Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 3,199: R1 (Holiday Droid Factory)

R1 Holiday Bell
Star Wars Droid Factory 2024 Advent Calendar
Item No.: ???
Manufacturer: Disney
Number: n/a
Includes: R2 Gingerbread Droid, BB-8 Snowman, Chopper Penguin, Gonk Present, D-O Holiday, B2EMO present, R1 Holiday Bell, wreath, Santa hat, drink tray, scarf, tiny top hat
Action Feature: Sits on clear stand, dome and "foot" end removable
Retail: $79.99
Availability: August 2024
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 7 new droids to celebrate along with them for 25 days this season. May the Force be with you... and your droids! (Taken from the packaging.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

Availability: Click here to buy it at eBay now!

Commentary: Many of the figures in this box make sense - some, so much sense I'm surprised they weren't sold individually on cardbacks! This R-1 mashes up a couple of concepts, giving you a figure on a clear display stand. It's a redeco of The Mandalorian R1 [FOTD #2,912] from a few years ago, and it's pretty clever. Weird, sure. The barber shop candy can body with a knob at the end and a bell on the top makes for a lot of easy jokes, but I'll leave those to you at home.

The figure requires some assembly. It's worth noting the dome pops off, as does the bottom tip, were you so inclined to trade them with other releases. The figure is fairly light on deco, and the holiday colors seem like they might not be too out of place in a vintage cartoon, or in the background of a scene where they're some kind of safety droid. The vaguely golden bell more or less works, the pole on which it sits works too, but I can't say that the bottom element is working for me in all white. Maybe it would look better in gold - it does have a series of subtle gold dots painted facing the stand, and it's not terribly easy to see them without picking it up and examining them up close. The greeblies mostly fade in to the design with minimal deco, but they're there, and I'm sure a customizer could add some weathering and make things really pop nicely.

If sold outside the context of a Star Wars Christmas collection I don't know that this toy would work. If sold individually, it might be confusing given how it departs from the 1977 R1 design and shape. It's a clever reuse of the mold. A Festivus pole might be a better fit if they decide to do a third colorway of the mold, but that's not what we got. Maybe this candy bell would look good as another addition to a diorama of the droid customs line at the starport on Annoo. I don't really have a place for it, but I'm sure I'll find one.

Collector's Notes: I got mine from Disney as they were offering both a discount code as well as free shipping. At under $70 delivered, it's pretty worthwhile. Try SHIPMAGIC or DISNEY25 codes to see if they still work.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 3,199: December 19, 2024

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,912: R1 (The Mandalorian Droid Factory Set)

R1 Robot Cop
Droid Factory The Mandalorian Boxed Set
Item No.: No. n/a
Manufacturer: Disney
Number: n/a
Includes: Stand, 3 more droid figures
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $44.99
Availability: December 2021
Appearances: The Mandalorian

Bio: All different types of Astromech droids populate the Star Wars galaxy. Each droid is different and has their own unique personality and colors. These four are featured in Star Wars: The Mandalorian. This is the way... for you and your Droids! (Taken from the figure's packaging.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

Availability: Click here to buy it at Amazon now!

Commentary: The Mandalorian and his crew roughed up some New Republic R1 droids in the first season of the show, and unfortunately the boxed set will not make it conducive to army-build this one. While incredibly similar to other R1 droid figures, each part seems to have new tooling so despite appearances it's not just an old droid with a few new greeblies. It's a new droid.

It's pretty good, but the colors seem off - the gray is too light, the eye doesn't seem blue enough, the yellow pinstripes and New Republic symbols seem a little pale. The general shape seems spot-on, and you can rotate the head and the, uh, secondary head. (It's a distinctive shape down there.) Thanks to the lack of jointed limbs, the figure is basically an accessory - it can stand around and turn the head, and that's about it. If you like what you see, that's the figure.

I can't say I'm overly impressed by this one, but the form factor is correct and the colors could be improved a bit. It's fine, but it's not great. "Fine" works for figures that are made before the show airs, or from unfinished reference files, but they had a couple of years to get this one right and the colors just feel off. It should look fine on a shelf of robots, and if Hasbro or Disney ever build out the crew from the jailbreak episode you'll undoubtedly want more R1 droids. This figure might be worth getting to future-proof your display, but the set is off-model in enough ways that some may want to wait for a better version later. I am hesitant to believe that day will ever come unless a lot of people at Hasbro, Disney, and Lucasfilm get rotated off these brands and bring a new direction to the line, so get this one and enjoy it. It's a lot better than nothing.

Collector's Notes: I got mine from my pal Shannon. Thanks, Shannon!

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,912: March 31, 2022

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,828: R1-J1 (Droid Depot Line Look)

R1-J1 Disney Parks Exclusive
Droid Depot Droid Depot Droids boxed set
Item No.: ???
Manufacturer: Disney?
Number: n/a
Includes: n/a
Action Feature: Comes apart
Retail: $49.99
Availability: ??? 2020
Appearances: Galaxy's Edge
Bio: R1-J1 was an R1-series astromech droid with green plating and a yellow trim. It stood 1.94 meters tall and, like all R-series astromech droids, was manufactured by Industrial Automaton.[ (Taken from Wookieepedia. Box has no bio.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

Availability: Click here to buy it at Amazon now!

Commentary: This is a new sculpt! Disney's R1-J1 looks a lot like R1-G4 from Hasbro, which was a big droid the Jawas had in the original Star Wars. They don't share any parts, but have similar coloring and silhouettes. You could put this in your Sandcrawler and it's good enough, but it's skinnier and missing some elements of the movie droid. It's different.

Disney's droid lacks the arms of the previous version, and it's a heck of a lot cleaner. The paint chips and damage are absent, there isn't quite as much paint, and the greeblies are all different. Disney's droid is crisper, with more easily seen rivets around the base of the dome. All of the grey painted bits are different, and the sides look a lot different from Hasbro's. Having said that, the big foot is pretty similar, the back is similar, and they both seem to be cousins.

Disney's R1-J1 droid seems a little bit brighter with cleaner paint. There's a light layer of painted grime over the figure that's incredibly subtle too - and you can't ignore the brighter silver on the eye and the antenna. It's kind of impressive to see how Disney handled the figure with cleaner lines and sharper details, but the Hasbro one is so much more ugly that it's hard to not love. One stands out in the elements at a theme park, and the other has been through goodness knows what.

What makes this new Disney droid special is that it uses build-a-droid elements. You can pop off the dome and swap in an R2 head if you want, and the foot pops off too. Popping the foot off doesn't do you much good in terms of customization, because it doesn't have another part you can put there. You do get to see some hidden gears and guts though, and that's just plain cool. The ability to take apart the robot gives kids a chance to do something with it, making it more than just a nifty robot pepper shaker. Hasbro's figure has a moving head and foot, with barely-telescoping arms. I would say the Disney one is a lot more fun to play with, but for those wanting to fill out a Sandcrawler diorama you jut gotta get the Hasbro one.

I like this set and I get a huge kick out of Disney doing a new R1 unit. There's no reason to make one. No kid is asking for this. I don't think any collector wanted this, either, but they did a good job and it's fun to futz with. Also I'll take any new spin on a droid, mostly because it's better than getting another R2 or R5 in similar-but-different colors. If you see this set at a good price, get it.

Collector's Notes: I got this from eBay for about $63 delivered. I was not happy to overpay by $13, but after tax and shipping, it wasn't too bad. It's still cheaper than paying the theme park parking rate were I still relatively local.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,828: June 17, 2021