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Hail to the Queen!
Padmé Amidala was a courageous, hopeful leader, serving as Queen and then Senator of Naboo - and was also handy with a blaster. Despite her ideals and all she did for the cause of peace, her secret, forbidden marriage to Jedi Anakin Skywalker would prove to have dire consequences for the galaxy.
Given that Natalie Portman and Keira Knightley looked so much alike that their own mothers couldn't tell them apart, is it not possible that Moby dated Knightley merely thought he was seeing Portman? And that it was either Jim Rash or JP Manoux who were creeps to her? Or maybe she's telling the truth, and a 34-year-old who would even think he was "dating" an 18-year-old in the first place is kind of skeevy no matter what? And there, you thought it was only her daughter who had trouble with the unwanted advances of a hairless slimeball.
The last first time Hasbro made a Padme in this outfit, it had one of the best likenesses they'd made to date. Today we have the Photo Real paint process, which makes everything that came before useless. This isn't a perfect example - she somehow looks slightly too old, like a "today" Natalie Portman instead of a 2002 Natalie Portman - but it's still quite good.
Since there's no way The Black Series can dedicate the resources to creating all 1,000 of Padme's different outfits, going
with this one for her first figure is a fine default: just in case you only ever get to make one of her, you dress her all in white just like Leia. This is the outfit she wore to Geonosis, which means she either took it with her from Coruscant to Naboo to Tattooine, or she bought it somewhere along the way. Both options are ridiculous, because one requires her to drag along her royal wardrobe even when posing as a refugee, and the other requires her to go clothes shopping while Anakin is out murdering Tuskens. There are a surprising amount of details for something that just looks like a white jumpsuit, including little wrinkles around the seams and a clear delineation between the shirt and pants. She has silver bands around her upper arms, and beige boots that match her belt.
She wears a cape over top of that, because what else says "I'm standing on a desert planet with two blazing suns" more than wearing
a heavy heavy piece of cloth draped over your shoulders? The cape is a separate piece, so theoretically it would be removable if you can get the figure's head off. I can't get mine. Which means I have to work around the cape when I'm posing her. She's got the new balljoint head and neck combo (which is why I'm afraid of breaking it), swivel/hinge shoulders, elbows and wrists, a balljointed chest and hips, swivel thighs, double-hinged knees, and swivel/hinge ankles. About the only thing she can't do is tilt the head back, because of her hair being pulled into a large complicated braid-bun. Her belt is separate, too, but it's even less removable than the cape is.
The belt has a holster for one of her accessories,
the small, capsule-like Naboo pistol. It's silver with a light brown grip, and is sized for Padme's tiny hands. For times when that's not enough, she's also got the blaster she looted from a deactivated Battle Droid - plus an alternate right hand that's open wider, to hold the larger grip. Smart thinking, Hasbro!
Hopefully this won't be the only Black Series Padme we get: if nothing else, we really need a Handmaiden Padme and a Queen Amidala from Episode I... no rush on the "dying from sadness" Episode III version, though.
-- 09/22/19
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