Review date: 12/10/2005

Manufacturer: Gentle Giant Studios

Released: 2005

Availability: NORMAL

Type: Bust

Sculpt:
Great. The sculpt is very accurate to the source. The first thing I noticed was that they changed the design of the head from the prototype. The head sculpt was much rounder just like the helmet in the movie. Personally, I didn't like the new helmet in the movie because it was too round. This was probably due to the fact that the new designers said they wanted to make the helmet symmetrical. It seems Gentle Giant decided to change the final head sculpt to reflect the design of the Vader head in the Original Trilogy instead, which was a good idea. You'll notice that the final sculpt has a slightly longer thinner head. If you want to see the difference, just check the back of the box where they have a somewhat clear still of Vader from Episode III.

Now that that's out of the way, let's continue with the review. Like I said, the head sculpt is very accurate. They captured all the grooves and edges of the source very well. If I were to take pics of this sculpt up close, you would've thought it was a photo of the real thing or the Master Replica helmet. The top helmet is nice and smooth as expected. The grill on the mouth and even the tiny screws on the front is fully realized. GG didn't cheat with any shortcuts.

Moving down, the next thing is the torso. My oh my, what a hefty piece of sculpture. The torso is a giant chunk of heavy material which adds a lot of value to the sculpt. Just looking at its girth, you can tell this is one of the more impressive minibusts from Gentle Giant The pose of the hands and arms are quite unusual for Vader. I think we probably saw Vader with this pose a few times in the Original Trilogy. But since Anakin had such a small part in his new body in Episode III, I thought it was interesting that they made him use a lightsaber here. GG could've had him crossing his arms instead. I guess this was because GG never made a bust of him with his lightsaber fully armed. But we get a Samurai-style Vader pose which looks cool. The hands look natural and has a nice looking grip on the handle. The textures used for the arms and gloves is super accurate with the tiniest detail like seams! Very nice. The part where the gloves meet the arms was a surprise also. They didn't make it a solid piece. The end of the gloves from the arms is actually hollow so it looks like he's really wearing gloves. GG could've made it a solid piece but they didn't. Excellent.

The buttons and all the little gadgets on his belly and belt are all well sculpted. They all look accurate with no weird positions or anything. One interesting thing was that GG sculpted out the base! It's hardly visible but I like that they wanted to be consistent with their other minibusts. It does look odd since it's hardly there. The cape on the back is absolutely exquisite. The ripples and folds look amazing. The folds at the end of the cape is very intricate and detailed. Neat. I also love the way the cape is draped over Vader's left arm. It looks very realistic.

And last but not least, the lightsaber is well crafted. Even though the majority of the handle is hidden from view, I think whatever's there is very close to the source. The laser is very well done and solid. It's nice and straight with little to no warping. One interesting thing is that the tip of the lightsaber is different than the Yoda minibust. It's slightly pointy and is more accurate to the source. It has a metal rod at the end so it fits into the handle very well. Nice, tight and stable. I also have to point out that the chain around his neck is a separate plastic piece. I wish it was metal but it looks fine.

I do have to mention that there are minor dents here and there. That was annoying. But the majority of defects is in the paint job which I will discuss now...

Paint:
The paint job is pretty good. The helmet and face has the same glossy look as the source material. The matte black on the cape is well done too. The different black tones for the glove and arms was also a nice touch. Gentle Giant could've made all the black paint the same pigment but they didn't. Cool. The silver paint is okay and not terribly outstanding. And all the colors for the various buttons on the gizmos look adequate. It's a good paint job except for a few issues...

My main beef with the paint job is how much of it was damaged. There were several little parts near the helmet where there was tiny blobs of paint here and there. It almost looks like the sculpt had some tiny damage and they tried to hide it. The silver lines along the collar are not quite as clean as they could be. I also found some tiny bit of glossy paint had dripped onto his hand and the handle of the lightsaber. And finally, there was a chipped paint on certain parts of the helmet, body and at the end of the cape. I was able to fix some of the chipped parts with a black marker but the blobs of paint cannot be fixed. They're not visible at a distance but they're there. I would've given this a Flawless Award if the paint job didn't have so many defects. I'm sure a lot of these problems stem from the fact that GG made so many pieces of Vader for this release. Mass produced = defects. That's a given. Oh well...

Where can I find this?
VERY easy since he just came out (as of this review). And because Gentle Giant increased quantities of this particular bust, you won't have trouble finding him at all.

The box. Unlike the early Gentle Giant busts, the recent generation of busts by Gentle Giant have been packaged in a windowed box. It's cool to see a portion of the figure so you can inspect for damage.

"Must..not..think of Leia..in...slave..outfit...arghhhh..."

The amount of detail is quite exquisite.

The side.

That lightsaber is pretty cool.

The back. The cape is simply awesome. Check out those folds!