R0-4LO/R2-Q2/R4-M9/R5-X3 - Droid Factory

All different types of Astromech droids populate the Star Wars galaxy. Each droid is different and has their [sic] own unique personality and colors. These four new Astromech figures are featured in the new film Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

May the Force be with you... and your Droids!

The Disney R0-4LO/R2-Q2/R4-M9/R5-X3 Droid Factory multipack interests as much as it confuses. It looks great as it does terrible. And its as moderately priced as it is expensive. How is that for bag full of paradoxes? But these are the reactions that this Droid Factory multipack incites. It seems Disney and their corresponding stores have taken over the Build A Droid concept and completely taken it off of Hasbro’s plate, and they’ve recently changed the sculpts to make them simpler and easier to cobble together at their various theme parks. Plus, they’re creating new types of astromech droids that the Star Wars collecting community has never seen to date.When it comes to the R0-4LO/R2-Q2/R4-M9/R5-X3 Droid Factory set, there are new characters as well as characters we have seen already for a very long time. But what’s particularly interesting is that two of them, R2-Q2 (who was Biggs Darklighter’s astromech droid) and R4-M9 (who was an Imperial agromech droid who helped capture the Rebels on the Tantive IV blockade runner) are part of this four-pack and the packaging states that they will be part of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. That might just be a packaging error, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

R0-4LO is technically a first time offering in the toy line. The dome closely resembles that of an R6-series astromech droid (as seen in 2012’s STAR TOURS Droid Factory (2012 Collection) series of Build A Droids), but you should note that this is an all-new shape and sculpt. If this character does make it into The Force Awakens, this would technically be the one and only “sneak peek” figure for Episode VII (as well as the only figure with enough articulation to be dubbed a “collectors figure”). This is sad, isn’t it? Anyway, this simply colored droid looks pretty good and although it is mostly white with a few black and silver details, the design for us warrants a purchase and we’re very interested to see this droid’s role in The Force Awakens. The “new” version of R2-Q2 is very interesting. This droid has made a few appearances in various toy and collectible lines in the past, like 2006’s TSC Astromech Droid Pack Series I Entertainment Earth exclusive set. Its striking deco has always stood out from amongst the many astromech droids out there, so it’s nice to have this in a Build A Droid format. The paint operations look excellent in many spots, but sloppy and over-sprayed in others. For example, R2-Q2’s dome is brilliantly decorated, but the utility arm panels are a complete mess. This figure has been decorated in a hot and cold fashion.

R4-M9 is another bittersweet figure. We don’t have an updated release since 2002’s POTJ R4-M9 figure, which we desperately needed. And as much as we don’t think this new version cuts the mustard (because of the “deleted” foot wirings), it is still a tremendous upgrade to the Power Of The Jedi release. The paint operations are darker and cleaner and the body is much whiter. We strongly feel that overall this is the better version out there at the moment. The final figure in the set is R5-X3 which as first we thought was finally the released version of the R5-X2 figure canceled from the Legacy Collection [2] lineup. But that isn’t the case because (A) this is an all-new sculpt and (B) R5-X2, the droid from Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, is not the same droid as R5-X3 despite them looking like identical twins. (Again, this is all very confusing. Is this just a printing error? Are they meant to be the same droid because they’re essentially the same thing save for being off by one digit?) Despite the confusion, we feel this multipack is a very nice set. It pales in comparison of course to the gorgeous Entertainment Earth exclusives, but it’s a refreshing exclusive when compared to the recent garbage Hasbro has been peddling in their own line.