Nomadscout’s Collection Part III

To continue the nightmare of forcing you to look at my stuff, here's Part III of my collection...

Previous parts can be found here if you missed them or are interested in looking again:
PART I: CIS Droids
PART II: CIS Factions and Leadership

If you look at Parts I and II as a whole, Hasbro had given us quite a collection of figures, vehicles, and environments to represent the CIS forces. While it is an impressive and varied amount of merchandise, the bad guys from the PT definitely got short-changed when compared to the almost overwhelming volume of good guys that you could have at your disposal. So first up, we'll take a look at the factions that fought for the Republic.

Naboo was a huge set piece for The Phantom Menace. Not only was it featured in several scenes throughout the movie, it wasn't restricted to a single act, which was common for the OT era of films. Whereas we went from Tatooine to the Death Star, or from Hoth to Dagobah to Cloud City, or from Tatooine to Endor for the OT, in the case of Naboo we bounced around a bit throughout the entire film. We saw Theed, the royal palace, the swamps, Otoh Gunga, and Theed again before leaving for Tatooine and Coruscant. But then we returned again to explore the open fields of battle as well the depths of the huge power generator room underneath the palace.

Much of this is represented in toy form, along with a plethora of inhabitants of the planet. Interestingly, Naboo was home to two separate dominant intelligent species that initially were skeptical of each other, and kept the peace by generally stay out of each other's way. By the end of the film the human Naboo and the Gungans joined together out of mutual interests to battle their common enemy, the Trade Federation. Hasbro certainly gave us plenty of products for both cultures to take the fight to the invading droid army.

Over the years, we got a lot of items to represent Naboo. In the pictures above, I sprinkled in a handful of figures from AOTC as well, notably a few Padmé figures, a Captain Typho, and Senator JarJar. Just my own thing, I didn't include a few of the AOTC Padme outfits, nor any of the Padmés from ROTS, because I they didn't really represent Naboo itself. The figures I included were either while she was serving as an official of Naboo, or while she was on Naboo itself (like when she was at dinner with Anakin, or when they got married.) The other figures we have of her represent Padmé when she was kind of doing her own thing, so I didn't include them. Same for Palpatine. As Senator from Naboo in TPM, he was ostensibly representing his planet (at least outwardly), but after that was focused more on Sithy stuff. Okay, enough about my own rules and decision-making process...

There are plenty of Naboo (the human culture) items to collect. Aside from the various Padmé figures, there are multiple military/security figures. Several of them date back to the 1999 EP1 line, and aren't exactly up to today's standards, but they still can fit in a diorama. While 5POA is not OK, we can't fault the figures that were 5POA that were made at a time when that's all there was. Many of the EP1 figures still look nice, and are still useful. Even the pre-posed Naboo Royal Guards, which were nicely upgraded for TVC 1.0, may find a place in your displays. Along with the Naboo Royal Security, the Naboo Soldiers (Red and Yellow variants) and the Naboo Pilots, the protectors of Naboo are well represented.

There are plenty of named characters here as well. Padmé, Sabé, Palpatine, Panaka, Typho, Ric Olie, and Sio Liberty Bibberty. I feel there are a few more that would have been nice to have, like Cordé (who was killed in the explosion from the bomb planted on the Coruscant landing platform), and Dormé, because she was Rose Byrne and had multiple lines of dialogue.

Not restricted to figures, there's some others stuff as well. The Naboo Speeder and the Naboo Canon give a little extra punch to the security forces. The Theed Hangar Palace had too many play features for its own good, and is almost ruined by the flimsy plastic construction, but if you can keep it together, it can serve as a decent backdrop for your figures. It "connects" (not really) to the Theed Generator Playset, which is also underwhelming by today's standards, but looks nice when you set up the Duel of the Fates. There's a mini-rig representing something akin to the Naboo Cruiser shown in the opening sequence of AOTC. We got a pair of Naboo Starfighters. The first one from 1999 was surprisingly elegant, with some nice features and electronics. Later in 2012, the hard to find upgrade dropped some of the play features and electronics in favor of more screen accuracy. Both are excellent. And finally, we got the magnificent (for its time) Queen's Royal Starship. There is a Banthaskull rule that anytime the QRS is mentioned, Chris must tell the heartwarming story of how he gave away 2 QRS's to a fellow collector, and his only regret was that he didn't have a 3rd to give away as well.

Speaking of the QRS, we have the full contingent of 6 Astromechs which served onboard. 5 were destroyed during the attempt to escape the Trade Federation's blockade, but one, known as R2-D2, fixed the hyperdrive and saved the day. The droids have their charging stations as well, and will fit inside the QRS when it's opened up.

Aside from the humans, we also have plenty of Gungan representatives. Named figures include Jar Jar Binks, Boss Nass, Captain Tarpals, and Rep Been. Hasbro gave us a multitude of Gungan soldiers which can be configured in several different display variants. We've got several beasts of war, including the Kaadu, Falumpaset, Fambaa, and Snuffleupagus (not pictured). We've got a mini-rig version of the tribubble bongo. Several accessories were made, including the catapult and the cannon with Jar Jar. It wasn't until many years after its release that I realized this cannon was actually meant to be the other half of the startemup da shields device. The generator half was included with the FAO Schwartz (blast from the past!) Fambaa, but the plasma launcher is pretty much this cannon. If you remove the generator, you could replace it with the cannon, or you could be a lunatic with 2 Fambaa's and display both. I don't think I've ever seen anyone with 2 Fambaas. Such a person definitely lives in his parents' basement. Aside from these items, there isn't much I feel that Hasbro could have given us. Maybe another council member or two to join Rep Been, but I'm actually surprised we never got a full sized Bongo (Gungan Sub).

So there you have it. The 2 symbiotic cultures of Naboo represented in glorious 1:18 scale. Eat that, Filthy Sixers! Share your pictures of your Naboo stuff in the comments so we can all make fun of how much you love the PT.

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