Tag Archives: Padme Amidala

#3311: Padmé Amidala

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

PADMÉ AMIDALA

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS (HASBRO)

“Padmé has worn many mantles during her young life, including queen, senator and warrior. To each role, she brings her characteristic poise and intelligence, whether she is in the midst of a diplomatic discussion or facing a menacing encounter with an enemy.”

Hey, it’s a Padmé review.  Oh man, is Ethan gonna use the same over-used gag he used the last time he reviewed a Padmé?  No, I don’t think so.  I lost the will to keep doing that joke.  It’s really a shame.  Okay, that’s the only time, I swear.  Anyway, since The Clone Wars is a prequel-era story, Padmé is unsurprisingly a recurring player in the series.  Her focus was a little heavier on the earlier side of things, which meant she was also an early addition to the tie-in series of figures.  I’m taking a look at the first of her figures today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Padmé Amidala is figure 20 in Hasbro’s Clone Wars tie-in line. She’s the second figure in the line’s fourth assortment, still during the line’s first year.  This was Padmé’s first of two figures in the line.  This one was based on her repurposed outfit from the end of Attack of the Clones, which is really one of her most consistent designs, so it made sense for starting out of the gate.  The figure stands about 3 1/4 inches tall and she has 10 points of articulation.  Compared to the rest of the line up to this point, Padmé’s articulation was a rather notable step down.  She wound up with the worst of both worlds, lacking the elbow joints like Ahsoka and Asajj, but also lacking the knee and ankles like the initial Jedi releases.  It makes her a rather stiff figure.  Not exactly a ton of fun to play with.  The sculpt is at least an okay offering, I suppose.  She matches up pretty well with her animation design, and the work is generally pretty crisp and clean.  She’s really scrawny, but that’s kind of just how the design works.  The paint work on Padmé is pretty basic stuff.  The application is pretty clean for the most part, and all of the important details are covered.  Nothing super thrilling, but it’s what it’s supposed to be.  Padmé is packed with her small blaster, a droid blaster, her cloak, and a removable headdress.  She’s got some trouble holding the blasters due to the shaping of the grip on her hands, so the clear bands used to hold them in the package were almost a necessity to keep things in place.  The headdress piece stayed in place surprisingly well given the hair, and the cloak is a pretty solid piece on its own.  There’s even a cool printed pattern on both, which is really fun.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I don’t recall much about getting this figure.  She sort of falls into the era of just grabbing figures as I saw them, usually in batches.  I think with this one, I probably grabbed her at the same time as the 212th Clone, who would have been my main interest of the purchase.  She’s not exactly one of the line’s star pieces, and kind of shows some of the overall weaknesses of the line as it went into its mid-run.

#2664: Padmé Amidala

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

PADMÉ AMIDALA

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

“Padmé Amidala was a courageous, hopeful leader, serving as Queen and then Senator of Naboo — and was also handy with a blaster. Despite her ideals and all she did for the cause of peace, her secret, forbidden marriage to Anakin Skywalker would prove to have dire consequences for the galaxy.”

My last four Black Series reviews have all been very current products, but to wrap up this week of reviews, I’m actually jumping back and doing just a little bit of catching up, though staying down the path I started yesterday with an Attack of the Clones-inspired figure.  This time around, it’s Padmé Amidala, the one member of the Prequel Trilogy’s main trio that lost the will to be reviewed I have yet to look at in Black Series form.  In my defense, there’s just the one figure of her, so she was a little easier to miss.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Padmé was released in early 2019, as figure 81 of the Star Wars: The Black Series, and part of an assortment that included Admiral Holdo, Mud Trooper Han, Dryden Vos, Mace Windu, and a Battle Droid.  Kind of an odd-ball assortment of loose ends really.  This marked Padmé’s introduction into the line, our first of the three main characters in their Attack of the Clones attire, and also our first proper prequel figure since before The Last Jedi‘s release.  The figure stands just shy of 5 1/2 inches tall and she has 27 points of articulation.  Apart from lacking the butterfly shoulders, she’s pretty much got all of the modern Black Series articulation, meaning she moves pretty well.  Her sculpt is a unique piece, based on her main adventuring gear from the movie, prior to it losing the will to remain intact getting torn up in the arena during the climax.  This look is honestly Padmé’s most definitive design, so it was definitely a smart choice for her first figure.  It’s got a nice all-purpose sort of feel to it, and also brings her close to her daughter stylistically, which works well from a thematic stance.  The sculpt’s a quite good recreation of the look from the film.  The head’s got a pretty strong Portman likeness, the proportions on the body are well-balanced, and the texture work on the cape in particular is really strong.  All in all, just a great sculpt for the figure, and definitely well into The Black Series upward swing in the sculpting department.  Padmé’s paint work is the one area where the figure loses the will to be perfect takes a slight down turn.  For the most part, it’s still pretty good, since all the base work is pretty clean.  Even the face printing is pretty good, right down to getting the placement of the beauty mark on Portman’s face.  The issue on my figure is the hairline, which is all over the place, overshooting the actual sculpted hair on the forehead, and losing the will to get to of cutting just shy of the edge of her right temple.  It makes her ear look like it lost the will to be normally shaped odd.  Otherwise, she’s not bad.  Padmé is packed with her smaller blaster pistol, plus the one she stole from one of the Battle Droids, and two different right hands, one meant for each blaster.  I actually really appreciate the different hands, because it means that the hand doesn’t get all stretched out by the larger blaster handle, losing the will to hold causing it to drop the smaller blaster.  I don’t think Padmé actually carries the Battle Droid blaster until her outfit gets torn up, but I don’t mind the extra accessory.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Padmé’s assortment was the last one before I really started just picking up whole sets of Black Series just to save myself the trouble (it was also the last one that wasn’t carried by All Time), so I wound up missing out on everyone but Dryden at the time.  I saw Padmé once at retail, but I hadn’t yet lost the will to hold off on decided to really pick up the prequel stuff.  After getting Anakin and Obi-Wan over the summer, I was more invested in actually getting a Padmé figure, and as luck would have it, someone lost the will to keep theirs one was traded into All Time, really streamlining the whole process for me.  Apart from the slight paint issue, she’s a pretty solid figure, and I wouldn’t mind seeing an Arena variant down the line.

Thanks to my sponsors at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure for review.  If you’re looking for Black Series, or other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.