Hot Toys MMS468 Emperor Palpatine Deluxe

Hot Toys continues to release great Star Wars figures, and the recent Emperor Palpatine is no exception. They do pretty well on the original trilogy figures, and this Emperor goes perfectly with the Royal Guard and Vader figures.

Click through below to watch the full review on the Kool Kollectibles YouTube channel. Make sure to give the video a thumbs up and subscribe to stay tuned for more reviews! :)

Box art is the usual style, this time being pretty large with the inclusion of the throne in this Deluxe set. The accessories aren't too extensive, but I guess the wasn't much to the Emperor in Return of the Jedi. I won't be posing him with his force lightning accessories, and they are a bit of a pain to place with the fingers. I do like the glossy black cane, but again won't be using that either. The key accessory for me is of course the throne itself.

 The throne looks quite nice, but could be a bit on the small side. The light up features are pretty useless too, but I think the biggest fault is that the base sits too high. This means it's an absolute pain in the arse to get him seated in the throne and have his feet touching the ground!

Having the Emperor look like a school kid sitting in a large chair just doesn't look great. The best that I could do with the articulation of the figure almost got the feet there. You definitely have to use as much of the ab crunch as possible, and angle the head down as far as it can go. Bend the legs and knees enough to get him slouched in the throne and you should be able to get it decent enough. Pointing the feet downwards also helps with the illusion.

The other difficult thing with him seated is getting the hood of the cloak to remain low over his forehead. Due to the slouched pose and the stitching of the hood, the tends to ride back up his head, revealing too much of his forehead. He looks much more menacing with the hood low. I'll have to keep futzing mine to try and keep it low.

 Other than those complaints, overall I think it looks great. The costume material is nice, and Hot Toys did a great job with his clothing under the cloak. It's a great soft material and luckily doesn't hinder articulation too much.

The cloak is a nice reflective material, but does take a bit of work to drape naturally over his arms and body. I tried as best I could to match the scenes from the movie showing him in the throne. in the end, it looks pretty good on display with the other imperial forces. If you're a Star Wars original trilogy fan, then I'm sure you'll love this figure.

Hot Toys MMS469 Royal Guard

It's always a good day when a Star Wars original trilogy figure is added to the collection! This new addition from Hot Toys may seem like just another trooper, but the beauty of this Royal Guard is in its simplicity! It's just a simple figure, done very well is all the areas that it needs.

Click through below to check out my full video review over on the Kool Kollectibles YouTube channel. Make sure to give the video a like and to also subscribe to the channel :)

The packaging is the usual style with the front cover art and the inside cover insert. There aren't to many accessories, but I'm not sure what else Hot Toys could have included. The staff and array of hands work well. The base has a lighter grey floor covering instead of the nice darker black floor for the Tarkin figure. I would've much preferred that over this one.

The outfit has a number of layers, including the pants, boots, long skirt/shirt and belt, all covered by the nice robe and topped off with the high gloss helmet. The darker maroon of the undersuit is fantastic, with a beautifully soft material  that is nicely tailored. The pants are made of the same material, and it all allows for great articulation.

The boots are also a nice material. It doesn't really look like faux-leather, but is again soft and allows for great ankle articulation. It does suffer from the same sort of folding around the ankle joint, but doesn't look too bad if futzed.

The part that needs the most futzing is of course the red robe. It has all the pleats and folds tailored in, but comes quite wrinkled straight out of the box. As with many collectors, there was an area near the left knee that seems to have been pressed against the clamshell in the packagem resulting in a spot on the robe that appears like a lighter coloured stain.

It is not really a stain, but just the pile of the material being crushed slightly against the packaging. The easiest fix that remedied most of the issue was simply putting a bit of water onto the spot and gently rubbing. After that dried I found most of the spot cleared.

The best remedy, that not only removed the spot but also the wrinkles, was doing a light iron on the cloak. I simply used some steam from the iron, and used a white shirt to place between the iron and the cloak. I then gave the inner side of the cloak an iron. This removed the wrinkles, but you do need to be careful about where the designed pleats are located. You want to keep those pleats and also the folds near the chest area directly under the helmet.

Once all setup, either in the classic staff-holding pose or a more dynamic pose, this figure really pops on display. The bright red outfit, along with the perfectly glossy helmet make for a figure that draws the eye in the collection. I can certainly see why many collectors will get two to stand either side of the Emperor.

I really hope that Hot Toys continues to make classic trilogy figures. I still have the ROTJ Luke and the Emperor to come this year. Hopefully 2019 is a big year for more Star Wars announcements!