Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 3,098: C1 Droid (Advent Calendar 2022)

C1 DROID Droid Cosplay
Star Wars Droid Factory
Item No.: ???
Manufacturer: Disney
Number: n/a
Includes: Silver BB droid, Nutcracker R5 droid, Gold R4 droid, Giftwrapped Power Droid with bow, Elf R6 Droid with hat, C1 droid
Action Feature: Comes apart
Retail: $69.99
Availability: August 2022
Appearances: n/a

Bio: All different types of astromech droid populate the Star Wars galaxy. Each droid is different and has their own unique personality and colors. Open up the Sandcrawler to reveal and build 6 new droids to celebrate along with them for 25 days this season. May the Force be with you... and your droids!" This droid is optimized to function in the sparsely settled, unspoiled frontier world of Vandor. Join R6-SNO on their adventures throughout the galaxy! (Taken from the packaging. Yes, the one quotation mark and reference to R6-SNO, who is not included, was on the box in three languages.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

Availability: Click here to buy it at eBay now!

Commentary: One of the fun things about growing up - which, for better or worse, some of you got to see in real-time - was that I (and you!) get to learn things. Back in the 1990s, toy collecting was a lot of fun because the lines weren't too big, and there were plenty of reference books or people you could ping somewhere to explain something to you, and now there's a bazillion web site reviews with photos of this Advent Calendar C1 Droid that don't actually say what he's supposed to be. A yellow, white, and black dome with brown "shoes", yellow "suspenders," and green "pants" make me think Chopper is dressed up as an elf, but maybe he's supposed to be some other thing. My Christmas pop culture knowledge more or less stops in the 1990s, so anything that came later (Elf on the Shelf) I know because I saw it in a bookstore, or in Toys R Us, or some other retail sighting. But if it was in a Rankin-Bass special, I'd probably get it. And it's not the Great Ak.

This little guy is loaded with paint apps and has a few nice moving parts. The chest has a swing-out arm, the dome has two nicely-jointed arms and a dish hat, and each foot has a rolling wheel on it. The layout is nice and clean, but it is weird to pick up a Star Wars figure and say "I don't get it." (I had the same experience with a lot of LEGO sets based on LEGO Star Wars cartoons I haven't yet seen.) But it's a droid! And it looks perfectly nice. Is it a panda? It's probably not a panda. But the limbs all pop off nicely and as much as I would like to say something like "and I will treasure it always," it's probably going to be crammed in a box or a shelf until I get my displays up, which may be never, so I am sitting here shrugging as to its purpose while walking away from this review asking myself just how much money I've spent on things that, let's be honest, are not doing me any good.

If you understand this on a deeper level than I do, then know it's of a good quality and there's nothing wrong with it. I'm just looking at it saying "...what are you?"

Collector's Notes: I got mine from some guy on eBay for a lower price! And thus ends Christmas days of the robot.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 3,098: January 11, 2024