R4-H18 - Droid Factory

All different types of Astromech droids populate the Star Wars galaxy. Each droid is different and has their own unique personality and colors. This droid faithfully serves the elite guests at the casino city known as Canto Bight. Join R4-H18 on his adventures throughout the galaxy.

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

Merry Christmas 2018! Disney is now in its fourth year offering astromech droid fans with a unique holiday/Christmas-themed droid for the end of the year celebrations. Some aren’t crazy about these figures, but generally speaking, collectors find them to be as joyful as the holiday season itself. This year we are treated to R4-H18, which also seems to be continuing a theme of R4-focused droids. Another “serving/bartender” droid, R4-H18 enters the fold offering drinks of varying colors to the rich elite on Canto Bight. (Could they pick a WORSE location than this to base a Star Wars character?) Now we have an R4 unit in Christmas colors. R4-H18 follows in the footsteps of Christmases past but also brings something new and fresh to the table: a holiday tradition. Capitalizing on the “BAR2-D2” theme of a drink-dispensing astromech droid, Disney switched from the droid dispensing spirits on a sail barge somewhere to serving drinks in an Episode VIII setting to deliver holiday cheer. Admittedly, R4-H18 works beautifully and is another wonderful addition to the family of holiday-inspired droids to date.

As you know, Star Wars collectors adore and revere Disney Parks’ Droid Factory line. The figures aren’t perfect, but it’s more difficult to hate them and simple to love them. Collectors are still angered at the removal of the foot wires, and sometimes the paint operations aren’t as perfect as they need to be. But overall Disney has been able to produce a line of figures that are clever, thoughtful and appreciated by droid fans all over the world. Since 2015, Disney has been releasing a series of holiday-themed astromech droids in the spirit of the Christmas season. They remain their strongest sellers and sell out the fastest. Based on the R4-series astromech droid sculpt, Disney has once again made a truly unique figure here. It fits in with the other Christmas astromech droids but also stands on its own. Disney Parks has decorated this figure in a translucent colored whitish-clear plastic primarily, but the figure has faint accents of silver detailing its panels and other fine points. The differently colored drinking glasses give the droid its holiday cheer. We’re thrilled with how it has turned out.

The names of the astromechs in this line have been straightforward to ridiculous. R3-BOO17 obviously was given a ridiculous name, and now R4-H18 works because of its straightforward approach forever designating it as the “holiday droid of 2018.” Just like its predecessors, Disney will never run out of droid call numbers each year. There are so many options from which to choose. While you don’t associate sentimentality and glad tidings with an astromech droid necessarily, we feel that Disney Parks has done a wonderful job at tying everything together brilliantly. Just think about it some. We get a droid that breaks down into multiple parts and can be interchanged with other droids comes with a Christmas-themed color palette, and is as kid-friendly as it is collector-friendly. R4-H18 is a total win on every level regardless if you like its color and design or not. Instead of giving R4-H18 another silly hat, it comes with a well-articulated bar arm that works to fill the glasses with the colorful liquids. It looks fantastic. Typically, we don’t display any of our astromech droids with those silly hats anyway. We’re glad for the change of pace here. We hope that Disney keeps pumping out these cool Droid Factory astromech droids for the holidays. They bring us holiday cheer. We hope they do for you also! Merry Christmas!