Princess Leia Gives Hot Toys’ ‘Star Wars’ Line New Hope
Last year, Hot Toys obtained the Star Wars license to create 1/6 and 1/4 scale figures and collectibles. After working its way through Stormtroopers, Darth Vader, Boba Fett, Han Solo, Chewbacca, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker, Hot Toys finally found some time in the schedule for arguably one of the most important female icons in fandom, Princess Leia. Even though we've seen Leia represented in her New Hope outfit about a thousand different times, it's been rare to see her in sixth-scale form.
Leia's inclusion in the line is more than welcome, as for the past few years we've been under a deluge of Clone Troopers, Stormtroopers, Lukes and Hans, with the occasional Vader or droid thrown in for good measure. It's also worth noting that the current crop of Star Wars toys at retail is seriously lacking in the female department, and Slave Leias have been warming pegs coming up on two years now. While I'm sure that incarnation of the character will certainly be part of Hot Toys' plans, the time is now for A New Hope.
Nice as it is to see Leia finally join the team, to call her accessories lacking would be a grave understatement. She has a few hands, a stolen Stormtrooper blaster and her own laser from opening of the film. While her dress is movie-accurate, the lack of equipment is a little disheartening. Yes, I'm aware that she doesn't have much to work with based on how she's portrayed in A New Hope. Something more (Death Star plans? A second, grimacing head sculpt from the prison escape?) would have been appreciated. To be fair, I suppose the addition of a special background for the limited edition is technically "something," but I mean, come on.
As for the figure itself, that's a pretty damn close Carrie Fisher portrait. Hot Toys wisely went with sculpted hair for the memorable buns, too, which was very smart. I'm all for the synthetic hair the company's used elsewhere, but if they tried to pull that off with these, every figure would have ended up a huge mess out of the box. I'm really interested to see what Hot Toys does with later versions (which will definitely be coming) like Hoth Escape Leia or even the Yavin Ceremony Leia, mostly because those versions get far less play than Leia Boushh and the aforementioned Jabba's Palace iteration.
No pricing or release has been given, but we'll update this post when Sideshow Collectibles has more details.