Post by NFC on Dec 7, 2007 13:48:09 GMT -5
I found a second McQuarrie concept Vader last week so I finally have one I could open and I’m goddamn happy about it.
[glow=red,2,300]Truth be told, I thiiink it’s my favorite figure of the last of the Sith yet.[/glow]
THIS design, this 30 year old conceptual, unused brainstorm rendition of Vader’s armor is exactly what he should have worn after he’s rebuilt in Episode III… The very first time we see the “new” black suited cyborg Darth Vader (after we see him strapped to the table with the medical droids patching his toasty-ass skin up and the tailor droids dressing his helpless victim ass up), he should have been unpolished and pedestrian looking, truly LOOKING like a living Work-In-Progress because at that point in the continuity, he wasn’t Skywalker anymore but he wasn’t really VADER yet either. DARK LORD – The Rise of Darth Vader left no doubts that for about a year after Mustafar that he was lost in his own identity mentally, emotionally, and physically.
Ralph McQuarrie’s iconic painting of Vader in the white walled corridor lighsaber dueling with the oxygen tank geared Luke Skywalker might have been just one more idea for cinema’s most iconic villain. The look of that Vader wasn’t appropriate for the finished product of “The Star Wars” but it damn sure would have worked in the conclusion of Sith when the new Empire is nowhere near slick in appearance as will look by the start of ANH, where Tarkin is wearing a less steamlined, loose-cut tan uniform, the clones’ “stormtrooper” armor isn’t yet terrifying stark white, and the Star Destroyers are still the awkward shaped and aesthetically unappealing Republic cruisers….
This thing is PERFECT to fit the transition period that marks the rise of the Empire where Vader is still rumor to all who haven’t yet seen him in person but they know from the hearsay that a black-clad armored new enforcer for the New Order should be feared by all… This Vader figure represents something akin what he SHOULD HAVE worn then instead of faking that his armor was unchanged over a 24 year window of time. It was a fooking retarded decision by Lucas to let the design and costume departments outfit Episode III’s Vader look like he did in Episodes V-VI and NOT like he did in Episode IV: A New Hope wherein Vader’s armor was way, waaaay different than it was in Empire and Jedi. The differences in the character designs between first and second parts of the OT are obvious enough to see with a cursory glance at just the gloves, covered shoulder armor, and red lensed eyes of the helmet (nitpickers can have a field day picking out a dozen or more subtler changes made for ESB)…. So why did they all just say “fucck it” and go with a way later design for earliest days of Darth Vader’s existence!?
I absolutely love this figure. The 2 different helmets make for some welcome variety to his look, as if maybe he’d switch between helmets for different tasks, I’m going use the design with the more exaggerated features as his piloting helmet, maybe it’s got a flight display like snubfighter’s targeting computer has inside this helmet where his regular breath mask helmet wouldn’t need any of that, allowing his more svelte face to function in scaring the piss out of all who see him. The holster and blaster are easily ignored, because putting his red saber in his gloved hands works to make him all the bad mutherfuker he ever was, it completes his early Empire era life I see this being ideal for. This Vader is wicked-rad enough that it’s one of only THREE figures in the whole line that I can totally look past the sliding joint cut elbow articulation on, the one issues I expected would really hurt my opinion. Turns out that it ain’t ideal for a 2007 toys, it was a stupid decision to use that articulation on this figure (while Infinities Vader has the ball-j elbows) [glow=blue,2,300]BUT it’s all good IMO, everything else about the figure kicks enough ass to render the argument moot. [/glow]
At least in the eyes of this fanboy, they couldn’t have done a better non-movie Darth Vader.
[glow=red,2,300]AMAZING work here, Hasbro, truly phenomenal.[/glow]
[glow=red,2,300]Truth be told, I thiiink it’s my favorite figure of the last of the Sith yet.[/glow]
THIS design, this 30 year old conceptual, unused brainstorm rendition of Vader’s armor is exactly what he should have worn after he’s rebuilt in Episode III… The very first time we see the “new” black suited cyborg Darth Vader (after we see him strapped to the table with the medical droids patching his toasty-ass skin up and the tailor droids dressing his helpless victim ass up), he should have been unpolished and pedestrian looking, truly LOOKING like a living Work-In-Progress because at that point in the continuity, he wasn’t Skywalker anymore but he wasn’t really VADER yet either. DARK LORD – The Rise of Darth Vader left no doubts that for about a year after Mustafar that he was lost in his own identity mentally, emotionally, and physically.
Ralph McQuarrie’s iconic painting of Vader in the white walled corridor lighsaber dueling with the oxygen tank geared Luke Skywalker might have been just one more idea for cinema’s most iconic villain. The look of that Vader wasn’t appropriate for the finished product of “The Star Wars” but it damn sure would have worked in the conclusion of Sith when the new Empire is nowhere near slick in appearance as will look by the start of ANH, where Tarkin is wearing a less steamlined, loose-cut tan uniform, the clones’ “stormtrooper” armor isn’t yet terrifying stark white, and the Star Destroyers are still the awkward shaped and aesthetically unappealing Republic cruisers….
This thing is PERFECT to fit the transition period that marks the rise of the Empire where Vader is still rumor to all who haven’t yet seen him in person but they know from the hearsay that a black-clad armored new enforcer for the New Order should be feared by all… This Vader figure represents something akin what he SHOULD HAVE worn then instead of faking that his armor was unchanged over a 24 year window of time. It was a fooking retarded decision by Lucas to let the design and costume departments outfit Episode III’s Vader look like he did in Episodes V-VI and NOT like he did in Episode IV: A New Hope wherein Vader’s armor was way, waaaay different than it was in Empire and Jedi. The differences in the character designs between first and second parts of the OT are obvious enough to see with a cursory glance at just the gloves, covered shoulder armor, and red lensed eyes of the helmet (nitpickers can have a field day picking out a dozen or more subtler changes made for ESB)…. So why did they all just say “fucck it” and go with a way later design for earliest days of Darth Vader’s existence!?
I absolutely love this figure. The 2 different helmets make for some welcome variety to his look, as if maybe he’d switch between helmets for different tasks, I’m going use the design with the more exaggerated features as his piloting helmet, maybe it’s got a flight display like snubfighter’s targeting computer has inside this helmet where his regular breath mask helmet wouldn’t need any of that, allowing his more svelte face to function in scaring the piss out of all who see him. The holster and blaster are easily ignored, because putting his red saber in his gloved hands works to make him all the bad mutherfuker he ever was, it completes his early Empire era life I see this being ideal for. This Vader is wicked-rad enough that it’s one of only THREE figures in the whole line that I can totally look past the sliding joint cut elbow articulation on, the one issues I expected would really hurt my opinion. Turns out that it ain’t ideal for a 2007 toys, it was a stupid decision to use that articulation on this figure (while Infinities Vader has the ball-j elbows) [glow=blue,2,300]BUT it’s all good IMO, everything else about the figure kicks enough ass to render the argument moot. [/glow]
At least in the eyes of this fanboy, they couldn’t have done a better non-movie Darth Vader.
[glow=red,2,300]AMAZING work here, Hasbro, truly phenomenal.[/glow]