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I've always liked removable helmets on 3¾" figures. There's just something pleasing about being able to change the look of such a minor toy with so simple a process. As you might imagine, M.A.S.K. was a big favorite for me. Hasbro is the current king of helmets, with more and more of their Star Wars figures sporting separate chapeaux.
Senator Amidala, the former Queen of Naboo, returns
to Coruscant to vote on the critical issue of creating an army of the Republic to assist the overwhelmed Jedi. As her Naboo Cruiser arrives, an explosion tears apart the ship. Fortunately Padme, disguised as a Naboo pilot, eludes danger, but her decoy Cordé, disguised as Senator Amidala, was not so lucky.
Attack of the Clones gets under way with a bang, destroying the great flying chrome hood ornament that is the Naboo diplomatic ship. We immediately know just how much danger Amidala is in and the lengths to which she must go to keep herself safe. That opening scene says a lot about what the rest of the film will be.
The figure is seen here in the same red and green leathers worn by the Naboo military in the first film. The sculpt and paint work together to do a great job simulating the texture of the material. She comes with the same type of flight helmet worn by Anakin in the first film, though hers has the addition of a facemask.
The likeness is okay, and obviously Natalie Portman. The way her hair is pulled back makes her look a bit bald around the temples, though. The helmet looks ridiculously tall, which is just a slight exaggeration of what it looked like in the film. Seriously, whoever's in charge of industrial design on Naboo needs to be fired.
Padmé is quite poseable, with articulation at the boot tops, knees, hips, waist, elbows, shoulders and neck. She comes with a gun that plugs into her belt. Push the button on her back and her right arm whips up in a nice "quick draw" action.
The figure comes with a large blow-apart radar dish. Hit a switch and it flies into five pieces, with battle damage on the central electronics. The dish stands about 4½" tall, and can turn about or pivot up and down.
This isn't the greatest Amidala figure ever, or even one from a very pivotal scene. But hey, I really just bought it for the helmet. It's nice to see Hasbro working hard to get as much poseability as possible into these figures, especially considering their nearly-$7 pricetag.
-- 03/21/03
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