Hey, Gang -

Did you all see the announcement? What helmet is that? Armor?

So a lot of folks knew about what was coming down the pike in advance, huh? I guess it is cast off of the Gino piece, huh...

I wasn't keeping much track of the whole project.

The armour looks good okay doesn't it?

Oh it looks awesome at a glance of course! I was just wondering if there was any place where folks were picking it apart. I mean, just about everything on Vader is easy to replicate except the chest/ shoulder armor and head. That's where our focus always ends up, huh...

I like the interchangeable hands and the pose/ tailoring/ drapery

So is it in ESB our ROTJ? The helmet has features of both. The grills look ROTJ, the eyes, the cheeks, the tusks, all look ESB, but it's got an ROTJ chest box. I hate the helmet, especially the dome, which isn't shaped right. It might
just be me, the helmet looks too small compared to the rest of the body. But it's got a nice display stand. For $8000 it could definitely be better. For that much money should also breathe and say one-liners.

Didn't the Don Post Statues and the Rubies statues cost just as much?

Yes, $7K - $8K was the retail pricing on both of those displays so Sideshow's pricing is not out of line.

As far as the product itself, so far, it looks much nicer than either the Rubies or Don Post ever did and it has the interchangeable hands, Bespin themed stand, and electronics for some "added Value". I don't know if Rubies or DP were lit I just remember they were fugly as all get out so I never paid much attention. I do like that it has some bulk to it. I wonder if they made a mannequin custom made? It would be nice to see some photos of the production product under natural lighting.

They showed the master as a teaser at Comic Con either last year or the year before and there was a thread about it over at the RPF. From what I recall Gino stated at that time that the display was not intended to represent Vader from a specific movie. It was supposed to be the "approved" Vader that Lucasfilm has sort of standardized over the years so it was probably more in line with the Touring Vader. That evidently has changed since the ad copy on Sideshow's site says it's supposed to represent Vader's appearance in ROTJ, whether they've made any changes or not.

I would love to find out how Sideshow sources their castings and what the approval process from Lucasfilm is. That terrible Vader bust Sideshow has with the reveal helmet seems to be pretty obviously sourced from Portumac so it probably just boils down to "hey, there's this fan who does a pretty good kit of the reveal helmet let's use that".

Dave

Well i think it's not realy worth to discuss this piece, here.
It's not far accurate as Gino told and i more see it as a very expensive collectible as a real accurate "life size prop".
It's not more accurate as there lifesize C3PO and R2.
See them both in person and wasn't realy impressed by looking closer at it.
Just look good from 3m away from it.

yeah i dont get how they can call it a ROTJ version of Vader when he is on an ESB themed base. makes no sense. plus the helemt doesn't look to be 100% ROTJ to me. or maybe im just not as seasoned as most of you experts here but it seems to be a mash up of a ROTJ and ESB lid. the dome seems larger than ROTJ. wasnt there a size difference between the two? th thought that the dome was a bit smaller on ROTJ and the eyes were a bit bigger? the eyes do seem to look a bit bigger as they were in ROTJ on this. buit the dome looks to be much larger. unless of course im wrong..

Well, mine cost a lot less than $7k

My build cost a fraction of that and has twice the accuracy.