So I was looking through my Episode 1 figures trying to to categorize them, catalog them, and basically just re-visiting them(they were a nice set of figures after all). They had been boxed up for quite some time, in storage at my parent's house, and I just recently had them returned to me. As I was sorting through them, putting them into categories, etc..I noticed something odd when I pulled the Padme Naberrie (with Pod Race View Screen) from the box...

As I was dusting it off, I noticed a (for lack of a better word) "dot" on the bubble, right in front of her face. So I wiped at it and realized that the "dot" was on the inside of the bubble. Now, I am not overly picky about my carded figures, I like them to be in good condition, but I am not gonna flip out if the bubble has scratch on it, or the card is dinged up some on the corners... but I certainly would have noticed a dot right in the middle of her face, it is really quite distracting when you look at the figure, so this was new, and not there when I purchased the figure originally. Now this "dot", was almost clear in color, slightly milky even, and maybe the size of a pin head. Upon closer inspection I realized that it wasn't dust, it wasn't a scratch... it was the remnants of the tip of her nose! Her nose, after being pressed against the bubble for a long period of time had melted! (*insert dramatic music here*) WHY?! Why besmirch the nose on the prettiest face in the Star Wars Universe!! In the name of the Force...WHY?!?

So after I calmed down...my mind began to race... out of all the characters in the box... why Padme? There had to be a reason... I immediately checked the other Padme's (and Amidala's) in the box... Queen Amidala (Naboo) with Blaster Pistols - nose intact. No signs of melting... Queen Amidala (Coruscant) - nose intact. No sign of smooshing, melting, or sliding... Queen Amidala (Battle) with Ascension Gun - All clear. No melting... So why are they picking on poor Padme? Seems odd that only one out of the figures would suffer from nose-melting... maybe that was their plan all along... perhaps the Queen's were becoming jealous of Padme's peasant-girl next door look? maybe after they were trapped in that cardboard box for so long it slowly drove them mad... and they chose to release their madness on poor, sweet Padme... it's a shame really...

But lets give our fair Queen Amidala's the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps this nose melting affliction was just a fluke.. or maybe it strikes at cute noses all across the board and her white-face kabuki make-up protected her? Queen Amidala (Battle) with Ascension Gun, who has no make-up, was spared perhaps because her face was turned away from the bubble... and, after all, what kind of nose-melter is gonna risk attacking a lady armed with an ascension gun? I certainly wouldn't... not too mention attacking Queen Amidala (Naboo) with Blaster Pistols who we all know is a crack-shot with that blaster hidden in her desk...

And out of all the noses in this collection... hers would have been last on my list of noses I would expect to melt. I mean when one examines the variety of noses put up for melting here... there are much better choices...

We have a multitude of humans to choose from. We have Anakin, who eventually wised up and donned a helmet in Anakin Skywalker (Naboo Pilot) to protect his 9 year old nose. Mace Windu, Sio Bibble, Captain Panaka, and Qui-Gon Jinn all have prominent noses which seem ripe for the melting...

We have the politicians Palpatine and Valorum, who always need to look good for those Senate cameras... and Darth Sidious (whose entire face gets melted in Episode 3), and his side-kick Darth Sidious (Holograph) - and we all know you can't melt holograms.

We have Gungans, their faces are mostly made up of their noses(snouts), though with Boss Nass with Gungan Staff you'd have to melt down his jowls before you could get to his nose. We have two snivelling members of the Trade Federation... who conveniently don't have noses at all... (too convenient if you ask me...)

Not meaning too exclude him, but our good Mr. Darth Maul has too many spiky bits to risk melting his red and black nose off...

Then we have a collection of Battle Droids with Blaster Rifle (4 variants) and their leader OOM-9 with Blaster and Binoculars, and their lackey, Destroyer Droid who all don't really have noses, seeing as they don't have human anatomies...and add to that C-3PO whose face isn't even fully assembled in this set. Various Pit Droids and good ol' R2-D2, all of whom are immune to face melting (unless the heat is turned up really high)...

So.. who would be the prime candidates? I would have to say Ric Olie' with Helmet and Naboo Blaster sporting his hawk-like beak and dry wit ( "You catch on pretty quick" ) could stand a good solid nose melting. And how can we overlook the grandest nose of the entire collection? Watto with Datapad!! How could you pass up that wavering, segmented, trunk of a nose??? It's practically melted already! And after sitting in the hot Tattooine suns watching podraces all day... it is bound to get a little warm...

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Okay.. yes I know that plastic is a chemical compound that breaks down and degrades over time. It is the nature of plastic. Its bound to happen to all action figures at one time or another, I just didn't expect to happen so soon! Call it "an assemblage of all the right conditions at the right time" I guess...