FAQ

GLOSSARY

 

HELP

 

 

 

 


 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sideshow Collectibles
Star Wars Busts and Life-Sizes

Sideshow has the license to produce a number of Star Wars 1:1 scale collectables, which though not wearable helmets, are still full scale busts and life-sizes of many popular SW characters. Sideshow has built up a strong reputation for producing some excellent sci-fi 1:1 scale products (such as the Full Size Terminator 2, along with Predator and Alien busts, which can be seen on our sister site www.scifihelmets.com here) so there was a lot of interest when they moved in on the Star Wars license with 1:1 busts.

In the past we've probably been quite critical of Sideshow (although this hasn't been helped by their Marketing dept who were never the most cooperative people to deal with!) - but have nonetheless produced some pretty great looking life-size busts. So when we got to hear about their upcoming "501st Vaders Fist Clonetrooper" bust we decided to put our name down for a pre-order.

A few months later a HUGE box was delivered and inside, packed snugly inside was the full bust in one single piece - no assembly required! A pretty amazing it looks too.

Measuring a whopping 26.5" x 26.5" and made from from "Polystone" (Sideshow's own name for some kind of plastic resin fiberglass kind of stuff) its an extremely impressive looking torso/head that's certainly cool enough to feature in any geeks apartment/bedroom/basement. Mounted on the same stand that SSC's used for all their other SW busts it has a solid and substantial feel to it, with the base adding enough weight to ensure it's not going to topple over.

So presumably there are robots in China that spray paint the design on top of the bare resin-type cast, with almost everything you see (helmet, armor, under-suit etc.) merely paint. However its done extremely well so the leather body part sections really do look like fabric and not just paint. The vocoders are probably decals looking very much like the MR ones'

Not sure if the visor is just painted black or a piece of acrylic over a black background, but either way it looks great although remember the helmet absolutely cannot be worn - though it will rotate left and right (great idea Sideshow) it cant be removed and even if you could - I imagine the majority of the inside is filled with Polystone cement!. However, because its not a helmet (and cant be worn) it has far more undercut than the MR making it look a lot more realistic when compared to, say the MR (see below for comparisons)

Like SSC's C-3PO, the back runs across the shoulder section, which makes sense, but the detailing on the armor and shoulder sections is really very very good. Even the scorching, blast damage and general weathering looks realistic and not too over the top.

So in summary we'd say that its probably one of our favourite Sideshow busts, since its (from what we can tell) an extremely accurate rendition of the screen-used props (which remember were only CG - so no "real" props). Certainly one with a "wow" factor when people see it - we actually wouldn't mind Sideshow producing maybe a couple more - so long as they're not simply repaints of the same bust section (and maybe shorter runs than the 1,000 of these produced?) So how about a Commander Cody Sideshow?


Comparison of Sideshow Collectibles Clone Bust
against Master Replicas Clone Helmet
When the SSC Bust arrived it immediately prompted the question - how does the helmet compare to the Master Replicas Clone Trooper helmet produced back in 2006 (see here)? Cue a quick scour around the cellars of StarWarsHelmets and after wiping the dust off our old MR favourite, we've produced this quick comparison...

For all these photos the Master Replicas is on the left and the new Sideshow on the right. We've almost got the angle the same although the angle of the MR is a little too upright. However its good enough to do some side-by-side comparisons. The first thing you notice is that the MR is slightly bigger than the SSC, with the latter appearing the more realistic because of it.

Also, since the SSC can't be worn, the undercut extends right inside to the neck line (which would be impossible on a wearable helmet) - but again this makes it look all the more accurate. However to the defence of the MR - it does have that rather handy "feature" that the SSC doesn't in that you can lift it up and stick it on your melon!

So the difference in size and also a number of differing lines show off that this is not the same sculpt - and in anything suggests a different set of CG files since the angle of the nose section of the SSC is more vertical (and therefore more pleasing to look at) . We're not sure why there is this difference (since surely there must be one set of CG files) unless MR slightly altered theirs to accommodate it being worn?

When looked at side on and from the rear the size difference in the MR really stands out. On their own you probably wouldn't notice it but side by side the added size of the MR is really apparent.

So there you have it - not a true comparison since the MR is a true wearable helmet, whereas the Sideshow comes permanently affixed onto a shoulder and chest Bust - so can never be worn. However we thought it was still worth the comparison, since that's what we do here!


Sideshow's Publicity photo of Prototype.

REALLY like this one! Though personally I'm more of an "old-school" Stormtrooper over prequel Clone-trooper - I have to say that this looks amazing. Sure I know MR did the helmets for this (twice) a few years back but combined with the chest section it really does look extremely impressive.

It would be interesting to do a comparison of the helmet against the Master Replica's version to see if they've used the same sculpt (done - see above!). However, given Lucasfilm has ultra-fine digital scans of these from the movies perhaps its come from one of those?

Above as a comparison here's a shot of one the same troopers in the movie......

Cool shot from the rear - gotta love that weathering! A few scratches, dings, blast and power marks make al the difference. They've really done a good job with this. From list low angle you can see the undercut - that just wasn't present on the MR helmets (since they are wearable - this is clearly not)

We'd certainly give our thumbs up to this one - nice work Sideshow! However we are wondering if SSC (like MR), decides to churn out more variations, since most of the work is in the moulds? Note to Sideshow - if this is the case then please do more that paint them different colours - lets have a Cody or Bly!