Bandai, Gentle Giant, Kotobukiya, and Sideshow Collectibles show off their Star Wars lines
The official Star Wars YouTube channel is livestreaming from the Star Wars Celebration. So while we weren’t able to make it down to Anaheim, we still got a pretty good look at the high end collectibles being offered by four of the top Star Wars licensees. Attached herein are the presentations from Bandai, Gentle Giant, Kotobukiya, and Sideshow Collectibles.
Bandai Tamashii Nations
Bandai, through their distributor Blue Fin, is one of the newest licensees. They highlighted their Movie Realizations line, which provides alternative takes on Star Wars characters. We’d previously seen their Samurai General Darth Vader and Stormtrooper, but Bandai has more in the works, including an ronin-inspired Boba Fett. No word yet on the traditional movie line, which is still only available as an import to the United States, as the scale and form factor are very similar to Hasbro’s Black Series. Time will tell if they will be able to sell that line directly in the U.S.
Gentle Giant
The folks at Gentle Giant have a long-standing relationship with Lucasfilm / Disney going back 20 years. They started by doing prototyping and creating style guides for other Star Wars licensees, but quickly became a licensee on their own, with a popular series of mini-busts. Gentle Giant took us through the history of their Star Wars work and explored the latest Premier Guild products for 2015 – Emperor Palpatine, the Biker Scout, Commander Faie, and a tribute McQuarrie bust for their Star Wars Celebration exclusive. They finished with their Jumbo line, revealing work on Jabba, C-3P0, and R2-D2, their SDCC exclusive.
Kotobukiya
Kotobukiya took us through their lineup of ArtFX and ArtFX+ statues, highlighting upcoming and in development products. And there’s a lot in the pipeline, including a new 1/7 Darth Vader in the ArtFX line, Luke & Leia as a pair in the ArtFX+ line, and a variety of droids and troopers.
Sideshow Collectibles
Last but not least, Sideshow took us through what’s coming in their 1/5 scale statues and their 1/6 scale figures lines. There’s quite a bit of McQuarrie concept stuff in the works, but they’ve also got movie figures of Jawas (in a 2-pack) and R5-D4 (including his busted motivator) on the way.
