Back In Black- R2D2
Welcome back to our second look at the
first wave of the Star Wars Black 6 inch line, R2D2. Not much need
to go into who this little guy is. He’s pretty much the star that
ties the Star Wars together. It will be interesting to see how they
handle him in episode 7. At that point he’ll probably be 60 years
old. Maybe the lead of the new movie will be a space hipster so
having an old school droid will be like having a record player. Some
new Jedi will keep talking about his boops and beeps just sound
better.
Packaging
Not much else to say I didn’t say in
the last review. I’m a big fan of being able to reseal in the
package for now but don’t get me wrong these will be in trash as
soon as I get my shelves back up. One note about repacking him
though, you cant get him back in the package with the blue sides on.
They pop off in the plastic and then you spend ten minutes trying to
find them. You don’t want to display him with those rockets. We
just want to pretend those rockets don’t exist.
The bio is short and sweet. I like the
“takes part in many of the most momentous events in the galaxy”.
He does take part, he just doesn’t like to talk about it. There
are many moments in episodes 4,5, and 6 where R2 could have shared
some info that really would have helped Luke and the gang but he just
kept it quite. What a dick. We also get a phonetic spelling of some
beeps. I bet somewhere on a forum someone is writing right now is
translating what that line is and how its wrong. This person is also
a dick.
Sculpting and Paint
R2 Has some great sculpting done with
every door and panel having some sculpted detail. Once again there
are lots of little things such as the grates on the front that they
could have gotten away with just painting but they went with the
sculpt so good job on that Hasbro.
Phantom Note: Evil asked me to mention
the ugly seam across Artoo's domepiece. We were talking about it the
other night and he forgot to put it in here. So here it is:
Paint is where R2 has some serious
issues. When the line was first revealed, R2 had a lot of wash and
tarnish on the body and the silver dome. The final product does not.
It doesn’t look as horrible as I thought it would and if I never
saw the original photos I probably wouldn’t have cared but it
always sucks to see what might have been. Some of the original wear
can still be seen on the bottom of the two feet (you can it in the
picture below). If they were going to keep some of this detail, I’m
glad they did it in a spot that made sense. My R2 had some white
showing through the blue on the removable blue panels on the top and
when I took one off some the paint came with it so be careful with
those.
Articulation
Okay, I have to admit, it took me several
minutes to realize in order to get his third leg out you have to turn
the head. I tried pulling and pulling and then finally turned it and
out it popped. The mechanism was smooth but it does lock the dome in position. You can turn the head to where you want but it makes a
popping sound and I worry about messing up what ever makes the third
leg come out.
There are wheels on all three feet and
all are able to pivot. The two arms are also able to move back and
forth like every R2 figure ever made. The front has two doors that
open to pull up his little grabber and shocker thing. These look
fine but I don’t see myself displaying them open. That is unless
we get a Salacious Crumb.
Accessories
R2 comes with his periscope, sensor
thingy, rocket sides, and Luke’s ROTJ lightsaber hilt. They all
fit in removable panels in the top of his dome. The panels stay in
well and take a little force to pop off. You will then spend ten
minutes looking for one. You will then decide to never take them off
again. The instruments look fine and fit snugly into their holes.
Then there are the rockets. The blue
on the arms pops off and rockets pop on without problem. But then
you have the rockets displayed. R2 forgot he had these in the latter
episodes. I will also forget that I have these.
The lightsaber is the correct style for
popping out his head and looks great. The sculpting and detail on
these little things looks great. I was surprised to find that it is
not made to hold a lightsaber blade as I just assumed that it was an
already sculpted piece for a future Luke. It will be nice to have
when that Luke comes out as not having the hole allowed them to
sculpted a flat part at the end which I think will look better in
display.
The only accessory I wish that would
have been included would be the drink tray from Jabba’s sailing
barge. I thought with R2 being smaller we might get it. However
this is a Star Wars line so you know if it's successful, down the line
we are going to start to get all sorts of variations.
Final Thoughts
So if you read the last review, you’ve
seen my new rating scale. GET IT! (you must own this figure, go on
amazon, bbts, etc., pay extra this figure is totally worth it), HUNT
IT! (this toy is great, has some problems, not worth paying more than
retail, but worth driving to a bunch of stores trying to find it),
FIND IT! (it’s an ok figure and worth picking up if you see it,
possibly on clearance), PEG IT! (leave that shit on the pegs, it can
be friends with Dark Knight Rises 3.75 and Amazing Spiderman
figures).
R2 comes in at a……..GET IT!
Look if you are getting this line you
are going to need R2. Even with the paint problems he’s a great
little figure. I haven’t seen these at retail yet, but I would
guess the R2 is going to be one of the first to go as he’s so
recognizable.
So thanks for stopping by, and come
back next time when we look at what happens when you insist your
employees wear white.
Look at that, a whole review where I
refrained from talking about the driods we are looking for!
-Evil
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