I very much have to agree that the lack of clarity is frustrating, and that the more recent sculpts are significantly better. I am hopeful that if/when the Rebel Troopers are re-released in hard plastic the new kit would have a greater variety of poses and be generally higher quality.
A big part of the reason why I favor a more conservative usage of the upgrade miniatures (maintaining their "uniqueness" by only using the model to represent that type of mini) is then it avoids the issue entirely.

1 hour ago, Caimheul1313 said:

I very much have to agree that the lack of clarity is frustrating, and that the more recent sculpts are significantly better. I am hopeful that if/when the Rebel Troopers are re-released in hard plastic the new kit would have a greater variety of poses and be generally higher quality.
A big part of the reason why I favor a more conservative usage of the upgrade miniatures (maintaining their "uniqueness" by only using the model to represent that type of mini) is then it avoids the issue entirely.

Weirdly the actual game doesn't have the same rule on specialists as you do with heavies. Once a heavy figure is removed from the game the unit loses the unique attack it provides, not so with the specialists as the upgrades they provide are not removed, albeit many people have played medics and technicians this way, however it's the unit that gets the ability not the unique figure and we do have confirmation that the comms specialist figure being removed doesn't lose the unit the comms slot. Couple that with the way the rules are worded about medics and you can actually see the benefit they provide is not tied to the figure.

1 hour ago, syrath said:

Weirdly the actual game doesn't have the same rule on specialists as you do with heavies. Once a heavy figure is removed from the game the unit loses the unique attack it provides, not so with the specialists as the upgrades they provide are not removed, albeit many people have played medics and technicians this way, however it's the unit that gets the ability not the unique figure and we do have confirmation that the comms specialist figure being removed doesn't lose the unit the comms slot. Couple that with the way the rules are worded about medics and you can actually see the benefit they provide is not tied to the figure.

I have noticed that as well, and that question was actually sent into the Customer Service link. Alex Davy responded that the abilities are lost when the model is lost. Only changes to the upgrade slots persist since the game never checks for the unit having the upgrade slot after list creation.

Source:

Edit: Unfortunately, neither ruling has been official FAQed, nor added to the RRG... Hopefully that changes, but I have yet to see a fix for a few other, similar rules interactions.

25 minutes ago, Caimheul1313 said:

I have noticed that as well, and that question was actually sent into the Customer Service link. Alex Davy responded that the abilities are lost when the model is lost. Only changes to the upgrade slots persist since the game never checks for the unit having the upgrade slot after list creation.

Source:

Edit: Unfortunately, neither ruling has been official FAQed, nor added to the RRG... Hopefully that changes, but I have yet to see a fix for a few other, similar rules interactions.

That's handy, as I never get replies from the queries I drop to them. I'm beginning to think they have a profanity filter on the rules questions , which is unfortunate as my surname is also used as slang for a certain make appendage, I have not had a single rules question answered in about 2 years.

Edit,. This was my last one that went unanswered.

1 minute ago, syrath said:

That's handy, as I never get replies from the queries I drop to them. I'm beginning to think they have a profanity filter on the rules questions , which is unfortunate as my surname is also used as slang for a certain make appendage, I have not had a single rules question answered in about 2 years.

Edit,. This was my last one that went unanswered.

Well, I suppose you could always put in a different name?
I've also had some questions answered and some get no response. It might also be due to the timing of the email, length of the question, etc etc. So far I have only seen them answered by Alex, so if it is just one person, he only has so much time to answer questions!