Emperor Palpatine (Executor Transmission) - OTC - Basic (Exclusive)

The Emperor sends a holographic message to Darth Vader, who is pursuing the Millennium Falcon through an asteroid field. "We have a new enemy," says the Emperor. "The young Rebel who destroyed the Death Star. I have no doubt this boy is the offspring of Anakin Skywalker." The Emperor and Vader agree to lure Luke to the dark side of the Force.

The Original Trilogy Collection was filled with so many eager moments. In multiple ways it regenerated interest in the Star Wars line. Think about it for a moment. How could Hasbro go wrong with it? Quasi-inspired vintage Kenner packaging for the basic figure line, “actual” vintage Kenner packaging for the premium quality and higher priced sub-line and then some of the greatest exclusives the line has ever seen including Boba Fett’s Slave I from TARGET and various multipacks at Toys R Us. All paid homage to the line that kids who grew up in the late seventies and the eighties with intense nostalgia. When it came time to conjure up exclusives for the 2004 year, Hasbro decided to randomly add a holographic version of Emperor Palpatine to the mix. Titled Emperor Palpatine (Executor Transmission), the figure was intended to be based on the character from the Special Edition with slightly revised dialogue for the DVD release.

Emperor Palpatine (Executor Transmission) is based on 1997’s POTF2 Emperor Palpatine figure. Interestingly, the figure looks better cast in clear purple plastic that it does in full color. That doesn’t mean that the figure from 1997 is terrible. It still is sadly one of the best representations of Emperor Palpatine to date. This is a character that Hasbro struggles to perfect and versions after 1997 have been lackluster at best. The reason why Emperor Palpatine (Executor Transmission) looks better in translucent plastic is because you get a relatively beautiful silhouette of the character without the the limitations of the detail made obvious by a full color palette. These extra details are what prevents the sculpt’s imperfection from remaining disguised. In other words, less detail is more detail. Until Hasbro gives us a state of the art sculpt of Emperor Palpatine, they’ll have to resort to more inferior sculpts to make novelty action figures like this.

Interestingly, figure’s with less articulation look better case in clear plastic. Emperor Palpatine (Executor Transmission) comes with only four points of articulation. a Swivel head is joined by a swivel waist and two swivel shoulders. The outer robes aren’t removable but clearly are a separate sculpt. Hasbro even bothered to cast his walking stick in the same plastic for this release as an accessory. Reserved as an exclusive for StarWarsShop.com, Emperor Palpatine (Executor Transmission) looks much better in the package than outside of it. Its price, a ridiculous $10.99 isn’t worth its weight in gold. The figure is bittersweet. It’s a nod to a very pivotal and informative scene from Episode V and the backdrop the figure sits in front of is gorgeous. But the bottom line is that you’re getting a figure from The Power Of The Force “2” era. Do you really want something this old? Keep in mind this is just a chunk of clear purple plastic.