When I saw the preorder for the Amazon Exclusive Black Series Emperor Palpatine, I think I blew a gasket. He was a character I wanted in plastic form because like it or not, this character matters. Sheev Palpatine, or, as his Sith buddies call him, Darth Sidious, has been the main antagonist of at least 6 of the main movies. Depending on how The Rise of Skywalker plays out, he may end up being the big bad for this trilogy also.
The fact of the matter is ol’ Sheev really took being a dick to a new level. He spent decades harboring a secret plan that involved him ghost bangin’ Anakin’s mom (if you are to believe a vision Vader had), then befriending the little bastard.
It’s no accident that “Sheev” is a play on Shiva, the Hindu Destroyer and transformer. I’ve read a lot of ancillary stories about the Star Wars Universe, and as far as I can tell, he’s the only Sith Lord to ever be successful. There were entire wars fought by Sith and Jedi. Then Darth Bane instituted the Rule of Two, but even then it took a thousand years before a Sith actually “won”
That Sith was Sidious. He all but wiped out the Jedi Order single-handed through his manipulations. We can argue all day about who the most important/powerful Jedi was, but there can be no mistaking it, Sheev was the Sithiest.
Now I finally have his form in plastic, and I wanna talk about it.
What’s in the Black Series Emperor Palpatine box?
This figure is an Amazon Exclusive, and if its any indication of their passion for the Star Wars brand going forward, we are pretty lucky.
We get the Palpatine figure itself, with a cloth robe.
We get three completely different head sculpts.
Neutral face 
Angry face 
Grinning face
Included are his regular hands…
Who’s the man? YOU’RE the man! 
And his Sith lightning hands.
FORCE LIGHTNING! 
He comes with his cane.
Finally, he has his throne.
One of the few times in my life that “the throne” is not a reference to scat humor. 
Buttons! 
More buttons! 
OMG BUTTONS AGAIN!!! 
What’s that I see? BUTTONS!!
What doesn’t work with the Black Series Emperor Palpatine figure?
The Black Series Emperor Palpatine is missing a lightsaber. I know he never had it in the OT, but you could please both the OT AND PT fans by including that one tiny thing.
Both of his standard hands are pretty specific. One is for holding his cane, the other is for pointing or doing cruel things. It would have been nice to have a set of neutral hands, but I also understand this is not an import.
What works with the Black Series Emperor Palpatine figure?
The fact that I’ve gone my whole life without (in any scale) an Emperor figure is a geek crime. I know they released one before, but I wasn’t willing to pay the aftermarket price on it. Patience pays off because we get more than we could have hoped for in terms of quality and pack-ins.
With this one figure and his accessories, you can hit almost any beat in the OT that features our boy, Sheev. The throne is the icing on the cake. Sure his feet dangle a little, but you can compensate for that with your staging.
Much like the recent Bandai Yoda figure, the Black Series Emperor Palpatine needed to happen.
Should you purchase the Black Series Emperor Palpatine figure?
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. It’s an excellent representation of an incredibly important character to the Star Wars mythos. Yes, he is an “exclusive” but it’s an Amazon exclusive, which means you don’t need to leave your house to buy him. If you want him (and as a Star Wars fan, you should) you can look here:
“Listen, my young apprentice… the future of the Empire is not centered around your quest to learn who the pilot was that destroyed the Death Star.”
