The Set

This is one of two simultaneously released Entertainment Earth exclusive astromech 5-packs.

Repaints are usually not the most exciting offerings in the line because they rarely represent “new character.”  That’s not the case with astromech droids because it’s essentially what the on-screen characters are.  The various droids in the movies are largely just repaints of a few models of astromechs.  They are either R2, R3, R4 or R5 series droids with different fancy paint jobs.  So when Hasbro lands on a definitive sculpt for one of those series, they can crank out valid repaints, and the fans generally accept them.

The problem with these Entertainment Earth exclusive sets is that two of the sculpts used are no longer considered definitive.  But that is a concern for 2020.  That wasn’t a concern in 2006 when these sets were released.  No, fans were up in arms about something completely different then.  The price was considered borderline outrageous.  I won’t get into whether or not that outrage is justified, and instead just state the facts.  At the time, singled carded figures only cost $7.  These were full sized figures with accessories, a stand and a mini-hologram.  Paying $8 a piece for 5 “half figure” astromechs without any accessories felt excessive.

A number of fans seemed to pass on this set.  Today they realize that many of these droids are necessary diorama fillers, and the sets fetch upwards of $100 each.  Stop passing on things, bozos.  Just buy them when they’re new.  They’re cheaper.

R3-T6

R3-T6 can be seen rolling around the halls of the Death Star in A New Hope.  When I say seen, I mean SEEN.  He’s right there rolling past Vader:

(click for the full sized image)

You’re going to feel like a real schmuck when Hasbro announces a Death Star set and you don’t have this figure.  As you will notice from the pic above, Hasbro failed to paint one of the panels on R3-T6’s back.  Missing paint apps on the backs of astromechs seems to be a bit of a tradition with Hasbro.  That’s not the end of the problems with this figure.  In order for me to consider an astromech figure “definitive”, it needs to have the wires on the foot sculpted as a separate floating piece.  It’s something that really maximizes the realism.  The clear-domed R3 units in these Entertainment Earth sets are based on 2002’s R3-T7 Sneak Preview figure which has those wires sculpted onto the foot.  Furthermore, the torso on that figure is too long.  Finally, the third leg doesn’t full retract into the body of figure.  This results in a 5 out of 10 figure that could use a resculpt.

Hasbro came close to perfecting the R3 mold with the Build-A-Droid sculpt.  It was used for R3-A2 from Echo Base and R3-M3, which is also from the Death Star.  If Hasbro re-released R3-T6 using the Build-A-Droid sculpt with the extra holes filled in, I would gladly buy an upgrade.

R2-C4

R2-C4 is seen rolling around the Naboo hangar in The Phantom Menace.  This droid also gets a close up in a Naboo Starfighter before it takes off.  It’s based on 2005’s R4-G9 Sneak Preview figure.  For many fans, that is still the preferred astromech mold.  It features the separately sculpted wires mentioned above.  It also fully retracts the third leg into the body by rotating the head.  That’s pretty neat.  I do have a few gripes with this mold, however.  The wheels protrude too far on the bottom of the feet and it makes it impossible to stand it up perfectly straight in the two-leg pose.  The figure will either rest on the front or the back of the foot as a result.  You can see this on the profile pics above.  Additionally, I feel like the range of motion of the third leg is insufficient.  As a result, the figure cannot lean back as far as it should.  While I would say this is the definitive figure for a minor background astromech, it only rates the standard 7 out of 10 for a super articulated figure.

R4-A22

This is probably the most gratuitous release in this set.  R4-A22 is sourced to Attack of the Clones, specifically to Dex’s Diner, but I don’t believe this droid ever appears on screen.  It lives in the world of behind the scenes material.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that.  It’s based on 2002’s R4-M9 figure.  While that figure was grand nearly 20 years ago, it falls well short of definitive today.  It has the same problems as R3-T6 above.  The wires are sculpted as part of the foot, the torso is too long, and the third leg never full retracts.  This results in a 5 out of 10 figure.

R2-Q2

For me, this is the star of the set.  R2-Q2 is one of the Red Squadron astromechs from the Battle of Yavin serving as the droid for Biggs Darklighter.  We also have all the companion pieces for this droid.  We have Biggs Darklighter’s Red 3 X-Wing.  We also have a definitive Biggs Darklighter figure courtesy of the Black Series Phase I 3.75” line.  I would be eating my guts out if I owned those two pieces, but did not own this droid.  [Editor’s Note:  Now would be a good time to direct you to our special Yavin series, especially Part III.]  As with R2-C4, this is based on the R4-G9 sculpt and thus earns a 7 out of 10.

R3-T2

You can briefly see R3-T2 in Mos Eisely as Luke’s Landspeeder zips past in A New Hope:

(click for the full sized image)

As you can see from that screen shot, the brown on the dome of R3-T2 extends from just above the eye port to the bottom of the dome with the various boxes below the eye port painted white.  JUST the boxes are white. Instead of trying to execute this complicated paint scheme, Hasbro punted.  They painted a brown brand at the top of the dome, left the entire area below the eye port white, and then painted a thin brown line on the bottom of the dome.  This gives the impression of simple stripes instead of the more complex paint app of the actual droid.  So while this is the third droid from this set based on R4-G9, it suffers a further point deduction because of the paint apps bringing it to a 6 out of 10.