Emperor
Palpatine
Palpatine's vehicle mode
is, appropriately enough, an Imperial Shuttle. This mode LOOKS pretty good.
It has the standard colors you'd expect from a Star Wars Transformers,
mostly consisting of white and gray-- not exactly eye-catching material,
but it is certainly accurate and I couldn't reasonably expect them to deviate
from that. The proportions are pretty much spot-on, witht he only real
robot extras being that the upper legs obviously form the rear end of this
mode with no real engine detailing to meld them in witht he rest of this
mode. There's also a bit of a gap between the front half and the back half
of the main body on the sides-- it's no huge deal, but it is definitely
noticeable. The shuttle also has two fold-out landing gear on the underside
of it, and there's a missile that can fire from under the central wing
(which becomes the lightsaber in Mech mode). Of course, the cockpit can
also open so you can fit a miniature Emperor Palpatine figure inside it.
There is, however, one huge flaw that almost negates any positives in this
mode-- this mode can't stay together to save its life. The side wings are
only held onto the main body by a tiny, little bitty clip, and given that
the hinges you fold the wings on are pretty strong, this makes pretty much
impossible to move the wings at all without them falling off. The top wing,
and the connector piece under it that houses the missile, has an even bigger
problem-- it's supposed to peg into a hole on the top side of the main
body of the shuttle, but the peg doesn't fit. At all. It's far too small
for its hole, and offers absolutely no resistance if you turn the mode
on its side-- it's little better than not having any peg & peg hole
there whatsoever. Such HUGE oversights in quality control are inexcusable,
and really really hurt this mode.
Emperor Palpatine's
Mech mode is a big improvement over his vehicle mode, in terms of quality
control and, to a lesser extent, looks as well. His proportions are pretty
much perfect, which is very rare for a Star Wars Transformer-- the only
slight oddity is how the upper arms start at the back end of the shoulders
instead of the front end, but that's minor and easily overlooked. He also
has very good articulation-- he can move at the head, shoulders (at three
points), elbows (at two points), wrists, waist, hips (at three points),
and knees. The cockpit forms a very nice chest, with only a little gap
in between the front and the back of the main body, and the use of the
wings in this mode is very creative-- the largest middle wing becomes a
big (and thus very effective) arm-mounted shield, while the side wings
become the Emperor's "cloak". And the wings actually STAY where they're
supposed to be, unlike in the vehicle mode. There are two, more minor,
problems I have in this mode, however. First, the face is just plain ugly.
I mean, I know it's supposed to resemble Emperor Palpatine's face and all,
but man, they REALLY went overboard with the eyebags, and the way the head
is nearly triangle-shaped looks pretty weird. Also, because the aforementioned
peg on the bottom of the missile-firing piece is too small, Emperor Palpatine
simply cannot hold it effectively. He can hold the lightsaber fairly well,
though.
Emperor Palpatine looks
nice in both modes, and has one of the best Mech modes of any Star Wars
Transformer. Unfortunately, his vehicle mode falls apart if you look at
it the wrong way, and the bad quality control in that respect is inexcusable
for a final release of a product. As such, I'm still hesitant to recommend
it unless you keep him in robot mode or are just a big fan of the character.
Review by Beastbot