Chewbacca - Mini Busts

TBD.

If there is one Star Wars character that collectors clamor for the most, Chewbacca has got to be on the top of the list. Interestingly, many licenses don’t like touching Chewbacca with a ten foot pole because they’re unsure how to develop the product. Should they use real fur or should it be a sculpted work instead? More often than not they play it safe and ultimately manufacture the piece with hard materials to bring us collectible formats of Chewbacca. While fur would be ideal, there hasn’t been enough technology developed to do this effectively. So those wanting fur may need to wait a bit longer before they see this happen in any format. Hasbro attempted Chewbacca twice with soft-goods fur in their 12” line and it didn’t really work either time. Essentially a bendy wired figure with hair tacked on, it hardly resembled the Wookiee we grew to love in the films.

Gentle Giant Ltd. developed a rather impressive version of Chewbacca for their Mini Bust line. Taking cues from their awesome Chewbacca statue, the sculptors reinvented Chewbacca for the one-sixth scale line and the results are satisfyingly impressive. Chewbacca is in perfect scale with the rest of the line. As a result he towers over most other Mini Busts, The likeness is truly spectacular and the coloring and texture of his fur is beyond impressive. It’s only the shininess of it that will prevent fooling you this is real fur. It’s obvious that the process to develop the fur on Chewbacca was painstaking at best. You’ll find elements of “flyaway” hair and then plenty of “hanging” hair in his arms holding his bowcaster. As you’d expect, Chewbacca also comes with his signature bandolier and attached satchel. All of the details for his accessories are well designed and completely realistic as well.

If there is a small amount of controversy with Chewbacca however, and it’s determining which Star Wars film his likeness is based. Based on the introductory description on the box, one would be led to believe that this would be Chewbacca based on his first appearance, or from A New Hope. But the design/shape of his hair (and even the coloring for that matter) clearly shows that this is Chewy from Episode V or Episode VI. Chewbacca did get his hair tussled around a bit in Episode IV, but not enough to look like how he does with this Mini Bust. Whether based on a scene from A New Hope, or some more screen specific movements like on Bespin or Endor, Chewbacca will fit in beautifully with the rest of the Mini Bust line. Solid, weighty and brilliantly completed, the Chewbacca Mini Bust is a gorgeous addition for your collection. Let’s just hope that all high-end licensees find away to bring stunning “real fur” representations of Chewbacca to us in the future. That would be sublime.