Review – Sideshow 12″ Princess Leia as Boushh

I’ve hunted for a Leia in Boushh disguise 12″ figure even before Sideshow landed the Star Wars 12″ license. Hasbro’s Leia Boushh was my target and it came in a pack of three with Luke and Han. But despite my numerous bids on eBay, I was not successful. Most of the sellers were from the U.S and the U.S buyers usually outbid me easily as I had to factor in shipping charges. Nothing wrong with that. It’s just that I was unable to pose the Boushh armour next to my Hasbro Carbonite Han. With the release of Sideshow’s Leia in Boushh disguise figure, not getting the Hasbro version does not seem so bad now.

It was amazing how the 12″ Hasbros seemed so perfect then. I netted several Hasbro Stormies and I was so full of glee until the Marmit Stormies entered the scene. These new kids on the block revealed how ‘off’ the Hasbros were in terms of accuracy. It was then that I realise that it was the movie image of the Stormtrooper on the box that was accurate. And the producers made a smart move to have the box flap cover the actual figure on hindsight.

However, Hasbros were not always so bad. For example, their Snowtroopers are splendid, Count Dooku is dead-on, certain versions of Vader were of the right scale and we had the fun reenacting the severing of Darth Maul’s torso. Gruesome huh? With Sideshow and Medicom revitalising the Star Wars 12″ scene, Hasbros have gone the way of being a valuable source for avid 12″ customisers. Even I cannot wait to make my Snowtroopers more poseable and sleek looking or replace the mitts and yeti-sized boots of my Death Star trooper. And frequent visits to OSW just stirs that desire in me. There’s a plethora of good customs on display there. Very inspiring work.

In fact, do a search on OSW and you can find a splendid Leia Boushh custom enhanced from the Hasbro clothes. The sculpt is Carrie Fisher accurate and complete with realistic synthetic hair. These work sometimes make we wonder why those who get the official license to produce the figures get the characters’ faces so very wrong in the final sculpt. The inconsistency of the resemblance gets to me sometimes although they are way better than Hasbros. Some companies may not have the official paperwork for the job but when they do, they deliver consistent accurate sculpts for their figures.

I think I’ll go take some sculpting 101 classes myself to try a hand at it to understanding this craft better.

Anyway, onto to the review!

Bottomline:

Fantastic figure of an iconic Star Wars character. Sideshow’s Leia in Boushh disguise looks great – the Ubese helmet is especially cool and very well implemented. If you plan on re-creating the populace in Jabba’s palace, this figure is a definite must-buy!

What’s good:

• Collector friendly box.
• Good sculpt of helmet.
• Good scale!
• Well tailored clothes.
• A piece of tribute to THX 1138!
• A very good looking figure…. especially with the helmet on!

What could be better:

• Sculpt could be better.
• Not stable.
• Having a trigger hand without a blaster.
• Lack of a hand that can hold the thermal detonator firmly.
• No accessory to contain the thermal detonator.

Review Details

Packaging

Lately, I have noticed that the packaging artwork of Star Wars products from Sideshow and Kotobukiya seemed to have converged into the same black and grey design. Both also sport the same 2 slanted lines separating both colours. Uncannily similar. I wonder if this is the only way to design product boxes.

Having said this, the packaging from Sideshow is very collector friendly. The box comes in 2 trays, one for the figure and the other for the accessories, which collapse neatly into a rectangular box. A magnetic strip on the box’s flap secures the opening to the trays.

Sideshow has also started to include a plastic brace to prevent the figure’s head from coming into contact with the box’s plastic screen during shipping or transport. Good thinking. I’ve seen several past Sideshow pieces with flesh coloured paint smeared on the plastic screen no doubt from the figures’ noses.

One peeve I have is the incomplete list of accessories printed inside the box. There is no mention of the 6 small canisters. This reduce the accessory to just a decoration to be hooked onto the figure’s belt. I have searched the Internet for clues but yielded no information in this area.

 

Headsculpt/Resemblance

Here is an area that is of much debate by 1/6 collectors when the first pics of Sideshow’s Leia in Boushh disguise were released. While some felt that the head was too big, most agreed that the sculpt was not Carrie Fisher accurate. With regards to the head size, I do find that it is proportionate. I believe the head might have seem bigger due to the shoulder armour. The colour contrast between the armour and the tunic is high and the armour is shorter than the figure’s shoulder. This might have given the illusion that the head was bigger.

With regards to the inaccuracy of the sculpt, I do find that the eyes and nose are rather big. The size of the eyes are almost similar to big-eye illustrations in Japanese animes. And it is probably because of this that makes the sculpt still comfortable to look at. Not something I would hate… just somewhat off. For the nose, try viewing the sculpt from sideways to back and one can notice the lack of resemblance with this prominent nose.

The paintwork on the sculpt is also very defined. The red on the lips look exactly like lipstick and the strands of eyelashes are totally countable. Not too realistic I would think.

Quality of Product

First up in this area is the beautiful Ubese helmet. The proportions seems perfect and the paintwork on it is excellent. The shiny treatment to the visor is uniform and I really like the wood-like brown colour of the helmet’s front. Both comes out nicely in photos.

Also emblazoned in red on the right of the helmet is a tribute to George Lucas’ first full length feature film, THX 1138. 1138 is a recurrent number in Star Wars. Try spotting/listening for it the next time you watch Star Wars. Anyway, it’s a pretty cool detail for the Star Wars fan in me.

As with other Sideshow 1/6 products, the clothes are well tailored and fitting. One interesting point is how the jacket is coloured seeming to take after the look of suede. If it is, it is a really terrific job. The pants have received some flak from collectors for looking goofy and being an inaccurate depiction from that in the movie. However, I am happy with it and thinks it looks good. But honestly, I’ve never noticed Leia Boushh’s pants in Return of the Jedi.

The Ogygian cloak is rather strange looking. It’s shape looks like a third of a circle. I’m ok with it as long as it allows Boushh to conceal thermal detonators underneath it! And it is attached to the bandolier.

Another notable details include the spikes at the ends of each sleeve of the undershirt.

Another commendable note of Sideshow’s Leia Boushh is that it is shorter than the other Sideshow 12″ figures.

Stability

It’s somewhat amusing that the Sideshow’s Leia Boushh takes after a particular trait as, her on-screen love interest, Sideshow’s Bespin Han – the lack of stability. And it is noticeable since most of the figures since Han had acceptable levels of standing stability. I noticed immediately as it was definitely much harder to get Leia Boushh to stand upright. In the end, for fear that she might fall face-down and damage her protruding nose, I stuck her in a pose with the Electrostaff as a stand-in walking stick!

I believe the thin soles of the Ubese boots just cannot handle the weight of the figure well. Speaking of weight, 1/6 heads from Sideshow are rather heavy when compared to the rest of the body. The display should definitely be utilised here!

Accessories

Accessories for Sideshow’s Leia Boushh are honestly not too exciting. Here’ a list of them:

• Electrostaff
• Canister pack for armour mantle
• Bandolier
• Thermal detonator
• 3 x slender canisters
• 3 x bigger canisters

Of course when we mention Boushh to Star Wars fans, other than the focus on the uber cool Ubese helmet, most will probably remember this bounty hunter’s penchant for using thermal detonators to resolve conflicts. And a thermal detonator it is we have here and it’s somewhat like a mini-Death Star. I can almost imagine the little lights coming on when it is armed. Very cool.

The ‘biggest’ accessory in this package is the near 13″ electrostaff. Painted black with no movable parts, the electrostaff is one of the two weapons (the other being the thermal detonator) available. I really cannot wait to prod Chewbacca with it when Sideshow gets around to make him!

Sideshow’s decision to make the Ubese blaster an exclusive item has rendered the figure’s trigger hand without a… trigger to pull. I find it rather silly since it’s rather similar to making a figure’s pants exclusive. ‘Yes, you have the trigger hand/legs. Now you’ll just have to find the blaster/pants.’ Both instances still leaves the option of customisation open but not everyone will want to get Ubese pistol from eBay or cast one from a friend’s exclusive. Better choices for accessories to get the exclusive treatment would be a pair of cuffs and chain. Alternatively, offer a weathered/chrome version of the blaster. I just feel that the exclusive treatment should ADD to the product and not SUBTRACT a fraction from it.

Still on the subject of hands, I was disappointed that both hands of the figure is not entirely capable of grasping the thermal detonator firmly. They are just not designed for that purpose. And I may not want to display the thermal detonator in Leia Boushh’s hand palm up all the time. As a result, I would rather put back the thermal detonator into the box than risk having it popped out of the hand and go missing.

And if a hand to hold the thermal detonator is not available, I would expect a pouch or container to hold the detonator so I can fish it out quickly for curious visitors who swore they saw that shiny globe of menace in the movie. But nothing of such is available.

Other accessories include the well-detailed bandolier, the canister pack meant to be attached to the armour mantle. Besides these, 2 types of canisters are included each in quantities of 3. Honestly, I still have no idea what these are.