I would like to
present you those custom figures in this section, which were inspired by
figures that were mostly never seen in the movies, but Hasbro released them
officially. These items are often inspired by fictitious
events or facts. Sometimes an Expanded Universe idea
inspired these figures. For example a comic book has already mentioned
Shadow stormtroopers. (Carnor Jax built
a mini army of these Shadow stormtroopers when he wanted
to gain control of the Galactic Empire. But Kir Kanos
has destroyed his shadow regiment. Jax's shadow
stormtroopers very pretty similar to the "real",
the old Shadow stormtroopers,
but their view plate were black, while the old Shadow stormtroopers'
view plate was said to be white.)
Their most distinguishing feature was their black armor which represents a stark contrast to the typical white armored "common or let's say simple" stormtroopers. To tell the truth, the black armor is much more believable, and practical for a soldier. At least much better then the white. Just remember when you were playing as an imperial stormtrooper in the game Battlefront I or Battlefront II! Playing a white armored imperial stormtrooper at Yavin, at Endor or at Kashyyyk is quite difficult for them, as the white armor is easy to detect for the enemy soldiers. You can't notice the camouflaged rebels in the verdant surrounding, but they can detect you with ease. And a skilled rebel sniper will kill those easy target white armored imperial stormtroopers with a single shot. Indoor locations are a bit better for the imperial stormtroopers, especially at Bespin - amid its white buildings. Also, glare
sunshine can help imperial stormtroopers, as the white armor is great in sunshine, but anyway, the black armor what the Shadow stormtroopers wear is much more useful, and more practical.
Also, that is more authentic. George Lucas's team always liked to create that kind of characters in the space-saga, whose role is easy to define at the first sight. The Good fight the Bad, a Light Side against the Dark Side, so the light colors of the good guys are logical. And of course that is easy to understand why
Darth Vader and the Emperor are Dark like the darkest night. That is OK if the
imperial gunners and the Death Star troopers are black,
also the imperial officers,
and the Tie fighter pilots are perfect with their black color. Even the
Death Star droid (the "fly-head black C-3PO") and the imperial astrodroids (R2-Q5, and that R4 unit in that imperial set) are black. But why are the
imperial stormtroopers white? They would be better in black armor - not only because of the mentioned military aspects, but also some ideological, and sociological aspects force the "bad guys" to sign for the audience "hey, I am a bad guy, I wear black, I am the one you should hate". Maybe that is the reason why the Shadow stormtrooper concept has been born.
The Shadow stormtroopers are sometimes called "Blackhole stormtroopers". You have may watched that Stargate SG1 episode, when they couldn't shut down the Stargate connection with that planet which was near a Black hole. (The Black hole was said to slow down the time.) You may heard about Black holes, that are able to absorb the material, even an entire planet. For the joke, let me use the word it can "spirit away" anything, or anybody. It is better for our example, as the Blackhole legion of Shadow stormtroopers "spirited away" those target persons or data in perfect silence and unmercifully like a real Black hole. Even the material had been disappeared...
J They were named after Agent Blackhole, who was Palpatine's spy. Palpatine gave him the mysterious code-name "Blackhole", as the agent destroyed everybody at his order.
Occasionally Blackhole "absorbed" top-secret rebel documents, or "eat up" some materials, like papers, or holodisks :-). Per Blackhole's orders, the stormtroopers under his command had their armor into black to afford his stormtroopers an increased sensor-stealth. That is the origin of the first Shadow stormtrooper platoon, who liked to sneak upon the enemy, rather then a frontal, face-to-face attack. (However they were still good at that also, as they were still those ex-white armored stormtroopers - now in black.) Anyway, they had several practical benefits and got useful information for the Imperial Intelligence, and for Palpatine.
Please take a look at my custom Shadow Stormtrooper. It was inspired by this good old original SAGA2 exclusive Hasbro item what you can see in this picture on the right. It was the only Shadow Stormtrooper item in those times, as the Kir Kanos - Jax Carnos set hasn't been released, when I made mine.
Custom
Shadow stormtrooper figure front with flashlight
Custom Shadow stormtrooper
figure back
Custom
Shadow stormtrooper figure front view without flashlight to be a real "shadow"
trooper.
Thanks for your attention, come back soon, there are and will be plenty of other interesting things here, waiting for ya!
written and translated by: Norbert Rostas 2008. 07. 18.
