1/6 1/6 Hot Toys - MMS 452 - Star Wars: Episode V ESB - Darth Vader
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jkno
Stormtrooper
Ok now let's rock this joint
And yes...
Very nice
hopefully people will learn something from this... or not.
abake
Rex Tremendae Majestatis
Nice pics guys!
jkno
Stormtrooper
medicomsucks
Super Freak
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That's why mine has the clone wars helmet from the titanium series. Its a little small but still pretty cool.
Darn, I was really hoping more people would think my pics looked nice.... 
Yeah that's just the stock ESB helmet. Unfortunately I'm not sure it's really representative of how the helmet looks overall, and of the 20 or so pics I took that was about the only angle and lighting that made it work for me. The rest of the time I'm afraid the helmet still reminds me a little too much of the flat and big-mouthed SS Vader. And then you add that to how short and stocky the figure looks and I honestly just found myself feeling pretty frustrated and disappointed with it... and thinking it's probably not one I'll be keeping for very long.
Yeah that's just the stock ESB helmet. Unfortunately I'm not sure it's really representative of how the helmet looks overall, and of the 20 or so pics I took that was about the only angle and lighting that made it work for me. The rest of the time I'm afraid the helmet still reminds me a little too much of the flat and big-mouthed SS Vader. And then you add that to how short and stocky the figure looks and I honestly just found myself feeling pretty frustrated and disappointed with it... and thinking it's probably not one I'll be keeping for very long.
ajp4mgs
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Darn, I was reslly hoping more people would think my pics looked nice....
Yeah that's just the stock ESB helmet. Unfortunately I'm not sure it's really representative of how the helmet looks overall, and of the 20 or so pics I took that was about the only angle and lighting that made it work for me. The rest of the time I'm afraid the helmet still reminds me a little too much of the flat and big-mouthed SS Vader. And then you add that to how short and stocky the figure looks and I honestly just found myself feeling pretty frustrated and disappointed with it... and thinking it's probably not one I'll be keeping for very long.
I just want to add one more to the long list of compliments on your photos, davejames.
It's funny that you mention the figure looking short and stocky to you because that's one of the reasons I like your photos so much: they're among the very few I've seen where this Vader doesn't look that way to me.But I think one of the things that might be most responsible for the short and stocky vibe in general is the length of the arms. With your Vader pic next to a costumed Vader shot (I'm not even sure this is Prowse, though), the only thing about the body proportions that jumps out at me is how much longer the costumed Vader's arms look. Would it be possible for you to pull the gloves (and their pegs) out of the arms and have them drop down a bit, but still be held up by the thickness of the suit around the lower arm? That way, we could tell if seemingly longer arms would change the proportional appearance of the figure. I'd be really curious to see the effect, and whether it improves or worsens things.
rayeknor
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Prowse is a big guy with a athletic build to boot, he has long arms. By no means gorilla arms, if anything to my eye Hot Toys bodies have too short arms, this is on every figure, more evident on Vader as they made other parts of the body longer to make him taller then normal 1:6 characters. Too bad they didnt consider work on the arms as well
generalgrevious
Super Freak
I still think it`s the over sized helmet/sculpt that throws everything off and makes the arms look small. I`m using the Kaiyodo mask as it looks about right for scale wise I think.
Yeah the arms are definitely too short, but the oversized helmet (and especially mask) seem like the bigger issues to me.
Plus the body and chest armor seem a bit too wide as well somehow.
Plus the body and chest armor seem a bit too wide as well somehow.
generalgrevious
Super Freak
and every one said sideshow makes there head sculpts big HT makes there vader heads over scale 
generalgrevious
Super Freak
I used the RO vader body and swapped out the arms from the ANH as the RO body has better articulation
I got the chest armor with the intent of using it on my custom (using kaiyodo mask), only to discover that it's gigantic! It's even larger than the ANH V2 armor, which surprised me. So unfortunately I'm not able to use it.
Love your shots BTW! But I agree that I'm not feeling the helmet in almost every shot and video I've seen so far - only certain angles look good. I know it's not a very popular opinion on here right now, but I don't think this sculpt will hold up well over the years. Everybody is saying how much better than SSC this is, which I fully agree with. But at this point in my collecting life, I'm not simply looking for "better than the last version", especially for these characters that have been made dozens of times by numerous companies.
But of course at the same time I know everybody has a different entry point for these. The new ESB HT Boba Fett was finally at a personal true-to-movie level where I decided to buy him, while others bought all other versions before, yet others might still hold off now until a better version comes along that finally meets their personal standard they're looking for.
Yeah I'm honestly feeling right now like I'd rather have another RO Vader instead, as that one just felt a lot more impressive to me out of the box with its better helmet and proportions. If there's any way I could just do a clean trade with someone I probably would.
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I just checked this thread to see if I needed this too and it looks like I'll be fine with my ANH version with tunic under the vest mod.
cerealkeller
Super Freak
I got him today. To be honest, it's okay. I may grow to like him more, I'm just not happy with some QC issues. When I was trying to pull the right glove out to swap, the right arm came out and that was not fun to get back in. The lightsaber Blade will NOT fit in the lightsaber with the light up arm, I am using the blade from Dookus lightsaber that came with Anakin which is also a loose fit (that's what she said too many times) so that's annoying.
The base is nice but I do wish he came with a less scene specific base also. Having him looking all confident cool looks weird with the base provided.
All in all, not nearly as impressive as the RO in my opinion but I needed Empire Vader.
I'll try and take better pics soon. Lighting here is terrible currently.
And one with my cat Rey.
She has the high ground.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The base is nice but I do wish he came with a less scene specific base also. Having him looking all confident cool looks weird with the base provided.
All in all, not nearly as impressive as the RO in my opinion but I needed Empire Vader.
I'll try and take better pics soon. Lighting here is terrible currently.
And one with my cat Rey.
She has the high ground.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Darn, I was really hoping more people would think my pics looked nice....
Yeah that's just the stock ESB helmet. Unfortunately I'm not sure it's really representative of how the helmet looks overall, and of the 20 or so pics I took that was about the only angle and lighting that made it work for me. The rest of the time I'm afraid the helmet still reminds me a little too much of the flat and big-mouthed SS Vader. And then you add that to how short and stocky the figure looks and I honestly just found myself feeling pretty frustrated and disappointed with it... and thinking it's probably not one I'll be keeping for very long.
I'm assuming this figure is about 13 1/2"-13 3/4" so yeah, the scale of the helmet and shoulder armor commits you to a too-tall figure. This figure is a bit shorter than the RO figure, though the shoulder armor is the same size. That's one of the factor's that's making the figure look like the smaller kid wearing the huge shoulder pads.
When I get mine, I'll be cracking the helmet open to see if that mouth can be reduced, and if the "teeth" area can be tweaked (angled back more.) It may be possible to shave down the armor either side by maybe 1/16" to lessen the width. I do think that with work, this helmet has more promise than the ANH version.
Given we've had three Sideshow Vaders and 3-4 Hot Toys Vaders now and there really aren't any that truly bullseyes the way Vader looks in any of the movies, my guess is it really comes down to customization now.
I have most of the parts from those six Vaders and it becomes a maddening puzzle to figure out what works best with what, mostly because so much of it is somewhat oversized - the 13 1/2"-14" tall Vader is clearly a LFL directive, so manufacturers just upscale all the parts to match.
canofhumdingers
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Man, several bummer reviews in a row. That’s depressing!
Also depressing: the tracking info for mine says it’s been sitting in a city just four hours away for three days, yet somehow the delivery date just changed from Friday to Saturday! Doesn’t matter anyway since I won’t be able to get to it until Monday at the earliest. Still!!
Despite the Debbie Downers* I’m still pumped. I just rearranged my shelves today so I can put him on display immediately. His temporary placeholder is the old original SS ANH Vader, so this should be a pretty epic upgrade.
*i know I know. I’m super picky and critical of Darth Vader collectibles too. I’m still waiting to get this in hand to really decide what I think, but there’s been enough evidence so far that I’m optimistic he’ll be a showstopper in hand.
Also depressing: the tracking info for mine says it’s been sitting in a city just four hours away for three days, yet somehow the delivery date just changed from Friday to Saturday! Doesn’t matter anyway since I won’t be able to get to it until Monday at the earliest. Still!!
Despite the Debbie Downers* I’m still pumped. I just rearranged my shelves today so I can put him on display immediately. His temporary placeholder is the old original SS ANH Vader, so this should be a pretty epic upgrade.
*i know I know. I’m super picky and critical of Darth Vader collectibles too. I’m still waiting to get this in hand to really decide what I think, but there’s been enough evidence so far that I’m optimistic he’ll be a showstopper in hand.
Rey looking down on Vader.Similar threads
