Disguised as a bounty hunter, Princess Leia travelled to Tatooine to free Han Solo from the clutches of Jabba the Hutt. Upon infiltrating the crime lord's palace, Leia released Solo from his carbonite imprisonment. Her true identity, however, was soon revealed. Forced into wearing a two-piece metal bikini, Leia became Jabba's slave. The vile gangster later met his end when Leia strangled him with the very chain that bound her.
What the heck goes awry sometimes in between prototype and production sample? When a licensee like Gentle Giant Ltd. announces a cool polystone collectible and then shows the prototype through preliminary solicitation photography, we expect to get (at worst) a close or similar looking product. Knowing very well that there is a disclaimer in their advertisement that it’s only a prototype, we still feel somewhat entitled to receive a better than average likeness than what was shown in those early shots. But sometimes that doesn’t always happen. We expect to be wowed and filled with elation when the product to arrive at our doorsteps. In the case of Princess Leia Organa (As Jabba’s Slave) Mini Bust, it unfortunately did not arrive the way we had hoped. Granted, it’s difficult to make polystone look “human” in this one-sixth scale and master likenesses, but Gentle Giant Ltd.. took a sharp wrong left turn here and Princess Leia Organa’s pain begins and ends in her face sculpt. And it’s quite disappointing. Likely to never be tackled again for release, if you must have a “Slave Leia” Mini Bust, this may be your only hope.
Princess Leia Organa (As Jabba’s Slave) truly had the potential to be an A+ collectible Mini Bust. The paint job is topnotch and the details of her scantily clad outfit are all there for you to enjoy. She has delicate arms and a sexy torso and her stature couldn’t have been interpreted better than it has here. So basically we should just come clean and admit that she looks fantastic from the neck down. But we’d really like to hear from Gentle Giant Ltd. directly how the portrait got approved to be packaged and shipped out. What in the world happened to her face. There are so many flaws and mistakes that we wouldn’t be surprised if you had difficulty referring to it as a “Princess Leia Organa” collectible. Let us reiterate that this Mini Bust is pretty darn good from the neck down, but the portrait should have never been approved for final release. Princess Leia Organa’s portrait is wrought with asymmetry. One eye droops while the other seems to be right at the correct level. Uneven faces on any collectible almost instantly prevent them from being great pieces.
Another issue with her portrait is her upper lip. For goodness sake what went wrong here? There is a hideous protrusion right above it that instantly reminds us of the Seinfeld episode where Jerry’s girlfriend is a two-face and only looks pretty in certain lights. Interestingly, the same can be said for this Mini Bust. If you browse through our gallery, you’ll see how the portrait works at certain angles, but not with most of them. The portrait really kills his piece and it’s sad because most collectors consider this outfit of hers the most iconic of all the films. One other thing that bugs us (although other licenses do this as well) is that Princess Leia Organa is holding a force pike. The footage of her battling with this weapon only exists in publicity shots and was not seen in any version of the film, yet almost every collectible interpretation of her has her holding this staff; from Hasbro’s 2009 LC Princess Leia (BD17) figure to Sideshow Collectibles’ Slave Leia Premium Format Figure. This may be a Mini Bust you won’t mind missing, because it just isn’t 100% satisfactory.
