Darth Vader accompanies the Imperial Fleet and invades the Wookiee home world of Kashyyyk, and as can be expected from the Dark Lord, chaos and destruction lie in his wake!
Based on the character from the highly rated, best selling Lucasarts videogame, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Darth Vader is brought to life (or near death!) showing exposed mechanics, arm actuators, tattered and burnt clothing and the exposed, scarred face of the battle weathered Sith Lord
The whole The Force Unleashed multimedia event was quite a machine. It grasped Star Wars fans’ hearts all over the world in record breaking time and the interest in the franchise hasn’t seemed to waned since it was first introduced to us in the beginning of 2008 through a very special wave of basic figures by Hasbro. We didn’t know much about the game then, but we knew that it included some of the coolest Star Wars characters we had seen in a very long time. The game saw one delay after an other, but eventually was released with overall positive reviews. One character in particular, known as the basic figure Battle-Damaged Darth Vader (08 12) then, struck such a chord with collectors that they wanted him in essentially every collectible form possible. Unfortunately, other than a basic action figure released in the 30 (77-07) line and a Mini Bust, not much else is available for this character.
Thankfully, Gentle Giant Ltd.. makes up for the lack of collectible product with the release of their Mini Bust. It’s rare when a prototype doesn’t look better than the production version, but for Darth Vader (Force Unleashed), quite the opposite is true. The production version looks infinitely better than the initial images shown by Gentle Giant Ltd.. in their solicitation materials. The detail on Darth Vader is quite impressive. No detail was spared and he is strewn with injuries, burns, scratches and unbelievably destroyed body armor. As if Darth Vader didn’t sustain enough damage on Mustafar, he endured all new tragedy during the time period of The Force Unleashed. The paint job on the Mini Bust is gorgeous and there are a ton of delicate features like wiring and broken armor that effortlessly “decorate” Darth Vader yet show just how much devastation he’s experienced.
The Darth Vader (Force Unleashed) Mini Bust has quite a healthy edition size. Limited to 3,000 pieces, it’s significantly more than some of the other main characters that have been released in the line to date which quite honestly is very surprising. Gentle Giant Ltd.. seems to have an affinity for The Force Unleashed, but they are quite slow in getting out Mini Busts for the characters that appear in this franchise. To date, the Stormtrooper Commander, the Starkiller: Ultimate Good And Ultimate Evil Apprentice, and the Shadow Guard have only seen released in this collectible format. Perhaps less is more and by not inundating collectors with all of the characters from The Force Unleashed videogame may be the best way for Gentle Giant to keep these collectibles new and fresh. Wes till hope to see quite a few more get made into this format, especially the various troopers. Darth Vader (Force Unleashed) is a must-have Mini Bust. Just look at all of that horrific damage Vader sustained! It’s too cool for words!
