIE pilot. While the Hasbro/Kenner reviews weren't great the figure looked OK in images and was really cheap so I grabbed one, and while it isn't bad it's also not great. The E-11 blaster it comes with is gigantic, and the helmet and chest armour are a bit oversized. I then managed to get a Marmit TIE pilot figure, and while it's missing the belt buckle it's otherwise complete and far better proportioned and detailed than the Hasbro figure. Again, as with the Marmit Stormtrooper and Sandtrooper, there is no head or feet, but otherwise it's a great figure and definitely a great addition.

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I also wanted a Snowtrooper, and the Hasbro version had some decent reviews. In hand it doesn't disappoint, other than the another giant E-11 blaster (which can fire a spring-loaded red piece of plastic ...).

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While the E-11 is the standard weapon of the Snowtrooper, the original Battlefront games also had them armed with DLT-20A blasters, so I'll be 3d printing one of these to add some variety. The DLT-20A is basically a German MP-44 machine gun with a US M1919A barrel shroud, a scope, and an elongated receiver.

I also got another Marmit Sandtrooper (unboxed, just the figure, E-11, and armour with white paint over the sandy parts on the front only) which will be the basis for a conversion - I got a cheap head from China, and already had an extra alternative weapon - and along with it came a Medicom Real Action Heroes Clone Trooper with blaster (a little smaller than the Marmit/Hasbro figures, and I may well sell it on later).

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Re: Starting a Star Wars 1/6 (12") figure collection

Postby Spack » Sun Oct 18, 2015 4:27 pm

Last week I managed to score a bargain on a few more figures: another Marmit TIE pilot (again without belt buckle, and also missing the commpad), a Marmit AT-AT driver (missing a hose and the E-11, but otherwise in perfect condition and boxed), and Medicom Real Action Heroes Sandtrooper.

The Marmit AT-AT driver is another great figure. The helmet is very detailed, even down to the tusks being different (one silver, one red), and there are stickers rather than paint to go on the chest pieces. Body wise this figure includes feet with bendable toe area to get into the boots, and instead of a blob for a head has a pointed section to fit into a small hole in the bottom of the helmet.

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Until I can find a replacement hose I'm using a pair of old LEGO houses, they're a little long but they'll do for now.

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The Medicom Sandtrooper is a bit of a let down. While it's a nice figure with good articulation and details, and coming with a DLT-19 heavy blaster, the proportions look wrong - the legs a little too short, the head a little too narrow and large. It's also noticeably smaller than the Marmit and Hasbro figures, and while advertised as 1/6 scale it's clearly too small.

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It's even smaller than the Medicom Clone Trooper.

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I'm not sure if I'll keep the Medicom figures or sell them on. Only time will tell.

As to the TIE pilot, I'll probably add paint to the helmet so that the two figures are distinctly different. I'll probably go with the "Widow's Tears" variant as seen in the movies:

paint04a.jpg


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Re: Starting a Star Wars 1/6 (12") figure collection

Postby Spack » Sun Oct 18, 2015 4:40 pm

So on to today - a quick trip to Toys R Us where I picked up the new Hasbro 12" First Order Stormtrooper and Kylo Ren figures for under £10 each. These are obviously cheap figures, with little articulation (shoulders rotate, hips rotate forwards, and wrists rotate; without elbows anything other than a "museum" pose looks completely wrong), no material suit parts just hollow plastic, and simply an upscaled version of the small 3" figures. Hasbro seems to have taken a leaf out of the Medicom book of figure scales and made them smaller than 1/6! Had they been made in a similar way to the older figures with fully articulated bodies and fitted clothing/armour and been 3x - 5x the price they would have been great figures, as they are they're simply placeholders until I can replace them with something better (the Hot Toys versions are way out of my price range at this point). I may look at buying a cheap Chinese 1/6 articulated body and black jumpsuit, and chopping up the Stormtrooper to fit onto it, but it may not be worth it in the long run. The Kylo Ren figure would require pretty much everything replacing as the robes are plastic and part of the hollow parts of the figure, moulded as part of the legs, body and head, so wouldn't be worth trying to convert. They'll look ok at a distance at the back of a display cabinet though.

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Aren't you a little short for a Stormtrooper ...

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Re: Starting a Star Wars 1/6 (12") figure collection

Postby Angelwing » Mon Oct 19, 2015 9:08 am

I'm growing concerned at this growing empire. I do hope you're not choosing the quick and easy path to (dark) power...
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Re: Starting a Star Wars 1/6 (12") figure collection

Postby Spack » Mon Oct 19, 2015 8:32 pm

Angelwing wrote:I'm growing concerned at this growing empire. I do hope you're not choosing the quick and easy path to (dark) power...


I find your lack of faith disturbing ...

I'm almost ready to print up some custom weapons, the DLT-20A and the E-11S. These are almost finished, just need a few tweaks.

dlt-20a blastech.png
BlasTech DLT-20A Assault Rifle


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BlasTech E-11s Sniper Rifle


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Re: Starting a Star Wars 1/6 (12") figure collection

Postby Spack » Tue Oct 27, 2015 6:58 pm

Today I printed the DLT-20A for the Snowtrooper. Overall I'm happy with it, although it'll need a lot of soaking in the caustic cleaning solution to remove all the support material in the barrel shroud.

The print is shown below alongside a Lewis machine gun from Dragon that will be used as a T21 repeating blaster for one if the Sandtroopers.

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When it's cleaned and dried I'll post a picture of a figure holding it.

The E-11s is almost ready to print, I just need to tidy up a few areas on the Sketchup model first.

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EDIT: here's a photo of the various weapons my troopers will be carrying.

IMG_20151028_123242624.jpg


From top: T21 repeating blaster (Dragon Lewis machine gun), DLT-19 (Dragon MG-34 machine gun), DLT-20A (printed custom), E-11 (Marmit)
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Re: Starting a Star Wars 1/6 (12") figure collection

Postby Angelwing » Wed Oct 28, 2015 10:48 am

Looks really good.
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Re: Starting a Star Wars 1/6 (12") figure collection

Postby Spack » Thu Oct 29, 2015 5:07 pm

I've taken a few photos of the DLT-20A with the Hasbro Snowtrooper. Unfortunately the hands are designed to hold the oversized E-11 that comes with the figure and the fingers are one piece rather than separate digits, so I'll probably split out at least the trigger finger when I come to displaying it.

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I've also taken a comparison photo showing the Snowtrooper, the Marmit Sandtrooper clumsily holding the Lewis machine gun, and the Marmit Stormtrooper.

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The E-11s is coming along, but there are some issues in the receiver area that need fixing before it can be printed. Hopefully I'll get it sorted over the weekend. Here's the result so far (easier to work in default colours in Sketchup to find reversed faces which is why it's white); MG-34 machine gun barrel with adjusted shroud, FG-32 foregrip and receiver, MG-34 grip and trigger, modified MG-34 stock, simple scope.

e-11s scout sniper rifle side slots.png


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Re: Starting a Star Wars 1/6 (12") figure collection

Postby Spack » Fri Oct 30, 2015 6:07 pm

Today I received two more figures. The first one has proven difficult to get at a reasonable price until last week, the prices were ridiculous. My collection of Marmit Sandtroopers is now compete with the Sandtrooper Sergeant; while the armour is similar as for the standard Sandtrooper, the accessories are different as it comes with a DLT-19 heavy blaster, a pre-built backpack with more details, different hip pouches, white pauldron, and the helmet has a push fit similar to the AT-AT driver rather than being hollow.

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The other figure that turned up is the Hasbro Speeder Bike with Scout Trooper. I've already got a loose Scout Trooper, this is the same figure but includes a 24" long Speeder Bike with lots of detail. I'm not sure this will fit in my intended display, so I'll probably keep it in the box for a while.

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I'll be keeping an eye out for a Marmit Boba Fett at a good price, that's the only Marmit figure I don't have. I'd also like to get a second Marmit Stormtrooper if one turns up cheap, but the prices on then have rocketed over the past couple of months.

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Re: Starting a Star Wars 1/6 (12") figure collection

Postby Spack » Thu Nov 05, 2015 2:24 pm

Managed to take some slightly better photos of most of the figures today.

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From left to right: Marmit AT-AT Driver, Marmit Sandtrooper, Marmit Sandtrooper, Marmit Stormtrooper, Marmit TIE Pilot, Hasbro Electronic Darth Vader, Marmit TIE Pilot.

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Left to right: Hasbro Scout Trooper, Medicom Clone Trooper, Hasbro Snowtrooper, Hasbro First Order Stormtrooper, Medicom Sandtrooper, Hasbro Kylo Ren

In the upper pic, the Sandtrooper at the back is missing parts, I'll be patching him up with Hasbro pieces and removing the white paint the previous owner used to cover up the sandy markings. One of the TIE pilots will be getting some helmet customisation in the form of grey "Widow's Tears".

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Re: Starting a Star Wars 1/6 (12") figure collection

Postby Angelwing » Sat Nov 07, 2015 9:43 am

Pretty soon you'll have enough for an imperial guard platoon. Thats how mine started, just a small gang, then before I knew it, a full army!
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Re: Starting a Star Wars 1/6 (12

Postby Spack » Sun Dec 06, 2015 4:13 pm

A while ago I picked up a cheap Marmit Sandtrooper that the previous owner had decided to part paint with white Humbrol enamel, covering the sand markings on the front of the armour - but not on the rear. The paint had yellowed so I knew I would have to strip it. Here's the before photo, it's hard to tell but every visible area of armour has white paint on it.

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Finally today I got around to doing, and it looks so much better than before.

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The figure was also missing its backpack, hip ammo packs, and orange shoulder pad. I managed to get a black Hasbro Sandtrooper pauldron, so the figure will be a little different to the one I already have with an orange pauldron, and the sergeant with the white one. I wasnt able to get a Marmit backpack, but the Hasbro Sandtrooper backpack will suffice for now, I added some elastic bands for strapping and it seems to hold OK. All that's left is the ammo packs, I have got a pair of Dragon plastic MP40 packs but I can't remember where I've put them...

Here he is next to the Marmit Sandtrooper with its original equipment.

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I also took a couple of pictures comparing 1/6 scale MG34 machine guns which were used in the Star Wars movies as DLT -19 heavy blasters. The top one is the Dragon model, the middle is from the Medicom Sandtrooper, and the bottom from the Marmit Sandtrooper Sergeant.

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The Dragon is the most detailed with removable barrel, opening receiver, sprung bolt, flip up sight, and working bipod. The Medicom and Marmit versions are less detailed and functional, and are also both missing the T tracks that should be present on the barrel. The Marmit is also slightly longer than the other two.

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Re: Starting a Star Wars 1/6 (12") figure collection

Postby Spack » Thu Dec 10, 2015 8:24 pm

And so for my final figures for some time, as I've now got all of the ones I wanted so far.

First up is the Sideshow twin pack of Han and Luke in Stormtrooper armour. While the figures are OK, the armour is loose and doesn't quite look right to me, I know the cod piece armour is too small, but the helmets look a little small too and appear a bit squished. Han is pretty much a standard Stormtrooper, but Luke is slightly different as the thermal detonator is missing but he gains a comlink and two grappling hooks (one closed, one open). The interiors of the helmets are highly detailed, so are intended to be held - they won't fit over the heads, but can be placed on the figures if the heads are removed first. Unfortunately these figures only come with a single pair of hands each, unlike the previous Sideshow Stormtrooper which had a pair to hold the blaster left handed and a pair to hold it right handed; however both hands are shaped such that they can be used to hold the blaster either left or right handed and not look odd. The other nice feature is the blaster details - they have little D rings on the rear, working folding stocks, and are nicely weathered.

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Sideshow on the left, Marmit on the right


They will probably end up being displayed as Stormtroopers initially to go with the rest of the theme I've been building up - all of the 1/6 scale figures I have are Imperials. Maybe if I veer into the Rebels in the future they'll get reverted back to character. Although if I can get a cheap Chewbacca they might look good posed escorting him to the detention block ...

I also picked up the Marmit Boba Fett, completing the Marmit collection (Stormtrooper, Sandtrooper, Sandtrooper Sergeant, TIE Pilot, AT-AT Driver, and Boba). I've only put enough of the figure together to check the fit, even without all the detail pieces such as pistol, wookie hair, knives, and hoses, it's still a great looking figure. Very pleased to have finally picked up one of these cheap.

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As with the other Marmits parts of the armour needed to be heated with a hair dryer so they'll stretch a little to fit over the legs and arms, but this means they're a nice tight fit unlike the Sideshow figures above which are so loose that the armour rattles every time they're moved; although the belt/holster part was incredibly tight and I thought I was going to snap a hip joint in the process.

And finally I grabbed another Marmit Stormtrooper, this one being the version with the incorrect Sandtrooper left shin (although I didn't notice till it arrived). Hopefully most people won't notice it, and now I'll have a pair of Marmit Stormtroopers flanking Vader when I get them all out on display. Here it is with Boba, Han, and Luke.

IMG_20151210_194328440.jpg


At some point in the future I should be able to get all of the figures out on display together, at which point lots of new photos will be appearing.

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