When I saw The Phantom Menace on midnight of the opening night in 1999, the biggest audience reaction in my theater (until the double-bladed ignition) was when Captain Panaka read off R2-D2’s number.  While other characters were familiar, like Obi-Wan and C-3PO, obviously they looked very differently from their OT appearances.  R2-D2 was a powerful alert from Lucas to anyone with doubts that the film was definitely part of the same Saga we were familiar with.  For all intents and purposes, he was identical to the OT version of himself.  He had the same personality, the same look, and the same ability to roll on one or two legs as well as show off some useful on-board tools.  But there was one major feature that Artoo had up his sleeve which was ultimately canned from the first prequel film, supposedly due to the practical effects not working well enough.  Artoo was supposed to show up the ability to extend four rockets from his body and use them to fly. 

Although nixed from the script (and I’m not aware of any scrap footage making the rounds) and later repurposed for AOTC and ROTS, this Hasbro figure, like so many others over the years, nevertheless maintained this abandoned feature as it was originally envisioned by Lucas.  The R2-D2 that was released in the Episode I line contained the rockets as an action feature.  I remember looking forward to seeing R2 fly in the film, and was surprised to not see it.  I thought I had missed it in the first viewing.  Something like that wouldn’t surprise me later on, as it became a fairly common occurence.  The most recent example probably being the Great Constable Zuvio Disaster of 2015.

The feature certainly wasn’t the most poorly executed in Hasbro’s history.  It was actually not bad.  Four rockets were “hidden” in the main body of Artoo.  I write that in quotes because although the booster rockets themselves were hidden, the hatches from which they would extend were not well hidden.  They definitely break up the aesthetic of the very familiar astromech body.  Turning the head slightly would line up the retracted the rockets with the slots in the outer shell of the body.  Extending the middle leg would, in turn, extend the four rockets into position for flight.  The rockets are made of a soft, rubbery plastic, but they look okay.  Nothing special, just 4 metallic gray nubs.  Retracting the third leg would bring the rockets back into the body, and turning the head would cover the slots on the body again.  The head doesn’t turn more than the little bit necessary to line up the rockets, and the middle leg cannot extend when the rockets are hidden. 

Because the concept never materialized on film, it just makes this figure an oddity.  Of course, when R2-D2 was eventually able to show off his flying skills in AOTC, Lucas had not only nixed practical effects in favor of CGI, he also changed the concept from the quad boosters in the body, to twin boosters in the legs.  Later versions of R2-D2 would include these film accurate rocket boosters.  This is perhaps a concept figure more than a deleted scene figure, and it has some small niche value as such, but basically isn’t a very good R2-D2.