Figure of the Day: Day 383: Spider Droid

SPIDER DROID with Rotating Turret and Firing Cannon
Saga Deluxe Figures
Item No.: Asst. 84859 No. 84957
Number: n/a
Includes: AT-RT
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $14.99
Availability: May 2005
Appearances: Attack of the Clones, Clone Wars, Revenge of the Sith

Bio: The Dwarf Spider Doid is a squat, multi-legged droid of destruction deployed during the Battle of Geonosis. These mobile tanks typically serve the Commerce Guild in hunting down evading operatives, but when the Galactic Republic engages the Separatist armies in a full-scale ground assault, Dwarf Spider Droids are deployed to counter the Republic's massive clone army. Their striding legs are ideal for the rugged terrain of Geonosis, and their crimson eyes radiate with infrared photoreceptors for targeting the enemy through dense clouds of battle. (Taken from the figure's cardback.)

Image: Adam Pawlus' bathroom. Aren't you special, you get to see where somebody can drop a Count Dooku.

Commentary: Essentially a glorified and overpriced wind-up toy, the Spider Droid can't do much. You assemble it, you wind it up, and when you push a button, it shoots. That's all there is to it. You can admire its battle damage paint, though, and it's pretty good. At the same time, you can curse the plastic Hasbro made it out of-- in the interests of being durable, the legs are a rubbery, gummy plastic that warps if the figure is left standing in a room that it deems too warm. As a toy collector with a whole mess of Zoids wind-up kits (developed by Tomy, distributed by Hasbro/Kenner/Tomy/etc.) I know that they can use a less rubbery plastic in constructing wind-up toys that will, over years, never, ever sag-- so there's no excuse for this kind of rubberyness. Also, you may note the antenna is bent in the photo-- the sad thing is that it's much, much straighter than when I opened it in 2003. This figure is a neat concept but suffers from poor materials choices and packaging which bends it out of shape before it's even opened. Ishould never have to "fix" a figure after making a purchase, it should be perfect-- or at least good enough as the toymakers intended-- after I assemble it out of the box.

Collector's Notes: This figure was reissued in Clone Wars packaging in 2003 with, as far as I can tell, no significant changes. As such, pick your poison. The Revenge of the Sith release is in different colors, so if you have this one, you'll want that one too. I love the concept of the Spider Droid but the choice of materials makes me not want to tell everyone to run out and get it, unless, maybe, if you live in a really cold climate and it'd be less likely to sag.

Day 383: May 24, 2007