Radio Control Hailfire Droid - TCW [SOTDS] - Vehicles

Clone troopers beware – the hailfire droid is rolling into battle, packed with missiles and ready to attack! It cuts a fearsome path as it moves over the ground, blasting anything in its way. Watch out – this mobile battle droid easily changes direction to keep the clone trooper army on the run!

Fans love the vehicles that Hasbro makes for them usually. But what happens if Hasbro attempts to get a little too adventurous and make that vehicle a little (a lot) more interactive thus sacrificing authenticity? Well, we’d say that you get the Radio Control Hailfire Droid. We certainly don’t want to steal a young child’s thunder and say that this is a piece of junk because it certainly isn’t. But when scale and proportions get compromised for the inclusion of electronics (or other play features), we have to say it’s a sacrifice not worth making to the vehicle. The Radio Control Hailfire Droid will absolutely be a load of fun for the kids (and many more bigger kids), but the significant price hike, coupled with diminished aesthetics, really don’t make this a collector friendly toy. Originally retailing for $59.99, it’s quite a leap from the rest of the vehicles we refer to as mid size and judging by its performance at retail, it seems that the interest wasn’t entirely all there. We don’t criticize Hasbro for making an effort to bring us a piece with more electronic bells and whistles, but we are sure most of us would have been content with one or two smaller electronic enhancements instead of what this vehicle brings to the table (and keep it at the more than 50% reduced price point).

Between the remote control and the vehicle itself, the Radio Control Hailfire Droid requires nine batteries. That is quite a bit of power required to get this thing moving along. The remote control is pretty standard. It allows your vehicle to go straight, turn left and right, left and right spin and reverse. All of the included steering options are of course very cool, but again, the vehicle has wonky proportions and out of scale features that don’t make it look all that pretty. The Remote Control Hailfire Droid holds 18 missiles, but comes with a nice additional supply in case you lose one or two in battle and lock firmly in place. There is a “Fire Button� on the top right of the remote control and if you hold it down, the vehicle has the ability to shoot multiple missiles. This is probably the best feature to this vehicle and we had a lot of fun tormenting the included Clone Trooper. The included Clone Trooper is a repaint of 2009’s TCW Clone Trooper (212th Attack Battalion) (No. 19) figure. It really is the perfect addition to this set and we think it was wise for Hasbro to include this exact figure in this set due to its limited availability elsewhere in the “Shadow Of The Dark Side� phase of The Clone Wars line.

All in all, the Radio Control Hailfire Droid is cool, but we’re not sure how necessary it was. And for a vehicle that has yet to appear in The Clone Wars television series, it certainly pokes holes in Hasbro's argument that they still produce the vehicles they want to and not the ones making a big splash in the television show. We suggest that Hasbro use their time and energy (along with their budget) and include some extra play features (we’re trying to imply electronics here) in the mid size assortment just like our vehicles of yesteryear. Hasbro probably won’t listen to us (at least for a while) so we won’t hold our breath. But we are more inclined to say to them that they should abandon the RC platform and look to improve some of their other areas needing more attention and tender loving care. It goes without saying that there will be many kids and collectors who adore this set, but its performance at retail has really dictated just how much interest is really focused at these types of products. We’ve accepted that the focus on The Clone Wars line will remain in strong effect and we’re OK with this, but unless it’s a vehicle with a huge and memorable presence in the Original Trilogy, we don’t see something like the Radio Control Hailfire Droid taking center stage. Hasbro likely has more RC ideas on tap but we wouldn't mind if they move them to the back burner and focus on other areas of the line. But maybe they want to see what kind of interest they could pique with this product line.