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"Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my
size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the
Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow.
Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not
this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you; here, between
you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes. Even between the land
and the ship."
INTRODUCTION
Very few collectibles make quite the same impression as those done
in the 1:1 scale, when done correctly the collector is given
something that appears to “breathe” and oozes realism. The Star Wars
universe has been given such an opportunity by Sideshow
Collectibles, who are no strangers to detailed costuming and
realistic collectibles. The Yoda 1:1 bust is an excellent addition
to this line which already included Darth Maul and the bounty hunter
Greedo. George Lucas and Frank Oz (the voice and puppeteer) did
accomplish something remarkable, they took what was essentially a
Muppet and gave him the persona and emotion to make us care – even
if backwards he spoke. There are no exclusives (or at least
yet) in the 1:1 line of busts, and fortunately Yoda does not come
with alternative The Phantom Menace "stoned Yoda" portrait, this
piece is based on his first appearance from The Empire Strikes Back.
PACKAGING - 10/10
One thing that Sideshow certainly excels at is their packaging and
artwork on the product box; the 1:1 Yoda bust is no exception to
this. While effective the rigid white foam that Sideshow has been
using is messy, fortunately Yoda comes in the older softer grey foam
surrounded by a generous layer of foam protective paper. My bust was
delivered in the middle of a Las Vegas summer and without issue, I
didn't open the box to find a melted Jedi master. The photo on the
front of the box is misleading – as are the pictures on Sideshow’s
site, the sculpt changed from the time of prototype to production,
but more about that later.
SCULPT - 8.5/10
As mentioned above, the sculpt for Yoda went through some changes
from the time it was first presented in prototype form to the time
it was ready for collector's shelves. Personally I find these
changes to be for the better, namely the length of the neck being
extended and the chin and face of Yoda being slightly tilted back.
The Yoda bust is based not off of the CGI version from two of the
three pre-trilogy renditions but the encounter we have with him
first on the remote, swamp planet of Dagobah. I find the sculpt to
be quite good, especially when viewed slightly lower than eye-level;
not too much of a stretch considering how we view him in the films.
For whatever reason however the sculpt looses some of it's pop when
viewed in profile, I suppose that might be the difficulty in
sculpting a puppet in static form. The Yoda bust includes his left
arm which is resting on his right (a polystone stump) complete with
realistic nails and paint. This is a bit of a departure for Sideshow
in their 1:1 line, mainly the inclusion of an arm and more of the
upper body. No doubt this is due to the smaller subject being
presented. The entirety of the visible sculpt is a dense latex, but
I emphasize dense; it does not have the impression that it will be
deteriorating any time soon. The bust is affixed to the standard
Sideshow 1:1 bust base, complete with science fiction accoutrements
adorning the top portion, and yet again we are reminded of who we
are looking at courtesy of a nameplate – which really is quite
redundant.
PAINT - 8/10
There isn't too much to the nuance of the paintwork on Yoda, I mean
really he's green right? Actually the skin is quite textured, and
the little bumps and wrinkles are quite nicely brought to life. The
only area in which I would ding the paintwork is the eyes. They
appear to be a decal of some sort that are applied as opposed to
being directly painted on or even better glass eyes (but that has
been a common complaint with Sideshow’s 1:1 busts). When viewed
up-close there is actually pixelization to them, almost like a dot
matrix printer would produce. After all that it isn’t a major issue,
because unless one is within a foot or less it isn’t noticeable.
While not really paint per se, the Yoda bust does also include
realistic rooted hair on both the top of the head and the ears; and
Sideshow really pulled the effect off, it really looks great.
COSTUMING - 8.5/10
Yoda doesn't have the most elaborate costume in the Star Wars
universe, especially when the Jedi great went into a self-imposed
exile. That said the outer robe is nicely produced with an
effectively thick fabric. The under tunic is sufficient as well, the
only real complaints I could see with Yoda’s costuming would be the
lack of substantial weathering; including tattering and holes. The
score reflects the fact that while representative the costuming just
looks too new for my tastes.
VALUE - 8/10
The retail price for this bust is $549 direct from Sideshow and it
has an edition size of 1000, oddly enough this bust took quite some
time to sell out from the Sideshow's site; though it now is and is
without a waitlist option. The Star Wars busts have gotten
progressively cheaper since the release of Darth Maul (the first);
there may have been some restructuring of the Sideshow sales model
in place. While being mostly dense latex I don't think that the
price is unreasonable, but considering a relatively low edition size
and the long sell-through period perhaps I am in the minority. I
would score this an eight due to the former issues mentioned with
the paintwork (mainly the eyes).
OVERALL - 8.5/10
While the sculpt and presence are what one would want from a Yoda
collectible, especially one life-size; Sideshow took an easier (or
at least less-effective) route with the eyes and thus the overall
grade is dropped down some. I would highly recommend the piece
however, viewed slightly from above and at about 2 or more feet away
he looks alive and makes a wonderful addition to any Star Wars
display or cinema room.
Buy him, you
should!
PHOTOS
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