Emperor Palpatine - TSC - Basic (SAGA 043)

Added: October 7th 2011
Category: Saga Collection, The
Reviewer: Paul Harrison
Score:

Name: Emperor Palpatine
Collection: The Saga Collection
Number: SAGA 043
Source: Return Of The Jedi
Availability: July 2006
License: Hasbro

Review_EmperorPalpatineTSC001 Review_EmperorPalpatineTSC002 Review_EmperorPalpatineTSC003 Review_EmperorPalpatineTSC004
Review_EmperorPalpatineTSC005 Review_EmperorPalpatineTSC006 Review_EmperorPalpatineTSC007 Review_EmperorPalpatineTSC008
Review_EmperorPalpatineTSC009 Review_EmperorPalpatineTSC010 Review_EmperorPalpatineTSC011 Review_EmperorPalpatineTSC012
Review_EmperorPalpatineTSC013 Review_EmperorPalpatineTSC014 Review_EmperorPalpatineTSC015 Review_EmperorPalpatineTSC016
Review_EmperorPalpatineTSC017 Review_EmperorPalpatineTSC018 Review_EmperorPalpatineTSC019 Review_EmperorPalpatineTSC020

Emperor Palpatine

Battle of Endor

looking forward: to destroying the Rebellion

welcomes: young Skywalker

encourages Luke: to give in to his hatred

A powerful and diabolical Dark Lord of the Sith, Emperor Palpatine very nearly succeeded in turning young Skywalker to the dark side of the Force. It was his focus on Luke, however, that caused him to miss the doubt growing within his original apprentice, Darth Vader. So confident was he of victory that he engineered his own destruction at Vader's hand.

There is usually always one action figure in a new wave that doesn’t hold up to the quality of the rest. And in the instance of the Battle Of Endor wave, well, Emperor Palpatine wins that award hands down. He isn’t a straight repack as you might suspect. No, Hasbro slightly altered some of the paint applications in his face and retooled his right hand to include a hole so the included cane can plug into it. (The cane obviously has been retooled also.) So there are some changes from the 2003 SW [S - P3] The Emperor (Throne Room) ('03 #30) figure. Obviously, this isn’t enough change to warrant another purchase by most collectors, but we do find it quite interesting that Hasbro made these updates to a figure that is seemingly already outdated. And it’s a figure that not too many people even liked from the start. His hood swallows up the head because it is extraordinarily too large and the limited articulation and extremely bizarre aesthetics makes this action figure nearly an embarrassment to all others. Hasbro must not release early sculpts of figures especially when superior molds exist.

Poor, poor Emperor Palpatine. It’s a shame that his sculpt is almost too comical to take his evil Sith ways seriously. Not even the inclusion of ball-joints in the shoulders can improve the aesthetics of your sculpt. And it’s a terrible shame that Hasbro has decided to use this version instead of the significantly better 2005 ROTS The Sith Evolutions mold released right before this figure. All that needed to be done was to include and Episode VI specific head sculpt onto the Evolutions mold and we would have a pretty fine specimen of Emperor Palpatine as an action figure. We sometimes wonder what Hasbro is thinking when they do things like this. The time and energy spent retooling the hand could have been better saved for slightly tooling even the head of this figure to fit on the Evolutions body. Why would Hasbro opt for a solid plastic sculpture in favor of super articulation? We have to wonder this at least. But it is disappointing at this stage of the basic figure line that this is still happening.

Emperor Palpatine comes with a swivel waist, two ball-jointed shoulders and two swivel wrist. That's it. Not even his feet or head are movable. In fact, there is literally no meaningful movement in this figure at all. We wish that we could say that there are some positive aspects of this action figure but there are truly none. You may be able to argue that he has an accurate silhouette, but who really care when you can't pose him. Emperor Palpatine not only suffers from poor articulation, he is positioned in a very strange manner that makes him look like he is leaning back while bending his knees underneath the robe. His stance is quite bizarre and it just doesn’t do anything for the sculpt. Emperor Palpatine looks confused and that is probably the perfect expression for him since we are about just as confused on why we’re seeing this inferior sculpt in The Saga Collection. Maybe we shouldn’t be this disappointed in getting an inferior figure like this so late in the game, but unless you must have every single one, consider it easy to skip this one.

Collector Notes

Emperor Palpatine

Status: Emperor Palpatine is a slight retool and slight repaint of 2003's SW [S - P3] The Emperor (Throne Room) ('03 #30) figure. A new hole has been added to the left hand so the plug of the cane will fit into it.

Articulation Count: 10 points (8 areas of articulation)

Articulation Details: swivel head (1) (inhibited movement), ball-jointed left shoulder (2), ball-jointed right shoulder (2), swivel left wrist (1), swivel right wrist (1), swivel waist (1), swivel left foot (1), swivel right foot (1)

Accessory Count: 3

Accessory Details: cane, 2 Force lightning effects

Date Stamp: 2003

Assortment Number: 86970/85770

UPC: 653569126621

Retail: $6.99 USD

Market Value: Click here to check the latest prices based on Click here to check the market value on eBay! listings.



The Saga Collection Wave 6
Chief Chirpa (SAGA 039)
Moff Jerjerrod (SAGA 040)
Death Star Gunner (SAGA 041)
C-3PO (With Ewok Throne) (SAGA 042)
Emperor Palpatine (SAGA 043)



This review comes from Jedi Temple Archives
www.JediTempleArchives.com

The URL for this review is:
http://www.jeditemplearchives.com/content/modules.php?name=JReviews&rop=showcontent&id=867