The Naboo Royal Guards served in the Palace Guard, which was one of three divisions of the Naboo security forces, along with the Security Guard, and the Naboo Royal Space Fighter Corps.  They were mostly volunteers, and were responsible for protecting the monarch and other high level dignitaries.  They were fairly prevalent in The Phantom Menace, usually shown at the Queen’s side, along with her handmaidens.  A few guards managed to escape Naboo after the Trade Federation Invasion, along with Queen Amidala and Qui-Got Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi.  They served as her escorts while on Coruscant, and fought at her side when she infiltrated Theed Palace to capture Nute Gunray and Rune Haako. 

The Episode I figure is an action-oriented figure in the sculpt, which is an attempt to make up for the simple 6 points of articulation.  Usually I’m not a fan of this approach, but the sculpt is specifically made to put the figure in an aggressive two-handed weapon grip shooting pose.  It actually looks really cool, and Hasbro made sure that details such as the uniform top getting realistically bunched up in the chest area due to the arms coming together help make this.an appealing figure.  It has a removable helmet, which wasn’t all that common at the time, although there are a couple of other figures in the line that share that feature, like Ric Olie and Anakin Skywalker (Naboo).  It also has a nicely sculpted and painted Naboo blaster.

Hasbro released VC83 Naboo Royal Guard in TVC and that is a great figure (if you can get over the weird rainbow reflection painted onto the helmet).  That figure nearly destroys this one, however, the special ability to perform a perfectly cromulent THWG makes this one a keeper, so long has you don’t have too many of them standing near each other in a display.  I give the figure a 4, because there is really only one pose you can put the figure in, but it works well that way, so it offers a small bit of variety in your display.