Keeping with a familiar recent trend, this review is not contemporaneous with the figure’s release.  The figure was released in mid-2012 and this review comes nearly two years later.  As such, we have the benefit of hindsight.  We now know that this was one of the figures that foreshadowed a growing fissure between the “kid” and “collector” action figure lines, and the inexorable march towards five points of articulation in the former.  In a world where collectors begrudgingly accept twelve points of articulation as a minimum and prefer fourteen points of articulation, this Queen Amidala figure has been reduced to eight points of articulation and only three of those points are ball jointed.

The benefit of hindsight also allows us to comment that this is one of the few Phantom Menace branded items that was not that easy to find in 2012.  Almost everything emblazoned with Episode I markings, whether that be the Movie Heroes packaging or the episodically designated Vintage Collection packaging, suffered poor retail performance in 2012.  This included the Queen Amidala figure in her “post-senate” costume in the 2012 Vintage Collection wave 1.  That particular figure was ornate, but pejoratively referred to as a “salt shaker” figure as it largely just stands there are cannot take advantage of the collector line’s premium articulation.  As this Movie Heroes Queen Amidala figure represents the only action oriented “Queen Amidala” costume from Episode I, one has to wonder if both figures would have benefited from switching lines.  This is the figure that should have been in the super articulated line and not the static “post-senate” figure. 

The one point of articulation I immediately miss is the wrists.  When rotating the ball jointed elbows to have the figure point the S-5 heavy blaster at a target it causes the palm to become parallel to the ground.  This means the figure holds the blaster sideways in the stereotypical fashion of a Hollywood street tough. This does not make for a particularly fetching display.  I know that wrist articulation is supposedly one of the articulation points parents most complained about since their troglodyte children cannot place the weapon in the figure’s hand without performing an amputation.  So again, it’s unfortunate that this needed upgrade to an action oriented figure was relegated to the line that requires static wrists.  I will say that I’m not terribly heartbroken by the lack of lower body articulation.  I wouldn’t have complained if it were there, but it likely would have been rendered effectively useless by the plastic skirt.

Unlike today’s current five point or articulation line, 2012’s Movie Heroes line maintained paint applications and deco on par with with collector line.  This figure does not stick out like a sore thumb when just standing there among your super articulated Episode I figures.  For that reason many collectors will probably compromise and include this in their collection.  But the willingness to include premium decoration in the Movie Heroes line further argues that this figure should have traded places with the “post-senate” Queen Amidala.

If you missed this figure and would like to add it to your collection, it’s still relatively accessible on the secondary market at the time of this review.