Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Sideshow vs Marmit vs Medicom

And here are comparison pictures of Sideshow's Imperial Stormtrooper (on the left) with Marmit's Stormtrooper (on the right). Sideshow's Stormtrooper helmet has additional detail where the air supply nozzles are located as well as breathing filters. Sideshow's Stormtrooper helmet also has holes cut into the "mouth" position or vocoder. Although it's a nice touch, under the helmet there's supposed to be an atmosphere intake and processing unit, voice filtering unit and comlink microphone so the holes wouldn't be showing at all.

Sideshow's Stormtrooper Blaster, the E-11 BlasTech Standard Imperial Sidearm with 3-position foldable stock is extremely detailed and nicely done with some weathering paintwork as well compared to Marmit's molded plastic piece which looks rather small in the trooper's hands.

Marmit's holster is also just one molded piece of plastic compared with Sideshow's Imperial Stormtrooper holster which is made of a leather-like material with restraining strap and magnetic tab. Because Sideshow opted for hard plastic, the details of the Stormtrooper armor are more defined and obvious versus Marmit's which was molded with soft plastic and hence pales in comparison.

The energy sinks on the Stormtrooper armor have always been quite tricky to reproduce in 1/6 scale but Sideshow was able to execute this very well. Marmit's boots are also molded together with the lower leg armor, thus compromising on the poseability. No such problems with Sideshow's Stormtrooper. Only problem with Sideshow's is the loose jointed body. My verdict: Sideshow Imperial Stormtrooper beats Marmit Stormtrooper in all areas.

And now comparison pictures of Sideshow's Imperial Stormtrooper (on the left) with Medicom's Stormtrooper (on the right). The forehead/top of Medicom's Stormtrooper helmet seems to be a bit too high compared with Sideshow's which is rounded nicely. Most notable is the difference in overall size of the figure which is the bane of all Medicom's Star Wars figures. Although the chest plate armor is not as wide as Sideshow's, Medicom's Stormtrooper looks really skinny (not Lindsay Lohan's skeletal skinny but for an armored trooper, he looks malnourished). In this instance, the chest plate armor is TOO TIGHT. You can see from the picture how short his legs are next to Sideshow's.

Medicom's Stormtrooper armor is too tight on the figure overall, causing the exposed body suit to bunch up at the joints i.e. elbow areas. Plus because Medicom's Stormtrooper body suit/glove is made of a rubbery material, fear of the suit disintegrating over time is highly likely :( This will not happen with Sideshow's Stormtrooper.

The height difference between Medicom's Star Wars Stormtrooper figure with other 1/6 scale 12-inch figures is very apparent and shows why I've sworn off Medicom's Star Wars armored figures.

The verdict is IN - Sideshow's 1/6 scale 12-inch Star Wars Galactic Empire Imperial Stormtrooper is the best by far. Now they just have to improve on the body they use - tighter joints please.

"The baton has been passed, shortie. Take a hike and Sayonara!"

Pictures of Sideshow's Imperial Stormtrooper here

You can view pictures of Marmit's Stormtrooper here and Medicom's Stormtrooper here. I've also covered Marmit's Sandtrooper here and Sandtrooper Sergeant here as well as Medicom's Sandtrooper here.


6 comments:

Joshua said...

would you be getting the stormtrooper commander variant???


i think its going for 150 too.

alex teo said...

hey joshua, i'm skipping this as i'm more keen on the plain white troopers which appeared in the films - more movie accurate. Color markings for rank did not appear until the prequels with the clone troopers. The thick blue stripe down his helmet looks like Jason from Friday 13th took an axe and tried to cut the helmet in half; i'm just not comfortable with it.

the only dirty troopers i can accept are the sandtroopers with their color shoulder pauldrons for rank.

CHEERS! hope u pick up yours

Jcee said...

Thanks for the comparison Alex! The Sideshow one does look very good! The color on the Marmit one looks a tiny bit yellow, or softer color. The Sideshow white is very clean bright white.

Another question is, since I am not a 6th scale collector, what type of articulation should I expect from the Sideshow trooper? For example, are the legs ball joints to the pelvis, etc?

Sorry for all the questions! But I am really interested in this figure!

alex teo said...

hi Jcee, plucked from Sideshow's site: "The Prometheus body, created by the Sideshow Collectibles Design and Development Team, has forms to fill out traditional garments more naturally, with smoother contours and muscle features. It also employs ball-joints at the wrists and ankles to give these areas a very wide range of articulation! The Armored Figure body, created in collaboration with Hot Toys, has a slimmer build to fit into armored costumes without looking bulky."

There's also a picture (see link: http://www.sideshowtoy.com/?p=4373)

The problem is that the joints are not tight like Hot Toys but rather loose and needs the display stand for most poses. The poses i managed to take were after a lot of posing and balancing and trying to get the center of gravity right. Hope these help answer your questions :)

Jcee said...

Thanks for the reply Alex! One more question, when you mean loose, do you mean like the figure won't be able to hold a pose with its arm extending out full length holding the gun?

alex teo said...

hi jcee, the figure is weak at the ankles and knees and doesn't seem to be able to stand up straight. also might be a challenge for arm extended pose although i've seen pictures of these poses so i guess it all depends on your luck with the figure.