Astromech Droid Pack Series I - TSC - Exclusives

The behind-the-scenes workers of the Old Republic, the New Order and the Rebellion, these astromech droids have all played their part in assisting smugglers, bounty hunters, heroes and villains throughout the galaxy!

After Entertainment Earth had a knock-it-out-of-the-park hit with their four unique clone trooper multipacks, they gained a confidence that this would be a great medium to bring more new and exciting action figures to collectors. After being rejected by Hasbro for a second clone trooper series, they looked elsewhere and came up with what we would ascertain as one of the greatest sets ever made. We use the word “greatest” to refer to the concept only because the execution wasn’t perfect. Actually, the execution needed quite a bit more work. Still, Star Wars collectors got treated to ten never before made astromech droids and were culled from The Phantom Menace, Attack Of The Clones, A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. The final sagas in both trilogies, Revenge Of The Sith and Return Of The Jedi, got kicked to the curb this time for these exclusives, but we hope at some other point in the future that those films will get some representation. There is a great variety of astromech types here. R2, R3 and R4 units are all represented, some from those “blink and you’ll miss it” scenes in the films, but all can be seen at some point or another.

Astromech Droid Pack Series I has characters represented mostly from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Not many droids get made from this film, so this is a great way to bang out three right away. R3-T6, R2-Q2 and R3-T2 are all excellent additions to your basic figure collection. R3-T6 can be seen on the Death Star, R2-Q2 is Biggs Darklighter’s astromech droid and R3-T2 can be seen skirting by a ronto in the Special Edition of Episode IV, although this droid appeared in the original version of the film too. R3-T6 is the weakest of the Episode IV astromech droids. Based off of 2002’s POTJ R3-T7 (Sneak Preview) figure, the figure lacks the finesse of more recent astromech sculpts and in all honesty stands out like a sore thumb a little bit. Absent are the separately molded hoses on the “feet” and the angle at which the third leg slides out is too sharp and is aesthetically inferior. Hasbro should have placed a clear dome of the 2005 ROTS R4-G9 (Sneak Preview) (4 of 4) sculpt and called it a day. But they obviously were looking to contain costs here first and foremost. R2-Q2 and R3-T2 are well done, but some of their paint applications are a little muddy. But that doesn’t mean they don’t look great.

R4-A22 is a very striking astromech (as seen at Dexter's diner in Episode II), but like R3-T6, it lacks the superb sculpting of the 2005 sculpt. Based on 2002’s POTJ R4-M9 figure, it looks a little bit better than R3-T6, but it still isn’t perfect. The orange color used to decorate the figure is flawless. R4-A22 has the most distinct paint job of all of these Entertainment Earth exclusives due to the unbalanced and staggered pattern on the figure. The cone-shaped dome has a great amount of detail and Hasbro made the most of the geometric shapes on it to come up with a very intricate paint job. We’re impressed to say the least. Probably the gem of the set is R2-C4. Seen during the Naboo hangar battle in Episode I, this droid is beautiful designed and painted even better. R2-C4 has a stunning paint job with a subtle dirty look and sharp yellow details throughout its body. It’s absolutely our favorite droid from the set and a wonderful addition to the many great figures based from The Phantom Menace. The Astromech Droid Pack Series I is a very comforting start to what could be an excellent continuing series of background astromech droids that have yet to be made. There are a lot of them, and this is the perfect way to do it.