Han Solo - Mini Busts

Gentle Giant Ltd. released the worst exclusive Mini Bust for 2005’s San Diego Comic Con. Instead of creating a truly unique sculpt or character for the event, they just reserved the first 1000 pieces of it and placed it in a “special” white box and called it the Early Bird Edition – First 1000 Han Solo Mini Bust. We want to know however isn’t a rose by any other name still a rose? Sadly, Han Solo in either packaging can’t be referred to as a rose because it isn’t the most exciting Mini Bust sculpted for the line. Gentle Giant Ltd. collectors had wanted to see the A New Hope version of Han Solo get released in the line, but we feel it’s safe to assume that we didn’t want this one. By now you probably know how things are in the Mini Bust line. Often, Gentle Giant Ltd. will take some artistic license with their products, sometimes to annoying degrees. We think Han Solo falls within the “annoying range” of the bell curve.

What makes this a tad tragic is that the sculpt of Han Solo is actually pretty decent. It’s easier to forgive a likeness that isn’t entirely perfect when the stature or the pose of the sculpt is dead to rights. But that just isn’t the case here. The pose is so bad that it interferes with appreciating the likeness, which in all honesty, is actually pretty good. Han Solo is also a little too tall when compared to the other Mini Busts in the line. We hope that Gentle Giant Ltd. is committed to ensuring accurate scale is at the forefront of their minds when brainstorming pieces to make. Han Solo has all the right stuff in this Mini Bust and it’s done well in so many regards. The costuming is perfect. His vest is accurate and his belt with all of the many accessories that adorn it looks even better. But what was Gentle Giant Ltd. thinking by having his hold his blaster behind his head with a big grin on his face? Yes, it just doesn’t work. Han Solo acted demurely when hiding his gun from Greedo, so why is he acting haphazardly here?

Han Solo looks more like a comedian than a smuggler desperate to protect his life. No wonder Greedo now shoots first. If the bounty hunter saw this clown goofing off in the cantina he would have shot him just to stop being so irritating. With a mind-boggling 8000 total units manufactured, the Han Solo Mini Bust is undoubtedly overproduced. And we don’t think the exclusive (and quite boring) white box for the Early Bird Edition Mini Busts will entice people to look for an edition number 1000 and below. Overall, the Han Solo Mini Bust wasn’t handled ideally. We’re just not crazy about the sculpt and he isn’t “collectible enough” if that even matters to you. Again, the sculpt is rather fine and we’re frustrated by that because this could have been a really fine collectible had it been approached differently. We hope that Gentle Giant Ltd. gives us as close to screen accuracy as possible. This is what Star Wars fans recall, and its what inspires the best collectibles based on them.