Firefighter Droid - TCW [R] - Basic (CW47)

Firefighter droids scramble to extinguish fires on Malevolence after the Separatist ship is attacked by Republic forces. The droids blast the flames with foam as General Grioevous' deadly new flagship tries to escape its pursuers.

As you may be able to tell from our various reviews on the multiple battle droids we have received in The Clone Wars line, you may sense some disdain in our opinions with how the final figures turn out. And to be quite honest, the Firefighter Droid aesthetically isn't that much better, but it is equally a corny and awesome action figure at the same time. Clearly borrowing colors and patterns from American firefighters, the Firefighter Droid is cool due to the iconic gear worn by those heroes who really do fight fires (it's uncanny how much the droid looks like a real fireman too deco-wise). This is the first time we have received a dark gray battle droid and it looks pretty great cast in this color. There are yellow warning stripes in multiples places on the droids body including its backpack. It stands out very prominently and the combination of yellow and dark gray is pretty sharp. While the battle droids in all Star Wars sources have been goons for the most part, it makes it a bit hard to believe that they can perform serious duties like extinguishing fires.

While this may be true of the character, the action figure is quite impressive which actually astonishes us a little. We don't mean to sound dramatic here, but we haven't had the best run of battle droid figures from Hasbro in The Clone Wars line. While the AAT Driver Battle Droid (CW33), Battle Droid (No. 7) and Rocket Battle Droid (No. 25) all have sculpting issues whether its bent limbs or poor standing capabilities, the latest Firefighter Droid champions the previous releases in very positive ways. To be completely honest, we actually had a bad attitude about this firefighting droid before we even saw it at retail. But once we assembled it put on all of its gear, we were pleasantly surprised. But the hose and backpack work together to anchor the figure and the Firefighter Droid stands quite well as a result. The various pieces have been engineered and fit together like a glove. When completely set-up, the Firefighter Droid is one cool droid and despite in having a familiarity in our universe, it fits in quite well in the Star Wars universe too! Interestingly, if you remove the backpack and hose, the Firefighter Droid has multiple issues with standing.

It's a bit rare when a figure that shouldn't have impressed us actually does. So, we think the Firefighter Droid is the one pleasantly surprising figure of the year! This is a rather generic comment, but figures that are colored in yellow or orange seem to have a quality that makes them stand out more then the average "Joe" figure. Yellow is indeed a warning color, and the Firefighter Droid warns us that this is a figure not to overlook or pass over in your collections. It's not perfect by any means, but Hasbro has done a very fine job replicating the character into an action figure while using a mold that has disappointed collectors previously. Hasbro is certainly going out with a bang with the red phase of The Clone Wars line. Fifty figures in a year's period is quite impressive and the last few waves have given collectors an amazing variety of popular and obscure characters both of high quality. The designs are getting better with time and Hasbro doesn't hold back with introducing some risky takes on familiar characters. The Firefighter Droid is one of our favorite battle droids of all time, we don't say this lightly. It is heartfelt and we believe that if you can accept this figure at face value for what it is that you may be swayed to feel similarly.