Starship Troopers Rodger Young
Review by Ginrai
"Come on, you apes! You wanta live forever?" -Unknown platoon sergeant, 1918 The Rodger Young arrives courtesy of Yamato USA. A Controversial Novel Robert A. Heinlein's 1959 novel, Starship Troopers, had a big effect on me at age 13. I was living in the frozen wastes of Michigan, in a town so small it boasted a bank, a grocery store, a hardware store, a laundromat, a school, and not much else. There was also not much access to science fiction for me, beyond the old '50s and '60s era books our library stocked. But there was something very different about Starship Troopers. Reading about dying in some crazy power armored space war was a far cry from Asimov's laws of robotics and Arthur C. Clarke's monoliths. In retrospect, it makes since that a boy who grew up with Robotech would be interested in Starship Troopers as a teenager, but all I knew is that this brutal space war was a great escape from the confusion and tedium of teenage life in a tiny town in northeastern Michigan.
An Action Movie Satire
By the time Paul Verhoeven's film adaptation came out, I was living in relatively sunny California, an hour out of San Francisco, and a thousand times more aware of the influence Starship Troopers had on the Japanese cartoons I was into. I actually saw Starship Troopers with my stepdad and his father. Both men had been in the military and they treated the movie as a war film. For me it was quite different, because I loved the novel and grew up with Star Trek. The original novel has always been a lightning rod for criticism. People have said it glorifies the military and glorifies fascism, but I've always thought the book was more about promoting a meritocracy. While you have to earn the right to vote with military service, the book makes it clear not everyone is suited to combat and many people earn their vote through clerical or other work. At the same time, the book goes into quite a lot of gruesome detail about people dying horribly or living the rest their lives missing limbs. If it glorifies the military, it doesn't glamorize it.
It must be said that the movie does not adapt the novel well. Its satirical bent (to be expected from the creators of Robocop) clashes with the novel's serious "Hey, I'm just a jarhead, but this is what the military's like" attitude. The many, "Would you like to know more?" clips are of course reminiscent of World War II propaganda films, but the over the top gore and ludicrous dialogue are pure Robocop. While I think the movie is quite fun, it's no good as adaptation of the book. Another thing the movie has going for it is extremely good design work and special effects that hold up today, over ten years later. While I may not like the way the armored suits were left out of the film, I've got to admit that the aliens and the spaceships the humans use all look great.
A Spaceship with Guts
That brings us to the Rodger Young. This spacecraft is a real touchstone for the novel, representing the long military heritage behind the Mobile Infantry that our hero, Juan "Johnny" Rico is part of. The real world Rodger Young the spaceship was named after was member of the US infantry who died in World War II serving his country. Not only did he win the medal of honor, he was immortalized in "The Ballad of Rodger Young", written by Frank Loesser (Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition, Guys & Dolls). It's no accident that Heinlein uses the troop transport Rodger Young in a scene where the infantrymen risk their lives to rescue a mortally wounded soldier. A great thing about the ship itself is that while it would be easy to give it the smooth lines of a Star Trek vessel, the spaceship in the movie is blocky, tough-looking, and appears very used, rather like the spaceships in Alien. I really like the utilitarian, battered feel the equipment has and it really fits will with what I always imagined when reading the book.
A Model, Not A Toy
How does Yamato do at creating a physical version of the model from the film that you can own? Quite well indeed. You can't really call this a toy (the back of the box actually says "This is not a toy. Unsuitable for anyone under the age of 15"), but it is a very nice statue about 9 inches long and absolutely loaded with detail. The Starship Troopers film was one of the last big sci-fi movies to use actual physical models for spaceships instead of CG and it's really nice being able to own a relatively affordable rendition of the ship that's already detailed up and gorgeous. Did I mention the construction? This figure is a solid chunk of pewter and comes cocooned in styrofoam. I know people like to talk about how you could club someone over the head with a Chogokin, but this is nice inches of metal with a few tiny plastic pieces you stick on top. That actually brings up one of the few criticisms I have for the Rodger Young: the little plastic pieces you stick on top are just resting in little slits in the base. The instructions helpfully suggest you glue them in, but this feels like kind of a cop out to me.
I guess I could complain that this has no action features, includes no accessories (unless you count the tiny plastic radar and other chunks you stick on), and is not actually a toy at all, but really that's missing the point. Every inch of this ship is covered in excruciating detail and while you may glance at it and think it's one featureless gray blob, it's actually got many tiny paint applications all over it. There's a bunch of shades of gray, but there's also tiny lights painted everywhere. This is less a toy and more like one of those fancy models of cars or jets that old people have on their desks, but instead of a '57 Chevy or something, it's a spaceship. How much you will like this depends on what you are looking for. If you want a toy, go elsewhere, but if you want a nice (completely immobile) model of the Rodger Young, you don't want to put it together, and you have 130 dollars to spend on a pewter spaceship, Yamato's got you covered.
(C) 2010 Jeremy W. Kaufmann & CollectionDX
Comments
21 comments postedUm... nice review?
It felt like you had this great extended intro leading up to something big... and then you said "Nope- that's it!" And only five pictures, one of them being the box? Where's some close-ups of all this "excruciating detail" you speak of?
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CollectionDX Staff
Look at the rodgeryoung2 pic in the gallery. CDX shrank it quite a lot but it's pretty huge and you can see the detail pretty well there.
Also, it's pretty hard to take exciting pictures of a totally immobile object. There's only so many angles you can shoot something from if you can't pose it and it has no action features at all.
could you add some pics of the things that needed gluing but you did not? also, can you add some explanation of the great detail throughout, because I am thinking of buying and looked like a big gray rock to me...do any doors open, red near the engines, ports for the marines pods?? Just curious.
Thanks
I can certainly take a pic or two showing what they recommend you glue on, but absolutely nothing moves. There's no opening doors or anything like that.
Okay, I added pictures of the ship with the parts off and just the separate parts laying there to the gallery.
Thanks, for the addition.
I've never read the book,but I've heard about the powered suits and never understood why they didn't use them in the film.
I agree about having to glue the parts on yourself. I'd be nervous trying to superglue integral parts onto something I just paid over a hundred bucks for and was not sold as a "kit".
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A master of mind control who hides inside a Ford Pickup
You know how much money it took to make "Iron Man" (2008)? $140mil. And that was for just four powered armors, each different from the previous.
Now, how much was "Starship Troopers" (1997) made for? $100mil. You want a bunch of bugs and ships, you need to make some sacrifices. A lot of bugs and no PAs, or few bugs and a few PAs?
I pray that "The Forever War" (first published 1974) will not suffer the same fate as the former film...
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CollectionDX Staff
I don't think budget is the issue. Remember that Starship Troopers came out over a decade before Iron Man and budgets have inflated immensely since then. The issue is more that they only got the Starship Troopers license well into the production of what was then called Bug Hunt or something like that. They ended up sticking in a bunch of Starship Troopers dialogue but still...
nothing to with this post, but I think as long as a comment is mature and professional and just adds some constructive criticism...meaning does not take a shot but asks for some clarity and another angle on a pic or something it should be encouraged and legal on the site...if someone takes a pot shot at you grammar (you done for dramatic irony effect) or your camera work...then they are obtuse and should a. grow up and b. be sanctioned, because it takes work to do these post and people should be grateful...me, I like the advice you sometimes get...innovation and greatness come from collaboration:)
Just for info, the power suit finally get into action in Starship Troopers 3 Marauder...
Isn't the argument that the marauders are mecha rather than PAs?
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CollectionDX Staff
A few questions:
You didn't include any shots from the back, the bottom where the stand fits in, or the back of the box... maybe some closeups to show the detail might be helpful to those who are interested in buying this piece, and nudge them over the line to buy one...
How well do the gaps fill when the pieces are just resting? You mention that they're loose, but in the photos it is difficult to tell whether others might really want to glue them in place. (on some gashapons and other models & toys it looks & feels a lot better glued in.)
What is the stand made of? It looks like ABS with a brass plate! If it's ABS with even a colored metal plate then that is really cool and worth mentioning!
Also, there is some serious confusion over what the entire piece as a whole is actually made of. You say it's "pewter", the Codex says "diecast", some stores say "diecast pewter with resin and brass-like parts" other say "ABS, resin" - since you have it in hand, it would be great to know what this thing and its stand are actually made of.
And most important... what is that uber cool orange background you're using in these photos? I must know so I can get one ;)
That is my least favorite part of writing reviews... identifying materials. Unless it says it on the box, often I've no clue and will just use the generic cop out term "plastic". If it were up to me, companies would not even be allowed to produce anything other than diecast, poly or vinyl toys! Not only would I probably like the toys more on a personal level, it would just make my job easier. LOL.
"You can't sell it until you get it from him, but you gotta sell it to pay him to get it to sell it".
---Jerilock, talking about me trying to raise the money I need to pay for the toys I already bought....
Most of what I know about plastics came from this excellent article: http://www.zincpanic.com/article/25252.html
It is definitely made of pewter and says so on both the box and Yamato's website. Unfortunately, pewter is not an option in CDX's materials list and diecast was as close as I could get so I just used that. ABS is used for the glue-on pieces.
You can see the detail just fine if you click on some of the images (especially rodgeryoung2) and show them at their full resolution.
There's no way for a photograph to convey how loose or tight a connection is when you can't actually see the connection point because the shape of the piece blocks your view. Suffice it to say that if you turned the ship upside down, the big engine block pieces would fall out.
The stand is made of resin. It does not connect with the ship in any way, it just rests on it. I am not taking a picture of the bottom of the spaceship sitting on the stand or anything weird like that.
The orange background is the iGear Computer Control Center, basically an unlicensed kit of the Ark's control room from the original Transformers cartoon. I just pulled out the Teletran 1 and stuff. http://www.igear.tf08.net/?p=107
"...Unfortunately, pewter is not an option in CDX's materials list..."
It is now. ;)
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CollectionDX Staff
Okay, I updated the materials.
Thanks for clearing that up. Pewter i've found is easier to break than reg. diecast, and when I looked around, it seemed there was some confusion at a number of online listings for it. It's a sweet design, and looks nice in your photos!
You should do a review of that Autobot base. I saw proto pics but not the production piece! It looks awesome!
I've always found Pewter to be much more resilient and less brittle than standard die-cast. Truth be told though, 'Pewter' really, really varies from manufacturer to manufacturer.
http://prometheusrising.wordpress.com
I'm definitely going to do a review of the Ark base fairly soon.