It has been a while since I’ve had the chance to spend some up close and personal time with one of Sideshow Collectible’s 1/6th scale figures. In the past, I hadn’t been very impressed with them. In fact, one time I was talking to someone over at Sideshow and I asked them: “Why do you guys still bother making your own figures, when you distribute Hot Toys figures… and they look so much better than yours?” Had I known that they were capable of making figures like their Gamorrean Guard… I would have slapped myself in my damned fool mouth. This figure is great.
Let’s start with the overall sculpt. The Gamorrean Guard just looks amazing. The folks over at Sideshow went a long way to make sure that they gave the likeness and detail the same level of care that they give to their statues. They were really able to achieve a movie-quality likeness, but not that god awful overly glossed CGI special edition movie likeness… the old school likeness where, ya, you know it’s a dude in a suit, but it is real enough to make you want to believe. Everything from the little squinty eyes to the paint application adds to the overall vibe of the figure. There’s only one thing that minorly detracts from it for me and we’ll get to that in a bit.
Articulation… Are you going to get the Gammorean Guard into the lotus position? No, but what the heck is wrong with you for even trying? This is a chunky character and the figure has the appropriate amount of articulation. He handles his weapons very well in every position from passive to raging with them over his head. There’s great movement in the neck, which adds a lot of expression to his face as you pose him. His arms move up and down and he has rotating wrists cuts. Lastly, he also ball-hinged ankles which allow his feet to move up and down as well as left and right.
Costume and accessories. Once again, great, I love that his helmet is removable and the full reveal of the head sculpt has an almost Jim Hensoneque quality to it. I was impressed at how different he looks with or without it. The costume looks great too. There is no sloppiness here. They went great lengths to make sure that they used real leather and great fur-like material to create a costume that truly reflects how the character looks on film.
Then you’ve got the weapons. First, if you are looking for the classic axe that came with the old action figures, you are looking for a specific character – Gartogg The Gamorrean Guard figure, he comes with both axes. Click on his name and it will take you to where you can buy him… and his axe. The standard Gamorrean Guard comes with a Pole Arm and a Vibro Ax… Wow, I wonder who named it that… Anyways, both have tremendous detail. I think I actually prefer the Pole Arm because seeing a Gamorrean Guard with anything other than his classic axe just doesn’t seem natural to me.
All in all, this was an amazing re-introduction to a line that I had honestly lost faith in a long time ago. Sideshow is creating 1/6th scale figures that are just as well sculpted and exciting as anything coming from Hard toys, Enterbay or Medicom and the Gammorrean Guard figure is an collectible worthy of anyone’s shelf.
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