Imperial Guard / Royal Guard (75034) Lego Star Wars Minifgure Review

“Guards Leave Us”  Emperor Palpatine welcomes Luke Skywalker to the Death Star.

Now I always called these characters the Imperial Guards.  This is probably a result of being a child of the original Kenner days back in the 1980’s.  Imperial Guards, Royal Guards, whatever you call them, they are the Emperor’s personal bodyguard.  With distinctive crimson uniform and cape they make their first appearance in the Star Wars Universe in Return Of The Jedi in 1983.  

For recent fans of Lego Star Wars like myself, the Royal Guard have only been available in the expensive 10188 Death Star set which was first released in 2008.  This 2008 variant is the 2^nd that Lego released, the first and second variants are only distinguishable by the colour of the hands: firstly red then black.

The royal guard minifigures have appeared in the following sets:

• 7166 Imperial Shuttle (2001) – 1^st Variant;
• 7264 Imperial Inspection (2005) - 1^st Variant;
• 6211 Imperial Star Destroyer (2006) - 1^st Variant.

The new 2014 redesign (3rd Variant) is only available in the 75034 Death Star Troopers Battle Pack.

Owners of the first or second variant will find the same helmet and same print torso piece as in previous variants.  

The cape is now in two colours – darker red on the inside, in contrast to the bright crimson red on the outside.

The Torso differs in that the arms and hands are now a dark red colour.  The front torso printing is as we have seen before: dark red lines describing creasing to the robes.  There is no rear printing on the torso which is no big deal: it is going to be covered by one of the nice new two-tone capes.

The head piece is a standard black minifigure head – again no big deal – are you really going to pose this minifigure without the cool helmet piece?

The minifigures are now equipped with force pikes, which were used primarily as a ceremonial weapon.  Interestingly they do not use a black lightsaber hilt in their construction which is probably a good move by Lego – they are not lightsabers after all!  I wondered if they were a little short.  I seem to remember my original Kenner action figure had a full body length staff/pike, but having re-watched ROTJ at the weekend, I think Lego have got it right.

In summary not a huge difference to previous variants but arguable more accurate to the film appearances.

If you have the original variants, let’s face it £11.99 for two of these and two of the nice new Death Star Gunners is hardly going to stop you picking up this neat little battle pack.

If you are looking to remake the two scenes in the film where they appear you are going to need two for the confrontation in the Emperor's throne room.  For the inspection on the Death Star hangar deck, we see six guards walk down and arrange themselves around the landing ramp when the Emperor arrives on the Death Star.  Three purchases of this battle pack seems more accessible than buying 3 of the 10188 Death Star sets. But who knows we might see another Death Star in the upcoming Episode 7 making the ownership of three Death Stars slightly more justifiable?

Did Lego get it right?  We are always interested in your thoughts on the Lego Minifigures we review, please add your comments below and give the minifigure a rating on a scale of 1-10: