The Disney Elite Series is a line of Star Wars figures that feature die-cast metal parts. They tend to be scaled a little larger than I’d like, so I don’t have many, but when I saw this GNK at the Anaheim Star Traders store I had to get him. Well, technically, I passed on it at first and came back for it later, but this figure called to me. Let’s take a closer look at the Disney Elite Series GNK Power Droid.
I love GNK droids. There’s something so charming about the boxy, kit-bashed, awkward, and grungy robots. They’ve made appearances across the Star Wars saga, so the GNK droid is really a part of the aesthetic of Star Wars for me. Throw a GNK in the background and the location automatically becomes 70% more Star Wars.
I also love that the funny little droid language they speak in the first Star Wars movie, onomatopoetically speaking their name, “GONK, GONK.” as they trundle along. This GNK is a slightly different design than the roid R2, and 3PO encounter in the Jawa Sandcrawler and reminds me of some of the power droids in the background of The Phantom Menace.
The figure comes in the standard Elite Series packaging with a large window and some schematic drawings on the sides. I actually paid a little more than I had to since I picked this guy up at Disneyland instead of the Disney Stores, where I hear it’s going for $25.00. Either way it’s a little high, so if you can get a coupon before buying, I’d recommend it, because I’m still stinging a little from the cost of this guy.
The figure comes with a black plastic stand with the Star Wars Logo embossed. I actually didn’t bother with it and tossed it with the packaging since I already had one from my elite series Chirrut and the thing didn’t work well and is just massive.
The sculpt is very nice. The body is all die-cast metal and I was pleased to see that all of the greeblie detail on the GNK body is fairly sharp. It’s nice to see there aren’t any visible screw holes on this figure as that happens sometimes with this line.
The legs seem to be plastic pieces and are attached to the body with a hinge. The feet are also die cast and have one peg hole. The legs don’t get much range of motion and while they really don’t need it, the legs don’t hold walking poses very easily.
You kind of have to shove the feet down into the dirt to make a walking pose. The flip side of that is it’s really stable just standing there. The cables on the feet are solid little plastic pieces that plug into a hole in the foot and the base. One of mine likes to fall out, so watch out for that.
The paint is pretty good because there is a nice, gunky wash and a bit of spatter effect on the main body. The little colors for the lights on the “face” aren’t very neatly applied, but otherwise, the paint is good. I don’t feel like it needs more dirtying up to fit into a Tatooine display.
As far as scale goes, I think this figure actually works perfectly with the Black Series. He’s right at four inches tall, which is right on point for a GNK. He’s basically Jawa sized, which makes sense since I bet some of the actors who played Jawas also played GNKs. He’s taller than both my Shapeways GNK from PRHI and the battle GNK from the SOLO two-pack, but I think that works in it’s favor. They look neat all together and the variety of height works for me.
Overall, I dig this little figure. It’s a heavy chunk of die cast metal that looks really lovely with the Black Series figures. I would buy more Elite figures if they worked this well with the Black Series figures. The detail sculpt and paint work are really well done, I just wish I paid a little less for him. That Theme Park pricing still stings me a bit thinking about it.
