General Veers [2012 PGM Exclusive] - Mini Busts

"Yes Lord Vader, I've reached the main power generators. The shield will be down in moments. You may start your landing."

The chilling words that spelled the doom of the Rebel Base on Hoth were uttered by none other than General Maximillian Veers, fanatical Imperial officer and brilliant tactician. A career soldier with skill unmatched at piloting the Empire's feared AT-AT walkers, Veers rose quickly through the ranks to become one of the youngest, and most dangerous, Major Generals serving Lord Vader. His victory on Hoth only served to establish his legend.

General Veers is a character that a multitude of Mini Bust collectors have been begging Gentle Giant Ltd. to produce years ago. We all were elated when the announcement was made and it was confirmed that he would finally be part of the line. Admittedly, we personally were disappointed that he would come as in the “deluxe” format with multiple interchangeable parts. But after taking this collectible out of the box and playing with it, we have to say that Gentle Giant Ltd. did a phenomenal job on this character. It’s not easy making a character morph into a totally different outfit in the polystone medium, but the artists who designed this piece thought about its design from concept to execution with little to no bumps in the road. The Deluxe General Veers Mini Bust is a success and its brilliance lies solely in how seamless its transition is from Imperial Commander to AT-AT Commander. You’re going to be thoroughly impressed. At first, we didn’t think the General Veers Mini Bust had any striking resemblance to actor Julian Glover. But interestingly the longer we looked at it the more we started seeing it. This is likely a piece that will need to “grow” on you.

Eight (8) individual parts make up General Veers, but obviously not all the parts are utilized at the same time. The base body of the Mini Bust is the only part that is used for both outfits. But a separately sculpted head, removable belt portion and removable ranking badge are for the “Imperial Commander” version of Veers, while the helmeted portrait, two pieces of upper body armor and thicker belt portion are needed to complete General Veers as an AT-AT Commander. Once fully assembled in either outfit, it’s rather miraculous how perfectly “unaltered” General Veers appears. There aren’t any misfit pieces sticking out and the attachments hug closely to their respective receiving ends thanks to strong magnets. General Veers as an AT-AT Commander is admittedly our favorite version of the two options here. We’re so impressed with how naturally the separately sculpted armor pieces hug closely to his body without being obtrusive or wonky. It’s evident that a great deal of planning went into this piece and we’re so thankful with how he turned out. In fact, we’re tempted to find a way to secure another so we can display both versions of him in our collection at the same time. Maybe we’ll get the non-PGM version too.

Still, we can’t help but express how we would prefer to receive two completely separate Mini Busts of him without removable parts. But then again, that’s just our feelings and preferences. If we could criticize the General Veers Mini Bust at all, we’d have to say that efforts fell slightly short with the paint operations, especially in the face. It’s evident that Gentle Giant Ltd. attempted to give General Veers a masculine “five o’clock shadow” in his facial hair areas, but it came out a tad too sloppy for our complete satisfaction. This application was applied to both the Imperial Commander and AT-AT Commander portraits. It looks better at certain angles when compared to others, but overall it’s noticeably awkward. But honestly everything else is just perfect about this Mini Bust. We even love the pose with his hands on his hips. General Veers fits very nicely into the Mini Bust lineup and especially works well when posed next to the “difficult to acquire” AT-AT Driver Mini Bust (released a couple of years before it). And since he is a character from The Empire Strikes Back, it goes without saying that some people who don’t normally collection Mini Busts will be trying to secure this one. General Veers is an excellent offering in the Mini Bust line. His interchangeability works and he couldn’t look better, even in spite of his “faults”.