Admiral Ackbar - Life-Size Busts

The commander of the Alliance Fleet, Admiral Ackbar led the Rebel capital ships into the Battle of Endor. A member of the Mon Calamari species, Ackbar and his people manned the distinctive warships supplied to the Rebellion by their aquatic culture.

Ackbar developed the attack strategy for the Battle of Endor, and commanded the Mon Calamari Star Cruiser Home One. The combination of his proven military tactics and General Lando Calrissian's unorthodox maneuvers were enough to secure victory in the Alliance's most important battle.

Beyond the qualifications of his great skills and sterling character, Ackbar was a symbol to the rest of the galaxy: a symbol that the Alliance is fighting for everyone, no matter what their background or origin. The Empire, in contrast, has made discrimination against non-humans a longstanding policy.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, the University of Mississippi petitioned to make Admiral Ackbar their new college mascot. It brought so much national attention and ended up catching the ears of Lucasfilm executives (who interestingly showed their support for the movement although admitting that it would need to be approved by Lucasfilm Ltd.). The timing was right because around the same time. Sideshow Collectibles had just released their gorgeous Admiral Ackbar Life-Size Bust to collectors. Interestingly, the Admiral Ackbar Life-Size Bust spent little to no time in stock. In fact, it became their fastest-selling Life-Size Busts and had since sold out. It already goes for a premium on the aftermarket. Go ahead. Click the eBay links in the Collector Notes and we bet that you’ll find one available next to never. We believe that the University of Mississippi incident played an important role in creating a buzz for a newfound appreciation of this Mon Calamari Star Wars character and a new level of popularity has been achieved. We don’t mind. Any press is good press obviously. And it goes without saying that the Life-Size Bust of Admiral Ackbar is without question the greatest Admiral Ackbar collectible on the market today. Yes, you are only treated to his head with a Life-Size Bust. But the details captured won’t make you worry that you’re missing anything else.

The Life-Size Bust high-end collectibles line has an extremely limited audience. While some collectors are willing to break their own format and pick up key “A” characters like Darth Vader and Boba Fett on a scale they normally don’t collect, very few others have the interest and means to waste dollars on an item that is essentially a huge head of a given Star Wars character that they very well may love, but don’t have the accommodating space to make it a feasible acquisition. Yes, as collectors of this line we can confirm that space disappears very quickly. But that doesn’t stop us from consistently collecting pieces from this line. We feel that the absolute greatest level of detail is forever immortalized in this scale. And that’s important to us. We actually find it bittersweet that so many Star Wars fans miss out on this very fine line of Star Wars collectibles, but that’s the way it is. As far as the Life-Size Busts are concerned, wherever possible, Sideshow Collectibles often makes them with mixed media. While most of them are manufactured out of polystone and fiberglass, others are developed from metal while others even include portions of real soft goods. Admiral Ackbar is all fiberglass and polystone. But this works perfectly for him and the amount of accuracy and detail Sideshow has managed to incorporate into this stunning piece is just mind-boggling.

Admiral Ackbar has a most impressive sculpt. The Life-Size Bust looks exactly like the onscreen character. His eyes especially catch your attention. Bronze with large black pupils, they look just like how they did in Star Wars Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi. Admiral Ackbar’s mouth is open the perfect amount. You can clearly see inside of his slimy mouth, but his mouth isn’t gaping. It almost looks as if he is just about ready to say “It’s a trap!” (Sorry, we tried to get through this review without using that quote.) The paint job will knock you off of your feet. The pattern is gorgeous and he frankly looks just like a leopard-spotted lobster. The spots are very subtle, but clearly apparent. Sideshow Collectibles’ artists went way beyond the call of duty here. You should be very impressed with all that was included here. Amazingly, Sideshow Collectibles ensured that his “rubbery” whiskers made it to the final piece. While it made us very sick to our stomachs to move this Life-Size Bust into our photo gallery without accidentally breaking them off, since they’re fragile and not made of rubber-like the movie prop. Admiral Ackbar “stops” at his collar and then sits atop the awesome “Star Wars” inspired display base. This is absolutely one of Sideshow’s best efforts. We wonder if they’ll be able to eclipse this one.