Darth Vader (Anakin Reveal) - Mini Busts

It goes without saying that the Mini Bust line has released characters representative across the entire Star Wars universe with regularity and relatively even ratios. With many of the “onscreen” characters however, Gentle Giant Ltd. has taken some artistic license here and there to make their products truly unique to their own brand. Always looking for ways to release clever versions of the most popular Star Wars characters that maintains their trademark, they sought to bring collectors an Episode III specific version of Darth Vader (but in his black “iron lung”) and created an interesting take on him. Because Darth Vader (in the suit) really didn’t have much screen time in Episode III, coming up with a dynamic interpretation of this appearance “from” Revenge Of The Sith takes a little bit of thinking outside of the box. So the artisans at Gentle Giant Ltd. came up with a cool way to represent this and decided to use the burnt head of Anakin Skywalker and place it on top of their previously released “Episode III helmeted” version of Darth Vader.

The good news is that the final Mini Bust works better than you might originally think. The most impressive aspect of it clearly is the portrait. We’re actually befuddled with how accurately Gentle Giant Ltd. has perfectly captured every last detail on Anakin’s burnt head. The cuts, scratches and multiple degrees of burn damage are so realistic it’s nearly unbelievable that this is only crafted in cold cast polystone. Vader is a surgeon’s worst nightmare and the scars continuously remind you of that. They used an elaborate paint operation that not only brings out the textures of Anakin’s singed head, but also shows just how severe his injuries were and the damages he sustained from the Mustafar lava shores. Obi-Wan’s swift wielding of his lightsaber certainly brought Anakin down in an alarming way. It’s done so well that we have to question whether it may have been more ideal for Gentle Giant to have created a Mini Bust based on his body outside of the Darth Vader outfit, severed arm and all. But that may have been a bit too graphic for a collectible of this type.

Limited to 5000 pieces, the edition size is a far cry from the 20,000 “regular” pieces of the standard Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith Darth Vader Mini Bust. And while some may be inclined to call this another “Episode IIII” version of Darth Vader, it really isn’t because he never appeared like this in the film. The operating table/Franken Vader scene is the closest scene we can match to this Mini Bust. What makes this officially and Expanded Universe version of Darth Vader is the lit lightsaber. We never saw Darth Vader swing a lit lightsaber in Episode III, so to see him unmasked holding the lit lightsaber is a bit too far out of reach from the film. It might have made this Mini Bust a bit more collector-friendly if they had included an alternative helmeted Darth Vader portrait, or maybe somehow retool the cast to remove the lightsaber hilt. Besides, the lightsaber blade is obtrusive (even on the regular version) and it obscures the face of Anakin in a quite annoying fashion. The Mini Bust needs to be posed to the left or to the right to grasp an uninterrupted look at his battered face. The Darth Vader (Anakin Reveal) Mini Bust won’t interest all collectors, but we bet one great look at his face and you’ll want it for your own collection!