As of the time I begin to write this review, it is 10:30pm MST (which is actually PDT right now because Arizona is ridiculous), and the campaign is at 2493, or 31.16% of the minimum funding goal.  Not awful, but a bit concerning, no doubt.  Aside from all the back-and-forth about whether or not people like this Haslab choice, I believe that in general, the community is somewhat complacent and likes to procrastinate.  But without having the charts handy in front of me right now, I’m confident that the first 3-4 days will be outpaced by the last 3-4 days.  But even if we did something like 4000+ in the last 4 days, that’s still a little worrisome.  So it really comes down to how consistent and engaged backers will be during the “dull times”, which is the middle 90% of the campaign.  Frustratingly, but expectedly, it will likely be a mere trickle of backers at some points over the next 35 days or so.  If it gets too slow, we’re in some kind of trouble.  So we’ll keep spreading the word and doing what we can to hype this thing in an effort to give it a push across the finish line.  Hopefully there’s enough momentum in the future to overcome this weaker-than-expected start.  It’s probably the most iconic PT vehicle, and we know it will be supported in 2026 by a yearlong to provide a range of supporting products.

Anyway, after the big SDCC weekend and wrap-up, we reviewed another new TVC figure yesterday.  But now we are back!  With a new ROTS review! 

Wait…where did everyone go?

Anyway, R4-P17.  I don’t think I realized until now that this astromech had “feminine” programming.  I’m not sure exactly what that means for an astromech, but there you go.  R4 travelled with Obi-Wan to Kamino and then Geonosis during the events of Attack of the Clones.  We never saw here outside the astromech socket, and it turns out that only the droid domes were able to fit on the Delta-7 starfighter, so that’s all she was at the time.  During the events of the Clone Wars, she was given a full astromech body, and appeared in several episodes of TCW.  Later, she was on board Obi-Wan’s Eta-2 starfighter in the opening sequence of Revenge of the Sith, as the Battle of Coruscant raged above the planet.  She was destroyed trying to fight off buzz droids that were crawling all over the hull of the ship.  Shortly after this seismic galactic event, Obi-Wan’s grief was so much that he went into self-exile on a backwater desert world and tried to occupy his mind by watching over some little schmuck to help cope with the pain.  Obi-Wan simply never fully recovered, and later claimed to not recall ever having owned a droid before.  This was obviously a classic defense mechanism intended to help bury his anguish over the loss of R4.

The figure is a repaint of the well-liked R4-G9 Sneak Preview figure, as was the style at the time, and is the first and only fully functioning figure of this character - at least before Hasbro lost their damn minds and introduced the under-articulated crap as TVC was going on a long hiatus.  There was a “5POA” version released in the “Vader Creep” ROTS3D packaging.  And if you want to get technical, there was an R4-P17 “accessory” that plugged into Obi-Wan’s Eta-2 starfighter vehicle.

There’s not much to talk about.  It was a really nice astromech at the time, and holds up fairly well even though the sculpt has been surpassed.  She’s got a rotating dome, articulated “shoulders”,  articulated feet, a third leg that extends and retracts, and wheels in all three feet.  The details are nice.  The paint scheme is pretty cool, and Hasbro included a nice wash on the body of the droid to add some excellent depth.  It’s a character that will likely never be-revisted, unless Hasbro updates the ROTS Jedi Starfighter and includes a fully functioning astromech.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot:  This is figure 65 in the ROTS main line.  However, a factory error had the bubble insert and cardback showing it as 68.  I don’t recall this at the time, but looking back at Curto’s original review on Old Rebelscum, this was corrected, first with stickers, and then with properly printed cards.  So for the record, Hasbro’s numbering shenanigans definitely predate TVC.