Toy Review: Padme Amidala (Snow Bunny Costume)

03/9/11

Padme Amidala

 

Gah.

I’ve been avoiding the Star Wars section of the toy stores for the longest time. For a guy who is currently collecting five different toylines and dabbling in countless others, this line is torture; great looking sculpts, huge fun factor, awesome playsets, and a built-in army building potential.

It’s the baby beauty pageant to my Pedobear.

This here is the figure that finally got me to cave and take the plunge into the Hasbro Star Wars universe: The Star Wars Legacy Collection Build-A-Droid Factory No. 12, Clone Wars Snow Bunny Padme Amidala.

 

“Build-A-Droid” is the Star Wars equivalent of the old “Build-A-Figure (BAF).” There’s also “Collect-n-Connect (CNC),” “Build N’ Brawl,” and a bunch of others that took the collect ‘em all mentality of the BAF and made them their own. I have to say that Star wars does better than most since their bonus figures are relatively small, leaving room for other accessories and not driving the price up astronomically. Plus there are endless variations of the droids in Star Wars. Mattel is quickly running out of ideas for their CNC figrues.

But that’s not to say that Hasbro’s sold me on the idea that I should collect 4 or 5 more of these figures in order for me to build R7-T1, who is really just a repaint of R2-D2. That’s the down side; aside from R2 and C3PO, droids are throwaway characters in Star Wars, there to simulate the kind of carnage that would earn the movies and cartoons an NC-17 rating at best. Unless you’re really into the franchise, no one wants another astromech droid.

But forget about the gimmick. I for one didn’t buy this for the gimmick. I bought it because it’s Natalie Portman in a SKIN TIGHT BODY SUIT.

I’m gonna let that sink in for a second.

…

Sure, it’s only 3.75″ tall, but with a little imagination, it’s Ms. Portman in that snow bunny outfit. Rawr.

The figure is very nicely sculpted, with great detail for something that’s essentially all white. It’s appropriately curvy where it’s supposed to be, and not overly buxom (sticking with the source material, well done, Hasbro!). There are wrinkles in the outfit at the figure’s knees and elbows, as well at her armpits and hips. They’ve done a great job making it seem like it’s really someone wearing clothing. This works well since part of her ensemble is a real cloth cloak.

The plastic parts of her costume work wonderfully with the little, furry cloak and the way it’s cut allows it to look more realistic than most real cloth accessories that I’ve seen on small scale figures. It’s a hell of a lot better than the coat that the Fury of Combat Nick Fury was sporting. If you use the plastic hood to hold it, you can work folds into the cloth so that it looks as if it’s blowing in the bitter winds of Ilum

 

Aside from the snow bunny outfit, Padme also comes with a space pistol. It’s one of those pansy Naboo affairs, with a roundish body and a long barrel capped with a nub. I’d hate to see this on any other figure, but it works well for her. Plus it fits perfectly into the (non-removable) holster at her hip. Accessory storage is always a plus.

I do wish that the figure came with a satchel or maybe the thermal detonator she used in the Chapter 16 of Genndy Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars, or the binoculars that came with the Sideshow figure. Any of them would have greatly added to the display options. It’s definitely an argument against anymore BAF type schemes in future toylines. The plastic used for that droid leg could have been used for so much more, including a figure stand (something they began including in later releases).

Articulation isn’t as great as other lines, but it’s decent. She’s got a ball-jointed neck, swivel-hinge shoulders, swivel-hinge elbows, wrist swivels, a waist swivel, swivel hips, swivel-hinge knees, and swivel-hinge ankles.

There are some sacrifices here in order to keep the look of the figure feminine, but I don’t really miss any of those missing joints. She does have one of the nicest asses I’ve seen on an action figure.

 

The figure cost me Php 450.00 (about $10 US) when I got it about 6 months ago. It was released in 2008, but I still see it on the shelf sometimes. Hasbro and Playkit recently raised the prices of all their 4″ lines to Php 500.00 which sucks, but I think this figure still would have been worth it.

It’s too bad that other figures I’ve seen of Padme haven’t been as nice as this. I’ve seen that 3-pack that is warming shelves, but none of those costumes look particularly great as 4″ figures. But with the Star Wars line putting out so many nice things, it’s just a matter of time before I give in and get another one.