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Packaging - *** ½
Gold stripe, dark blue background, and faded white backside. Hasbro’s also starting to use photo-art of the actors on the back as opposed to a facial close-up of the figure. A wise move since not all of the new line look as good as their movie counterparts. I hope this style sticks around for a while.
Sculpting - **1/2
Well, this definitely isn’t Natalie Portman. I’m not even sure this is a girl. Ouch…
The dress itself is sculpted pretty nicely and has some decent detail in the patterns and creases. The veil’s nice too, but really impedes any head movement whatsoever. The hands are a throwback to the Droid Factory Chase Padme, as they look almost like cat paws.
This is hands-down the ugliest Padme Amidala on the market, including some of the bootlegs I’ve seen. The neck is really long and thin and the face is kind of unevenly sculpted –it’s thinner on one side. Not too mention she’s really flat looking (her face guys, her face).
I could have ended it there and gave her the two stars I was originally thinking of, but I decided to take a peek up Padme’s dress. Hasbro has some lonely guys sculpting these things.
Hasbro really shows that they’re not aiming their figures at kids with this one. Not only does Padme have some nice legs and a fashion model’s rear end up there, but she’s wearing matching Fredrick’s of Hollywood panties and a garter belt! I’ll say it again: a garter belt! I got a good laugh out of that and appreciated the extra effort at detail and fan service to bump her up another half-star.
Paint - *1/2
Slop city is all I have to say. More care went into painting what’s under the dress as opposed to what’s out in the open. It’s even worse when a figure is almost all one color. The bust-line and sleeves bleed over onto the skin. The painters had trouble deciding where her veil ends and her hair begins. The neck is also a little slipshod. The face isn’t helped much by the flat paint job.
Even worse than all of this is the veil: the gold detailing is hit and miss, and there are severe paint rubs everywhere. This is pretty piss-poor quality control.
Articulation - **
Six points: head, shoulder cuts, forearm cuts, and waist. Not overly exciting, but then again you’re not likely to pose her in many action poses. We have to wait for the Padme Amidala Wedding Night figure for that . . .
The head articulation is almost nil because of her veil and hair sculpt. I would have liked wrist cuts, but in the end it doesn’t really matter much.
Accessories - ***
I would have like a removable veil, but I’m not too upset with what’s there. Padme comes with a Naboo section and a ceremonial bouquet.
The bouquet is sculpted nicely enough, but the paint job is really sloppy. However, the balcony by itself is enough to save this category.
Not only is it a superbly sculpted base, but the paint wash is really nicely done. The bouquet can fit perfectly in the sculpted pot on the railing, which is a really nice touch. The base also looks like it can be connected to something else, but I’m not sure what. If you wanted to buy a few of these figures and create a long crescent balcony that would probably look pretty cool. Three might be enough.
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