Hot Toys ROTJ Emperor Palpatine

[Xeno Junkie]

Regular version now Waitlisted at Sideshow.

 

[DarkChocobi]

On the fence with this release. Every Star Wars collections needs an emperor but I feel like HT may release an EP3 version...Im a huge fan of that red robe and feel like they would give him more yellow eyes in that version. who knows though. First world problems.

Darth Sidious with reb robe, Sith eyes and light saber is inevitable.

 

[Bilbo Skywalker]

Darth Sidious with reb robe, Sith eyes and light saber is inevitable.

DEW IT

 

[rayeknor]

I am the senate, dew it

 

[bwh1990]

Got my Palpatine and Anakin shipped off to Frost Vision Studios for the proper "sith" eyes treatment. Looking forward to seeing the Emperor with the correct eyes.

 

[Darth KirBayBey]

Got my Palpatine and Anakin shipped off to Frost Vision Studios for the proper "sith" eyes treatment. Looking forward to seeing the Emperor with the correct eyes.

I checked out their site and I honestly can't tell the difference from their Anakin repaint and the original HT release. Amazing work. I can't wait to see what their repaint of Palpatine looks like on a HT head sculpt. I'm guessing, what they show on their FB page is an old SSC head sculpt or maybe a custom head? How are their pricing on the repaints?

 

[Jbeltram4]

I received my Emperor yesterday. Out of the box, I have very mixed feelings, liking a lot of things, but also disliking a lot.
I was never a big fan of the expression, and unfortunately it's not much different in hand than in photos. I removed all the stitches of the hood immediately. Draping it more over the head does improve the likeness and expression IMO, especially from a 3/4 view.
The texture of the robe is quite nice, but it's a bit too shiny overall. A clear improvement over the thick Sideshow version though.
The hands that are included are well sculpted and painted, but there are simply not enough. We get plenty of right hands, but what about a relaxed left hand? We only get the lightning hand and gesturing with the pinky extended.
I probably missed it being mentioned before, but my biggest issue is actually that the cane is quite a bit too long. Palps should almost have an outstretched arm when standing straight and holding the cane. In my shot below, he's already leaning a bit to his left, has the arm angled quite a bit, the hand turned upwards, and still, the cane is angled a bit to the front. I hope extending his overall height will help a bit, but I will probably have to shave off a couple of mm at the bottom.
Overall I do like him, but I mostly see a lot of potential. Some of the modifications I'm already thinking about are: repaint the eyes, customize a new relaxed left hand (resculpt and repaint one from my fodder box), extend height, shorten cane.

Anyway, here's a shot with some quick futzing, trying to replicate the reference image. As mentioned, the stitches in the hood have already been removed, the rest is stock.

View attachment 444518

View attachment 444519

Seeing your hood, I definitely need to take the stitches out. 100% better.

 

[agonistes86]

That looks fantastic!!!

Very cool looking, agonistes86! As usual, the HT hands look a bit oversized based on that reference shot, but not overly so. Really like the hood that way.
On the cane, do you have the SSC one? It may be shorter (I remember having to really get a hunch going on the standing pose to get the can to hit the ground)

Looks great! I definitely agree the stitches need to come out to get the right look.

From a design standpoint, the Emperor was never one of the standouts. I remember being somewhat disappointed when we finally saw him in 1983. Just an old man in a cloak, that's it? But Lucas was once again using his multi-cultural-grab approach -- very simple, classic 'evil'; the anti-Yoda. So out of the box is pretty lean on excitement from most everyone that's posted. But, he does grow on you over time. The simplicity works. Much like Tarkin.

Seeing your hood, I definitely need to take the stitches out. 100% better.

Thanks guys! Agreed, the stitches are holding the figure back in a big way IMO, all stitches need to go.

I increased his height (using the same onesixthkit ankle extenders other here used) and spend more time futzing him. For example, a small detail, but his belt/sash under his robe should have the ends longer than it was tied out of the box. The hood also was not wide enough yet last time. The height helped with the cane holding, but the cane definitely needs to lose some height - that's my next to-do.

I'm starting to really like him, my initial mixed feelings are quickly evaporating. I'm even liking the grin, which, with proper hood placement and lighting, looks more sinister than comical.

Here are some new shots in low light (the last one was during the day). The lighting is all purely from my setup.

 

[TonTon]

Your ESB Vader is second to none, agonistes86. Great work there, and you've got the Emperor looking pretty sharp too.

 

[xipotec]

That lighting thou...

Makes it look SO real.


Sent from the inside of a giant slug in outer space.....

 

[TaliBane]

Great pics Agon.

Nice to see this figure still at the top of the threads. I too was pretty meh on it but it's grown on me a lot.

Has anyone noticed any staining issues with the head or hands? I saw someone mentioned Luke Jedi staining on the hands - I just checked but haven't seen any staining yet. This guy seems like it's a no-brainer it will stain eventually.

 

[xipotec]

I dunno Tali, I never heard of staining till recently, and honestly it seems very isolated cases.

No staining on any of my figures and I have many of the worse offenders....both you mentioned as well.

And about to get Neo....must have a think for characters in black.



Sent from the inside of a giant slug in outer space.....

 

[Darth KirBayBey]

I dunno Tali, I never heard of staining till recently, and honestly it seems very isolated cases.

No staining on any of my figures and I have many of the worse offenders....both you mentioned as well.

And about to get Neo....must have a think for characters in black.



Sent from the inside of a giant slug in outer space.....

I have a small stain spot on my Luke's left closed fist. Probably from the cuff of the suit.

 

[bwh1990]

I checked out their site and I honestly can't tell the difference from their Anakin repaint and the original HT release. Amazing work. I can't wait to see what their repaint of Palpatine looks like on a HT head sculpt. I'm guessing, what they show on their FB page is an old SSC head sculpt or maybe a custom head? How are their pricing on the repaints?

They charged me $20 per head for the sith eyes, damn good deal to me. I should get them back in about a week and a half or so. I'll definitely be posting plenty of pics once I get them back.

 

[bwh1990]

I checked out their site and I honestly can't tell the difference from their Anakin repaint and the original HT release. Amazing work. I can't wait to see what their repaint of Palpatine looks like on a HT head sculpt. I'm guessing, what they show on their FB page is an old SSC head sculpt or maybe a custom head? How are their pricing on the repaints?

They charged me $20 per head for the sith eyes, damn good deal to me. I should get them back in about a week and a half or so. I'll definitely be posting plenty of pics once I get them back.

 

[Darth KirBayBey]

They charged me $20 per head for the sith eyes, damn good deal to me. I should get them back in about a week and a half or so. I'll definitely be posting plenty of pics once I get them back.

Yeah that is an awesome price. Can't wait to see what Palpatine looks like

 

[DarkChocobi]

Thanks guys! Agreed, the stitches are holding the figure back in a big way IMO, all stitches need to go.

I increased his height (using the same onesixthkit ankle extenders other here used) and spend more time futzing him. For example, a small detail, but his belt/sash under his robe should have the ends longer than it was tied out of the box. The hood also was not wide enough yet last time. The height helped with the cane holding, but the cane definitely needs to lose some height - that's my next to-do.

I'm starting to really like him, my initial mixed feelings are quickly evaporating. I'm even liking the grin, which, with proper hood placement and lighting, looks more sinister than comical.

Here are some new shots in low light (the last one was during the day). The lighting is all purely from my setup.

View attachment 444865

View attachment 444866

Perfection!

 

[agonistes86]

Your ESB Vader is second to none, agonistes86. Great work there, and you've got the Emperor looking pretty sharp too.

Thanks! Yeah you can tell how proud I am of him by the amount of photos I include him in with other figures.

That lighting thou...

Makes it look SO real.


Sent from the inside of a giant slug in outer space.....

Great pics Agon.

Nice to see this figure still at the top of the threads. I too was pretty meh on it but it's grown on me a lot.

Perfection!

Thanks guys.

Looking at the pictures again, I think the cloak needs to hug the legs a bit more, it's too billowed out at the moment, which makes him appear too wide at the bottom and a bit chunky.
Overall, I'm really starting to love the figure. He can look very good with minimal work.

 

[hrguerra]

I was hesitant to remove the rest of the stitches, but after seeing those pics, I had to do it.

 

[agonistes86]

Sorry for spamming with yet another photo, but I did some more work on him and thought I'd show you.
I shortened the cane today (by about 5-6 mm) and removed the padding on the legs to slim him down a bit and make it easier to drape the cloak around him. Again, futzing makes most difference though. I might still remove some mm from the cane, but I didn't want to do too much at once. The arm resting on the cane already looks much better though.