Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 3,368: Vendor Droid (Silver, Droid Factory)

VENDOR DROID Silver
Star Tours Droid Factory Customizable Figure
Item No.: ???
Manufacturer: Disney?
Number: n/a
Includes: n/a
Action Feature: Removable limbs
Retail: $12.95
Availability: April 2017
Appearances: The Clone Wars

Bio: A vendor droid, also known as a shopkeeper droid, was a type of droid assigned to sell merchandise. (Stolen from Wookieepedia.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

Availability: Click here to buy it at eBay now!

Commentary: I've had a few of these for a while, but haven't reviewed them - but I hear parts bins are supposedly making the rounds again in some parks. So let's check out the Silver Vendor Droid, or Shop Droid, or whatever the cool kids are calling them. Is there some reason to bring it up now, to showcase it, is it appearing in something, somewhere? No. It's just a build-a-droid, made from a parts bin, and it's more of a souvenir than a part of this complete breakfast action figure collection. My pal Shannon put it together for me since he's able to go to Disney more than I am. (I think I was last at a theme park in 2016?)

It's funny calling anything obscure in the age of the internet, but the Disney droids made of parts from bins with no names are somewhat difficult to identify and how many were "manufactured" by fans is hard to know. Given that Disney allowed fans to create what they will, these are likely some of the rarest mass-produced droids in the entire history of Star Wars collecting. Aside from Vlix.

While neat, I increasingly find that I don't know what to do with some of the droids. The Vintage Collection lacks open-ended playsets or new environments, and we've never really gotten shop or street playsets of note. As such, this guy is just sort of taking up space - but he's pretty cool. This particular configuration uses CZ-style arms, a Shop Droid head, a C-3PO body, and C-3PO legs. The end result is pretty decent, especially since the right shoulder has some blue metallic silver paint on it. It's a subtle accent, but it gives the figure a sense of having been repaired.

He's got standard articulation for one of the Disney droids, with swivel wrists and jointed ankles. It's kind of funny to think that the body is riffing on what was more or less standard for Hasbro's build-a-droid releases in 2008, and here we are 18 years later with some of these molds still in rotation... without a price drop. If you look back to the 2000s and earlier, old molds usually gave us cheaper toys too - that doesn't seem to happen anymore. At the time, $13 for a single droid was still kind of expensive but not horrible for a theme park souvenir. Given how hard these are to get outside the parks, you'll probably pay considerably more for a junker made of random parts, and good luck to you if you can find something cohesive. I like this droid because I generally like droids, but the yellow eyes and blue scanner do little to really add zing to a pretty bland gray/silver chassis. It is a perfectly fine robot, but nothing about it is likely to stand out in a pool of over 3,000 Star Wars action figures in an era where there's no single complete tome of reference allowing any collector to see them all in one place.

Collector's Notes: I got mine from Disney Hollywood Studios. Thanks Shannon!

--Adam Pawlus

Day 3,368: August 4, 2026

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,801: Vendor Droid (White, Droid Factory)

VENDOR DROID White
Star Tours Droid Factory Customizable Figure
Item No.: ???
Manufacturer: Disney?
Number: n/a
Includes: n/a
Action Feature: Removable limbs
Retail: $12.95
Availability: April 2017
Appearances: The Clone Wars
Bio: A vendor droid, also known as a shopkeeper droid, was a type of droid assigned to sell merchandise. (Stolen from Wookieepedia.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.
 

Commentary: The new head! The White Vendor Droid is a little muddied. As of when I got this one - and he's been in a box for, oh, four years - the "white" body had this pretty nifty dirt deco printed on it, which goes particularly nicely with the CZ droid heads. But there are also other muddied torsos and limbs, which creates a good consistent look across all the droid parts. My sample has a torso that takes some cues from K-3PO with the red dots and blast mark/smudges over the chest, resulting in what you might call a decent original design. As far as I know this colorway has made no actual appearances in the saga, but Wookieepedia places them in The Phantom Menace and Solo - and I don't believe this head has appeared in those films. You know what the kids say 0 pics or it didn't happen.

The main selling point here is the unique head - one of a couple of dozen released into theme park bins in 2017. The white head has a scanner-like hat on top of the noggin, yellow eyes, and a black slot mouth you could probably slip a few bills in. It looks a lot like an old-school LEGO man head, minus the color and lack of a smile. It's also a little small, but as a unique creation you can only get at the theme parks, collectors will have to deal with hit. Hasbro has made no plans to do any such droids and I doubt that they ever will at this rate.

Articulation is build-a-droid standard, with 6 removable limbs and a grand total of 20 points of articulation and a design modeled from/copied from Hasbro's The Legacy Collection protocol droid. If you get in real close, you can see some of the details on the chest are printed like the current "photo real" bits - but here, they're glossy. Given that this is a figure that exists mostly to serve as a DIY souvenir, I can't recommend you get it, or replicate it, as it's probably only worth getting if you're a droid fanatic. Sadly Disney never offered a big box of Protocol Droid parts to do your own, so your proximity to theme parks will probably result in if you get one of these or not. I have no idea if they're still available - they're scarce on eBay too. This is one of those weird robot figures that, one day, someone will make a "definitive" guide to these figures and probably leave out. That's how it goes when you're a forgettable nobody of a robot - except you're me, I love this nonsense.

Collector's Notes: I got mine from Disney Hollywood Studios. Thanks Shannon!

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,801: April 15, 2021

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,468: Vendor Droid (Gold, Droid Factory)

VENDOR DROID Gold
Star Tours   Droid Factory Customizable Figure
Item No.: ???
Manufacturer: Disney?
Number: n/a
Includes: n/a
Action Feature: Removable limbs
Retail: $12.95
Availability: April 2017
Appearances: The Clone Wars

Bio: The CZ-series communications/business droid was a droid series produced by Serv-O-Droid, Inc. The CZ-series was released as Serv-O-Droid began to wane in its position as a dominant droid manufacturer.   (Stolen from Wookieepedia.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

Commentary:  The new head! The Gold Vendor Droid needs to be reviewed - along with other droids - because that's why we're here.  I know that.  We've got a job to do!

The dull gold finish is nice, with a C-3PO body in this sample being the vehicle for a newish head.  The gold head looks good with yellow eyes and a silver... visor?  Price scanner?  What is that, anyway?     The can head with a partial dustbuster hat is sort of out of place, but it's not like anyone has been good at giving us new droids in any sort of realistic style lately.

I appreciate that Disney used the best super-articulated build-a-droid tooling available, but a few months in to having this I wish they made something new, cheaper, and simpler because what the heck do I need ankles for on these guys?  5 joints would have been great, particularly given the dozens of combinations you can build from these parts.   It's a good, sturdy figure with more articulation than any of the main characters in the main line from the last three movies, so... that's where we're at now.   It's a great way to populate the bases they don't make or the vehicles nobody is doing, and being an "animated" figure it has less of a place in any existing collection.  It's a cool souvenir, but it's solely for the crazy collector person.  You know, like me.

Collector's Notes: I got mine from Disney Hollywood Studios.   Thanks Shannon!

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,468: April 2, 2018

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,398: Vendor Droid (Black, Droid Factory)

VENDOR DROID Black
Star Tours   Droid Factory Customizable Figure
Item No.: ???
Manufacturer: Disney?
Number: n/a
Includes: n/a
Action Feature: Removable limbs
Retail: $12.95
Availability: April 2017
Appearances: The Clone Wars

Bio: The CZ-series communications/business droid was a droid series produced by Serv-O-Droid, Inc. The CZ-series was released as Serv-O-Droid began to wane in its position as a dominant droid manufacturer.   (Stolen from Wookieepedia.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

Commentary:  The new head! The Black Vendor Droid is basically the new head from The Clone Wars, now in a handy glossy black color.   It has a big silver thing on its head, like a hat, with yellow eyes and whatever body you give it.

The glossy black finish is super shiny to a ridiculous extent.   It's gorgeous, and I wish I had a better display to show these sorts of figures off.   It stands, it looks cool, it has articulation.   You know the drill.   So far I've only heard of these in Orlando, but I also don't pay super close attention so maybe they're in Anaheim by now.  The droid is curious in that Disney opted to make this design in colors that were never actually seen on the show, so perhaps those are coming later.  I can hope.  It's still nifty and if we had a decent playset that worked for it, he'd be right at home.

Collector's Notes: I got mine from Disney Hollywood Studios.

Column Notes: We are going on a brief hiatus due to an excessive amount of travel and The Last Jedi launching - so we'll be back with new stuff as quickly as availability allows on or after September 1.  Until then, please visit Galactic Hunter and 16bit.com for more toy news and reviews and dubious opinions.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,398: August 23, 2017

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,377: Vendor Droid (Blue, Droid Factory)

 VENDOR DROID Blue
Star Tours   Droid Factory Customizable Figure
Item No.: ???
Manufacturer: Disney?
Number: n/a
Includes: n/a
Action Feature: Removable limbs
Retail: $12.95
Availability: April 2017
Appearances: n/a

Bio: A vendor droid, also known as a shopkeeper droid, was a type of droid assigned to sell merchandise.   (Stolen from Wookieepedia.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

Commentary:  Here we go again.  Misery for collectors tastes like Disney, because the Vendor Droid is exclusive to their theme parks and is sold in pieces.  The pieces you need to build it may not be available on a specific day - a pal of mine helped me out, but I also got a fair amount of mismatched droids due to availability... so I need more parts.   And I'm very fortunate - otherwise fans have to resort to a massive vacation to get them, or bribes, or eBay.   The basic body of the model we're looking at today is C-3PO with new colors and a new head.

While similar to Hasbro's build-a-droid molds, it's a little different.  The feet read "CHINA" and "©LFL", with no year or Hasbro markings.   He has 20 points of articulation if you count generously, and why shouldn't you?  This kind of droid debuted in the CG The Clone Wars animated series, so these mark its first "realistic" action figures - and first figures of any kind.  On the show they were frequently green and striped, but this one is dark blue with vintage hot rod pinstriping on his chest for some reason.  Maybe there's a story here, but I can't tell you what it is - maybe this is a hint about something in the future Star Warsland park that will open eventually.   The figure's ability to stand and sit are worthy of praise, although I'm increasingly ambivalent about how the action figure world is packed with incompatible styles.  This may be "old man" though, as back when I was a kid there were 3 distinct scales of action figures from Kenner and all of them were compatible within their own lines.   Well, maybe not the Ewoks cartoon figures, but that's OK.  Today, the 3 3/4-inch format not only has cartoon formats, but multiple ones.  The Clone Wars figures are a mix of "real" and "animated" figures, but at least Hasbro has given us a consistent 6-inch The Black Series line.

What make each of the figures we'll look at here distinctive is the head.   Here, a peg goes in to the body and swivels around.   A can-shaped head has two piercing yellow eyes and an unpainted mouth slit, plus a hat that looks like a flood light of some sort.  Maybe it's a price scanner.  I actually don't know - but it's distinctive, and the blue chest marker looks a lot like some sort of Hutt crime tattoo.  The dark color absorbs a lot of the detail, but it's still sharp.  The can itself is a little light on markings, but the body has a ton of bits and pieces thanks to the various limbs and body parts being recycled protocol droids like C-3PO and 4-LOM.

Because Hasbro hasn't distributed a single Vendor Droid in any of its lines in any scale, you need to get one of these guys from a Disney park.  I don't think they've made any show-specific droids yet, but you have blue, red, silver, white, black, and gold flavors for your droid enjoyment.   They fit right in with your Hasbro collection, which is simultaneously great and infuriating.   At least it exists, and you have options.

Collector's Notes: I got mine from Disney Hollywood Studios.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,377: June 12, 2017