R2-D2 - SW [S - P1] - Exclusives (Silver Anniversary 1977-2002)

25 years ago, the world was first introduced to the wonders of the Star Wars universe. George Lucas' fantasy not only revolutionized the film industry, but also changed forever the way kids dream and play. From the saga's very beginning, Kenner/Hasbro and Lucasfilm have teamed to recreate the fun and excitement of the Star Wars movies through their action figures, vehicles, and play sets designed for kids of all ages.

A quarter of a century later, Star Wars remains as popular and relevant as ever. With the saga ready to embark on its latest adventure with Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Hasbro has created its most detailed, authentic, and (most importantly) fun Star Wars toys yet to thrill a whole new generation of fans.

With all the attention that the Darth Vader (2002 New York Toy Fair) brought to Hasbro (good and bad), they quickly figured out that maybe a series of “Silver Anniversary” figures might be something that could interest Star Wars collectors to help celebrate a quarter of a century of Star Wars. And it did. It’s fair to say that the Darth Vader (2002 New York Toy Fair) created too much angst and problems, so Hasbro needed to figure out a way to make the next release in the series a little more attainable. Without racking their brains, Hasbro decided that the next celebratory figure would be relegated as a Toys R Us exclusive. But it would be handled differently than Star Wars collectors expected. Toys R Us didn’t just want to sell these. They decided instead to offer R2-D2 (Silver Anniversary 1977-2002) as a free gift with purchase. It went over well with the collecting community. For those that were fortunate enough to secure the Darth Vader (2002 New York Toy Fair) exclusive, R2-D2 (Silver Anniversary 1977-2002) would nicely complement the figure. Or would it?

Well, R2-D2 (Silver Anniversary 1977-2002) is a bittersweet release. Provided you like the “Silver Saga Edition” series of figures, this one has a major issue with its assembly. Based on the sculpt of 2000’s POTJ R2-D2 (Naboo Escape) figure, this version has been cast in a different type of plastic which allows a vac-metallized finish to stick to it. But when they assembled the figure, the left and right legs have been reversed. This creates a very unsteady figure and its center of gravity is completely unbalanced. Had the feet of R2-D2 been articulated, none of this would matter. But because they feet aren’t articulated, R2-D2 (Silver Anniversary 1977-2002) stands at a much too upright angle and cannot sustain gravity’s pull. As a result, the figure easily topples when it shouldn’t have this issue at all. Also, you’re limited with how far you can pull his legs from his body because the feet won’t lie flatly on the ground the further you move them away from his body. In short, R2-D2 (Silver Anniversary 1977-2002) is pretty disastrous as a collectible action figure.

That’s not to say that R2-D2 (Silver Anniversary 1977-2002) doesn’t look nice. There is something quite gorgeous about a metallic silver R2-D2 with metallic blue details. He looks pretty cool. But as a functioning action figure, well, he is quite disappointing. It’s hard to believe that reversing the legs so that they would be assembled correctly would have made all of the difference in the world, but it would have. R2-D2 (Silver Anniversary 1977-2002) comes with six points of articulation. He comes with a swivel head, two swivel legs and three rolling wheels. This obviously isn’t a whole lot of articulation, but for what this figure is meant to be, it’s probably all the articulation it needs. Rumors abound that 15,000 units of this figure were produced. It’s impossible to verify this, but this bit of information did leak out rather early. That is certainly a limited number of figures, but whether all Star Wars collectors are supporting this sub-line is a whole other bowl of wax. We do like the “freebie” concept that Toys R Us is putting into effect with R2-D2 (Silver Anniversary 1977-2002). It may obligate Star Wars fans to start picking up these figures.