In the 2008 Clone Wars CGI cartoon, it was established by Threepio himself that he had once served as the protocol droid for the chief negotiator of the Manakron system.  But The Phantom Menace, however, introduced us to his main backstory. He had somehow been left for scrap on Tatooine, and a young Anakin Skywalker found him.  Anakin repaired the droid from scraps and spare parts.  He didn’t have the pieces necessary to provide a proper outer covering, so Threepio appeared to be naked, with all his “parts” showing.  Threepio was designed to help Anakin’s mom with chores.  He played a bit role in Episode I, and was left behind on Tatooine by Anakin when he went with Qui-Gon to Coruscant.  We didn’t see Threepio again until about halfway through Attack of the Clones.  By that time, he was doing work around the Lars homestead, and had gotten a crappy version of protocol droid coverings.

I really liked the fact the C-3PO looked like this at some point.  I know a lot of fans grumbled at the “tiny universe” aspect of Anakin being “the Maker”, but once the whole prequel trilogy panned out, it seemed to be less of a problem.  He was simply Anakin’s droid, which became his wife’s, which became their daughter’s, and was used to find Obi-Wan, who was watching over their son.  It’s not really a stretch.  As for the look, I thought it was a cool way for Anakin to show his knack for mechanics.  I enjoyed seeing the behind the scenes shots of how he was brought to life as a puppet/marionette.  The final effect with the moving gears inside his skeleton kind of reminded me of the mechanical owl from the old Clash of the Titans film.

As a figure, this is about as bare bones as it gets.  There are no accessories (C-3PO rarely comes with any) and the figure is 6 POA, all swivel.  The draw here is sculpt and the deco.  The sculpt has a tremendous amount of detail.  All the wires, gears, and doo-dads carved into the figure are pretty awesome.  The face has a ton of personality.  The figure’s stance is slightly askew.  Normally I hate pre-posed figures, but in the case of this Threepio, I think it’s kind of charming because the actual character always seemed a little off balance. There are what seem to be a few protocol droid coverings that I never really noticed before, like the left foot and the crotch.  I’m not ashamed that I never noticed C-3PO’s crotch, but maybe I should be.  The framework is a metallic silver, and the aforementioned coverings are dark gold.  The rest of the figure is a multicolored plethora of wires.  It was really a great job by Hasbro, but I kind of feel it is was one of the more under appreciated figures in the Episode I line. 

And here’s the important part.  Unlike the previous figures we’ve reviewed in the line, this C-3PO is deserving of a place in your displays. Why?  Because it’s the only version.  Now, this same figure was repainted and re-released later in the line.  There was also an awful AOTC C-3PO with some removable coverings that gave you glimpses of the TPM C-3PO.  And then there’s the most modern TVC VC06 C-3PO, which is one of those “you-either-love-it-or-hate-it” figures.  That one also has a few random removable pieces that reveal some bits of the TPM C-3PO.  But this version was never properly revisited.  I can imagine that Hasbro would do an incredible modern update, with full articulation, and even more detailed and finely applied paint apps. 

So for a grade, I would give this figure a 5.  That may be a bit high for such a simply articulated figure with no accessories (put a pin in that commtech thing for now).  But it really is a nice looking figure, and it’s not an embarrassment to your collection 20 years later.  Hasbro should definitely consider an upgrade.  Perhaps if there was some event that would make sense for a TPM push, like the 20th Anniversary or something like that, it might be a good time.  In reality, the chances for a resculpt seem slim for the near future, so this figure still maintains display value.