It’s hard to think of action type shots for an old, withered man in an oversized bathrobe. So let’s pull that robe off and see what he’s hiding under there!
But really, I had a hard time coming up with anything dynamic to either shoot or talk about. Okay Palpy, hold this cane. Can you hunch a bit? Perfect! Now, raise one arm. Good, good. Point. Beautiful! But in the end I realized that he’s not meant to be an action type guy. Prequels aside, of course. He’s a manipulator. And facilitator. An orchestrator. All kinds of “trators” if you will. Maybe shoot some lightning every now and then. The question was, would this figure do all of that for me?
Standard Black Series packaging. I had to giggle at how the Emperor is packaged, with his arms flared out to take up more space and looking like a bendy figure with that pose.
Out of the package the figure is frustrating. The cloth robes are cumbersome, hard to manipulate, and the rubber under skirt makes the legs hard to get to. So right off the bat I tore the robe off to get a better idea of what I was dealing with.
What’s underneath is a regular Star Wars Black Series type body. None of it is reuse though, when it could have omitted some articulation with little impact on a figure of the Emperor. The arms are a little scrawny but it could be used for fodder for a ninja type character of some kind.
The legs even have some texture to them. Again, surprising, but if you’re making new molds for legs that are hidden under two different layers of material you might as well go all out, right?
What surprised me the most is the fully sculpted head and hair. It reminds me of the Prequels. It also reminds a bit of Dracula. Hmmm.
Putting the robes back, let’s stick with the head and neck because that’s where my two biggest gripes are. Sure, the robes are bulky all over, but the actual robes from the movie are bulky too. The biggest problem right off the bat is how the hood doesn’t want to lay down naturally.
This is actually pushed down a bit. In most of the initial pictures there was a huge gap up top and he had a Flying Nun thing going on with the sides.
And here’s the original Hasbro promotional picture. Better paint, of course. The top looks a little better, but the clasp is missing and the sides of the hood look worse.
But, with a little finagling you can get a decent look to it. Pulling down really hard on the sides, getting it to conform to the head.
Now, that picture demonstrates my second big gripe; the clasp. It’s sewn into the left side of the cloak while the is a hook through a hole on the right. All fine and good, but the hook peg is too long and pushes against body, causing it to stick up awkwardly.
My answer to both of these annoyances is glue, but I don’t know the affects of superglue on fabric. I need to test different things out. But the plan is to glue the top of the hood down to the head, cut the clasp hook off and glue it all together, then try to manipulate the whole area until I get somewhere within the bounds of normalcy. Maybe even glue the sleeves up above the front of the hands to keep the robe from swallowing them.
Like I said, articulation is standard. The lower inner robe is a softer rubbery material so while it does hinder the ability to move the legs, it doesn’t block them completely. Check out my video review for range of motion there.
His only accessory is his cane. While it does look good (I mean, for being a cane) it is slightly too short for him to hold while standing straight up. It doesn’t touch the ground. Hunching him a bit gets it closer, enough to almost fake it, but it still doesn’t quite reach. Hunching also helps the figure to look more like Emperor Palpatine, overall.
Wish we could have gotten some Force lightning though, that would have been sweet.
The height of the figure is fitting, being slightly shorter than most figures. Whether you want this for you Prequel shelf with Anakin or on your Original Trilogy shelf with Darth Vader, he’ll fit right in.
That’s the Bandai model kit Vader, by the way. You can check my review of him here.
End of the day, I’m good with this figure, especially after I get around to tweaking the hood and clasp. I know that won’t be a popular opinion but I’m sticking to it. My requirements for the Emperor consisted of looking menacing and being ugly. This figure fulfills those requirements. Sure, sculpted robes would have been nice, if not articulation hindering, but I’ve already said that articulation isn’t a biggie for me when it comes to this guy, so I think I’m good either way. Maybe I’m just apathetic over getting the Emperor over someone like Lando or Dengar, characters I’d rather have. In that respect, I have an Emperor, he’s on the shelf, let’s get to someone new.
