L8-L9 is sourced from the beloved Genndy Tartakovsky Star Wars: Clone Wars microseries, so is sadly/frustratingly no longer canon.  Despite claims by Hasbro at that time that no more Clone Wars microseries figures would be made, you can be the proud owner of L8-L9.  This prototype combat droid can be seen in Episode 6 of the first season, in which we meet Asajj Ventress, who jumps into a gladiator mosh pit on the planet Rattatak in an effort to impress Count Dooku.  L8-L9 used its flame throwing arms to kill Ventress, and wiped out several other gladiators in the process.  Ventress easily avoided the flames and used the Force to crush and destroy L8-L9. 

This was the first build-a-droid in the Red TLC line, and consisted of 6 parts.  Each part was included with two different figures from the first wave, so if you collected them all, you’d have ended up with two of these fantastic droids.  It is pretty close to standard super-articulation for the time.  While it had only swivel shoulders, it did have a ball jointed waist, which was unusual in 2009.  The figure can be posed in a number of positions.  Adding the flame effects to either, or both, hands gives the figure an added dimension.  It has a pretty good center of gravity, so you can, without too much effort, find ways to pose the droid even with the large and heavy flame effects.  My only complaint is that my sample tends to have joints that are a bit on the loose side, so sometimes it just crumples when in certain dynamic positions that it cannot hold well.  It may be an isolated case, or due to aging parts.

L8-L9 is a treasure. Not only is it from a nearly universally loved source, it’s a truly unique character that is a cut above the protocol droid or astromech repaint that was typical of the build-a-droid line.  The pieces to this droid might elevate the prices of the corresponding figures along with which they are packed, but collectors were lucky to have two chances per part to make this droid, unlike the rarer R5-C7.

What you need to build L8-L9:

BD04 Jawa and Treadwell Droid

BD06 Obi-Wan Kenobi

BD01 Luke Skywalker

BD07 Gungan Warrior

BD05 Darth Maul

BD10 Darth Sidious Hologram

BD11 Clegg Holdfast

BD12 Biker Scout

BD02 Han Solo

BD08 Queen Amidala

BD03 Spacetrooper

BD09 Rum Sleg