Shadow Guard (The Force Unleashed) - Mini Busts

The Shadow Guards were an elite special operations unit within the Emperor's Royal Guard. Rarely seen, and generally reserved for special duties or missions ordered by Emperor Palpatine, these enigmatic warriors were often sent to eliminate suspected Jedi and other Force users. Shadow Guards were trained in the ways of the Force, allowing them to function well even against Jedi adversaries.

The Force Unleashed may rank as one of the most successful multimedia events of all time in the Star Wars universe. Collectors, including those who don’t play video games, became instantly enthralled with the characters introduced in this very cool Expanded Universe source and we couldn’t wait until collectible licensees brought them to life in their respective formats. The Force Unleashed paid homage to the Original Trilogy in new and innovative ways and we believe that is the biggest reason that allowed old-timers like ourselves to warm up to something that falls somewhere outside of the three original Star Wars films. Sure, Stormtroopers had funky colors on their armor and other characters were vaguely familiar yet reinvented to be something completely different in The Force Unleashed video game. And Royal Guards were no longer red or blue but black. The Shadow Guard is a very tough character to defeat in The Force Unleashed video game, and he may be even more difficult to attain for your Mini Bust collection. More on that in a moment.

Now deemed a Shadow Guard, the black garbed Imperials play an important role in the very awesome The Force Unleashed video game. First introduced to us by Hasbro in the 30 (77-07) line, the 2008 TAC Emperor’s Shadow Guard (08 14) was instantly a hit action figure and collectors were buying them up in droves to quickly army build them to recreate various scenes from the video game. The action figure wasn’t perfect because Hasbro essentially repainted the 2005 ROTS Royal Guard (III 23) figures and the limiting swivel articulation in the elbows and lack of ankle joints really dismayed collectors in a very impacting way. Very few other licensees developed this character for their lines, but Gentle Giant Ltd. finally released a PGM exclusive Mini Bust and it may be the best collectible of this character on the market. We have heard reports of poor paint jobs, dull helmets and spotty washes, but our sample is beautifully finished in its entirety. We’re thrilled with the final product and are glad we secured one.

Just like how Hasbro used their red and blue Royal Guard figures, so did Gentle Giant Ltd. use their “own” Royal Guard Mini Busts to rethink the Shadow Guard. Mostly a straight repaint of them, the Shadow Guard has also been re-sculpted to include the unique lightsaber force pike that is standard for this specific group of guards. The lightsaber blade is removable and is obnoxiously long when attached to the Mini Bust. Admittedly it looks cool, but we think the Shadow Guard looks best without the blade attached. If you decide to include the blade, you’re going to have to waste extra space on a shelf to accommodate this long blade. Exclusive to PGMs, the Shadow Guard is limited to a surprisingly low 750 pieces. Edition sizes have been shrinking for quite some time now, but we find this size a little bit too small. Together, the Royal Guard (red), the Royal Guard (blue) and this Shadow Guard look great together. But now that it’s gone forever, we bet most Mini Bust collectors will find this a drag to acquire for their collections.