Princess Leia Organa (Mynock Hunt) - Mini Busts

Escaping from a fleet of Imperial ships, Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Princess Leia fly the Millennium Falcon into an asteroid field. Landing inside an asteroid, the crew wear breath masks to brave uncertain atmospheric conditions outside the Falcon. Soon they discover mynocks, energy-feeding parasites, chewing on the ship's power cables. As the asteroid begins to rumble, they quickly find that they are actually inside the gullet of a huge space slug.

The Chewbacca (Mynock Hunt) mini bust is no longer alone. Gentle Giant Ltd.. rises to the occasion and makes another scene specific character based on the memorable scene from The Empire Strikes Back an exclusive mini bust. Limited to only 1550 pieces, the Princess Leia Organa (Mynock Hunt) is a well done mini bust that should definitely please most fans of The Empire Strikes Back, but it really doesn’t offer any “wow” factor to the well-established line of mini busts. Undoubtedly, The Empire Strikes Back is a fan-favorite film, but we’re not sure if Gentle Giant Ltd.. is delving into all the right places of the film to create the right mini busts that collectors really want. And when these types are relegated to exclusives, we fear there may not be enough interest and the exclusive program may not get the support it needs to continue on strongly.

That doesn’t meant that we don’t understand why Gentle Giant Ltd.., decided to create this mini bust. They made a great version of Princess Leia Organa (Hoth) in the mini bust line and this was a simple but clever way to reuse some of the sculpting that made that mini bust such a success again to help save on some tooling costs. The mini bust is definitely beautifully created. It just is slightly boring. And then there is the issue of her having the weapon in her hands. She obviously didn’t hold a gun while in the “cave” (that ended up being the belly of the space slug), so we wonder why they didn’t tweak this to make it more authentic. We not exactly sure but it definitely adds some awkwardness to the piece. Because these collectibles are so expensive, there is really only one chance to get details like this correct. We wish some extra energy was expended to ensure its accuracy.

The paint job is admittedly rather beautiful. It’s a minor shame that the best portions of her face are hidden below the mask. The mask attaches to a long tube that wraps to the side of her body and she is cocked in a slight action stance which gives the mini bust some extra attitude. But Gentle Giant’s artists have certainly done their part to recreate beautiful features on the parts of her face you can see. The hair has various shading and highlights and her braids could have been more perfectly replicated. No expense was spared on her uniform either. The waffle pattern on her snowsuit is extremely realistic and enough dirt and wear has been incorporated into the paint job to give it a stunning lived-in look. We love the mini bust, but again, it’s not the most exciting piece of the year. It will be interesting to see if she commands a premium on the aftermarket as time moved forward because we think that it should only appeal to the hardcore mini busts collectors.