Galactic Marine - Mini Busts

The progression of the Clone Wars saw increasing diversification within the Grand Army of the Republic. Clone troopers became more specialized, and specific units were distinguished by mission profiles and customized armor. One of the most feared and versatile units were the Galactic Marines, under the command of General Ki-Adi-Mundi and Clone Commander Bacara.

The marines were cross-trained in space and ground-based fighting, and well-versed in zero-gee combat. These troops were among the first to field-test new equipment and combat gear.

As Star Wars fans across the world celebrated the 30th anniversary of Star Wars in 2007, Gentle Giant Ltd. celebrated in their own special way and decided to make as many clone commanders as they could from Episode III but release them as exclusive pieces. This not only frustrated collectors of the popular Mini Busts line, but it created unattainable demand since the edition sizes were so incredibly low for each Mini Bust produced. This anxiety-creating trend continued in a lesser extent into 2008 as well. When it came time to produce the counterpart to Commander Bacara, the Galactic Marine, Gentle Giant Ltd. offered it to Forbidden Planet in the UK and only produced 3000 pieces of it. 1750 pieces of the Mini Bust were sold exclusively at Forbidden Planet leaving 1250 pieces for the PGM on Gentle Giant’s website a month later for American collectors (as well as collectors abroad too). As you can imagine, they instantly sold out and began commanding premium prices on the aftermarket almost instantly. The Galactic Marine Mini Bust was good, but it was far from perfect. And one issue in particular makes it a very problematic piece.

Let’s go over the Mini Bust’s positives first. Gentle Giant Ltd. nailed the paint job perfectly. The body armor, helmet and DC-15 blaster rifle are excellently sculpted. Not too many licensees seem to capture the exact accuracy of the hood, but it’s a minor criticism because overall this is a great sculpt. The right hand holding the DC-15 blaster rifle is removable (a feature we don’t like much at all), so be careful when transporting your Mini Bust from one shelf to the other. (There have been too many instances of Mini Bust parts flying off and breaking. We wish they would just produce solid pieces without any removable parts going forward.) The Galactic Marine at alert attention and he is holding the blaster up and ready waiting for the moment to use it. Many instances of battle-damage and carbon-scoring can be seen throughout the Galactic Marine’s armor. The painters who decorated the piece have done an incredibly fine job here and we’re very impressed with the finished product. Now it’s time to talk about the Galactic Marine’s biggest issue. We would venture a guess that the piece would be perfect if they had corrected its biggest issue.

The Galactic Marine looks like it shrunk when it is displayed next to the rest of your Mini Bust collection. Its features do not look disproportionate, but the stature of the piece is definitely smaller compared to other pieces. The best example we can liken this to is the 2008 TAC Kashyyyk Trooper (08 04) figure. It was excellently designed, but was significantly shorter that the rest of the clones Hasbro had produced to date. Gentle Giant Ltd. collectors wanted to know what happened to the Galactic Marine, so Gentle Giant obliged and answered our questions. It was indeed an error on their part. There is a shrinking that occurs during the Mini Bust making process and Gentle Giant Ltd. underestimated this for both the Airborne Trooper and the Galactic Marine. There are no plans to revisit this character in the future, so it looks like it will indefinitely be out of scale with most of the other clones you already own. That being said, we still feel that the Galactic Marine Mini Bust has been well made and nicely designed. It definitely isn’t perfect, but it was an effort that ultimately we rank as good to excellent. If they are able to revisit this piece in the future, we hope they perfect it.