“There Will Be No Bargain” Diorama (Luke/Gamorrean Guard vs. Rancor) by Sideshow Collectibles

I was excited when I first heard that Sideshow was going to be making a diorama featuring the rancor, but when the final product was revealed I couldn’t help but be disappointed. Pretty much every other entry in their line of Star Wars dioramas features a fully realized little scene, including scenery and two or more characters. When I imagined what a rancor diorama would be like, it didn’t even occur to me that we might not get the entire rancor. I was hoping to see the rancor pit as well. Instead, we got the upper part of the torso and one arm, on top of a strange metal base. This really stretches the limits of what can be considered a diorama. I would say it’s more like a bust on steroids.

It’s a bit bigger than I had expected (about 15″ tall), which makes it similar in scale to Gentle Giant Rancor, and a considerably larger scale than the AMT/ERTL model kit. However, I personally would have been okay with it being a smaller scale if it would have meant getting the entire rancor. I’m sure the fact that we only got part of the rancor, and the somewhat high price ($229 for the regular version and $249 for the exclusive) are the reasons the exclusive version still hasn’t sold out on Sideshow’s site after months, even though it’s only limited to 250 pieces. In fact, they recently put it on sale for 30% off, which is why I finally broke down and bought it. I knew I wanted to have it for my collection, but I had a hard time getting motivated to buy it.

This is sort of a companion piece to the Jabba vs Leia diorama that I posted about some time ago, this time showing Luke going up against the rancor instead of Leia facing Jabba, so it’s possible that they went with this size to keep them in scale with each other. I think Luke’s face is well sculpted — there’s definitely a lot of Mark Hamill in there — but the paint job makes it look a little strange. The prototype pictured on Sideshow’s website looks quite a bit better to me. The position of his body in the rancor’s claw seems a little awkward, but it was kind of awkward in the movie as well.

As for the rancor, both the sculpt and paint are well done. It’s more accurate to the original model than the AMT/ERTL model kit, and I think the paint is probably better than the Gentle Giant statue. The real sticking point is that you only get about 1/3 of the rancor. When you consider that this costs more than the Gentle Giant piece now goes for on the secondary market, I have to say that the GG Rancor is the better buy.

The Sideshow-exclusive version of the diorama (which is only available direct from Sideshow) has a swap-out hand, allowing you to substitute a Gamorrean Guard for Luke. I think I prefer this version, since you don’t get distracted by Luke’s pose or the issues with the likeness. However, it does become very similar to the AMT/ERTL kit when you put the Gamorrean in there, so I’m wondering if maybe I shouldn’t use Luke when I have it on display, just to add a little variety. It’s nice to have options in any case. Both Luke and the Gamorrean seem to make the rancor a little bit front-heavy, although luckily mine doesn’t have any issues with tipping over as some people have reported.

The Gamorrean is nicely done, and seems to be painted better than Sideshow’s 1/6 scale Gamorrean figures. I’m just not quite sure about the hands. They seem strangely cartoony (although it’s true that the hands on the actual costumes were kind of odd looking as well).

Some people have speculated about the possibility of a 1/6 scale rancor to go along with Sideshow’s 1/6 scale Jabba & throne setup. But that seems rather doubtful considering that they couldn’t even do the entire rancor in this scale, which is considerably smaller (I believe most of the dioramas are around 1/9th scale?). But if you can get past that aspect of it, this is definitely one of the nicer rancor-themed collectibles out there.