At the time, if I recall correctly (and I probably don’t) these variants were THE figures to hunt down on Midnight Madness.  At Times Square TRU, I remember finding a couple of blue ones, but none of the red ones.  Then my not-yet-wife found one buried at the bottom of a huge basket of figures in a random place on the sales floor, so I proposed to her right then and there.  The next morning when I went to Target to get the Lava Vader, they had a red guard on the pegs as well.  It was all so very exciting.  The blue guard was the first release, and the red variant was in later assortments.  Both were packaged and shipped in time for availability during the launch, but the red guard was much rarer at the time.  They were carried forward and became more common as time progressed.

Like the previously reviewed III-06 Clone Trooper, the packaging stayed consistent between the two variant releases, and there was nothing on the imagery or text that indicated the contents were any different.  On the front insert, the figure is named “Royal Guard” and the image shows both the red and blue guards standing next to each other.  The callout on the bubble (also known as the Wookiee Rage among those in the know) says “Senate Security”.  So the figure name is more appropriate for the red guard, while the bubble callout is more appropriate for the blue guard.  Meanwhile, on the back of the card, there is only an image of the blue variant.

The figure itself was pretty cool at the time.  The sculpt of the figure was a bit of a surprise.  Being hidden under the robes, Hasbro could have gone with any generic male buck, but they went with an all new sculpt to create something similar to that which was worn by Kir Kanos and those guys from the comics.  So some extra effort went into this design, even if it sailed over the heads of most consumers (such as myself, at the time). 

For articulation, the figure has a ball jointed neck, which is almost completely rendered moot by the sculpt of the helmet.  It has ball jointed shoulders and knees, along with swivel elbows, forearms, and hips.  There is no waist joint, and of course, no ankles.  Other than holding the included weapons with a few variations, there’s actually not a whole lot you can do with the figure, but the attempt is mostly there.

The soft goods robe was of a thick material that looks pretty good in the package, but once you take it out, it becomes wild and almost uncontrollable.  Your best bet is to tuck the robe around the body and pin the sides down with the figure’s arms.

For accessories, it comes with a biker scout pistol that tucks away into an ankle holster (just like the biker scout). The figure can hold the pistol, just not particularly well.  The main weapon is a large rifle.  It can be secured over the shoulder and held in a rest position pretty well, and it can also work in a decent two handed weapon grip.

Regarding the variants, the figures are identical in every way except for the headsculpt and the color.  The Senate guard has a nose guard that splits the visor, as well as a fin at the top.  This is just sculpted as part of the helmet, whereas some other versions from AOTC have plumage on the fin.  The Royal Guard has the familiar helmet, lacking the nose guard and crest found on the blue version.

The oddest thing about these figures is that there is no electrostaff, which is obviously a distinct weapon used by the Royal Guards.  As such, the red version isn’t fully screen accurate, as they had the staves even in ROTS when Yoda crumpled them up like tissue paper.

Good figure, but both versions have been thoroughly replaced by their TVC counterparts - although the blue guard does have the unique plume-less helmet, which might be worth keeping around for accuracy.  5/10.