Airborne Trooper - Mini Busts

Obi-Wan Kenobi attacks General Grievous and his droid army on Utapau with the assistance of the Parjai Squad, 2nd Airborne Company, part of Commander Cody's 212th Attack Battalion. The clone troopers descend upon the droid armies and decimate them while Obi-Wan dispatches Grievous, ending the Clone Wars.

Does anyone else find it odd when Gentle Giant makes some of the most desired Prequel Trilogy characters in their Mini Busts line as exclusives? Fans have been waiting since 2005 for an Airborne Trooper Mini Bust and Gentle Giant Ltd. has deemed it fit to release it exclusively to StarWarsShop.com. Thankfully they decided to make a generous edition run of 3000 pieces to reach a decent portion of the Mini Bust collecting community. Clone are no doubt some of the most popular characters for Star Wars fans. Because of this we think it’s best that they release these characters to the general marketplace for more widespread availability instead of to an exclusive retailer. The Mini Bust sold out instantaneously and a very small portion was reserved for PGMs once StarWarsShop.com went through their allotment. The Airborne Trooper Mini Bust is rather excellent. But there is one glaring problem that may be a deal breaker for Mini Bust collectors.

The issue with the Airborne Trooper Mini Bust is its scale. Gentle Giant Ltd. actually talked about this very topic and admitted that they underestimated the shrinkage of this piece. It is noticeably smaller in scale to the other clone trooper Mini Busts they have released previously. Sadly, the difference in scale is very noticeable and if you didn’t know better you might believe it is from another line. The dilemma is deciding if this is a Mini Bust to add to your collection despite this major issue. We are very happy to have this character in the Mini Bust line (too small or not) because where Gentle Giant incorrectly approximated its final size they made up for with an excellent sculpt and beautiful paint job. It’s likely that this piece will ever be revisited. Gentle Giant Ltd. has been rather upfront about not reinventing the wheel in this lineup because of all the options left for new characters in this format, so it’s unlikely if we’ll ever see this one corrected.

The Airborne Trooper Mini Bust is still a gorgeous work of art. Gentle Giant has perfectly matched the exact shade of orange from the film. But the accuracy doesn’t stop there. The Airborne Trooper looks as if it was ripped right out of the film. There is a wonderful amount of dirt and scuff marks that cover his armor. And then this is all accented by thin but dark line to recreate the carbon-scoring damage sustained in the Battle of Utapau. His fist is held up in a signaling or code position for the latest directive. And he is brandishing a DC-15 blaster for prepared defense. The pauldron/bandolier/belt combination around his midsection is actually a separately sculpted piece. This extra layer adds a great deal of dimension to the piece and tremendously assists its accuracy to the film. The Airborne Trooper is truly a beautiful piece of art. Based on a member of the Parjai Squad which is part of the 2nd Airborne Company, the Airborne Trooper is a staple clone from Episode III. You want this specialized clone trooper for your Mini Bust collection.