NEW PRODUCT: HOT TOYS: STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS ANAKIN SKYWALKER AND STAP 1/6TH SCALE COLLECTIBLE SET

Well it's always good to have some junk in one's trunk (otherwise sitting would be painful) but yes, this much padding -- even any padding -- is excessive for an action figure of this kind.

LOL, ok, glad it's not just me.

Seems like the only problem might be that, once removed, the armour would sit lower on the shoulders and thus the neck might end up looking overly long. But I suppose this could be worked around by adding just a smaller amount of padding back to the neck area, if need be.

skywalkersaga wrote:I suppose this could be worked around by adding just a smaller amount of padding back to the neck area, if need be.

Exactly.

Ovy wrote:Even in this perspective, I can not unsee that giant cute robot face

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia


I have exactly one Hot Toys body, and of all the bodies I own, including cheap knockoffs, this Hot Toys one is the worst regarding articulation and stability by far. If not for the unique shape I might have thrown it out already.

Same, mine can’t even stand any more after the knee joint decided to go completely floppy, and repeated attempts to fix it haven’t done anything to improve it. :/

Lynkhart wrote:

Ovy wrote:

I have exactly one Hot Toys body, and of all the bodies I own, including cheap knockoffs, this Hot Toys one is the worst regarding articulation and stability by far. If not for the unique shape I might have thrown it out already.

Same, mine can’t even stand any more after the knee joint decided to go completely floppy, and repeated attempts to fix it haven’t done anything to improve it. :/

Ugh, that sucks, but I'm not surprised. I haven't really messed around with most of my HT figures that much, but the Anakin figures I've tried to use for photoshoots are just such a pain. Loose knees, yes, and also the center of gravity is so bad... they can barely stand on their own half the time. If if weren't for the fact that I'm (unfortunately, lol) still a SW collector and find that purchasing boxed figures is less stressful than trying to track down parted out pieces, I would probably not bother with HT at all.

Ok, I spent a while today messing around with it, and my verdict still stands....the body and the padding are AWFUL.  As I mentioned before, one of the problems is that you can actually SEE the padding through the sides of the tunic. As in, you can see the seams in the padding itself. I do not understand this. What is the point of the padding under the clothing if you can see unsightly seams in it??!!

I'm determined to swap the body for something else, but the problem now is as I expected --- trying to find something compatible in size and shape, so that it will fit the tailoring of the clothing and the shape of the armour properly.

So far, the COOmodel body I tried seems the most promising, but sadly it can't hold any kind of ab crunch. I'll use it for the time being, but I'd prefer something with really good poseability. The whole reason I wanted a realistic version of the animated character was to do elaborate photoshoots with it, so the more poseability , the better.  I'm not very well-versed in 1/6 male bodies and only own a handful, but one of the best male bodies (for posing purposes) that I have is a DamToys body. I'd gladly just get another DamToys body to use for this, but the issue is that they are very rare and expensive to find on their own, and it seems that most of the male bodies out there have attached necks. And WorldBox doesn't work because the ankles are just too incompatible with the HT footwear (I have tried one in the past, with no luck). So any suggestions appreciated. Could be anything from a slim/narrow shoulder body to a moderately more muscular one, as there's a bit of wiggle room with the outfit since it was tailored to fit over the immense padding, lol.

Have you looked at the WorldBox Wolverine body? It may be a bit too muscular for Anakin, but it’s a solid body with a nice shape.

Stryker2011 wrote:Have you looked at the WorldBox Wolverine body? It may be a bit too muscular for Anakin, but it’s a solid body with a nice shape.

Is there a version of that body without a neck? I'm reluctant to de-neck the Anakin head (since the shorter hair means the neck seam would be quite visible).

skywalkersaga wrote:

Stryker2011 wrote:Have you looked at the WorldBox Wolverine body? It may be a bit too muscular for Anakin, but it’s a solid body with a nice shape.

Is there a version of that body without a neck? I'm reluctant to de-neck the Anakin head (since the shorter hair means the neck seam would be quite visible).

Yes. The AT017 is the neckless version. You’ll probably have to add ankle extenders to give him the proper height (use some super glue to get rid of the usual slop of the extenders on the body — not the foot).

Ah ok, thanks. It's so hard to keep all these straight. I'll have a look at that one.

skywalkersaga wrote:Ah ok, thanks. It's so hard to keep all these straight. I'll have a look at that one.

I hear you there. I have to keep comparison pics (usually found on eBay listings) so I have a quick and easy chart — I can’t keep all these numbers straight in my head.

Stryker2011 wrote:

skywalkersaga wrote:Ah ok, thanks. It's so hard to keep all these straight. I'll have a look at that one.

I hear you there. I have to keep comparison pics (usually found on eBay listings) so I have a quick and easy chart — I can’t keep all these numbers straight in my head.

That seems like the smart thing to do!

Ok, the saga continues....

I took apart the entire figure and tried out several alternative bodies that I already had. I haven't bought any new bodies yet as I'm still unsure if it's even worth it. I have been leaning towards just putting it all back together and leaving it as-is, despite the fact that I hate the stupid padding. For one simple reason.... the clothing is tailored exactly to the HT figure's shape, to the point that it's going to be hard to get it to look right on anything else without a lot of modifiying (ie, re-sewing). I honestly don't have the time or inclination to do that, given all the rest of my current WIP projects. Frustrating, but I can live with it if I must. :/

That being said, I also ran into another snag. My intention has always been to use this figure with one of my re-haired Anakin heads for photoshoots at the very least (even if I display it with the plastic sculpted hair). BUT, I didn't realise that the HT head on this figure has been constructed in a certain way that makes swapping it out potentially difficult.

I don't know how to describe it so I'll just show a pic. This is how the bottom of the neck looks. There is no 'neck connector' -- the 'connector' is literally just built into the bottom of the neck itself, and space for the 'post' to fit is also placed asymmetrically towards the front of said neck. It basically just connects directly to the body.





While I could probably just use the regular neck connector on my re-haired sculpt, my concern is that it will give the figure 'giraffe neck'. What I'm wondering is if there is any other similar type of neck connector available out there that would allow the neck to go directly on the post on the body, rather than adding several centimeters via the rounded style of connector at the bottom.

Is that piece of the neck removable? Does it look like it’s just glued in, or is it part of the sculpt? HT does this weird sort of proprietary thing A LOT to prevent customizing. Concerning the padding, I’ve seen people remove small “sections” of it by cutting into it to improve articulation on different bodies.

Stryker2011 wrote:Is that piece of the neck removable? Does it look like it’s just glued in, or is it part of the sculpt? HT does this weird sort of proprietary thing A LOT to prevent customizing. Concerning the padding, I’ve seen people remove small “sections” of it by cutting into it to improve articulation on different bodies.

Yes, it feels like they made this figure to be purposefully difficult, if not impossible, to customise. Which sucks, since that was one of the main reasons I wanted it in the first place. I basically already had a Clone Wars Anakin in the same outfit, but the old Sideshow outfit wasn't as nice so I was hoping to upgrade with the new HT outfit and armour. But of course, HT has to make this almost impossible for me.

As for the neck connector, it might be removeable, but I'm not sure *how* to remove it safely. Hard to explain but it's really snugly fitted and even if I were to heat it up, it's difficult to find an area to gain enough purchase in order to pull it out.

My current frustration is that I was waiting ages for this HT figure thinking that it would be the final piece of the 'puzzle' I've needed in order to complete/upgrade my custom Clone Wars Anakin, only to end up with way more problems that need solving. I'm willing to compromise on keeping the HT body as-is, but the head thing is definitely frustrating. Sure, I could potentially rehair the new HT sculpt, but again... I was *really* hoping not to have to do too much more work on this one.

If you try heating it up, you could dig along the edge of the insert with a brand new x-acto blade (one of the scalpel versions), to either create a purchase, or cut through the glue holding it in — just go slow and careful as to not cut through the neck. Keep heating it up as you go and that could also help the glue loosen up.

That's a good suggestion, thank you. I'll give it a go....

Stryker2011 wrote:If you try heating it up, you could dig along the edge of the insert with a brand new x-acto blade (one of the scalpel versions), to either create a purchase, or cut through the glue holding it in — just go slow and careful as to not cut through the neck. Keep heating it up as you go and that could also help the glue loosen up.

Happy to report....success! I managed to get it out. It was indeed really well glued in there. I ended up using a blunt sculpting tool instead of exacto knife, since I didn't want to risk slicing the HT sculpt (or my fingers) in the process.


Thanks again for the help. Sometimes I get easily discouraged due to my fear of potentially breaking or ruining things.

Excellent. Glad it worked.

Stryker2011 wrote:Excellent. Glad it worked.

Yeah, take that, Hot Toys.

Finally opened him up!

Looks great!

I agree, effective and fun display. You got a whole army of battle droids!