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Packaging - ****
As usual, Sideshow does a fantastic job with their Star Wars
packaging. These two guys come packed together, so the box is deeper
of course. There's also a ton of background text on the interior flaps
on both characters, as well as a nice listing of the included
accessories. The magnetic closures work great, and the box is even
very collector friendly. You will have a couple pieces of tape to get
rid of holding the top plastic to the bottom plastic tray. But that's
a minor thing, and one I can certainly live with. No twisties?
No dental floss? I'm happy!
Sculpting - Palpatine ****; Sidious ***1/2
You might not be a fan of the character, but that shouldn't mean you can see
what a truly fantastic head sculpt Palpatine has. This is one of the
best human likenesses we've seen from Sideshow in quite some time, even
rivaling Old Ben. Yes, I know, that's practically blasphemy, but
that's because everyone loves old Ben and poor Palpatine isn't particularly
well liked. But there's no doubt that this is a very realistic, very
close approximation of the character.
The Sidious sculpt is great as well, although there are a few issues that
make it not quite as dead on for me. I think it's the hair, which we
didn't get a terrific look at in the film, but which seems too full and
thick here. That's probably because we say his full head better in the
OT, when he was much older. He also doesn't seem quite as pruned up as
he seemed in the film particularly in the face.
His hand sculpt is excellent in that regard though, especially when you
compare the hands to Palpatine. They have a nice, claw-like appearance
as Sidious, and the hand sculpts on both figures are designed to a) work
with the accessories and b) look great gesturing. Of course, adding in
a second set of hands to cover the widest range of posing possibilities is
the best move, but the sculpted poses still had to be well done to work in
as many ways as possible.
If every Sideshow Star Wars sculpt looked like these two, there would be
no complaints. Okay, sure, there'd be a few, but you can't please
EVERYONE. But if they were able to produce this good of human sculpts
consistently, most of the complaints would be silenced.
Paint - ***1/2
Palpatine almost pulled a perfect score in this category as well, if not
for one minor problem.
Both figures have extremely clean paint work, with great details
especially around the eyes. They used the gloss finish on the eyeballs
themselves, giving them that slightly wet and very realistic look. I'm
a big fan of including that paint op, even though I'm sure it adds to the
overall cost.
Palpatine has some of the cleanest paint on the face of any human
likeness from any company I've seen in quite some time. The skin tone
is excellent, and this is an excellent example of fantastic paints taking a
fantastic sculpt to a new level.
His one issue is around some glossy high spots. These high spots
are the tips of his ears and some of the areas of his hair, and they are
much glossier than the rest of the skin and hair. They might be rub
marks, but whatever the case, it's a specific issue that I'm hoping isn't a
consistent problem.
Sidious is extremely clean as well, but there's something about the skin
tone that isn't quite as realistic to me. Yea, I know, nobody (or at least
nobody not yet dead) has that skin tone, and that's not what I mean.
What I'm talking about is it's actually TOO consistent, too clean, too
even. Skin has variation, highlights, shadows. They pulled that
off a little better with the Palpatine than with the Sidious.
The paint work on all the hands is excellent, especially Sidious'
claws. Not only are the fingernails done with great detail, they have
a gloss finish to set them apart from the fingers.
Whatever they did with this pair (and with the Ben Kenobi just recently
released), they need to continue, especially with the Indiana Jones line.
Please!
Articulation - ***
If you're used to Sideshow bodies, then you're used to these.
The necks are a little better here, with a better range of movement in
the ball joint than we've seen with some releases. The weird thing is
that it tilts side to side and backward well, but doesn't tilt
forward. He can't even check to see if he stepped in Wookie crap.
The teeny wrist posts still bug me, but the hands swapped a little easier
this time around. Still, if you're going to be doing some redesign
work, the wrist pegs might be a place to look.
The rest of the body is tight, but the joints work about as well as
you've come to expect. In other words, this is a decent sixth scale
body, but not at the level of Hot Toys or Medicom when it comes to giving
the figure a truly natural, flowing pose. You won't need to put him in
too many wild action poses, so (like the recent Ben) this body is probably
sufficient. I'm hoping though that the body is one area where we see
continued improvement in 2008.
Accessories - ***1/2
The accessories aren't packed in a completely segregated way. By that
I mean that the stuff packed with Sidious is really just for Sidious, and
the stuff for Palpatine isn't just with Palpatine.
Both figures come with an extra set of hands, designed for holding the
sabers or gesturing in a slightly different way. As I mentioned
earlier, the sculpts are great as are the paints, and the hands swap a
little better here then they did with Ben Kenobi. However, the left
hands I got with Palpatine are identical...I'm assuming they aren't supposed
to be.
Both figures come with two lightsabers, lit and unlit. The sabers
are also different between Palpatine in color, with the gold color for
Palpatine and the blacker color for Sidious. I don't ever recall
seeing Palpatine with a lightsaber (that would have given away his hidden
Sith personality), but it's nice to have them for display purposes, and I'm
assuming we saw it at some point and I'm just blanking on it. EDIT: As
more than one of my intrepid readers pointed out, when Mace goes to arrest
Palpatine, he pulls the gold/bronze saber. He's still Palps then, and
only turns as they battle. In my head, I already had him marked off as
Sidious at that point, but of course he's not.
Of course, both figures have their now trademark display stands.
You won't have to use these, but it's nice that they're included for those
of you living on a fault line.
Also in the box is a Senate Cam Droid, with a black base and black metal
rod to hold it in the air, as well as an extremely cool Sith Holocron
device. The scale on both of these is great, with lots of nice
detailing in the sculpt and paint.
The exclusive version comes with aforementioned office decoration.
It's a large statue, much larger than I expected. It's a hooded and
robed figure, clearly a Jedi (or Sith!). If the exclusive cost more,
I'd say that this extra really wasn't worth it, but since the price for the
exclusive is the same as the regular, why not get the extra accessory?
Outfit - ***1/2
Both figures have very nicely tailored, complex outfits.
Palpatine has pants, a tunic, a cloth belt, and his outer robe, all done
in very high quality material with excellent stitching and hemming.
Even with all those layers, the clothing fits tightly to his body. The boot
sculpt is almost identical between the two, but there are some very slight
differences, including the height.
Once Palpatine went all dark side and became Sidious, it appears that he
decided underwear was optional. He also switched from pants to a
dress, making the no underwear decision a bit more of an issue.
His black 'dress' has a flower pattern on the front...if anyone other
than Sidious wore this outfit, they'd get their ass kicked. Over this
evening gown he's wearing a very cool black cloak with hood. The hood
has the usual wire to make it quite poseable, and it doesn't have the long
pointed 'tail' sticking out, making it much easier to pose in attractive
ways.
The cloak has a fake fur collar, made from a soft black velvet.
This collar also has a wire running all the way around the outside edge,
making it easy to get the clothing just right. It's a sturdy wire, but
it sticks out of one end of the material. The fake 'fur' is also around his
wrists.
The cloak uses a velcro closure rather than a snap or a hook, and I'm
fine with that. It works well, is much easier to open and close, and
is thin enough to not make the cloak bulge out.
Fun Factor - ***
These aren't the most dynamic characters from the movie, but these are
actually pretty good 'toys'. They are sturdy and well made, and you
won't have to worry about damaging the accessories or the figure posing him.
Value - **
Sideshow figures have managed to creep their way up to $60 a pop, but I
think most of us expected to get some sort of break on the total by buying
two at once. It doesn't appear like they had any trouble selling
through a fairly large number of these though, so maybe Palpatine is finally
getting some love.
And while I'm hitting them up a little in this category, I will say that
if every figure comes out this well, I'd be happy to pay the $60 a pop.
Things to Watch Out For -
Not a thing. I didn't have any worries or concerns about any aspect of
the figure or accessories.
Overall - ***1/2
Palpatine is *this* close to a four star figure. In fact, if the
body was a bit more natural, he would have been an easy four star figure for
me. The sculpt is outstanding, and the paint helps support it.
The accessories and outfit are top notch, and even the higher price point
didn't hurt very much.
Sidious isn't quite as perfect for me, so even the improved body wouldn't
have pushed him up that extra half star. But he's still well above
average, and I'm very happy I picked these.
With Ben Kenobi and now these two, I'm really, really looking forward to
the 2008 Star Wars and Indiana Jones lines. If they can keep this
quality of sculpt, paint, outfit and accessories, I'll be thrilled.
Score Recap:
Packaging - ****
Sculpt - Palpatine ****; Sidious ***1/2
Paint - ***1/2
Articulation - ***
Accessories - ***1/2
Outfit - ***1/2
Fun Factor - ***
Value - **
Overall - ***1/2
Where to Buy -
Sideshow still has the wait list for both the regular and the
exclusive. Other sponsor options include:
- Dark
Shadow Collectibles has the regular set for $108.
- CornerStoreComics has
the regular set for $108 as well.
- Amazing Toyz also has the
regular set at $108.
- and if you're in the UK,
Forbidden Planet has the pair for 80 GBP.
- if you're looking for other Star Wars related items, check out
Andrews Toyz for all kinds of
goodies.
- or you can search Ebay using
MyAuctionLinks.
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