Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,703: Artoo-Deetoo (R2-D2, Dagobah, The Black Series 6-Inch, 40th Anniversary Collection)

ARTOO-DEETOO (R2-D2) (Dagobah)
The Black Series 40th Anniversary 6-Inch Figure
Item No.: Asst. E7549 No. E9314
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: #n/a
Includes: 3 removable dome panels, sensorscope
Action Feature: Pop-out arm tools, retractable third leg, wheels
Retail: $19.99
Availability: May 2020
Appearances: The Empire Strikes Back

Bio: R2-D2, pronounced Artoo-Deetoo and often referred to as R2 (Artoo), was an R2-series astromech droid manufactured by Industrial Automaton with masculine programming. (Taken from the figure's packaging.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

Availability: Click here to buy it at Entertainment Earth now!

Click here to buy it at Amazon now!

Commentary: It's different!  Artoo-deetoo (R2-D2) (Dagobah) is the start of Hasbro releasing retro Star Wars packaging with figures that didn't exist in that era.   While the 1978 R2-D2 and the 1982 Sensorcsope redux both appeared with this logo, the Dagobah photo was never used on the packaging and Dagobah swamp deco wasn't a thing back then.  It's different!

The figure itself looks good in the packaging, but due to the case configuration it's commonly crushed - mint bubbles are going to be a rare find.  Hasbro packed 5 figures into a case that could hold 6, so it would be easy for the cardboard to cave in a bit and this figure had no added support.  AFA-100-seekers, I do not envy you.

R2-D2 takes the mold from 2013, adds paint, and removes accessories.  It's a lateral move.  If you want the lightsaber hilt, the arm rockets, or the other scope, they're not here.  You can still pop off the 3 dome panels and 2 arm panels, but why?  The tabs on them weren't painted as well as previous releases, although you may not notice this thanks to the intense deco on the body.  While not quite as filthy as the photo, it's amazing - splattered mud on the body and limbs look great.  It wouldn't hurt to have had some paint on the third leg, but to recreate the two-leg pose on the photo?  It's fine. 

The mechanisms all work as well as before.  You've got rolling foot wheels.  There's a third leg that retracts when you twist the dome.   It's fine - it's just not as robust as that first release.  If you already have it, you probably don't  mind the accessories aren't here, and the different dirt deco isn't bad either.   Since it's cheaper than the previous single releases and different than the "damaged" Amazon-exclusive version, you'll probably find it interesting enough to add to your Dagobah diorama display.  With a little more mud, it would be even better - but as it is, it's more interesting than getting the same R2-D2 on a new cardback.  It's a pity they skipped the actual 1982 Kenner Sensorscope cardback art, though, even if it isn't as appealing.   Hasbro made a sensible series of choices here.

Collector's Notes: I got mine from Entertainment Earth.  

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,703: June 30, 2020

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,702: Leia (Hoth, The Retro Collection)

LEIA (Hoth) The Original, Reproduced
The Retro Collection Walmart Exclusive
Item No.: Asst. E9646  No. E9649
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: n/a
Includes: Black pistol
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $9.86
Availability: April 2020
Appearances: The Empire Strikes Back

Bio: Leia Organa was a Force-sensitive human female political and military leader who served in the Alliance to Restore the Republic during the Imperial Era and the Resistance in the subsequent New Republic Era. (Stolen from Wookieepedia.  Packaging has no bio.)

Image: Adam's photo lab. 

Availability: Click here to buy it at Amazon now!

Commentary: There are vintage, Retro, and 40th anniversary versions of Leia (Hoth) potentially floating around right now.  Hasbro has been surprisingly good at making sure the same character in the same outfit has been available in multiple expressions all at once since 2015, and in this case all of them are reissues - some with moderate changes.

The original 1980 figure has variants aplenty, with three different names appearing in the pillbox - "Leia" or "Leia Organa" or "Princess Leia Organa" in the old days.   Her rank badge could be smooth black or sculpted.  Her hair could be a lighter almost red color or darker brown.   There were two different head sculpts, too.   And weirdly, these were generally things fans didn't fawn over in the 1970s-1990s - you'd hear about red cloak Bib Fortuna, or maybe blue lightsaber Jedi Luke, or of course Vinyl Cape Jawas and the rocket-firing Boba Fett every third kid claimed to have as a child.  But the Leia variants?  These were rarely catalogued or discussed in the old days.

This figure seems to be similar to the one I have - but there were quite a few changes, too.   The 2020 one has a smooth rank badge, a black (and not blue) pistol, a less yellowy and more brown vest, and darker brown boots.   Much like Boba Fett and Bespin Luke, there are enough things different here that I think old-school Kenner completists would want these just to have every last little change they could get.   The changes don't in any way make her seem more true to the movie or realistic, but she is a bit less vibrant. 

Sculpted details like her quilted vest and pants aren't quite as sharp as the 1980 release, but they're still remarkably good.  Most notably, the wrinkles on her pants beneath her vest in between her legs have been completely smoothed out for 2020.  The wrinkles on the back of the legs are looser, and her pants are seemingly not quite as tight either.  I don't know if this was a result of how the replica was scanned or sculpted, or an intentional choice on the designer's part.  As I am not the biggest fan of remakes as a thing, seeing any kind of visual sculpted change to make it easy to spot a change from an original to a reissue is always welcome.

The figure has a slightly different feel, but it's excellent.  She's a bit more flexible and rubbery for 2020, but this means she can also grip her pistol much more easily.   The 2019 reissue Leia (the 1978 figure) couldn't hold her blaster to save her life, and this one seems to be a shining gem of how to grip an accessory well.  The blaster itself is a bit larger than the vintage counterpart, with essentially all the same details.  Which is to say, almost no sculpted details worth noting.

I much prefer the 1980 figure's head sculpt but this one is good too.    She feels like a real toy, if not a real 1980's toy, and that's perfectly fine with me.  The cardback photo is fine, the figure is good, and the accessory is different.  This ticks all the boxes of how to make me happy with a reissue of a collectible toy.   Applause all around.  And if Hasbro wants to remake this Kenner one again, there are plenty of fun variations to rerelease later!

Collector's Notes: I got mine from Walmart through my pal Scott "ToyGuru" Neitlich!  Did you see his new Spector Creative YouTube channel yet? Click here.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,702: June 25, 2020

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,701: BB Unit (Color-Changing Droids, Droid Factory Line Look)

BB Unit Color-Changing Droids
Star Wars Disney Droid Depot
Item No.: No. ???
Manufacturer: Disney
Number: n/a
Includes: 4 droids - RA-7 Protocol Droid, BB Unit, R2 Astromech, C1 Astromech
Action Feature: Pops apart, has weighted core, changes from black to red
Retail: $39.99
Availability: ca. July 2019
Appearances: n/a

Bio: All different types of droids populate the galaxy.  Each droid is different and has their own unique personality and colors.  These droids have the special ability to change color!  (Taken from the figure's packaging.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

Availability: Click here to buy it at Amazon now!

Commentary:  It's different!  This BB Unit is basically BB-9E with a twist.  When chilled, it looks a lot like the BB-9E figure Disney sold in a 4-pack in 2017 - you got that one, right?  You didn't forget it existed and you bought it already, right?  Anyway, it has the same swivel neck, splittable ball, and an interior weighted ball cast in black with blue "lights" painted on it.

As a cold figure in black, it looks fine.  However, it's summer, so all you have to do is look at this BB unit and it changes to its warm colors - and they're great!  The figure changed to a nice red, and you can even see it peek out from behind the silver vents.  This is one of the better color-changes on these figures, with no weird fuzzy paint or colors that you just don't buy.  It's a clean transition with solid colors, so kudos to team Disney for engineering this mold well, and then for following up to paint it right too.

Disney really knocked this one out of the park, with its wobbly weighted based and perfect color change.  Get it if you can find it - it's fun.  The only thing that surprises me more than how much I like it is that we didn't see this kind of paint used on Onell Design figures first.   Also you'll need to get this one online.

 

Collector's Notes: I got mine from my pal Shannon. Thanks Shannon!  There are 2 droid 4-packs and 1 droid playset with a Gonk Droid at this time.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,701: June 23, 2020

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,700: Lando Calrissian (The Retro Collection)

LANDO CALRISSIAN The Original, Reproduced
The Retro Collection Walmart Exclusive
Item No.: Asst. E9646  No. E9656
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: n/a
Includes: Black pistol, grey cape
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $9.86
Availability: April 2020
Appearances: The Empire Strikes Back

Bio: Landonis Balthazar Calrissian, simply known as "Lando," was a human male smuggler, gambler, and card player who became Baron Administrator of Cloud City and, later, a general in the Rebel Alliance. (Stolen from Wookieepedia.  Packaging has no bio.)

Image: Adam's photo lab. 

Availability: Click here to buy it at Amazon now!

Commentary: After the original Kenner line ended, one of my first goals - when I was like six - was to go to flea markets and garage sales, hoping to find Lando Calrissian.  He was one of my favorite characters as a kid, and lucky me, I did indeed find a carded one for about fifty cents, which stayed carded for about fifty seconds.  (Star Wars was completely worthless in the mid 1980s, you see.)   That's not the one in the picture - this is one I got out of another collection in the 1990s, mine was the "bright smile" variant.   Hasbro elected to go with the first release, which lacks the white paint on the face.  When you're doing heads the size of a peanut, you sometimes have to exaggerate features for contrast - here, Lando's dark skin and black painted eyes and facial hair can be hard to see. Especially if you have bad eyes.

The 1980s original has sharper features, which are very apparent on the torso.  You can see the original wrinkles on the shirt and belt buckle pop, with the new 2020 figure looking like a copy of a copy.  Nowhere is the generation loss more apparent than on the face - Lando's smiling face and enlarged cheeks are completely smoothed out, while the 2020 head is also a different shape.   The head sort of skews into the neck this time, with Lando's sculpted teeth being smoothed out completely.  The hair is also a bit lumpier, but it could be my imagination.

Smoothed out features on the 2020 figure aren't the only big change, you'll also notice the 2020 cape is a much lighter grey and the blaster is not only bigger, but blacker.   It's unlikely anyone would mistake the 2020 figure for the 1980 original, loose samples of which are a paltry $20 these days.  While the new 2020 one is fine - if you're just going to mount him on a wall and leave him on the card, the excellent execution of his 5 points of articulation or the slightly-off features of the figure won't matter as much as the cardback - I would nudge you to go to eBay and buy the genuine article.  Or contact the people at Toy Anxiety in Phoenix, very nice folks, they could use the business.

I very much appreciate the different accessories on Lando. Reproductions are a sketchy thing, but if I can look at them and see that they're both good and different I'm all smiles.

While Hasbro's 2020 reissues of Bespin Luke and Hoth Han are softer and different, they're still pretty good.  Lando didn't turn out as nicely, but it's probably good enough given you may be able to find it while hunting COVID supplies in your masks and it's only $10.   I appreciate Hasbro and Lucasfilm getting religion about these kinds of figures, but the bulk of them just aren't the originals.  They're good, but the new releases are literally beyond comparison.  After all, Snowspeeder Luke and Grand Moff Tarkin have no real peers from 40 years ago.

Collector's Notes: I got mine from Walmart through my pal Scott "ToyGuru" Neitlich!  Did you see his new Spector Creative YouTube channel yet? Click here.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,700: June 18, 2020

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,699: Luke Skywalker (Bespin, The Retro Collection)

LUKE SKYWALKER Bespin
The Retro Collection Walmart Exclusive
Item No.: Asst. E9646  No. E9654
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: n/a
Includes: Blaster pistol, yellow lightsaber
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $9.86
Availability: April 2020
Appearances: The Empire Strikes Back

Bio: Luke Skywalker, a Force-sensitive human male, was a legendary Jedi Master who fought in the Galactic Civil War during the reign of the Galactic Empire. (Stolen from Wookieepedia. (Stolen from Wookieepedia.  Packaging has no bio.)

Image: Adam's photo lab. 

Availability: Click here to buy it at Amazon now!

Commentary: Hasbro's Luke Skywalker (Bespin) is a good reissue.   It's a bit different, but aside from one strange change largely is as good as your memory of the original.  The joints aren't nearly as stiff, the lightsaber is nice and bright, the pistol is sculpted a bit differently, but everything else is pretty good.  I even like the head more - it's not as round and has a slightly different facial expression.   The brown Bespin fatigues are a little browner, the boots are a little less saturated, and the lightsaber on his left leg actually adds some detail.  There's an extra protrusion on it.   I kind of like this approach more - augmenting the original figure, rather than an identical (or weirdly changed) rerelease.  Hasbro could've also colored the belt buckle for all I care, just to make it more glaringly obvious that This Is New.

Everything else is where it should be - the wrinkles are all there.  There's an extra line in the flap on a pouch over Luke's butt, which is new, but by and large it's all here and different enough so that you can tell this is not the original - even if you missed the new copyrights on the back of the leg.  Along with the very good  Hoth Han, this is a nice rerelease - it's close enough to the original that you young people will never know the difference.

What's weird - and I mean "what the heck?" weird - is there's a loop painted in next to his belt buckle for no reason. The original toy was filled in black, this one is painted in flesh - like some weird belly button over his junk. Why? I don't know.  It's bizarre.  Had they left this paint application off, they could save a few thousand bucks and the run would look better.  This is the only real blemish on an otherwise fantastic reissue.

Collector's Notes: I got mine from Walmart thanks to my pal Scott "ToyGuru" Neitlich!  Did you see his new Spector Creative YouTube channel yet? Click here.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,699: June 16, 2020

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,698: Luke Skywalker (Snowspeeder, The Retro Collection)

LUKE SKYWALKER Snowspeeder
The Retro Collection Hoth Ice Planet Board Game Pack-In
Item No.: No. E4042 (but the figure's card says Asst. E9646  No. E4042)
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: n/a
Includes: Grapple gun, blue lightsaber
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $29.99
Availability: April 2020
Appearances: The Empire Strikes Back

Bio: Luke Skywalker, a Force-sensitive human male, was a legendary Jedi Master who fought in the Galactic Civil War during the reign of the Galactic Empire. (Stolen from Wookieepedia.  Packaging has no bio.)

Image: Adam's photo lab. 

Availability: Click here to buy it at Entertainment Earth now!

Click here to buy it at Amazon now!

Commentary: Hasbro should just kill its traditional Vintage Collection and kid 3 3/4-inch line and do these for a while.  Luke Skywalker (Snowspeeder) is a lot like Grand Moff Tarkin, in that you can see the DNA of his design came from an existing figure.  While Tarkin owed a lot to the Imperial Officer, Luke owes his bones to Luke Skywalker (X-Wing Pilot) from 1979.  The chest console, arms, and legs all have existing elements.  You can see the wrinkles from X-Wing Luke carried over to Snowspeeder Luke, and the torso's detailing is built over the existing figure. The wrinkles around his crotch are also very similar.

Much like the other Retro Collection figures, the details on Luke are a lot softer than the real vintage counterparts.  You can just see rounder, more fuzzy wrinkles and buttons on the computer.  I never realized just how crisp Kenner's old figures were until I compared them this go-round, so even though it's basically the same head, it's not.  The visor is down and the details are a bit more soft, but the proportions are all the same and it feels like a cousin (or bootleg) of the original.)  Snowspeeder Luke's hands seem to be mirror-flipped from the X-Wing Luke original - the right hand looks like the other's left hand, and vice versa.  Well, with the glove enhancements, otherwise the fingers seem to match up surprisingly well.

The figure stands up well, and has decent tight joints.  Unlike most original Kenner figures, both hands grip the accessories quite nicely - and it's a tight fit.  The new grapple gun is a perfect fit in the left hand and an excellent design on Hasbro's part, capturing the vocabulary and simplified proportions while axing some elements to keep it easy.

Aside from this being a new costume variant for Luke, the selling point for a lot of fans is an official blue Kenner lightsaber.  Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker legendarily has a blue lightsaber variation which most fans don't have and have never actually seen outside of product catalogs.   Grabbing this just to throw with their old Lukes might be a selling point for a certain kind of old-school collector, with smaller dots on the hilt so it's not obviously the same as the original. I appreciate this.

Since he can stand and sit and looks cool, and the butt is rounded off nicely so there's no square fanny when he sits, I'd give Hasbro a lot of credit for doing a good job here.  Even if his arms do seem a bit long, it's still super cool as a figure and I'd recommend getting it if you're an old Kenner fan.  I have no use for the companion board game, but all the love to Hasbro for giving us another one of these guys.  Could we get a fake Kenner Dagobah Luke next please?

Collector's Notes: I got mine from Entertainment Earth.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,698: June 11, 2020

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,697: Han Solo (Bespin, The Vintage Collection)

HAN SOLO Bespin, 2020 reissue
The Vintage Collection
Item No.: Asst. E5912 No. E9573
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: #50 (reissue)
Includes: Pistol, goggles, blaster
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $12.99
Availability: April 2020
Appearances: The Empire Strikes  Back

Bio:  Han Solo became a leader in the Alliance to Restore the Republic and an instrumental figure in the defeat of the Galactic Empire during the Galactic Civil War. (Stolen from Wookieepedia. Packaging has no bio.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

Availability: Click here to buy it at Entertainment Earth now!

Click here to buy it at Amazon now!

Commentary: At some point Hasbro decided that The Vintage Collection should be mostly reruns.  This is a mixed bag - the packaging gets an update, and sometimes the deco does.  But with Han Solo (Bespin), the stock photography stayed the same, or at least similar enough to the 2010 original that I would strongly advise buying it packaged and making sure it has the right item numbers.  (See the top of this review.)  There's also a big "4+" in a grey circle on the top left of the cardback - that's how you know it should have the new, updated head deco.

In 2011 the original release of this figure [FOTD #1,844] was as good as a Han can get, thanks to Hasbro forgetting to sculpt a thigh strap for his holster and allowing the figure's legs to swing forward and sit on the Millennium Falcon.   Han has 24 points of articulation and was great for the time - if Hasbro added in thigh cuts to the legs, I would see no reason to ever redo this figure at this size.   It's very good, and there's minimal room for improvement.

The 2020 release soars above the 2011 edition because of the head paint - there's a bit of eyeliner and painted lips that bring Han to life.  On my sample the eyes are bright and shiny, with clean eyebrows.   The hairline isn't perfect, but it's better than the last release.  The figure is otherwise basically the same as last time - it's good enough.  I'd recommend getting it if you can find it at a fair price, and he's joined by a General Lando Calrissian and Bespin Luke with similarly updated heads, and a C-3PO that is similar to the 2010 offering.   Han's good, though.  If you want the best, this is it - for now.


Collector's Notes: I got mine from Entertainment Earth.  

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,697: June 9, 2020