The Emperor’s Royal Guard has been the hardest figure from this wave to acquire, which is a little surprising. I want at least two, so perhaps army building is contributing to the scarcity. I’ve seen every other figure from that wave pop up for regular price on Amazon, so I’m trying to figure out what the deal is with this figure. It is pretty darn cool, so read on for more pics and thoughts.
The first thing I noticed pulling this figure out of the box is that the soft good robes were pretty wrinkly. A quick hit with the Iron on the lowest setting and a bunch of steam blasts fixed the robes nicely. I like how the soft goods drape; it’s not perfect, but pretty good for this scale.
This figure could just be the head and some robes over any body, so I really appreciate that Hasbro took the step to recreate Kir Kanos’ armor from Crimson Empire under those robes. The armor has the appropriate totally rad ’90s-style armor, though they did drop the arm bands. I totally agree with that omission because you can kinda see the hands of the guard in the reference and they aren’t wearing arm bands.
The accessories are great and character appropriate. I like that they used the tiny scout trooper blaster and added a holster for it. The staff looks film accurate and holds its shape pretty well. It is a little loose in the figure’s grip, though.
The articulation is about what you expect from the Hasbro Black Series:
- Swivel-hinge shoulder, elbow, wrist, hips, ankles
- Ball-and-socket torso and neck
- Double-hinged knees
- Hip swivel
The head doesn’t move very well, but that’s actually pretty accurate according to ERG costumers I’ve spoken with. The big downside is that the knee joints are gummy, so it’s not great at holding crouching poses.
The paint is interesting. Most of the armor is actually just the plain plastic, but the chest is painted gloss red. I kind of wish the helmet used that paint because I like the gloss quality of that more.
Overall this is a pretty successful figure. For the most part I need it to just stand around behind the Emperor, so it’s a fantastic bonus to have that armor torso under there and soft good robes for that Crimson Empire action. I might need a third for a Carnor Jax custom.
Speaking of Carnor Jax, I do kind of miss the double-bladed sword the guards use in those Crimson Empire books.
