Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,294: R5-SK1 (Rogue One, Droid Factory)

R5-SK1 from the new film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Star Wars   Droid Factory
Item No.: ???
Manufacturer: Probably Not Hasbro
Number: n/a
Includes: 4 total droids
Action Feature: Comes apart
Retail: $29.99
Availability: September 2015
Appearances: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

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 new Astromech figures are featured in new film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.  May the Force be with 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:  Is it Skippy, the Jedi Droid?

I can say the set is a good deal, but I can't always say the set is worth your while.  Disney's droid 4-packs are a screaming deal - single droids (the ones you build and customize, or the special carded ones) are $13 each.  The 4-packs are $29.99 - $7.50 per droid, a perfectly good deal for an exclusive by even Golden Age of Figure standards.   The real question is this - should you care?   3 of the 4 droids in the Rogue One set are easily, unquestionably new.  R5-SK1 is likely to be an insignificant background droid in Rogue One, and it looks a heck of a lot like R5-D4 or R5-D8 figures you may already own.  Or perhaps a Disney build-a-droid you picked up and assembled from parts.   But it's not - it's different!   You may call it "just different enough to make you mad" and you wouldn't be wrong.   There are differences but any but the most picky droid fans won't notice and won't care.   Since you are these people, well, I'm here for you.   I love you all.

R5-SK1 uses the "Disney" chassis - left and right legs are identical, with no foot wires.  There is no antenna on the dome.  All three feet have wheels - and you may have dozens of figures like it if you've been getting all the Disney stuff so far.  There's not a lot new here as tooling goes - but deco?  Oh yeah.

The dome is basically the R5-D4 deco with the double-border around the top, the filled pie slices, and the rectangles around the posts on the sides and on the back.  This isn't unique - but the filled black eyes on this design are unusual, and unique to the "R5-D4"-flavored domes sold at Disney theme parks.  Previously sold R5 domes had plain silver eyes when found in the Droid Factory bins.  It still carries the hole for the hats.

The torso is a riff on the R5-D4 design, but different.  There is blue under the "armpits," and the little greeblies in the front have a lot more blue than usual, including the small ladder formation on the right side of his person.  If you have The Saga Collection R5-D4, you'll notice some blue in that lower body region.   On the back, the body has 3 rectangles filled in with red paint - very unusual and uncommon for the Disney park droid bodies.   For a white droid body, there's a lot more paint here than usual, and it's different enough from the other bin pieces where I would call it notable.

The central middle leg is unpainted white.  There's nothing new here.  The side legs are also similar if not identical to the ones I'm comparing from the "revised" wireless legs - the silver toe, the blue stripes, the little blue dot - there's no obvious difference.

Constantine to R5-D4's Kermit, the R5-SK1 droid is indeed different enough that you should be able to tell them apart but perhaps not different enough that you could tell without knowing what signs to watch out for.   I'd say the black eyes, the blue details on a white-with-mostly-red body, and the red rectangles filled in the back will be the most telling signs should you ever stumble upon a loose one in a collection or on eBay.   Not knowing its role in the movie - but guessing - I'd say you would be able to skip this one except for the fact that it comes as part of a set with 3 other compelling, very different-looking droids that you do want.  So yeah, you're stuck with this one, but at least it's slightly different from the others.

Collector's Notes: I got mine at Disneyland.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,294: October 24, 2016