STAR WARS: Imperial Cruisemissile Trooper

Presenting a Star Wars Imperial Cruisemissile Trooper from the Power of the Force Toyline.

While preparing this blog entry, it occurred to me that one of the reason why I started this blog to begin with is that there is absolutely no way in the world that I would be able to remember all the names of the toys in the Dungeon. The only way that I would be able to keep track is to put it here. True enough it took me half a day researching on-line to find out what the hell this particular vehicle was called.

It was quite difficult to find because the Imperial Cruisemissile Trooper is not classified as a vehicle. It's classified as... well... personnel. So a quick comb-through the Galactic Empire's Database did not reveal the Cruisemissile Trooper. Eventually I got lucky by searching for Power of the Force vehicles where I found it in someone's set for sale on Ebay.



The Star Wars Imperial Cruisemissile Trooper's wiki reads "The spearhead of the Imperial Navy, cruisemissile troopers typically comprised the first wave of full-scale Imperial assaults on Rebel Alliance military outposts, launching in flight squadrons of twelve from the bombing bays of Imperial Star Destroyers. They were armed with dual laser cannons and twin proton torpedo launchers attached to the two engines of the cruisemissile craft, although they lacked shielding."

The  wiki also goes as far as to mention that Imperial Cruisemissile Troopers are part of the Star Wars Canon.

What's to like about the Star Wars Power of the Force Imperial Cruisemissile Trooper?

The concept: the Imperial Cruisemissile Trooper is small - roughly a fourth of a Rebel Snowspeeder which has been described as rockets strapped to a repulsorlift - very spartan (No shields, barely any armor and probably very little fuel); but packs quite a punch thanks to it's proton torpedo launchers (Probably just one shot each though).

But it looks freakishly cool and if this really was being deployed by the Empire as a first-line shock-trooper - as it has been described - then you can imagine how much trouble this caused the Rebellion thanks to it's speed, maneuverability (Thanks to the re-positionable wings), and shock value. It would be useless in a stand-up drawn out fight, but as a prelude to an even more destructive force coming at their heels, it does send the right message.


The Imperial Cruisemissile Trooper starts out as a dart looking craft launched from Imperial Star Destroyers in Squadrons of twelve each:

The pilot is protected in the very center by what little armor the Cruisemissile has - I think it's a defect that the bottom "Wings" don't completely hide the pilot, as I can see this vehicle actually entering a planetary atmosphere to fight.

In space however it would probably not bother deploying it's wings and the Cruisemissile Troopers would fight looking out or sealed inside their cockpits:

But once the Imperial Cruisemissile Trooper has to fight in the atmosphere, it spreads its positionable wings to make it both fast and maneuverable:

Note though that with the Wings exposed, the Imperial Cruisemissile Trooper now has almost no armor protecting him - especially from below:

With the wings deployed though, you have to admit that the Imperial Cruisemissile Trooper looks like a fun, sexy ride:

What's NOT to like about the Star Wars Power of the Force Imperial Cruisemissile Trooper?

Well one of the biggest problems with this toy is that the Imperial pilot does not come out. In fact there's technically only half a man in there as the pilot does not have a lower torso.

Other than that the only problem with this concept is that the pilot - supposedly an elite pilot - probably would not survive his mission - what with no armor, no shields and not much firepower - those two lasers up in front cannot be that high-powered and are probably more anti-personnel than anti-vehicle (So once he lets his Proton Torpedoes go, that's about it). It's best chance is to a) work with the rest of it's squadron, and; b) hightail it in, and out. 

This particular Star Wars Power of the Force Imperial Cruisemissile Trooper was purchased on the toy-blackmarket a few years back for PhP 500 (Roughly US$ 11.62). Which more or less matches it's Amazon price of US$ 11.99 (Plus shipping).