Admiral Motti - Mini Busts

Admiral Motti was head of the Imperial Naval operations aboard the Death Star. Motti was overly-confident in his belief that the Death Star was invulnerable to any threat posed by the Rebel Alliance. He was even arrogant enough to openly question Darth Vader for his failure to locate a secret Rebel base. For this, Vader Force-choked Motti, only to have Grand Moff Tarkin intervene at the last moment, ordering the Dark Lord to relent.

We believe for the first time ever we may be speechless about a Star Wars collectible. Our lack of words don’t stem from awe or from being thoroughly impressed. It originates from confusion. Admiral Motti has become quite an underground hero for Star Wars fans. He was victimized by Darth Vader and he was cocky. That formula always seems to make Star Wars fans appreciate characters like this with a great deal of empathy. Admiral Motti is a great character. And despite his popularity (covert or overt), not too many collectibles have been made of him. In 2000, we received our first Hasbro figure. (It was actually decent for the time.) Then Hasbro repainted it and added it to 2007’s TSC Death Star Briefing set exclusive multipack. But no high-end collectible companies took a stab at this character until now. The Admiral Motti Mini Bust succeeds and fails equally. And it frustrates us tremendously. Let us start off by saying that we do enjoy the Mini Bust and we’re not sure if we have a solution on how Gentle Giant could have improved it. But something is indeed off and it’s a shame it couldn’t have been remedied before it was approved for mass production.

The Admiral Motti Mini Bust instantly reminds us of “The Strike” episode from the final season of Seinfeld. (It’s the Festivus episode.) It’s also the episode where Jerry’s girlfriend is a “two-face” and looks pretty or unattractive depending upon the lighting. That is a pretty good analogy of Admiral Motti. He looks really good from some angles and bad at others and both are dependent upon the amount of light being cast on him too. Again, depending upon your light source, Admiral Motti does have a decent face sculpt. Gentle Giant seems to have freeze-framed the perfect moment when Darth Vader begins to choke him and he feels the discomfort. His eyes look alarmed with concern and the expression on his mouth makes you glad you’re not in his shoes. The paint job is rather clean and we have to point out that they got his hairline almost perfectly. His outfit looks a little bit too much like it favors green instead of gray, but there is plenty of each mixed together in the final paint job. (It seems like there is conscious effort to shift what we formerly knew as gray to green with the members of the Imperial Navy.)

Now we come to Admiral Motti’s skin tone. He definitely appears too pale and there is a lack of contrast in the details and shadowing in his face. Perhaps this is what gives him the extra ghostly washed out look. Admiral Motti definitely has an alarming presence and we totally credit the artisans at Gentle Giant Ltd.. for making this feel so powerful. They did a great deal of good here but it just seems that the deco took a back seat to the sculpting. We’re glad that a high-end collectible has been created of Admiral Motti. We hope this trend continues and hopefully Sideshow Collectibles will develop a one-sixth scale interpretation of him for us. Admiral Motti is a proud 2012 Convention Exclusive despite its shortcomings. It’s limited to only 1200 pieces, so you can expect that he should dry up rather quickly by the end of convention season. Probably due to its exclusivity, Gentle Giant Ltd.. has included something extra special for Star Wars fans with the Admiral Motti Mini Bust. Actor Richard LeParmentier has autographed the Certificate of Authenticity in a special reserved name plate section on the back of the card. It’s not too often the actors of Star Wars participate in these types of collectibles. So, this Mini Bust is noteworthy for that reason alone. Check Admiral Motti out!