This Samurai Darth Vader Is Impressive… Most Impressive
Bandai has unveiled a new Darth Vader figure that will have every Star Wars fan opening their wallets. According to a report from Kotaku, the toy company showed off a new figure called the “Movie Realization Samurai General Darth Vader.”
This new Samurai-style Darth Vader was on display at this year’s Tokyo Toy Show. It was created by Takayuki Takeya, stands at 7.8 inches tall, and comes with Samurai armor and a katana lightsaber. Bandai has plans to release the figure in winter 2014 in Japan. As of now, a price has not been set.
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On his website, Takeya has sketches for Samurai Darth Vader and Samurai Stormtroopers. No word yet on when we will get to see the fully-designed figure of the latter.
Along with the new Samurai Darth Vader, Bandai has plans to release 6-inch figures of Vader and the Stormtroopers that are more “movie accurate,” according to a report from io9. These will be part of their Figuarts line, and they could come at a bigger price tag than the ones created by their competitor, Hasbro, but they also might be “nicer” and “better articulated.”
It makes sense that Bandai is releasing Samurai-inspired figures of Darth Vader and, eventually, the Stormtroopers. Back in 2005, George Lucas did an interview with The Telegraph saying that Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai served as an influence for him “in terms of understanding how cinema works and how to tell a very exciting story and still have it be very funny and very human.”
“It is a mark of Kurosawa’s gift for characterization that all seven of his swordsmen – and a few of the villagers – are clearly defined with the deftest of strokes: there is very little backstory to explain why each of them has reached this point in his life, no long, soul-baring speeches.”
There were plenty of other Star Wars-inspired figures on display at the Tokyo Toy Show, including car versions of both Darth Vader and C-3PO. Some of the characters, including Vader and C-3PO, had toys that turned into eggs, and there was a “Head Collection” of many Star Wars characters. Bandai has plans to release these new figures in 2015, just in time for the release of Star Wars: Episode VII, according to Jedi Insider.
Even though Darth Vader died in Return of the Jedi, a related report from The Inquisitr states that Adam Driver is rumored to play the role in the seventh film. But it was worded as Driver would be a character “in the vein of iconic Star Wars villain Darth Vader.” So, it could be someone similar, or J.J. Abrams is trying to keep under wraps the fact that Driver will actually play Vader.
[Images via Lost At E Minor and The Fwoosh]
