C-3PO (w/ Battle Droid Head) - TAC - Saga Legends

When R2-D2 and C-3PO stumble upon the massive droid factories on Geonosis, an impatient Artoo accidentally knocks C-3PO onto a conveyer belt, where he is fitted with a new battle droid head, which causes him to take on a more aggressive persona.

Oh Hasbro. C-3PO, based on his appearance in Episode II, never seems to get the treatment he deserves in the basic figure line and they keep re-releasing the same version of him like we’re not going to notice. To be fair, the C-3PO (w/ Battle Droid Head) figure is one of the better attempts by Hasbro from the Star Wars “Saga” era that took place between 2002 and 2004, but between a slightly awkward cocked stance and erroneous plug in Battle Droid backpack, we’re not so sure if this figure makes the cut. Actually, we’re sure it doesn’t. This figure doesn’t have that much wiggle room to be perfected either. Hasbro decided to use the figure from 2002’s SW [S - P1] C-3PO (With Droid Factory Line) Deluxe figure. The C-3PO in this set originally had small magnets installed to keep the head attached to the body. For The Saga Collection version, the magnets had been removed and now this is the version that has been carried forward into the 30 (77-07) Saga Legends line – a line meant to keep popular characters at retail while Hasbro can concentrate on some more of the collector-friendly figures in the mainline. For this release, and we believe it has more to do with being produced at different time, C-3PO is slightly repainted. Our opinion is that the changes to the deco are noticeable and while your opinion may vary, it is hard to discount that changes have indeed taken place here.

Still, the figure lacks in so many other areas that you might not care. During The Saga Collection era, one of the neatest things about C-3PO (With Battle Droid Head) was that Hasbro decided to be clever with the packaging of this figure. Sort of like what record companies due for a prominent artist by releasing multiple album covers for the same release, half of C-3PO (With Battle Droid Head) were shipped with the C-3PO head attached and the other half were shipped with the Battle Droid head attached. What’s more, if this figure was packaged with the C-3PO head, one of six random “good guy” holograms were included. And if the figure was assembled with the Battle Droid head, one of six random “bad guy” holograms were included. This clearly took a lot of energy in planning and execution of this packaging gimmick, but we think it worked quite well. For the 30 (77-07) release however, we just get one single permutation of this character much to the relief of the carded collecting community. Instead, collectors just need to chase down one version of C-3PO (w/ Battle Droid Head) and the only pack-in this time is a single Episode II coin. It’s a simple release and with so much to buy in this line, simple is certainly better.

This figure is technically screen inaccurate. If you recall in Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones, C-3PO (while donning a B1 battle droid head) didn’t have a backpack. But we get one here. If you remove it, you’re left with a gaping hole in the figure’s back which is a shame. It was unnecessary to go through the extra time to create that hole (or include a backpack for that matter). We find it interesting that we haven’t heard more discussion about the error of this figure but maybe we just missed that altogether too. Anyhow, the bad news is if you decide to pose this figure in your collection sans backpack, you’ll be left with that huge hole on the figure’s back. It’s nice to get a basic carded version of an Episode II C-3PO, but Hasbro will need to bring us better before we can consider it definitive. (Editor’s Note: Hasbro gave us an incredible Episode II C-3PO With Battle Droid Head in TARGET’s exclusive 2010 Geonosis Arena Showdown (6 of 6) set. This version of C-3PO is awesome!) We applaud Hasbro for the gimmicky packaging of this figure. It needed something to ensure some sort of good sell through at retail. It’s definitely not the best version of C-3PO, but it may fill a hole in your collection. But you’ll need to fill a hole on him if you buy him! Or maybe you’ll just accept him at face value.