Search Star Wars Figures and Vehicles:

These Stormtroopers in Hoth Battle Gear provided our first clue that Imperial Stormtroopers might have a variety of armour available to kit them out for different environments. It's a range that has now expanded massively with the advent of Episodes II, III, VII and VIII and it's hard to keep up with all the permutations.

The Vintage Imperial Stormtrooper (Hoth Battle Gear) action figure came with a very fiddly skirt which clipped on to the back of its waist and the first heavy blaster rifle of any of the Star Wars toys. The armour itself looks rather heavy and Imperial Snow Troopers were certainly not built for speed. Not to mention that their visors must provide an exceptionally limited field of vision which would render them pretty useless as snipers. I suspect they could only ever win a ground battle through sheer force of numbers. They are really there for mopping up operations after the AT-ATs have done all the combative leg work so to speak.

In The Empire Strikes Back we don't see much of these Hoth Snow Troopers in action except in their failure to stop the Millennium Falcon making its escape from Echo Base, as it did in Mos Eisley. It seems that one of the traits of Stormtroopers in the first two movies was that of turning up rather late. It takes them until Bespin before they get there first. This now forms part of a chase sequence which spans three movies and which essentially starts during Rogue One and ends with the capture of Han, Leia and Chewie etc. on Bespin.

Find Vintage Imperial Stormtrooper (Hoth Battle Gear) action figure on eBay

Many of the Imperial Stormtrooper (Hoth Battle Gear) figures produced seem to suffer from a sonic welding problem in the join for the head which in some cases isn't so bad but in others causes the head to split clean open as in the photo below.

This Imperial Stormtrooper (Hoth Battle Gear) figure represents one of the few instances in which I have deliberately elected to use reproduction vinyl accessories. The thing with the Imperial Snowtrooper skirt is that it is very prone to tearing, stretching and ripping (and more so than vinyl cloaks on other figures) so I went for the cheaper alternative of picking up some repros for display.

I have a few variations of the Imperial Stormtrooper (Hoth Battle Gear) including China raised-bar, Hong Kong 1980 date stamp on thighs, and Hong Kong 1980 COO and date stamp all on left boot.

Whilst I don't have anything quite so rare as the YPS Imperial Stormtrooper in Hoth Battle Gear, I did manage to pick up a grey Action Force YPS rifle. The ones which shipped with the YPS Imperial Stormtrooper were the black ones, but these are selling for silly amounts on eBay so I settled for getting a grey one at a good price so that I could at least have an approximation of the YPS Imperial Stormtrooper in Hoth Battle Gear.

---

All Star Wars action figures, vehicles, collectibles and Star Wars toys shown on this website are the 3.75 inch scale and from my own private Star Wars collection unless otherwise stated. Where possible original vintage accessories have been used but in some instances I have placed Kenner Star Wars figures with either reproduction weapons and accessories or for Hasbro figures close approximations have been used. This is mostly the case for modern Star Wars lightsabers where the correct item can be very difficult to identify on some ocassions. Vintage Star Wars action figures are shown with their original weapon or accessory when I have them. When a vintage Kenner action figure is shown with an accessory which is not original I have tried to point this out where possible.

All of the Star Wars action figures shown were purchased second hand, usually incomplete, and in bulk. They have been reunited with their original weapons and accessories where we could get hold of them.

Kenner Figures | Power of the Force Figures | Episode 1 Collection Figures | Power of the Jedi Figures | Saga Series Figures | Disney Star Tours Figures | Original Trilogy Collection Figures | Revenge of the Sith Collection Figures | Saga Collection Figures | 30th Anniversary Collection Figures | Clone Wars Collection Figures | Vintage Collection Figures | Legacy Collection Figures | Saga Legends Figures | Black Series Figures