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Naboo Royal Guard

May 26, 2012 | By Errex More

One of the figures I was most curious about from Hasbro’s Star Wars Vintage Collection in 2012 was the Naboo Royal Guard (VC83), released just in time for the release of Episode I 3D.

Now, despite the label on the front of the blister stating that this is the first time this character has been made as an action figure, that is not exactly true. There was a Naboo Royal Guard made back in the Power of the Jedi line, but that one had a pre-posed stance and a mustache, which I don’t think counts towards classifying this clean-shaven release as a debuting character, mostly because these trooper-types are identified by character-class rather than as individuals.

The face is generic enough, in the way handsome people tends to look the same. The interesting part is way they sculpted the uniform, which replicates to a tee the appearance of the costumes used in the film. The tunic is ridged and it does a pretty good job of simulating reinforced leather. The pants are sculpted in a pretty standard manner with a lot of wrinkles that help hide the leg joints.

And speaking of articulation, unlike his predecessor, this Naboo has a really good number of joints, like:

• Ball jointed neck.

• Pegged hinge shoulders.

• Pegged hinge elbows.

• Swivel forearms.

• Swivel waist.

• Swivel hips.

• Pegged hinge knees.

• Pegged hinge ankles.

Of course, the lower end of the tunic doesn’t allow for sitting poses because it is a separate piece made of resilient rubber, but there is still enough range at the hips that allows for fairly dynamic poses, although the Naboo Royal Guard looks it’s best simply standing at attention.

The paint decorations on this guy are also quite nice. The tunic received a shading wash that tones down the shine of the plastic and pools unevenly enough to convey the way the movie costumes looked, all the while bringing out the sculpted textures and avoiding a sloppy appearance. The pants, also received a slight wash but the end result is a bit too shiny for my taste. In contrast, gloves and boots are painted in solid blocks of brown,

The real eye magnet is the paintjob on the helmet, though. The movie props had a metal skullcap whose surface was treated to look iridescent, pretty much like oil on water.

Even though it is possible to obtain the exact same look over plastic, the material needs to be of the rigid variety and the process is comparatively more expensive than painting, so Hasbro opted to simulate the effect on their soft rubber accessory by painting the reflections directly. The end result is not quite authentic, but it is passable enough to be overlooked or dismissed as some sort of funky camo pattern.

Apart from the helmet, the Naboo Royal Guard comes with a large blaster pistol detailed in silver, brown and black, and which can be held firmly by either hand or in the functional holster sculpted on the rubber skirt piece.

Even though the Naboo military, as a whole, tend to look more decorative than practical, I must say that this figure turned out to be quite nice and it has the additional advantage of offering some possibilities for simple custom work just by swapping heads with some other trooper types.