Outstanding comparison pics, TaliBane!
I agree with your three nitpicks, but I have a couple of others: the length of the nose and the orientation/angle of his eye. The HT nose is much shorter (from the profile/side), which affects total "face" depth and how much cheek sits under the eyes. And the eye starts forming the corner too soon, in a way that ends up making it shorter than it should be. Maybe that led to the cheek being too narrow (which is much more noticeable on the other cheek). In your comparison shots, the movie Vader's cheek also seems to angle back more steeply, but that might be just a camera/angle thing.
Any of the nitpicks can rightfully be dismissed as minor; and I get why people would be rolling their eyes right now. But everything taken together adds up to quite a bit for me, and gives an overall impression of a Vader helmet that just doesn't capture how ESB Vader has always looked to me for all these years. But I'm glad that so many are loving their figures, even if it's not one for me (but I did snag the chest box and belt
).
Also, I expect the ROTJ announcement much sooner than the usual window between Vaders. That's probably why this figure got the early release. It'd be smart to follow up the release of Luke and the Emperor as quickly as possible with the companion Vader. At this point I'm sure the helmet will be the same, so I'm pinning my hopes on a spot-on Anakin (Sebastian Shaw) face sculpt. That scene meant the world to me as a kid, and there's no way I'd pass on a figure that would convincingly capture the moment where Luke first got to see his father.
Already posted on this, straight on its lens distortion galore. I'd have to say the promo pics is what looks closest to what the figure actually looks like in hand
