Figure of the Day: Day 289: WEG-1618 (Star Tours)

WEG-1618 Star Tours
Star Tours Collection 2
Item No.: No. 10239
Number: n/a
Includes: n/a
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $10.00
Availability: 2002
Appearances: Star Tours

Bio: WEG-1618 was a droid that worked for the Star Tours travel agency. He has a skill for wiring, and can be found repairing doors. On his spair time, he tinkers with an R5 unit, getting strange results. (Stolen from Wookieepedia.)

Image: Adam's shelf of the damned.

Commentary: Move the head, move the arms, move the legs. That's about all the fun you'll be getting out of the lanky, tall, and gawky WEG-1618, another of the many varied (and ultimately not very popular) droids from Star Tours. With no accessories, no lines of dialogue in any form of fiction, and no action features, all he has is his sculpt and his paint job. The deco is good, and the sculpt is accurate, but the problem is that the droid looks like an animatronic skeleton and/or a pile of junk welded together to create some sort of droid-like figure. For the hardcore droid fan, it's cool. For those who adore a good exclusive, it's pretty neat. For the new collector who doesn't know who this and doesn't care to find out, well, do I need to go on? It's an obscure figure to the point where a lot of fans didn't buy it for their collections and don't really care. As such, if you like how it looks, get one. I think it's a nice robot to have, but mostly because it's so weird. Were it not labeled with the Hasbro and Star Wars brands, odds are I wouldn't have bought it unless it was significantly cheaper.

Collector's Notes: Nobody cares about Star Tours. The figures get consistently low reads in the column, and actually seem to be the lowest read of any figures-- interesting, considering how difficult it is to get many of these figure. This particular one goes for $10 or less, easily, and also serves as an example that just because some fans really like something from the Expanded Universe doesn't mean a) anyone else knows what it is or b) that they'll care when given the chance to buy it. Which is a bit of a shame given that these are some very interesting droid designs, it's just that nobody seems to care about them.

Day 289: February 19, 2007