Ultra Scale - 3' Tall Darth Vader Action Figure
This is an amazing, one - off, hand built prototype by one of the most well known
toy designers of all time, Don Levine (of
Gi-Joe fame).
The original product concept was to launch a new line of ultra or super scaled action figures using a new manufacturing process which not only cut start up costs, but reduced production time. Originally, there were 3 characters picked to represent this concept, Darth Vader (shown here), Batman and Archer from the movie "Small Soldiers". The Archer figure was actually realized as a test market figure and were sold at retail. There are only a handful of examples remaining today. The Vader and Batman figures never made it past the prototype stage. The main problem with the idea (at the time) was the massive amount of shelf space that would be needed to accomodate these figures. (oddly enough, years later there were similar scaled Batman, Spiderman, Fantastic 4 and Barbie figures released at retail)
This Darth Vader example is the original, hand built prototype built by Mr. Levine. It is fully articulated, and features a matching, soft goods hand made cape, and is fully hand painted. It is a POTF(2)-esque series design, scaled up to nearly 1:4 size (about 3' tall) This is the only completed prototype and served as the presentation model to several companies before the idea was finally dropped.
