Back in the day, LFL used to provide Hasbro with access to a ton of information regarding upcoming film releases so that toys could be produced and then be made available at retail even before the film came out.  This helped drum up interest in characters and scenes that consumers and collectors don’t even fully know or understand.  It was fun to guess what this figure was or what was going to happen with that vehicle.

But then Disney came along and decided that secrecy was the top priority, and crushed all the merchandising hype that used to precede new media releases.  Midnight Madness is essentially dead.  And figures are no longer available until well after the film or show has begun to fade from the consciousness of collector.  We end up getting Blurggs and Cobb Vanths 3 years too late. 

But back then, sometimes the information given to Hasbro was so early in the process that it ultimately ended up on the cutting room floor, or was changed enough as to bear almost no resemblance to early concepts. Hasbro would have been too far along to alter production.  And sometimes editing would be done almost right up until the release, so the toy maker might not realize the change until the film premiered and the offending item was already being sold.

This R2 would seem to be an example of this.  If you’ve haven’t seen Revenge of the Sith, stop reading!  If you’ve have, then you know that this figure is…nonsense.  In the film, there was a slapstick scene where R2 was being smacked around by some meany B2 Super Battle Droids.  To defend himself, R2 sprayed oil on them, and then used his jets to ignite the oil and light the droids on fire.

This figure apparently depicts a completely different scuffle that was never seen on screen.  R2 has a large claw on the end of a long arm that extends out of the top of his dome.  By pressing down on the middle leg, the arm flexes forward and back.  My guess is that R2 either fought the droids with this arm like he was a boxer, or he used it to pick up and throw debris.  A debris pile is included.  Aside from SBD parts, it oddly includes a protocol droid head.  Not sure if this was supposed to be Threepio.  The world may never know. The claw has a weak and precarious grip on the droid pile, but it works. 

Also included is a base, with a see-saw action feature.  For the life of me I have no idea what’s going on with this.  Pressing the base to tilt the see saw doesn’t do anything to move R2, nor does the pile of parts slide down.  Even without knowing the actual story behind this concept, the toy doesn’t seem to execute anything well.

In the end, nothing about this is endearing, and it rivals the rocket-firing R5-D4 for terribleness.  It’s an utterly useless figure with nonsensical accessories that add no value.  1/10.