Pic of the Day 87 - Twice Daily!

Commander Cody, Gentle Giant mini bust

Cody and his troops, the 212th Battlion (I think) were attached to Obi-Wan Kenobi during the Clone Wars, until Order 66 was given while at Utapau, and Cody tried to kill Obi-wan, friendship notwithstanding.

This mini bust is one of five busts, Gentle Giant is infamous for. They decided to release 5 highly desired, specific characters (as opposed to generic clone troopers) as 5 exclusives, throughout the world, in the summer of 2007. The Five Commanders were Bly (at Forbidden Planet, London), Bacara (Baltimore Comic Con), Cody (San Diego Comic Con), Gree (Gen Con, Indianapolis?) and finally, Neyo, at a store in Japan. In addition to making them difficult to obtain, GG decided not to make equal numbers of them. There are far more people that have Cody (the most numerous of the Five) than have Neyo (the most limited). And, due to the difficulty in obtaining them, it is doubtfull that the 1500 people that have Neyo, have the other five. I was able to acquire four of the Five, but Neyo eluded me at retail price (GG raffled off a small number of each on their site) and the $300+ it goes for on eBay is out of my price range, and will be for many years to come.

There was a lot of outrage at the whole stunt, and Gentle Giant basically told the collectors that they didn't give a damn what we thought. However, they didn't repeat the stunt in 2008, but this year they seem to be doing it again, with the Republic Commandos, the four characters from a fairly successful video game. They are still available all over the world, but at least this time in equal numbers. Entertainment Earth currently has them available for preorder, for $85 each, plus shipping, and I believe a limited number will be available at GG's site again, for $65 each. Due to the collecting budget cuts I took in late 2007, I will be unable to get any of these at this time. At least I was able to get the limited maquette they did in early 2007.

I'm sure he's forgotten about that, it was a long time ago. - Han Solo