Darth Vader - Lords Of The Sith - 1:6 Scale Figures

Sideshow celebrates the 30th anniversary of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi with the new Darth Vader Deluxe Sixth Scale Figure. Recreate every memorable scene with this essential Vader figure, featuring a fully articulated body, faithfully reproduced costume, and detailed helmet, mask, and portrait options. To complete your display, we've included an impressive Imperial-themed light up figure stand and a meditation chamber stand for Vader's helmet and mask.

There is much to be said about Sideshow Collectibles’ Deluxe Darth Vader 1:6 Scale Figure, as based on his appearance from Star Wars Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi. Unfortunately, there is so much here that it would be impossible to give you an accurately digested look in a brief three paragraph review, so we’ll do our best to hit the big points here. Overall, the figure is a complete success. In a quite shocking move, Sideshow Collectibles didn’t amortize the first Darth Vader (Sith Lord) 1:6 Scale Figure buck (based on his appearance from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope) and instead created an “all-new” body type specific for this figure. It’s clearly evident that they’ve used some of their best parts to bring us the best Darth Vader figure. If you look carefully at the buck utilized, you’ll see familiar parts and articulation that have been used on the much lauded Armored and Prometheus body types. Sideshow Collectibles then augmented them to bring what may be the best (and…. “Gasp!”.... affordable) 1:6 Scale Darth Vader figure on the market today. We’ve inspected the figure from head to toe, and we have to upfront with you: There is very little to dislike here. A few aesthetic issues don’t come close to hampering the joy you’ll feel once you hold this art in your hands. Aside from a few criticisms that we’d like to orate about the unnecessary size of the packaging, or the plethora of “things” inside of the box, we do want to make it clear that this is a figure worth its weight in gold, and it’s destined to become a highlight in the long term when it comes to Sideshow Collectibles’ already rich line of 1:6 Scale Figures. Darth Vader is certainly sensory overload, but you’ll be hard pressed to find complaints with it and that we feel may be the biggest compliment to this figure in and of itself. Sideshow Collectibles has unofficially billed this figure as the “Episode VI” version of Darth Vader, but as many fans know, there is little difference between his Episode V and Episode VI appearance, so this figure brings more to the table then they have even alluded.

So where do we begin? Simply put, Darth Vader is stunning. It’s quite a feat that Sideshow, who already released the excellent Darth Vader (Sith Lord) figure in the summer of 2009, who in almost five years have completely outdone that figure with regards to likeness, cleaner aesthetics, and an overall more accurate representation of the most popular villain in Star Wars. We’re not criticizing the earlier effort, but it just goes to show how far technology will go to make something good incredibly better. And in turn it seems that their own respected artisans (the design team) have a new focus with regards to making incredible Star Wars figures. Darth Vader brings many options for the collector. And in our case that means too many. We’ll try to be impartial here however. You can recreate his appearances from both The Empire Strikes Back as well as Return Of The Jedi thanks to the multiple portraits included with the figure. (Let us be clear, we’re overlooking the barely noticeable nuances that set the Episode V and Episode VI looks apart from each other.) Not only do you get non-removable helmet Darth Vader portrait, you also get the Anakin Skywalker (Sebastian Shaw) portrait as well. Both are easily removable and replaceable ball-jointed attachments. Sadly, you cannot recreate the scene where the dome is lowered over his mask, only revealing the battle-scarred head, which frightens us to think than an Episode V specific Darth Vader may be forthcoming one day. The bonus here however is that for the “removable helmet” version of Darth Vader, Sideshow has created an accompanying mask and dome in addition to a light-up display stand (that is gorgeous by the way) so you can create your own little “off screen” moments with Darth Vader getting ready for the day. This little set-up in and of itself may be the most impressive aspect to this release. You also get three additional interchangeable left, and five additional interchangeable right hand attachments. Also included is a fully lit lightsaber and a lightsaber hilt that can nicely hang from a hook on his belt.

Darth Vader also has a light-up feature. A box hanging on the back of his belt has a switch and when you turn it on his chest box and the boxes on his belt light-up and blink. They did a fantastic job to recreate this feature. The last thing that lights up is the large display base. It features the Imperial insignia in the center and is made to look like Darth Vader’s meditation chamber. It glows brightly and is big enough to display Darth Vader standing or kneeling on it, or anything else you choose. His costume is multilayered and has many parts. Only brave collectors will undress him, but that’s something that we just won’t do, especially to a figure that hits the wallet as hard as it did. The packaging, while beautiful in many ways, is a bit too much. The box is large and efforts could have been made to make this figure much more compact for shipping. We wish Sideshow would be more sensitive to shipping costs as that adds an extra premium in cost the purchase of their figures. Sideshow has also become a little bit ambiguous with the naming of the 1:6 Scale Figures. Many recent 1:6 Scale Figures no longer have the collection named branded on the packaging. For example, Darth Vader doesn’t have the “Lords Of The Sith” collection name on his packaging anywhere. But it goes without saying that he is part of that line. Maybe they’ll eventually move away from this convention completely, but we wish that they would keep up with the way they’ve established how to organize and categorize their products. Darth Vader really does look fantastic, and he looks incredible displayed with so many of the other 1:6 Scale Figures that Sideshow Collectibles has already released in the line. Sideshow Collectibles has elected to release both the Sideshow Exclusive and Regular versions of this figure in Limited Edition status. This means the collecting body will never know how many pieces will exist. But it may be worthwhile to secure the Sideshow Exclusive version after all as it comes with the severed gauntlet and hand that came from the blow of Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber. This is a must-have release.