Royal Guard - Mini Busts

The Emperor's Royal Guards are the elite and most loyal of the Imperial stormtroopers, solely responsible to Palpatine; their sole task was to protect Palpatine, his residences, and clones. They wear flowing robes and a sleek, featureless mask. The standrad weapon of the Royal Guard is the force pike, while the Sentate Guard uses a blaster pike.

When Palpatine created the Galactic Empire, the Senate Guards' role was marginalized and they were eventually replaced by the Royal Guards.

One of Gentle Giant Ltd.’s greatest skills is their ability to kill two birds with one stone. Whether they’re able to work up two different characters while utilizing one major sculpt, or just simply create a slight variant geared for PGMs, they are able find innovative ways to help save on tooling costs while consistently bringing new high quality products to the market. One such example of this were the concurrent releases of the Royal Guard/Senate Guard Mini Busts. Although they shared a similar base sculpt and shipped in the same case assortment, each came with unique box art, names and items numbers. To make things extra collectible, Gentle Giant Ltd. allotted two-thirds of the edition size for the Royal Guard and the remaining one-third was set for the Senate Guard. With over 10,000 total pieces made, the Royal Guard and Senate Guard are among the most plentiful of all Mini Busts to date.

The Royal Guard Mini Bust has been done very well. It's really the only way to state it. The first thing you’ll notice is his bright crimson red robes. Above the robes is a glistening shiny deeper red helmet with an opaque black visor. Looking like it’s been ripped right out of the film, the Royal Guard Mini Bust is a perfect replica of our favorite elite Imperial guards from the Original Trilogy. The Mini Bust comes in two pieces: the actual Mini Bust of the Royal Guard and then the movable force pike with the left and hand permanently attached to it. It is generally our preference that any Mini Bust be a solid piece without removable parts. There are always exceptions to this rule like Princess Leia In Boushh Disguise where we want to see her both helmeted and human portraits of this character. But in the case of the Royal Guard, there is really no need to have removable parts, except in the case of making a running change variant. So it’s evident why they did here. Clearly it's an easy transition for the Senate Guard to give that piece a rifle instead of the force pike. In this instance it works, but there is something more "collectible" about a Mini Bust that is one solid piece, in our opinion at least.

The Royal Guard takes up more surface area than a standard Mini Bust. Its robes are wide and flowing and create a wide perimeter that encompasses the bottom shape of the Mini Bust. This is also where the edition number and other production details can be found. The piece has been created with an edition size of 6667 pieces, certainly the one of the oddest edition sizes that we can think of, and the remaining 3333 have been reserved for the Senate Guard piece. But you won't see this number at the bottom. All Royal/Senate Guards will say 10,000 pieces instead. A great piece for those who love Crimson Empire, Return Of The Jedi or Revenge Of The Sith, the Royal Guard Mini Bust is one of the finest high-end collectibles available on the market today. Just check out the gallery in detail and you’ll see just how much effort went into this piece. Great considerations have been employed here to ensure a fine collectible for collectors. The piece comes without any awkward action poses and just “stands” at the ready holding a force pike to ward off intruders. Do you really need a Royal Guard to do much else?