#84917 - R2-D2™ - Star Wars Silver Anniversary 1977-2002

SAGA - Special Figure 12-15-2002

REVIEW brought to you by:
Trooper Larry in Mentor Ohio who provided us with an additional R2 so we could open one up! Thank-you!

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Spice: After months of serious anticipation and Internet hogwash, the Silver R2 made it's way into our local TRU's much to the delight of collectors. As reported by General J and others, this figure was not a hard score. For many, that is. I have read some of the horror stories from across America. What can you say? Of course some stores were destined to drop the ball, Troops. Remember these are the same morons who give you absolutely no customer service everytime you go to spend money in their store. I heard about drop bin horror stories, putting them all out for a dime a piece. I heard about some managers guarding them with their lives. Bottom line Troopers: It wasn't that serious.

The figure itself was a mere resculpt of the R3-D3 from the "great Star Tours" line, originally the POTJ Naboo Escape R2-D2. If it's so special why not make a sculpt one of a kind? People who need more than one of these should check in for therapy. I find this thing to be a serious bore, another bone thrown out by Hasbro. As if to say "Sorry about some of you not getting Toy Fair Vader." Well by cranking out 100,000 they made sure that would not happen.

The idea for a 25th Anniversary collection is great. These toys really deserve that after changing the way toys are made and sold. These toys changed the way movies are made. One of the first questions asked when scripting is the marketing. That is a direct result of Mr. Lucas' genius and OUR enthusiasm over a kicka$% set of films. It is too bad Hasbro doesn't see it that way. They crank em out, all about saving a buck it would seem. Toy Fair Vader really wasn't that special as a figure either, just made in low numbers. I really think many other astro molds were much, much better than this.

I am not trying to get anyone fired over at Hasbro. I really just feel that these figures deserve to be placed on their pedastal so to speak. The only other toy lines that could fill up the Indianapolis Convention Center are Barbie and Hot Wheels. Action Figure wise Star Wars is the reigning King of that "Empire." Hasbro, it is long overdue you recognized it. Maybe Kenner should buy back the company? Mergers maybe are not the best thing for Corporate America. Kenner, as I remember from childhood had excellent customer service. It took six weeks to get my Boba-Fett but at least it was free. As I ranted in the Endor Review (beardless), "It is not the idea that is bad here, more the manner in which it is presented to the consumer."



Jason: Here is Hasbro's own way of throwing us a bone. Yes, this figure was easily obtained, unlike the other silver figure - Toy Fair Vader. They saw a marketing opportunity committed by proxy when the Toy Fair 2002 Darth Vader came and went and left everyone in a tizzy. I am very surprised that Hasbro didn't try to sell this piece outright via the fan club website or some other "Hasbro Direct" Enterprise.

Toys 'R' Us surely must have been unusually focused to have been able to procure and now have executed this item at retail. Getting swarms of fat-walleted fans to drop twenty dollars on merchandise they probably don't even need (or want) made this deal win-win fur TRU. They egested mass quanities of older pegwarming (and more importantly, higher price-point SHELF warming) toys in a matter of days and increased their in-store traffic during the high profile, highly-lucrative November spend-fest. Legions of single-minded buyers flocked in and swallowed the tripe, now apathetic to the clause of the deal, put down their twenty bucks and walked out smiling, thanking a higher power that they were able to snatch their own Silver Anniversary figure with relative ease. Twenty dollars times one-hundred thousand fans adds up to money in the bank for TRU, and an eager buyer for Hasbro to unload more product on in the coming weeks. But the important thing is that we all got our Silver R2-D2.

Some lofty expectations are a given with such a dynamic sales pitch - 25TH ANNIVERSARY SILVER R2-D2 TOYS 'R' US EXCLUSIVE ACTION FIGURE! Left with a bad taste in your mouth from not getting your hands on the Silver Vader makes this new R2 a free lunch for collectors, but we still want to see something great here. What is great about this figure? The packaging isn't high-end, but the classic imagery will make you feel comforted by the late '70's nostalgia. The silver vac-metal is always an inexpensive way to make a piece of plastic actually look metallic and the idea of a chrome astromech droid is wonderful just in principal. Which brings me to my next point, you need to OPEN this one to really enjoy it! The bubble won't let you see the details within or even get a good perspective view of the toy - so hopefully you managed to get a two to save both carded and opened.

Getting back to the chrome finish, your imagination can actually get a needed workout (in a world full of scene specific action figures as of late) when you play with this R2 and wonder if there is one that looks like this out there somewhere in the Star Wars Universe. It's still R2-D2, you're favorite, plucky, Rebel-saving Astrodroid, but he could be R2-T5 or any myriad of possible permutations of specific R2 units. This chrome and teal blue color scheme just screams decadence and high-class, and it looks like a million bucks; like peas and carrots, it just works.

Now, what's wrong here? There were three problems with this figure and I'm sure you know the greatest one (I'll save that for last), but let's start with the detai-oriented errors. There is no paint on R2's front venting plates. Fair enough, I can live without this insignificant aspect, considering it still looks fantastic. But, he is missing the blue ring around his dome bottom (as IS sometimes the case with Hasbro R2-D2's), but the best incarnations of R2 alwas have this wraparound noggin striping. The worst and most obsequious problem is the impossibly unintentional backwards legs. They used the BEST R2 mold for this toy (Naboo Escape R2), with the wheels, the accurate Astromech proportions and the perfectly-shaped dome, so why did they reverse the legs? They didn't do this on the Star Tours R3-D3 (uses the same mold), because Hasbro surely didn't want to incur the wrath of the Disney Kingdom, but's it's ok to screw your bread and butter customers! This is like sending out your beauty pageant contestant with her brasierre on backwards - it just doesn't work! The ankles would have been in perfect pivot position had the legs been attached correctly, but instead we'll all have to tinker with the tilt until you get a stance that looks alright and doesn't result in R2 wobbling off of his heels, backwards into a butt-plant onto your coffee table.

What is the reasoning for this flaw? It must be intentional. It harkens back to the not so distant past this summer when Hasbro had to do SOMETHING different on a Target pack Scout Trooper, so they had the bright idea of sticking the figure's pelvis on backwards. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, Troops, I almost feel like dragging Commander Riker in here to ask Hasbro if they are really "cooking our collective goose" here. Another testiminial to the idiom of "if we make it, they will buy (no matter what we do to deface and befoul the product)."


FINAL THOUGHTS:

Spice - Much hoopla for a figure that really isn't very impressive. Wow it's chrome, big deal. This in no way shape or form compensates for the trouble collectors had with Toy Fair Vader. They give you a remade Star Tours figure, with some chrome. Another ploy to get your hard earned money. I am certainly glad I didn't have to purchase the hundred dollar interactive R2 to get this. Spent fifty dollars in Star Wars merchandise I already have. There were many things you had to buy, allegedly to get this figure, it was barely worth free for spending twenty dollars. Thumbs down!

J - An awesome figure with one major flaw that, as mean and cruel as the prank from Hasbro was, I can still love this little guy and bless him with a benevolent approval as I gently try to stand him up without falling over. This is R2-D2 we're talking about here and although nothing could have lived up to the hogwash on the net, this figure was still worth the obligatory twenty dollar spree at the House of Giraffe.

(Figure Item No. 84917, Backing Card P/N 613110100, Date code 21451 (145th day of 2002; can be unique for the same figure) , UPC 0 76930 84917 0)

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