Custom Emperor's Royal Guard

Since Mark asked about using the new modular Maha action figure body as a base for the third-party "red guard" inspired by the Emperor's Royal Guard from ROTJ, I gave it a quick test. It works, with some futzing. For once, I took all the progress photos, so here it is:

No problem sliding on the pants, the boots fit easily onto the ankle pegs (I left the added ankle extenders on). I chose not to use the padding for the torso, in part because it was difficult, in part because it was unnecessary.



The "tunic" zips up at the back, making it relatively easy to put on. The hands swap easily enough. The belt was a bit of a pain, because instead of velcro, it attaches with little hooks. The hole inside the helmeted head is a bit wide for the neck peg's upper ball joint. While one could theoretically seek another neck peg that would work at both ends, I lined the upper ball joint with some electrical tape, and got a slightly better fit. It could have been better, but I was working on a quick solution. Visually, it is irrelevant.



Here is the finished look. He stands about 31.10 cm tall.





A comparison to the Medicom and Hot Toys versions. Medicom is undersized, despite being upgraded to a better body in the reconstituted version you see here. Hot Toys is the same size as the custom. The custom's outer robe drapes a little less well and its red is a little less rich. However, depending on the light or if not side by side with the others, I think it works very well. So well, indeed, that I regretted not trying this out earlier, since now the set is sold out. Had I done so, I could have replaced both of my Medicom guards with the custom ones.



I hope this was helpful, to Mark and others.

As always, what do you think?

#starwars #rotj #Empire #imperial #royal #guard #scifi #fiction #custom

This. Is. Awesome. Thanks for the detailed build. I’m going to get a couple of these bodies for sure to build my two guards (I don’t have the HT version, so there won’t be a color-clash to worry about). Much appreciated.

This body works perfectly for the ERG.

That body works really well, Ian. Nice custom Guard.

Nicely done. This clearly works well!

The best part about this post was, that I like the wine red tunic clothes beneath the last layer. That shiny helmet and bright red outer layer looks cheap and plastic (but of course close to the source material)

Thanks for showing

Very cool set and comparisons! I'm sure you can make your Medicom guards taller with one of these bodies https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/364518167621

I just use my old Hasbro Guards, they do me fine lol.

Stryker2012 wrote:This. Is. Awesome. Thanks for the detailed build. I’m going to get a couple of these bodies for sure to build my two guards (I don’t have the HT version, so there won’t be a color-clash to worry about). Much appreciated.

Thanks, Mark, I'm happy to help and look forward to seeing your pair with the emperor. I'm sure they'll look great. Are you ready to take on a throne room diorama (which can be kept minimal and relatively small and simple -- the emperor on his throne with these two flanking him and a printed background)? By the way, I had forgotten to add the last, comparison shot, before you responded. And that one was probably important to include. So here it is again:

Visisonor wrote:This body works perfectly for the ERG.

Thank you very much, I'm glad you agree.

BAMComix wrote:That body works really well, Ian. Nice custom Guard.

Thank you Dal, I'm delighted you liked it.

Diana wrote:Nicely done. This clearly works well!

Thank you very much, Diana, glad you liked it.

Valiarde wrote:The best part about this post was, that I like the wine red tunic clothes beneath the last layer. That shiny helmet and bright red outer layer looks cheap and plastic (but of course close to the source material)

Thanks for showing

You're welcome, Simon, thanks for commenting. I should have pointed out that everything is very well made in terms of quality, unlike so many things with third-party products. The shiny helmet is just like HT made it and just like what we saw onscreen, so if there is a fault, it is in the original design. The outer layer really should have been richer color and better at draping, but still does the job.

shovelchop81 wrote:Very cool set and comparisons! I'm sure you can make your Medicom guards taller with one of these bodies https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/364518167621

I just use my old Hasbro Guards, they do me fine lol.

Thank you very much, Alex. It's a body type I should look into, actually, but the modular set up here, with the added ankle extenders (on top of the first set of ankle extenders that could actually be subtracted), reached the desired height. The other problem with the Medicom ones is not just the height, but the actual size of the elements (like the helmet), which are correspondingly smaller. So they might look off on a taller body, and would also still contrast with the others. As Roger (rogerbee) once pointed out, Medicom's figures are technically not sixth-scale but a slightly smaller scale of their own.

Thank you very much, Alex. It's a body type I should look into, actually, but the modular set up here, with the added ankle extenders (on top of the first set of ankle extenders that could actually be subtracted), reached the desired height. The other problem with the Medicom ones is not just the height, but the actual size of the elements (like the helmet), which are correspondingly smaller. So they might look off on a taller body, and would also still contrast with the others. As Roger (rogerbee) once pointed out, Medicom's figures are technically not sixth-scale but a slightly wrote:

I'd considered that but thought if you had two on their own they would match and it wouldn't really matter.

That custom Royal Guard looks great!

Honestly, the Medicom ERG is not half bad, especially the helmet. I like the shade of red used.

shovelchop81 wrote:
I'd considered that but thought if you had two on their own they would match and it wouldn't really matter.

That is true, and I have two Medicom (mounted on a better body, I forget which), and four Hot Toys. One of the Medicom ones has a partly ruined (if you know where to look) outer cape (someone tried to make it drape right with glue), so I was hoping to replace it with this. But it would not match the other Medicom in height or proportions. And now OSK no longer has any of this set left. So I will still have to improvise. But, honestly, one is unlikely to manage to get all six royal guards in the same short, right?

Zes wrote:That custom Royal Guard looks great!

Honestly, the Medicom ERG is not half bad, especially the helmet. I like the shade of red used.

Thank you very much. You're not alone -- I, too, like the Medicom colors the best, with the deepest and warmest shade. The comparison shot is in natural daylight coming through the window (but a partly overcast sky). Looking at stills and video at this point is less helpful than one might imagine, considering all the tricks Lucas played with color, light, and contrast over time.

GubernatorFan wrote:

Valiarde wrote:The best part about this post was, that I like the wine red tunic clothes beneath the last layer. That shiny helmet and bright red outer layer looks cheap and plastic (but of course close to the source material)

Thanks for showing

You're welcome, Simon, thanks for commenting. I should have pointed out that everything is very well made in terms of quality, unlike so many things with third-party products. The shiny helmet is just like HT made it and just like what we saw onscreen, so if there is a fault, it is in the original design. The outer layer really should have been richer color and better at draping, but still does the job.
.

Yes I'm sure the quality is there and that it is screen accurate. Just saying I like the red beneath much more than the outer layers.

He makes a great guard to your collection. Hope we see sum fun stories with them

Valiarde wrote:
Yes I'm sure the quality is there and that it is screen accurate. Just saying I like the red beneath much more than the outer layers.

He makes a great guard to your collection. Hope we see sum fun stories with them

Thank you. I suppose they had to make the reds sufficiently different to work sensibly, and the inner layer is appropriately darker. The outer layer was meant to correspond to the "candy apple red" of a car from Lucas' early movie American Graffiti. It was also intended to bring a bit more vivid color to the monochrome color scheme of the imperials.

How awesome! What a great idea to use that body for it!

skywalkersaga wrote:How awesome! What a great idea to use that body for it!

Thank you, Sky, I'm glad you liked it!