Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Figure of the Day: Day 975: R2-L3

R2-L3 Astromech Droid
The Legacy Collection Build-A-Droid
Item No.:
Asst. 87836
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: n/a
Includes: n/a
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: n/a
Availability: January 2009
Appearances: Attack of the Clones

Bio: R2-L3 was een Astromech Droid die rond 22 BBY actief was. R2-L3 had een rood lichaam met vele andere tinten die aanwezig, zoals blauw en geel. (Stolen from the freaking Netherlands. What the Hell is wrong with you, America? Why don't we have this in English?)

Image: Adam's TV tray.

Commentary: After six unique buildable droids, this is the very first normal R2 unit. R2-L3 is, from all accounts (which is to say few) a background droid from Attack of the Clones and supposedly appears in one of the visual dictionaries, which really doesn't help you at all. My guess is that it's a Coruscant or Mos Espa droid and as I'm a little pressed for time as I write this I am unable to research it frame-by-frame. The figure is largely the same as the R4 build-a-droids except for the paint and the dome. There's quite a bit of color in the movie droid, some of which is lost in translation from movie to prototype to toy. There seems to be an entire layer of paint which was dropped, giving the figure an orangey, brown grime on top of it. The sludgy version looked extra cool, and this release is merely awesome. I love all the strange boxes and lines, there were some similar elements to be found in the original Star Wars. Heck, were he dirty, he'd probably fit right in the back of a sandcrawler. The figure has moving ankles, a removable third leg, a swiveling dome, and moving arms. Like the other droids, he has extra holes near his feet which allow you to connect additional limbs as you see fit.

If you like red droids with lots of black on them, plus white feet, this is the toy for you. I wish it was out earlier it looks so gorgeous, kudos to Hasbro for identifying such a unique looking background droid which just looks freaking fantastic. It won't offer you much new that your other droids already offer, but hey, it's neat.

Collector's Notes: Around the day this figure was released, there was no information to be found online (easily, at least) regarding the character's background. Parts came with Pons Limbic, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Trinto Duaba, and Wioslea. I expect this one to be tough to put together down the road.

--Adam Pawlus


Day 975: March 10, 2009

3 comments:

jwla said...

I was wondering where this droid came from. The Netherlands had the info before we did? Shame! I, too, was a bit bummed that it didn't have that layer of grime that made it yellow-ish instead of white. It is still awesome looking, though. More so than R5-A2, which I love. I am just addicted to astromechs, I guess.

Unknown said...

This droid appears in the background of Mos Espa in AOTC when Anakin and Padme arrive searching for Schmi.
This site has some behind the scenes pictures as well as some screen grabs from the film itself:
http://www.angelfire.com/droid/astromechs/page5.html

Reverend Strone said...

I wouldn't worry about the dutch info - all that text discloses is what colours he is, so there was no Netherlands scoop there. Cool droid and one I am very much looking forward to grabbing. I'll probably give him a custom dirty paint pass though so that he sits more comfortably alongside his onscreen buddy, the green BaD R4 from last year.