Emperor Palpatine And Throne - TBS [P3] - Six Inch Figures (Exclusive)

Scheming, powerful, and evil to the core, Darth Sidious restored the Sith and destroyed the Jedi Order. He slowly manipulated the political system of the Galactic Republic until he was named Supreme Chancellor - and eventually Emperor - ruling the galaxy through fear and tyranny.

Well, well, well (in Beverly Leslie’s voice). Look what Hasbro finally decides to release. If you’ve followed JTA with any regularity for a while now, you may remember when we broke important news surrounding a potential Emperor Palpatine figure for The Black Series 6” line. JTA managed to get Hasbro to admit that if or when they released an Emperor Palpatine 6” figure, the only way to release him would be to included interchangeable hands sporting Force lighting. But as you know all too well, when 2015’s TBS [P2] Emperor Palpatine (#11) was released, he only came with his signature cane. Hasbro omitted any option of interchangeable parts. Fast-forward almost a half of a decade later, Hasbro gives The Black Series a deluxe version of Emperor Palpatine that comes with parts the first version should have, in addition to a luxurious Throne that is the highlight of this figure. Also, with the application of Photo Real, Emperor Palpatine looks better than ever. Hasbro expertly captured the essence and attitude of the angry Sith Master with incredible accuracy, thanks to the updates made in technology. Now, with the addition of a long-awaited environmental accessory (the Throne), collectors can enjoy Emperor Palpatine in ways not possible before now.

Emperor Palpatine received a couple of significantly updates. Although based on a previously released version of Emperor Palpatine, Hasbro retooled the figure in a couple of important ways. Firstly, they include two additional portraits here. Collectors shouldn’t take this for granted. It’s costly to tool alternate head sculpts, and now we have three options, all updated with Photo Real paint operations, that show a different side of this untrustworthy characters from the final installment of the Original Trilogy. Emperor Palpatine comes packaged with the “generic” expression head sculpt. But also included is a portrait where he is smiling, and the other where he is snarling. Each head sculpt captures the raw emotion of this evil Star Wars character. And the different head sculpts work wonderfully with the other interchangeable parts here; the hands with Force lightning. We’re not thrilled with how the Force lighting hands turned out. The fingers look wonky and bleed unnaturally into the bolts of lightning. You’ll notice how bizarre they look once you futz with them yourself, but something got lost in translation here.

It should be clear by now that the best part of this release is the Throne. The Black Series 6” collectors should be grateful for such an incredible addition to the line they collect that adds environmental components as well as screen-authenticity to their displays. 3.75” super-articulated collectors have not been so lucky. As much as we’ve wanted a Throne for our many Emperor Palpatine figures, the closest we got was a permanently affixed chair part of 1998’s The Power Of The Force “2” [Green/Freeze Frame] Final Jedi Duel Cinema Scenes set. Hopefully, Hasbro will do right by the classic collectors and give us a separately tooled Throne for the 3.75” line. While they’re at it, they can also tool a definitive Emperor Palpatine action figure for us as well! When fully assembled, the Emperor Palpatine And Throne set is exquisite. It’s pure perfection, and collectors will love it. We think the likeness of the character, his outfit and his large accessory are nice replicas of what we see in Return Of The Jedi. You should count yourselves blessed. An Amazon exclusive, the Emperor Palpatine And Throne retails for a very expensive $39.99. In our opinion, $29.99 would be more reflective of the contents here, but that’s only our opinion.