Overly-brash at times, young Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker leads the clone armies of the Republic into battle against the Separatists forces during the galaxy-wide conflict of the Clone Wars. Together with his Padawan Ahsoka, Anakin uses his astute powers of the Force to cunningly escape Separatist traps, maneuver through dangerous space battles, and boldly confront his own fateful destiny.
There is a fourth dimension of perspective that is very heard to explain when it comes to many of the The Clone Wars Maquettes from Gentle Giant Ltd. When looking at the Anakin Skywalker Maquette for example, from certain angles he looks exceptionally elongated, much more so than how he looks in The Clone Wars film. The limbs tend to look spindly and the overall height of Anakin seemingly appears out of scale. Despite this illusion, the Anakin Skywalker Maquette is actually in proper proportion and he is really well done in pretty much every way possible. He has a great likeness, has a rather simple action pose (holding his lit or unlit lightsaber hilt) and is painted beautifully, something that the artists at Gentle Giant Ltd. have mastered quite well in the Maquettes line. With Hasbro manufacturing action figures that are a hybrid of realistic and animated likenesses, it's nice to know that there is a licensee looking to release unadulterated forms of the characters from the popular The Clone Wars television show.
Anakin Skywalker doesn’t change outfits that much in The Clone Wars film or in the first couple of seasons of the television show, so Gentle Giant didn’t have to worry about too many options when designing a three dimensional Maquette of the Jedi Knight hero. His clothing looks clean and tailored, although there are signs of a worn and have a lived in look thanks to a beautiful outside final wash that gives the Maquette depth and dimension. This texturized paint job is quite impressive and it really brings the piece to life, something that is really remarkable since Gentle Giant is bring something that's effectively two-dimensional on a flat screen into a 3D collectible. The Maquette has extremely simple assembly. If you need a quick refresher, Maquette are called Maquettes because they are typically permanently affixed to the base they come on. (Statues are usually placed on a base.) So as you can imagine, Anakin Skywalker comes out of the box already attached to his hexagonal base and all the collector has to do is attach his blue lightsaber blade to the hilt. It’s that simple!
It goes without saying that the Maquettes aren't for every collector. The MSRP alone eliminates a big portion of the collecting community. But hopefully there will be pieces that even the most discriminating collector can't pass up. Gentle Giant Ltd. has excellently created a likeness that mirrors the character we see in The Clone Wars film and the television series, both facial features and body silhouette. The Maquette has depth, texture and precisely perfect lines that give it a crisp outline to make a collectible replica of a character we have grown to love in both the films and the Expanded Universe. Perhaps we should remind you that Anakin Skywalker appears ever so slightly too tall and slightly skewed, but it's hard to see that this is accurate thanks to the brisk manner the characters move around in the series. So it's more than fair to say that Gentle Giant did a remarkable job with this piece. Gentle Giant clearly has a discriminating eye with all of the products they make. Anakin Skywalker is no exception to their rule. Limited to only 1100 pieces and retailing for approximately $90, it’s a piece that will move briskly amongst a very select crowd. Many collectors adore the Gentle Giant Maquettes line. We do and Anakin Skywalker proves why more should join the fold in collecting these great pieces.
