Obi-Wan Kenobi [Episode III] - Mini Busts

Obi-Wan Kenobi, now a Jedi Master and a general in the Army of the Republic, is called away to Utapau to locate General Grievous. At that same time, Chancellor Palpatine issues Order 66, directing clone troopers to turn on their Jedi generals. Sending a beacon to all surviving Jedi, Obi-Wan instructs them to scatter across the galaxy and remain in hiding. Obi-Wan survives the attempt on his life and escapes, eventually settling on Tatooine.

Once in a while things go terribly wrong when Gentle Giant Ltd.. designs certain Mini Busts. And things definitely went terribly wrong when Obi-Wan Kenobi (based on his Episode III appearance) was cast. Human likenesses in general are hard to capture well in this scale, but Gentle Giant typically hits the mark or overshoots it rather than not making it. Obi-Wan Kenobi is very rough-looking. Obi-Wan Kenobi looks more like a prototype that Lucasfilm, Ltd. is getting ready to axe than a final product. And that really makes us ponder how certain things squeak right by their licensing department without requiring some tweaking and improvements. Obi-Wan Kenobi not only fails with his likeness, but the paint job is extremely shoddy and sophomorically applied. We’re about ready to exchange ours for hopefully a better sample hoping that not all of them are like this. That’s how disappointed we are in this Mini Bust.

Obi-Wan Kenobi should have been a Mini Bust that we liked. Gentle Giant Ltd.. has mastered some of Obi-Wan’s features like his hair and his outfit. But finer details like his eyes, eyebrows and even his facial structure and hair leave a lot to be desired. What is up with that elongated look that they can't seem to pull away from with Obi-Wan Kenobi? And while they’ve done a good job on the sculpting of his hair, the paint job is just horrendous. Think of a Hasbro figure where you can see “flesh” where the hairline should be. Well, that’s exactly what has happened here. Obi-Wan Kenobi has flesh colored roots of hair that instantly turn brown a few millimeters up the follicle. We’ve come to expect intense quality control from Gentle Giant, so this is a very disappointing setback. He looks too pale in the face also. His flesh looks jaundiced at best and the mole Ewan McGregor really has on his forehead has been exaggerated to scary levels and your eyes are drawn to it immediately, even before you can appreciate the rest of the Mini Bust.

The costume is average. It looks a little bit faded or bleached in spots and the arms don’t seem to match the body portion of the bust exactly 100%. One of the better details of this Mini Bust is the belt. And while there are some excellently sculpted details, again, paint was missed leaving the Mini Bust to look a bit unfinished. Obi-Wan Kenobi holds his lightsaber in both hands. The hilt is mostly covered up by his fingers, but from what we can gather, the hilt looks a little bit under scale. This of course is nitpicking at this point, but we’re very disappointed with this Mini Bust as a whole, we’re going all out with our complaining. Lastly, Obi-Wan Kenobi comes with a removable plastic blue lightsaber blade that fits rather loosely on the plug in the center of the hilt. You’ve seen these a hundred times before and they still are just as boring as ever. This is not the way to make a lightsaber blade in our opinion. This Entertainment Earth exclusive is definitely a disappointment. Unless you collect them all, this one just may not be worth it to you.