FA-4 (Count Dooku’s Pilot Droid) - LC [2] - Build A Droid

Full of great madness the minds of Hasbro staff are. In what now seems as a totally wasted move, previously believe to be canceled figures have made their way to retail thanks to a relatively unknown chain called Go! Toys & Games (via the Calendars Holdings company). We say wasted because we now feel that there was little to no reason to pack seven of the planned figures in new card artwork and put them together for the Amazon.com exclusive Droid Factory set. We’d love to know what Amazon was told by Hasbro too. “These will never be sold at retail?” “They will never be available in any other way?” “You will have complete exclusivity to these highly sought-after figures?” Whatever transpired, one thing is for sure. These figures are now here, in unknown relative scarcity for the diehard collectors who must own one of everything. To further complicate things, one of the Build A Droid figures was promoted to basic figure in the Amazon Droid Factory set. Now, we all have the opportunity to collect his parts the way they were intended to be collected: in the six basic figures that contain them. While almost all of the basic figures have made their way out by now through the Amazon Droid factory set or via The Black Series line at this point, we find it much more enjoyable as collectors to get these figures in the manner in which they were originally intended.

Not only does FA-4 go back to Build A Droid status from basic figure, this droid also gets a name change. Now FA-4 (Count Dooku’s Pilot Droid), the added subtitle gives clear indication of its role in Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones. The design of FA-4 is very nice. It comes to collectors piecemeal and not fully assembled, but as you know it can be broken down into seven individual parts, thanks to the inclusion of a ball-socket head on top of the neck post. The sculpt and paint job are done very well. Everything is in place here as it should be. As a very obscure droid from Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones, we’re surprised that Hasbro even had it on the radar in any form to bring as a 3.75” figure to collectors. FA-4 (Count Dooku’s Pilot Droid)’s first appearance was in Episode II, but you can find this series of droid in multiple episodes of The Clone Wars as well. It’s evident that Hasbro has the kids in mind with the design of this action figure as well. FA-4 (Count Dooku’s Pilot Droid)’s is a relatively simple model of droid, and Hasbro has echoed that design very well in the action figure interpretation of it. It doesn’t have a ton of articulation, but it does have enough to mirror what movement it has in the film. He looks cool if you install the body backwards too. In our opinion, this droid has some versatility that just wasn’t expected. All we want now is the ship it pilots and all will be complete.

As one of the only “new” figures (as in never offered before in any style or format in the past), it is a bit bittersweet that it takes a Build A Droid figure to being some newness into the basic figure line. Perhaps Legacy Collection [2] was at a disadvantage from the start. FA-4 (Count Dooku’s Pilot Droid) is a good reason to purchase these figures, but it is much easier and cheaper to get it through the Amazon Droid Factory exclusive set. The best part about getting FA-4 (Count Dooku’s Pilot Droid) via the way it was intended is that you can get the basic figures in the original card back art, something that is a must for carded collectors. Plus, how awesome is it that we now know Hasbro salvaged the original run of the Legacy Collection [2] line and had it stored for years in a warehouse somewhere. It really is like the final scene in Raiders Of The Lost Ark. LC2 is engaging packaging and looks infinitely better and much more interesting that the dull and dreary The Black Series line look. There are still figures yet to leak out from this whole LC2 mess and hopefully Hasbro will use this or a similar format to get out future Build A Droid figures R5-X2 and R8-B7. At worst, we can look at these “army builder” multipacks as the new Saga Legends.... or something. We still think that the collecting community would be best served by releasing a boxed set of the Build A Droid figures. Collectors would scoop that up in a second. But we clearly digress.