Figure of the Day: Day 425: Padme Amidala

PADMÉ Republic Senator
Revenge of the Sith Collection 2
Item No.: Asst. 85174 No. 85292
Number: III-19
Includes: Blaster, Mustafar base
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $5.24-$6.99
Availability: March 2005-Present
Appearances: Revenge of the Sith

Bio: Padmé comes to realize that her beloved Anakin is falling to the dark side of the Force. She makes a desperate attempt to convince him to return to the side of good before it is too late. (Taken from the figure's cardback.)

Image: Adam Pawlus' toy shelves.

Commentary: Despite having more costume changes than pretty much anybody in the entire prequel storyline, Miss Padmé hasn't exactly had a lot of action figures. From Revenge of the Sith, she got but one-- a weird little Boy Scout ensemble which shows off her baby bump and features soft goods so she could, given the opportunity, sit. Her face sculpt was much improved over previous releases, and on some levels, so was the paint-- not on my sample, of course, but on the other ones they tried to give her makeup and decent eyebrows, generally making her look female. I can appreciate this, the execution wasn't perfect but I don't expect too much from a 3 3/4-inch action figure. (Well, OK that's a lie.) So she could sit in a ship if she had one, which is good, she has knee joints, which is also good, and most of her articulation is hidden in her costume. In other words, Hasbro pretty much did everything they could to make this a good figure-- while there will no doubt always be debate on the soft goods for the lower part of the dress, the overall design is sound, and it isn't like there was too much more you could do with the outfit. This figure's main fault with fans is her abundance, as Hasbro made sure to keep her in circulation for a good long time-- although in my area, they're pretty much all gone these days. As a sign of things to come, if Hasbro keeps the Amidala figures about this good, we'll be in good shape.

Collector's Notes: This figure was first released in 2005 for Revenge of the Sith, and was repackaged in 2006 for the Episode III Greatest Battles Collection. Both versions were fairly common in some markets, achieving "pegwarmer" status while in other areas, they just kept selling really well. It seems to be a crapshoot depending on the neighborhood. As of this article, this figure is the most recent version of Padme from the movies. A Clone Wars version was made in early 2007, though.

Day 425: July 5, 2007