SOTW: Enter The Snowtrooper

Before I start, I know there are few camps on the whole Snowtrooper, Sandtrooper, Scouttrooper, Stormtrooper thing. I for one think that no matter what proceeds trooper in your name, you are still a Stormtrooper, you still work for the Empire, and your aim is still lousy. So having said that I bring you this weeks "Stormtrooper of the Week", The Imperial Stormtrooper (Hoth Battle Gear), or more commonly known as the Snowtrooper.

This little guy is from my original "collection" of Star Wars characters, I say "collection" because when you were a kid they were just playthings and not collectables, I for one did not refer to toys as collectables until I had pretty much finished with college, and even then is the newer stuff really that collectable? Every one seems to be a collector of toys now. Anyway our little trooper here dates back to the Empire Strikes Back era of the early Eighties. I remember standing in line with my mother for about four hours to go see the Empire Strikes Back, and thought it was an awesome sight when the Snowtroopers raided Echo Base (the Rebel's stronghold on Hoth). My dad didn't make it to Empire, he and my mother had a deal, he did Star Wars and she got the next film, I think he may have went eventually because you know I had to see it twice.

I also remember seeing the movie and then going to the bookstore and finding the Empire Strikes Back Sketch Book (still one of my favorites, but long gone) detailing the concept work of Joe Johnston and others, and the images that stick out in my mind are of the Snowtroopers. The figures came along not to far behind, Lucas and Kenner had learned that kids would snap these things up by now, they even had the mail away sneak peak figure before the movie arrived (he'll make an appearance here soon). These were probably some of the last figures I bought as a child, Jedi was released a couple years later and I had moved on to cars and dating (funny how you end up going back).