TC-14 - Elite Series

TC-14 is a protocol droid that was in the employ of the Trade Federation on their Profiteer-class droid control ship Saak'ak. She showed Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn to a conference room where she offered them refreshments while the Trade Federation plotted against them.

Yikes! This shoddy figure shows is that Disney was lazy here! We’re thrilled to see them add new droids into the Elite Series diecast metal line, but when there is an opportunity to correct something, and they don’t, well, that leaves collectors feeling cold. A couple of years ago, Disney released C-3PO based on The Force Awakens in the Elite Series line. The figure had multiple problems. His head was much too square and cut off at the bottom. And his articulation wasn’t useful at all. It was almost impossible to pose him. Now they’ve used the same sculpt to bring us TC-14, and as you can imagine, she has all of the same issues as C-3PO. The Disney Elite Series line is hit or miss. And we feel that TC-14 is another miss. It is sad because she could have been a hit. She might stay a hit with some collectors. But for us, she doesn’t make the cut. We find this to be frustrating because the figures in this line turn out best when they are droids. But when you utilize a terrible base sculpt, all other figures produced from it will look equally bad.

We were so disappointed with C-3PO that we feel many of the likenesses of some of the human characters came out better than C-3PO. Now we have the same approach in silver now. The Elite Series TC-14 looks alright from a certain point of view. But that certain point of view is fleeting. The silhouette of the character looks about right, and we’re even impressed with the approach of the metallic silver finish they used to make her as screen accurate as possible. But protocol droids’ most recognizable attribute (their heads and faces) are sloppily executed that it makes the character look like a cheap knockoff. The absence of the character’s nose is especially jarring. The black “pupils” in her photoreceptors are huge which gives the figure a very animated appearance. You can see artifacts and lines in the portrait, which hurt the aesthetics of the head sculpt. Had more care been given to the TC-14’s head, perhaps the figure would have ultimately looked a whole lot better. Also, she comes without the “plugs” to cover up the holes made by the screws. It looks terrible.

The articulation is pretty much what you’d expect it is here. But interestingly, Elite Series TC-14 comes with ball-jointed shoulders, one of only a handful of TC-14 collectibles that have come with such articulation in the shoulders. TC-14 in any collectible format needs only swivel shoulders. But hey, if the ball-joints give a smidge more of movement, we’ll take it. The elbows are frustrating, however. They’ve been given simple hinge-jointed articulation, but they barely move. Also, fine details like pistons and whatnot are expectedly just nonexistent. These are metal figures, so we’re not sure if they’re able to manufacture such fine and delicate details in this lineup, so maybe their exclusion is for the better. TC-14 has no torso movement either which is another disappointment. But the biggest disappointment is that she comes without her signature serving tray, canister (thermos?) and glasses. You can’t produce a TC-14 collectible figure without these important accessories. Sorry, there is no other way to put this. It’s nice to see another rare character from The Phantom Menace get introduced to this line, but Disney took too many shortcuts with her.