Gentle Giant Speaks About New Bust-Ups

From Gentle Giant:

Build your own Star Wars Clone Trooper Armada!

These pre-painted collectible press ‘n fit kits are NOW available through your local Toys ‘Я' Us stores. There are 2 sets: Armada 1 and Armada 2; each set retails for $15.99.


Bred and trained on the oceanic outlying place of Kamino, the unflinching loyal clone troopers are born to serve the Republic. Despite sharing identical genes, a clone trooper often fosters a greater sense of identity by giving himself a name, a stylized haircut or even the occasional tattoo. While a clone's role may not seem a enviable one, the hardships of battle foster an unparalleled camaraderie that only further cements his fraternal bonds.


These Clone Trooper Bust-Ups Sets make great stocking stuffers for the Star Wars collector in your family! Collect both sets today!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I already picked these sets up at Toys R Us over Thanksgiving break. They are simply repaints but nice ones. Armada 1 appears to feature Captain Rex, a Senate Security Clone Trooper, and a trooper from the 212th Attack Battalion. Armada 2 consists of what appears to be an AT-TE Tank Gunner, one of Plo Koon's troopers (from the Malevolence series), and a trooper in green deco (which will be released in Hasbro's 3 3/4" line this spring).

After Thanksgiving Round-Up

Well things have been quite busy recently. Kelly and I made the trek from West Lafayette, IN to Eighty Four, PA on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. The following day I made the last leg of my journey to be with my family and friends in Sinking Spring, PA. Thanksgiving was busy as usual and soon enough I was making the return trip. After watching my high school win the PIAA District III AAAA football championship, I left the stadium in Hershey, PA bound for Eighty Four to pick up Kelly. On Sunday we made the 7 hour drive back to Purdue University. It was a nice little reprieve (Kelly hadn't been to her house since January) and a great preview of things to come for the Christmas break.

I've done more than traveling over the last 10 days however. Recently a lot of things I preordered and paid for months ago started shipping. Among them were The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection on DVD from Time Life and the Airborne Trooper and Galactic Marine mini-busts from Gentle Giant.

Image from The Real Ghostbusters.

While I was home I was able to hit up Target and Toys R Us with Brent for some Star Wars goodies. I picked up the Shield Generator Assault battle pack and the Clone Trooper Officer (Yellow, Commander) figure from The Legacy Collection and the Toys R Us exclusive Clone Wars bust-ups, mentioned in the previous post (w00t! Christmas gifts!).

While I was home I was able to organize, sort, and store some of my collection. I can actually walk in my room now! There's still a slight mess but that should be fixed over Christmas. Some extra figures I had lying around I decided to open and create a diorama with one of my opened Republic Gunships. I didn't get to snap any pictures but the Gunship (with nose art from The Clone Wars collection) has 4 TCW Clone Pilots ("Odd Ball") flying the ship and manning the guns plus Captain Rex giving orders to 3 501st Legion Troopers (Wal-Mart exclusive) and 2 regular Clone Troopers. It looks pretty sweet!

In developing life stories, some big news was dropped on our family and friends recently. Kelly and I have decided to move to Sinking Spring, PA (my original hometown) once Kelly finishes her atmospheric science master's degree at Purdue! I will be working for my father with a future goal of succeeding him as owner & president of the sandwich shop. I'll be his apprentice for the next 10 or so years until he wants to partially retire.

My family and friends couldn't be happier; they are REALLY excited for us to return! And we can't wait...

New Bust-Ups at Toys R Us?

An email sent out to the PSWCS listserv last night caught my attention. Someone found new Gentle Giant Bust-Ups at Toys R Us. They appear to use the same mold as the troopers from this set. It has been reported that there are 2 different exclusive sets available, one includes Captain Rex. I grabbed the below image from an eBay auction. The eBay member is selling both new sets with a $39.99 starting price ($44.99 with Buy it Now). A bit steep.

It isn't the best picture but it is the only one I can find that verifies the existence of these sets. You can see they are in the new Clone Wars packaging. It looks like Rex and a blue and red clone in the top set and maybe Commander Fox with a white a green clone on the bottom? I'm not sure about the middle clone in the second set. They are selling at retain for ~$15. If anyone sees these let me know! Gentle Giant was reportedly done with these but apparently they hyave reissued and repainted a past mold. This was completely under the radar by collecting sites.

I Like Busts

Like I said in an earlier post, my figure collection has been brought up to speed and I really am no longer seeking many 3 3/4" Kenner/Hasbro figures. Sure there are a few exclusives or multipacks I don't have yet, but I have almost all of the basic carded line trooper figures from POTF2 through TAC. With that are caught up I thought it was best to look into other forms of memorabilia. I found Gentle Giant Ltd. and Sideshow Collectibles. They both produce magnificent busts and statues for many fictional series such as Star Wars and each has produced a veritable jungle of trooper items. After the Master Replicas helmets I turned my attention to Gentle Giant items (a little cheaper than the Sideshow things). Gentle Giant had this great line called "Bust-Ups" which were scaled down versions of their regular busts. These Bust-Ups were designed to be built by you and came with interchangeable parts, usually different arm poses and weapons. I have added some of the trooper Bust-Ups to my collection over the last few months.

Click on image to enlarge.

Bust-Ups are only a few inches in height and they will look great with my newly acquired helmet collection (I won my Utapau Shadow Trooper scaled helmet so I know own all seven .45 scale replicas). The Bust-Ups shown in the picture above I have purchased and there are a few others as well. As soon as I have them together and displayed I will take some pictures and add them to the collection pages.