Question #10: from January 31, 2005:

2. Recently I purchased a Padme Unleashed figure from Ebay; and the seller refereed to it as the (Perky) version. Now I'm assuming this is because of her large sculpted breasts. Looking around on Ebay at other Padme's I noticed several other sellers were selling Padme's that they were calling the perky version. Is this a variant? Is there another Padme with smaller sculpted breasts? If there is, does the perky version command a higher price? I paid $40.00 for mine.

Another question. Any Ideas, if Hasbro plans to release a filler unleashled wave after wave 11, consisting of reissues? My vote would be for Boba Fett, Yoda, and Darth Maul. Since these command alot on the secondary market like Ebay.
--Jason

My answer from 2005 With commentary from 2025:

...WHAT? Holy crap. Unleashed Padme was POISON in 2002 (and 2003) and stores couldn't get rid of her, and there were never any variants-- just the one version. Padme only comes in the well-endowed variety, it's possible you were a victim of clever marketing or a market that loves Unleashed and has just realized that she is now one of the rarer figures in the collection. But then again, so is Anakin. Ain't nobody buying "disgruntled" Anakin. Maybe if he had a bigger rack.

And nothing really changed here.

A 7-inch figure with exaggerated proportions, Star Wars Unleashed Padme Amidala didn't sell very well upon her 2002 release. The 7-inch figure format was a 7-inch statue line that struggled at first, skyrocketed for a short time, and fell to earth again. Padme can still be bought for $25-$40, which adjusted for inflation, isn't exactly a lot. $15 2002 dollars are $27 today.

That 7-inch line certainly proved there was interest in a higher-dollar 6-inch line with lots of articulation, which we would go on to get in 2013. The original Unleashed figures look good, but gravity got the best of some of them. Many displayed figures are bent thanks to time and gravity. The metal foot pegs in the stands only doing so much to keep them upright on shelves after twenty or more years. It's still a neat line, though, and the Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker with a massive green Lightsaber swoosh remains one of my very favorite Hasbro pieces to date.

It's also worth noting Hasbro did go back to the well with reissues (but not Padme), primarily for store exclusives. The 2002-2005 line was mostly efficiently packaged figures on cardbacks. Later, things came in absolutely giant Costco canister-sized clear boxes with illustrated backdrops - and a price increase. Those also did pretty well at the time, but many did go to closeout eventually. They're worth a look if you've never seen them and a great sub-collection if you want to complete a line at a reasonable price.

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FIN

Oh, Unleashed, you weren't appreciated in your day. These $15 figures came out back when a normal figure was around $5, so a lot of fans rolled their eyes. The funny thing is that they were effectively little statues, back when a statue might be $60-$100 in resin. A mini-bust was around $50, but it took a couple of years for people to pick up what Gentle Giant was laying down.

The funny thing is that the series would probably do far better today, and mimics the mentality of the current Disney/Hasbro complex - top-tier characters, and repaints/retools when it was easy to do so. Brand-new sculpts stopped around 2006, but repaints and retools would keep coming for a couple of years and the line more or less went away by 2008 before The Clone Wars brought us Rex and Ahsoka. However, thanks to her popularity from the 2003 micro-series, we did get an Asajj Ventress who is particularly terrible at standing upright, as well as a swell ARC Heavy Gunner Trooper.

All of the original figures sold for $15 or $20, if memory serves. (Also, this line should not be confused with The Force Unleashed, that's something else.) Slave Leia seems to be the most expensive figure from the statue series today at around $50.

--Adam Pawlus

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