Child Sized Coffin: Tamashii Nations Movie Realization Series: Samurai General Darth Vader

This is something really exciting, and I have been really excited to share it with you all. Now that the semester is over and I have some time before summer classes begin, I finally have a chance.

The Tamashii Nations Movie Realization Series is a general series of figures depicting Star Wars and Marvel characters in a feudal Japanese style. Wild, I know. They are generally pretty well jointed and capable of easy posing, and are incredibly highly detailed. They are approximately 8” tall, and come with a load of extra hands and accessories.

The Star Wars figures had been intriguing to me from afar for a little while, and are another of those collecting avenues I was pushed down by my wife. After seeing them in a display case at C2E2 maybe two years ago, it became my official C2E2 2018 mission to pick up at least one of them. The first one we purchased was Samurai General Darth Vader.

Having not long ago written about another Darth Vader figure, let this article proper begin by saying that this is not “another” Darth Vader. This is an excellent mash up of aesthetics, the futuristic nature of Star Wars and the feudal nature of the series. And, as establishing information, this is not just a Darth Vader in samurai outfit: this is a total reimagining of Darth Vader as a samurai, a super thorough job of redesigning an iconic character as something else entirely. (man, I hate how that reads. Such a casual. –mr) The entire line is like this, which makes the figures really unable to be displayed alongside anything other than themselves. They are so unique looking, so different, that you could not just put this Darth Vader next to a squad of Black Series or MAFEX Stormtroopers and say, “yes, those all look like they belong together.”

The body is clad in some feudal armor, highly detailed with all manner of lines and highlights. The waist piece has buttons in the colors of the buttons on Vader’s chest/waist pack. The helmet has been reimagined as a very Japanese samurai helmet, complete with the face plate depicting an open mouth, similar to the masks that some feudal Japanese warriors would wear. A gold Imperial crest adorns the forehead of the helmet, and that is maybe the one element of the figure that doesn’t mesh with the actual Darth Vader design. The intention behind it is entirely clear, but. Vader’s shoulder pads are incorporated into this design as a skirt piece that lays over the chest like a poncho.

Samurai General Darth Vader is very nicely poseable, with a double jointed elbow and knee. The figure has ankle rockers and a waist, shoulders and hips, and a neck, as well as a wrist joint that not only moves in and out, but also turns 360 degrees. Some of this range of movement is inhibited by the plastic skirt pieces and cape, but for the most part, the figure is able to achieve all manner of cool action stances. Some minor adjustments need to be made with the feet and legs for wider legged stances, as the foot does have a heel which means it’s not a flat, and thus generally more stable, foot. But the figure is also rather heavy, so once it is put in a pose, as long as things are aligned correctly, it is not prone to falling over.

Samurai General Darth Vader comes with a load of interchangeable hands, including clenched fists and open hands to hold his lightsaber, flat, open palmed hands, and of course, the “I find your lack of faith disturbing” hand, pretty much a must. He also comes with said lightsaber, as well as an undeployed version that can mount on his hip. The actual lightsaber is a curved blade and a flattened grip, like a katana.

The cape, and all of the skirt parts, are solid yet flexible plastic. The skirt parts are all incredibly detailed and adorned with purple and bronze paint apps, and the cape is tattered and frayed at the bottom. The cape is excellently sculpted, with ripples and folds everywhere, and is probably one of the few instances of a figure with a cape that I’ve looked at and just instantly thought that the plastic was a better decision than cloth. Again, the soft plastic does impede movement ever so slightly, but not to the detriment of the figure on the whole.

In trying to find something to introduce as a negative concerning this figure, there’s not much to say aside from two pretty serious things: this figure is so unique in its appearance that it doesn’t mesh with anything else, and figures of this series are expensive. The first part has already been addressed, more or less, so let’s look at the second. As with most higher end figures, prices do fluctuate depending on where you’re shopping for them, but in general, $99 is the price of admission for this line. As the ones in my collection were purchased at a convention, they were all $99, give or take a few (like, a literal few --mr) dollars, so assembling a full shelf of them is going to run quite a lot of money. The good news on that end is that the line is, for the time being, still pretty small, and much of it is currently different types of Stormtroopers. You know, the standard Star Wars toyline approach of giving a trooper a different accessory or a slightly altered paint job and releasing it as something totally new. But, something that often keeps collectors out of the higher end market is price, and the really, really niche appeal of these figures certainly adds reasons for some people to pass on them at their prices. My own issue with this line was the idea that any figures attained would be so incongruous with anything else I owned that I would practically be forced to purchase others, something that I’d explained to my wife, who as usual was my biggest motivator in terms of buying in to the line, and constantly remind her of every time I am found admiring these figures, giving her an opportunity to poke fun at me for my initial resistance.

Kono Sailor Moon ga, tsuki ni kawatte oshioki yo!

But, as a $100 figure, Samurai General Darth Vader is totally worth it. The detailing on the figure is just mind blowing, as there is not a single surface that isn’t decked out in some kind of sculpting or detail or paint. Everything is matted, with only the helmet having any kind of gloss or shine, and the figure is an absolute testament to design and craftsmanship. In a world where pretty much every Star Wars toy line contains a Vader, often withonly minor differences from any other Vader, and we still buy them, such a dramatically different Vader shouldn’t be something that goes unappreciated. A well-trod story, yes, but at C2E2 this year I bought four of these figures, largely without even considering the cost, and have been shopping around online for the others pretty much every other day since. You get what you pay for, an adage that is true in life and is absolutely true in toy collecting, and with a figure like this, you feel like you got a terrific bargain. For my own enjoyment and mental well-being, I never attempt to contemplate whether or not a toy I bought matches the cost I paid. I did that occasionally in years past, and it always left me feeling horrible when the answer was no. But if I let myself think that way about this figure, or any of the other three I currently own, or any of the ones I may come to own in the future, the answer is a resounding yes. While absolutely not for every collector or collection, Samurai General Darth Vader is an absolutely gorgeous figure, and one that really does deserve a spot in any collection.