>>10055620Storm troopers are one of the all time classics. There are a few Rebel Alliance troop builders like fleet trooper, Hoth trooper, and Endor commandos, but none of them ever really have the same appeal as their Imperial counterparts. One thing that I've always felt Star Wars could have done better with is identifying what a standard Rebel soldier looks like, although storm troopers are not actually Imperial infantry. Within canon, storm troopers are basically the Empire's SS-- thugs who will commit war crimes on behalf of the Emperor and will not be held accountable. They're a separate unit from the standard Imperial infantry, but the standard infantry barely appears in the original trilogy. You may want to wait for Hasbro to release a standard storm trooper with the new mold, but heavy gunner with a rifle is the same thing.
Building up an imperial infantry force is very unique, but it will basically be an EU-themed army due to their lack of presence in the films. The only Imperial infantry soldier figure I'm aware of in the vintage collection is Migs Mayfeld, who is disguised as one with a full-face helmet. If you wanted to go full-on canon accuracy, you could build an army of Migs Mayfelds and get a bunch of AT-ST driver heads to stick on them, because AT-ST drivers are essentially Imperial infantry without armor. Of course, for character reasons, Mayfeld only has a pistol, so you'd need Imperial rifles.
GI Joe's Cobra infantry soldier is probably the second most recognizable army builder toy, and like the Storm Trooper you can't go wrong with it. On the Joe side, "Grunt" became the de-facto army builder even though technically he is a character. He is a standard US soldier, so he became "the grunt figure" and sold very well for that reason. I think most Joe fans accept the idea that Robert "Grunt" Graves is an example of a standard rank-and-file GI Joe soldier, and since newer figures have removable helmets, you can easily swap heads for variety.
