R2-D2 - TLC - Saga Legends (SL 1)

Left alone to guard a pair of Jedi starfighters in the hostile landing bay of the Invisible Hand, Artoo is captured by super battle droids. Thinking quickly, he sprays his attackers with highly flammable lubricant and activates his booster jets, frying the battle droids' circuitry.

In 2005, Hasbro released an electronic version of R2-D2 with a very perplexing card back bio. On the Revenge Of The Sith version of the figure, a very non-canon series of events are described, none of which happened as stated. And every time this fiugure gets released, it seems it doesn't have the appropriate bio (whether screen accurate or not). In our experience, this has been the trend with this figure every time it gets released in the Saga Legends assortment. R2-D2, the one and only electronic basic figure in the Revenge Of The Sith line, is once again being offered in Hasbro's "Greatest Hits" line of figures known as 2008's The Legacy Collection Saga Legends. This version of R2-D2 is a figure that both kids and collectors warmly receive time and again. Any action figure of R2-D2 that lights up and makes sounds is going to be popular. Articulation obviously suffers with these types of figures. The wires inside prevent some parts from moving completely and we believe there are many collectors who don’t like to sacrifice this in lieu of bells and whistles. Still, it is absolutely a very good sculpt of our most favorite astromech droid, so it’s possible that collectors may just overlook some of the faults we’re addressing. Although, we're not sure if they're going to plop down another $8 and change to get another one.

Although just released in the very popular 30 (77-07) line, Hasbro feels this figure is worthy of another release, so they carried forward into this new line look. Admittedly i's a fun toy and worthy of re-release. R2-D2 comes with a locker of six extra weapons which don't fit the character, but allow you to reaccesorize any figure of yours that has lost its weapons. This pack-in premium seems a little odd for figures like R2-D2. R2-D2 looks very clean and for the most part well-painted. He is a slight repaint of 2005's ROTS R2-D2 (III 48) figure, but Hasbro has kept the Saga Legends version of this figure pretty consistent. There are minor differences here and there. The eye port that lights up is sadly inaccurate. That should be solid black and the smaller eye port below it should have the electronics, but this is something that Hasbro has no plans to fix, especially since this figure was tooled way back in the modern line's infancy and has been released multiple times as is since. R2-D2 is basically the exact same sculpt as 2002’s SW [S - P1] R2-D2 (Coruscant Sentry) (‘02 #14) figure (with its root figure dating back to The Power Of The Force "2" era), but for the 2005 Revenge Of The Sith figure and this release Hasbro gave him all-new sound effects (and obviously included less accessories). Limited with only six points of articulation (one of which we’re including is the button press for the electronics lights and sounds), R2-D2 lacks the most by having a dome that doesn’t rotate.

We would really like to see Hasbro attack an all-new electronic version of R2-D2, making sure that they encapsulate every last accurate and authentic detail into the sculpt. It's certainly time to retire this sculpt. We love the electronic aspect of him, but he is terribly outdated. Despite the enhancements Hasbro made to R2-D2, Hasbro needs to make this figure more relevant to the Prequel Trilogy. We’re talking about a figure that is beginning to age and has really reached obsolete status already. And in all honesty, Hasbro has tried to get away with dubbing this figure as a Prequel Trilogy version, despite pack-in sourcing him to the Original Trilogy. This figure is a "mess" on so many levels. Still, this doesn’t mean R2-D2 is a bad figure. But it also doesn’t mean we’d like to see Hasbro update it again some day and make it definitive. The electronic R2-D2 action figure doesn’t really bring that much new to the table, but it goes without saying that it’s a figure that will bring some form of enjoyment to Star Wars fans. We’re just so very surprised that Hasbro didn’t dust off the 2004 VOTC Artoo-Detoo (R2-D2) (With Extension Arm) figure and somehow bring it into the line through the eyes of Episode III yet. On this Saga Legends release, R2-D2 is still based on Episode III by the sound effects (not our opinion really) and the character's bio, but this figure could really double for any version of R2-D2 from any of the other films.