Clone Trooper [Episode III] - Mini Busts

Gentle Giant Ltd. was quick to produce the phase II clones from Revenge Of The Sith and the collecting community was ready for them. With the overnight success of the phase I clone Mini Busts from Attack Of The Clones, Gentle Giant Ltd. made it clear that they would be releasing many more units, 15,000 to be exact, of three unique Clone Troopers from Revenge Of The Sith. When the attempt to meet collector demand became insurmountable, Gentle Giant figured that doubling the phase II batch would make the most sense. It did and it didn’t. Many more collector were able to find them and purchase them, but the edition sizes were very high and it seemed that everyone was only after the smallest run piece (the Utapau Trooper). Of the 15,000 units manufactured, 7500 were the Clone Trooper [Episode III], 5000 were the Clone Trooper (501st Special Ops Trooper) and the remaining 2500 were reserved for the Clone Trooper (Utapau Trooper). There were many great things added to these releases, but the Mini Busts weren’t flawless.

In fact, it seemed that Gentle Giant Ltd. may have not thought them entirely through because the sculpts don’t offer a great deal of diversity despite coming with modular parts to increase the Mini Bust’s interchangeability. While nine (9) separate pieces should be blatant to collectors and non-collectors alike that there should exist an infinite amount of configurations, this is not the case at all. The angle of the arms in particular severely limit how many unique poses you can achieve. What’s worse however are the connection points and the modular attachments. The left arm actually doesn’t like to stay in place at all. Gentle Giant needed to add in some magnets to lock the attachments in place. Even the various hand attachments don’t really stay firmly in place. It’s disappointing and it’s borderline stressful because even we have had arms go flying off when transporting the Mini Busts even just in the included photo gallery. Be careful! Not everyone agrees with our assertion that the Mini Bust line works best when it’s one solid piece, but that’s how we feel. The parts that disconnect from the piece, unless planned out flawlessly just aren’t an ideal feature in our opinion.

There is an urban legend that the plain white phase II Clone Trooper didn’t appear in Episode III, but that is very incorrect. While it’s fair to state that we didn’t see them from head to toe in all one frame, they are standing in back of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Mace Windu while talking shop on a Republic Gunship. But due to their obscure appearance in Revenge Of The Sith, it would have made more sense to make the “all white” Clone Trooper [Episode III] Mini Bust as the one with the smallest edition size. It certainly would have made the most sense to have a clone rarely seen to become the “rarest” produced clone in this multifaceted Deluxe Collectible Mini Bust release. With 7500 pieces, expect this Mini Bust to be around an cheap for years to come. While an army builder, it just won’t have the same draw as the 501st Special Ops Trooper and the Utapau Trooper and the two latter will be the most sought after because of their elongated appearances in Episode III. It would have been nice if Gentle Giant Ltd. had released this separately with their own box art and naming, but they all share the same packaging. We never liked that approach. But that’s just us.