Sculpt--3.5/5
For the most part, this is a phenomenally sculpted figure, with excellent folds and wrinkles in the Emperor's robes and appropriately boney looking hands. For the first time, the hood and sculpted outer robes are sculpted separately from the figure, adding more realism to the layered look of his outfit. The headsculpt is also the best headsculpt of the Emperor ever made in this scale with tons of wrinkles and details in his face. He has the expression he had when he was blasting Luke with his Sith lightning--his mouth is slightly open with his teeth showing, and he is looking slightly downwards. It looks great to say the least. You can tell they spent a lot of time with the details on this figure. The Emperor's posture is also very...um..old-mannish--he's a bit hunched over, very similar to Mr. Burns from the Simpsons. There's practically nothing wrong with the sculpting of this figure...practically nothing wrong. The one glaring flaw to this sculpt is the hood of The Emperor's cloak. It's incredibly huge and doesn't look like it's sitting naturally on his head at all. The problem is that the hood is waaay too thick, and there isn't enough room for his head to go all the way into the hood properly. As it is, the hood looks totally ridiculous and only looks good looking at it from certain angles. The prototype photos of the figure look really good now compared to the final product--and to think that I thought the hood was too big when I first saw the prototype!

Articulation--4.5/5
The Emperor has eight points of articulation: neck, ball-jointed shoulders, wrists, ball-jointed waist, and ankles. This is near-perfect articulation for an Emperor figure. The wrist joints and ball-jointed shoulders allow for some great Sith lightning-shooting poses and also make normal, relaxed poses possible as well. The waist joint is also worthy of mention. No, it's not a true ball-joint, but it can twist and is hinged so you can make the Emperor look even more hunched over than he is already. You can't really turn the head all too much because of the awful hood, but slight movement is possible. You can rotate his feet, but why would you?

Features--NA/5
There are no features associated with this set.

Accessories--2/5
You get the Emperor's cane and two Sith lightning effects that can be attached to the Emperor's wrists. The cane is perfect and looks very much like the actual prop. Unfortunately this figure can't hold it at all, so save the clear rubber band that holds it to his hand; you're gonna need it. The Sith lightning is utterly pathetic-looking. These things are so small, they look like they wouldn't hurt a fly. It would have also been nice if it actually looked like it was coming out of his fingers, but that's not the case. If you have Aayla Secura, Geonosian Escape Darth Tyrannus, or any other figure that comes with some sort of electrical effect, then I suggest using those instead of these lousy, minuscule Force effects.

Paint--4/5
Not much to paint on this figure--just the hands, headsculpt and the little clasp thingie at his neck. The face and hands are painted well with a nice wash that makes him look decrepit and brings out the detail and wrinkles in his face. The clasp isn't painted as well as the face and hands however, and instead of looking like one piece, the paint job makes it look like five separate pieces.

Overall--3.5/5
This is a tough figure to score. On one hand, he has some great detail and articulation, but on the other hand his hood ruins the overall look of the figure. I am starting to like him more and more though, probably because I'm getting used to how his hood looks, and also because he looks pretty cool electrocuting Throne Room Duel Luke Skywalker. In any case, the hood is the only thing that is majorly wrong with this figure, and unfortunately it is the only thing keeping it from action figure greatness.