Introduction
Coastal defender stormtroopers, more commonly known as shoretroopers, were a specialized variant of the Galactic Empire's stormtroopers and are trained and equipped for combat in tropical environments.
Stationed at the top secret Imperial security complex on the tropical planet Scarif, shoretroopers patrolled the beaches and bunkers of the facility.
Shoretroopers operated effectively as sergeants which allowed them to command small squads of regular stormtroopers.
The Bandai Star Wars kits were only available in the Asian market, so ordering these meant waiting a while before they turned up, well for anyone not living in Asia, but Revell have recently struck a deal with Bandai to market the kits to Europe at least, I'm not sure about the rest of the world.
This was due to the fact that Revell had the rights from LucasFilm to sell Star Wars merchandise outside of the Asian market, but Bandai figures and ships were quite widely available from online stockists and a few model shows I attended, and to tell the truth are a lot better then the toy like stuff in Revell's range.
This copy was bought from Japan, via Amazon, probably much to Revell's annoyance lol.
In the box
Packed in a top opening box, the kit comes with four plastic sprues, one sprue of vinyl parts, one set of decals, one set of stickers, and the instructions.
There is no flash or pin marks to be found on the kit at all.
The black sprue "A" contains parts the internal parts for the body, along with three hands. Each hand is made up of two parts and have one hand holding the weapon, with the other two as open, obviously you have a choice, as the Trooper hasn't got three hands lol.
Also on the sprue is the two hand weapons, ones a blaster pistol with the other being a rifle, only one can be used.
A section of the sprue has the right upper arm, which is moulded in red.
The visor is also on the sprue and is clear black.
Sprue "B" which is sand coloured holds the outer armour for the Trooper.
Brown sprue "C" has the lower portion and the upper legs of the Shore Trooper.
A nice fabric effect is depicted on the upper leg parts, but there isn't any texture for the fabric.
Even the sole of the boots have a great tread moulded into them.
The vinyl sprue holds all the joint parts. Each part connects to its appropriate body part and makes the whole of the Troopers joints moveable.
A simple square base is supplied with a raised footprint to hold the figure in place. A stand can be fitted into the back of the figure for added stability if required.
A fabric cloak for the lower part of the torso is supplied.
Instructions and decals
The instructions are printed on a slightly smaller then A4 size sheet, but the instructions fold out into one long sheet, so the build sequence is spread across the whole sheet, front and back.
The build is very easy to follow, with all the parts numbered and starts off telling you what body part you are building.
The build starts off with the head, then the body followed by the legs and then arms. The build finishes with the ammo punches and weapons to be added.
Two types of markings are supplied, a set of decals or stickers.
Having used both on previous builds the decals do work better as they are thinner and snuggle down better.
Stickers are better for the younger modeller.
Conclusion
Bandai have released a number of Star Wars figures in 1/12th scale, and all follow the same pattern. They are all technically snap kits with pre coloured parts, but don't let that fool you as they are great fun to build, and can be completed quite quickly. I have built a few at shows whilst manning the club table.
I do tend to re-paint some parts, and add weathering where appropriate.
Mfg. ID - 0210511
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