Padmé Amidala - Unleashed

Born of humble parents in a mountain village on the planet Naboo, Padmé Amidala's exceptional abilities manifested themselves at an early age. Trained and encouraged to reach her highest potential, Amidala was elected Queen of Naboo at the age of fourteen, then became a representative in the Galactic Senate on Coruscant. Fiercely loyal to her beloved people, Amidala bravely confronts all those who threaten the peace of her planet. In her political roles, she presents a remote, elegant exterior to the world, yet underneath there burns a deeply passionate spirit which boldly embraces both the challenges and adventures before her. To protect herself and those who are dear to her, Amidala willingly takes up arms. Her fiery nature ignites as she wields a blaster in the thick of battle, vibrant with determination in the midst of "aggressive negotiations." The dangers of the moment only serve to further enhance Amidala's alluring beauty born of innate courage and purity of soul.

The first wave of Star Wars: Unleashed figures piqued the interest of some. It may have even been considered a successful debut. But the line really put the Star Wars collecting community on the fence as to whether or not this would become a line that they would collect long term or not, and if the character selection would be broad enough to capture their attention. That all sort of changed with the release of Padmé Amidala, who may have unwittingly started Unleashed “fever” and engaged new followers of the line to become morbidly obsessed with it. We cringe when we hear it, but she was referred to as “perky” Padme. In fact, the obsession with this particular area of the figure led to ridiculous rumors that Hasbro turned it down a bit with a revised figure to be a little more kid friendly. That was a bunch of bologna. But one thing is for sure, she became one of the most sought after Unleashed figures in the line and commanded a hefty price on the aftermarket once she dried up at retail. Interestingly, while we love the figure, she doesn’t have a perfect likeness to actress Natalie Portman. Her features aren’t delicate or soft enough for our tastes, although this is only evident with a straight ahead gaze upon the figure. From side views, Padmé Amidala couldn’t be more perfect in our opinion.

Padmé Amidala’s inspiration came from the moments surrounding her attack by the Nexu in the Geonosian arena. She has the claw marks to prove it on her back. Her shirt is ripped and torn which makes her incredibly sexier than if her outfit had been undamaged. She stands atop a broken pillar, the one she was chained to so she could be devoured by the arena beasts. And she comes with a nicely detailed long chain that she can hold and then have wrapped around her body in an artistic fashion. She comes with a swivel right bicep and this is the arm which is holding the droid blaster. It doesn’t give her that much range of motion, nor does it give her a dramatic alternate appearance, but we appreciate the gesture nonetheless. These are meant to be miniature statues, and statues are not supposed to articulate. We’re quite fine with what has been provided here. She is standing upright with gun in right hand and chain and binders in left hand. Her head is looking off to the right and her beautiful profile showcases her signature mole on her face, which for us is another sign of her organic beauty. The costume perfectly matches what we saw in Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones from the boots, to the tight pants to the damaged top to the penis-shaped holster hanging from her right side. (Sorry folks. It’s a penis. Look at it.)

We’re quite impressed with the head sculpt (but not necessarily the likeness). The shape and proportions looks fantastic. We’re especially quite taken with the complex bun on the back of her head. It couldn’t be more accurate from the onscreen character. The fine details which give this character even more depth like the open binders (which she freed herself from using a space bobby pin) just look amazing. There is a lot to appreciate here. If we had to be honest and criticize the piece, we would have to comment that her flesh in the torso area and her hands do not match the darker skin tone of her face. For us, there isn’t too much else worse that mismatched skin tones (on the same body) so we have to find fault with Padmé Amidala in this respect. We feel the color variance is a little more than “a little” so it’s definitely hard for us to overlook this issue. With all that being said however, we still feel that Padmé Amidala is a welcomed addition to the Star Wars: Unleashed line. She may have effectively changed the attitude towards the Unleashed line for Star Wars fans. That’s saying quite a bit. It usually takes a full collection of figures to win people over, but Padmé Amidala as the catalyst that set the Unleashed line into hyperdrive. For that we must show gratitude towards her.

This Star Wars: Unleashed figure was one of the first dozen produced for the line before the packaging was changed to an artwork based design. Additionally, this figure was also not reissued as others were onto this revised artwork based packaging either.