I received a very nice package from Popcultcha and got to open it when I finally had some "figure time."
I immediately divided the figure, using an old custom head (that the HT head puts to shame
) for the Bespin gown outfit and transferred the head to my Bespin Escape custom.
I had actually planned to get a second HT head for my Bespin Escape Leia (they've been super expensive though - never less than $100 including shipping/tax,) but I'm not sure why but this iteration of HT's reused Leia sculpt didn't quite work as well this time as the Hoth version did for me. Not sure why exactly - it's the same face sculpt and quite similar paint (and same quality.)
Here she looks like a beautiful Italian woman from a Rome cafe (why does HT always give Han and Leia near-black hair?
) with a bit of Leia mixed in from certain angles and under certain lighting. Maybe it's the larger more visible hairstyle on the Hoth version that improves the likeness, drawing your eye and framing the face with a hairstyle that screams ESB Leia. Whereas this version the mass of hair is hidden behind the head so trades more on the actual face sculpt.
I think I'll probably wait for another Leia sculpt to come along and just keep the weaker custom sculpt (which is a rework of the custom Leia slave head.) I plan to add the same "tassles" the HT Leia head has at the temples to the custom sculpt because it really helps sell the Bespin look.
All that being said, these two really look nice from a distance and I'll be posting more pics once I've assembled my Bespin line-up as a display.