Chancellor Palpatine - ROTS - Basic (III 14)

Supreme Chancellor Palpatine is captured by Separatist forces and held captive on an enemy cruiser. Obi-Wan and Anakin come to his aid in a daring and dangerous rescue attempt.

Except for the Jedi, many other of the various characters in Revenge Of The Sith were seen wearing very ornate outfits and sometimes these characters even had multiple costume changes. Chancellor Palpatine is one of these characters than changed appearance more than just a few times in the film. For the most part, Hasbro has been steady with releasing each one by one in the basic figure line ever since the Episode I line. Collectors wait with bated breath for some of his cooler outfits, but we do have a decent selection to date. The beginning of Episode III saw Jedi heroes Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi penetrating Grievous’ Invisible Hand to rescue Chancellor Palpatine. Wearing very simple but distinctive black robed attire, Palpatine looked similarly to his Episode VI counterpart, especially when he was found being held captive while sitting on a chair that looked eerily reminiscent of his throne in Return Of The Jedi. It was one of the more simpler outfits we saw him wearing, but thankfully Hasbro found it an interesting candidate and released him as one of the earliest figures in the Revenge Of The Sith basic figure line. A relatively risky figure in general, were it not being a movie event year, it’s likely that this character choice may have not been made for quite some time without a huge multimedia event behind it.

Obviosuly, the release of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith in theaters allowed for many obscure characters the opportunity to be immortalized in plastic. But a main character like Palpatine, but in a not-so-popular outfit may be an odd choice for the basic figure line, it’s really no surprise that Hasbro developed him for release so quickly. The great news is that the Chancellor Palpatine action figure isn’t half that bad honestly. A lot of its articulation is impaired due to the very nature of his design, but at face value it’s a very fair representation of the character in the outfit we see for a good chunk of time in the beginning of the film. The leathery details of his robes are well sculpted from top to bottom and although there aren’t many colors in the palette of this particular outfit, Hasbro did a fine job in replicating the various textures through clever use of etching and a very simple paint operation that proves less is more. Chancellor Palpatine comes with a set of binders and an environmental display base and that’s it (not including his removable outer robe – we will get to the accessories in more detail in a moment). As a character that is simply just “rescued” in this outfit, it doesn’t need a plethora of accessories to accompany it. This is definitely a collector focused figure and you shouldn’t expect the kids to go crazy over it. But it’s a necessary interpretation of Palpatine for collections that need one action figure for every outfit this guy wears.

Chancellor Palpatine’s plastic molded robe is removable and underneath of it is a well-articulated action figure. We’re mostly impressed that Hasbro bothered to incorporate ball-jointed knees specifically. So many figures with large outer robes tend to have no articulation underneath, but that is certainly not the case here. Were it not for wonky arms caused from the exaggerated sleeves, this would be a very need interpretation of a “disguise-less” Darth Sidious. Though not entirely ideal as a standalone figure in this fashion, Chancellor Palpatine is still a nice surprise. Apart from the removable outer robe, he also comes with inaccurate binders and an environmental display stand. (Chancellor Palpatine is seated in a throne room chair with a combination of some energy effect with a binder on each arm of the chair. Obviously Hasbro had to tweak how this would function on a basic action figure so they made it an individual accessory.) Chancellor Palpatine has a slightly too oblong face, but we have to admit that the likeness is uncanny. You can definitely tell unequivocally that this is indeed Chancellor Palpatine. There are so many good things about this figure but then they’re blended into the things that are wrong with the figure which makes this figure tragically imperfect. We’d absolutely love to see this figure get revisited again soon with better articulation, but this current version isn’t half that bad at all, but it could certainly use a definitive update in the near future. Until that becomes a reality though, this figure is an acceptable placeholder.