Darth Vader [Episode III] - Mini Busts

Most licensees missed the boat with creating screen accurate collectibles of Darth Vader (in the black iron lung) as he appeared at the end of Revenge Of The Sith. We don’t mean for that statement to come across too seriously, but we’re simply trying to make a point that screen inaccurate add-ons can sometimes make or break a collectible. We understand the need to include Darth Vader’s signature lightsaber in these collectibles. After all, what good is a Sith Lord without his weapon? But Darth Vader appeared as he did in the Original Trilogy in only two scenes in which he didn’t ignite his lightsaber. We admit to being a little bit overzealous with screen accuracy in our collectibles, but this makes the Darth Vader [Episode III] Mini Bust inaccurate and something that puts a relatively small bad taste in our mouth. However, if you can overlook the faux pas of the inclusion of the lightsaber, you will be left with truly stunning interpretation of Darth Vader, perhaps one of the finest released to date. At worst, this Mini Bust can be sourced to the Expanded Universe, as a Mini Bust on the promotional images created for the Revenge Of The Sith film, which some do misleadingly show Darth Vader wielding a lit lightsaber.

The most noticeable enhancement is that the 2005 Darth Vader [Episode III] Mini Bust is in accurate scale which makes him significantly larger that the 2003 Darth Vader Mini Bust released two short years before this one. As you can imagine, Darth Vader [Episode III] now has an overbearing presence in the Mini Bust line. He towers quite a bit over other characters in the line and fits in right at home with the other Mini Busts based on Revenge Of The Sith. The helmet is spot-on perfection in our assessment. Gentle Giant Ltd. did a remarkable job recreating a replica of the updated mask and helmet that gives Darth Vader a commanding and intimidating persona. Although this Mini Bust is cut off at the waste, we feel that it should be considered a premiere collectible in your own collection and focused collectors of Darth Vader related memorabilia should count yourselves extremely fortunate because the attention to detail given to this piece is beyond impressive. The helmet features extremely glossy black paint while his ribbed textured body suit shows a much flatter black paint application by comparison. The Mini Bust also offers the option to display the Mini Bust with or without the lightsaber blade. This is interchangeability we love to see.

The biggest surprise about this piece has got to be its edition size. For those of you interested in records, Darth Vader [Episode III] has the largest edition size of all Mini Busts: 20,000 units. This means there are enough Mini Busts for each Mini Bust collector out there, his spouse and his children. Definitely overproduced, at least Darth Vader is a character that resonates with mostly all of the Star Wars fans out there. Hopefully this means that this Mini Bust won’t sit and collect dust at the retail level and eventually sell through to the point of being overstocked. There had to be a Darth Vader collectible Mini Bust based on the Revenge Of The Sith film. This one is a great memento for the film, but just keep in mind that it’s been inspired by the promotional campaign for the film and not for the character in the film itself. We have to say that this sculpt is much more impressive than the Darth Vader Mini Bust released in 2003 based on his appearance from The Empire Strikes Back. But it may have been a better idea to revisit a Darth Vader from the Original Trilogy at this enlarged scale. It is still a beautiful collectible regardless however.