R2-D2 - EI - Basic

The astromech droid R2-D2 serves on board the Naboo Royal Starship of Queen Amidala. A multifaceted utility droid, R2-D2 becomes a hero in the struggle against the Trade Federation's invasion of Naboo.

For longtime collectors, getting the classic characters revised for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace can be more exciting than getting the “all-new” characters. Seeing where there at, where they came from and how they differ from what has already been established in the Original Trilogy is a fun analysis. With this however we sometimes get action figures that have features that don’t end up making the final cut of the film. It allows for more play value apparently, but it doesn’t clarify to the toy buyer why a figure has been approached the way it has. For R2-D2, Hasbro tooled a version of the figure from a deleted scene in the film. At some point, R2-D2 ejects booster rockets from his body and uses them for some unknown purpose. (Editor’s Note: The DVD of Episode I shows this concept of R2-D2 and explains why the booster rockets were part of his design. A revised concept was later utilized for Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones.) R2-D2, save for the action figure, feels like a big warm hug from Hasbro. It is so cool to see such a classic Star Wars character make its way into the Prequel Trilogy. And this figure hit all the right spots for the most part.

R2-D2 is actually an impressive action figure. He is leaps and bounds better than anything produced in The Power Of The Force “2” era because his features are more detailed. There are crisper lines, a shinier and mother plastic has been utilized here for authenticity and the paint operations are about as good as they’re going to get for an action figure in 3.75” scale. Although they carried-forward the light port concept with this release, a more notable and much more important upgrade had taken place with this release. Instead of a chrome finished head sculpt, Hasbro opted for a duller, less reflective and more screen accurate nickel finish which does R2-D2 a dramatic world of good that previous releases were just unable to reach. This release by far takes R2_D2 to a whole new unprecedented level and we couldn’t be more please with the final results. Add in some enhanced articulation like hinge-jointed feet to allow for optimal posing capabilities and you’re left with and action figure that not only looks great posed on a shelf, but is also a fun toy to play with for both kids and collectors. We guarantee you that you’re going to have a blast playing with this action figure.

Included with R2-D2 is an action feature. In all honesty, the action feature is bittersweet. We’ll explain. By slightly turning the head, the panels in the front and back of R2-D2 slide open and the booster rockets pop out. The booster rockets/jets are small but nicely detailed and colored in a light gray plastic. But as explained, you get very little movement from R2’s head because of the action figure. Like, it’s literally no movement at all. As whimsical as he is, it makes posing him in unique and funny ways very difficult. R2-D2 comes with a CommTech chip which the packaging explains has been programmed with seven (7) unique phrases. Um, OK. We haven’t counted but we imagine seven are indeed there. Interestingly, Hasbro didn’t (and couldn’t) add the lines (In English) to the card back as they did with all of the other figures in this line (save for a few other exceptions as well). And if you’re into nonsense like packaging variations, two distinct bubbles were produced. One allowed R2-D2 to show off his action feature a bit more while the other was much more compact and flatter to the card back. Either way, the figures are identical to one another.