O96 Spotlight: 2-1B

Posted by Dustin on 07/02/26 at 07:05 AM Category: Vintage Collection, Original 96

Two Onebee (2-1B)

Two Onebee is a good guy. Not only did he monitor Luke in his diaper tank and make polite conversation before the battle, he showed up later to give Luke a new robotic hand after he misplaced his own hand at Cloud City. I'm pretty sure he has more screen time and lines than Boba Fett.

Action Figure History

While we all know characters like Imperial Dignitary (Sim Aloo) who have never appeared in the modern line, 2-1B is part of a relatively small class of figures that have only been in the modern line once- if we can even consider POTF2 modern. We had to wait 17 years between the vintage and POTF2 versions, but have had no further attempts in the past 28 years! Hasbro even had the audacity to repack that figure under the Vintage Collection banner in the "Rebels" 3-Pack.

Viability

I'm not going to pretend that 2-1B would be a great seller on his own. He's not a main character, he's far from action oriented, he only has 2 arms, and his army building potential is limited. His accessory load out would likely be limited to medical equipment. But as a playset pack-in (Bacta Tank), or paired with fellow 096er FX-7, it seems like there would be a sufficient market. Surely as much or more than something like Chalmun or that girl from that video game.

2-1B could also open up some retool/repaint opportunities. Repack it with a torture rack for Jabba's Droid Dungeon. Swap the arm for a scary-looking needle and dumb feet, and you get the ROTS version that helped the Emperor convert whats-his-name to Darth Vader. Paint it off-white and add some sharp racing stripes and it gets us G2-1B7 - Saw Gererra's Rhydo Butler. The possibilities are almost endless!

And if Hasbro's not going to do it, then maybe Disney will. We do not currently know the B-A-D for Disney's next series of frustrating preorder droids (Reminder: Chopper in Pittsburgh Steeler disguise scheduled to drop tomorrow).