Imperial Probe Droid - Militaries Of Star Wars - 1:6 Scale Figures

"An Imperial probe droid. It's a good bet the Empire knows we're here."

Joining the Militaries of Star Wars Sixth Scale collection, Sideshow is proud to present the Imperial Probe Droid. First introduced in the opening scenes of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, this tenacious spy sets intergalactic war back in motion upon locating the Rebel Alliance base, hidden on the icy surface of the planet Hoth.

Displayed hovering atop a museum quality base with an optional snowscape theme, the immense Imperial Probe Droid Sixth Scale Figure is packed with personality. Ominous black ‘eye’ lenses, brilliant light up features, and a ‘squawk box’ loaded with garbled transmission sound effects distinguish the Probot with a dramatic, less than friendly impression. Designed for searching, scanning and sampling, the diligent patrol unit has a wide range of motion with rotating dome, retractable antennae, and fully articulated manipulator arms. Just be cautious when handling; they’re armed with blasters, and in some cases they’ve been known to self-destruct.

Would you believe it took Sideshow Collectibles almost three full years to get out the Imperial Probe Droid 1:6 Scale Figure from the Militaries Of Star Wars collection? Originally “teased” at the 2011 San Diego Comic Con Collectors’ Panel as a “future concept”, it didn’t go up for pre-order until more than two years later. It then needed almost another year to go into production to be completed and available for release. We have to say our emotions at the moment are all over the place for the Imperial Probe Droid. Don't get us wrong. It's something of undoubted recherché quality. Visually, it’s essentially flawless. When fully assembled and displayed there is no way possible that you’re not going to be severely wowed by it. You will truly be awestruck by its presence, its design, its stunning paint operations and its sheer size. (It towers over any 1:6 Scale Figure released to date, including Jabba The Hutt.) The structures of the five unique utility arms are mind-blowing. Sideshow Collectibles graciously added an inordinate amount of details to all of the mechanical arms, and also included multiple points of articulation to make them all functional, thereby giving the Imperial Probe Droid an endless amount of ways to position it. But even with all of the positive adjectives we have just expressed, we can’t help but comment on how “cheap” the figure feels. It’s extremely lightweight and feels like it will break in your hands just from holding it. In fact, putting this collectible together with assembly instructions in hand gave us an upset stomach. It felt like every piece to assemble was going to snap or break as you put them in place.

We don’t mean to criticize this piece so harshly because it's gorgeous. But we do hold high standards for the products Sideshow Collectibles makes. They need to held accountable. The prices for their items keep going higher and higher, yet the products are beginning to feel cheaper and cheaper. Keep in mind that this is a $249.99 piece. That is a lot of money for one 1:6 Scale Figure. A single 1:6 Scale Figure that utilizes the Armored body type weighs about the same mass of this piece (in our rough estimation). Yet this piece is two to three times as large. And due to its hollowness, you may think a pile of Hasbro action figures might weigh more. So you must be able to gauge how lightly that feels. Although the weight of something doesn’t affect how things appear visually, it still feels like we have been deceived in a weird roundabout way. And with the cheap materials they must have used to achieve such a low overall weight makes us concerned that they will be extremely susceptible to damage in the future which leaves us feeling disheartened. We don’t meant to harp on this for so long, but we were certainly expecting a little more mass in the box than what we received. (And the Imperial Probe Droid comes inside such a large box. It’s really, really deceptive.) There are however many highlights to the Imperial Probe Droid, so lets start concentrating on and discussing them. Sideshow Collectibles added a cool light-up feature. By pressing a hidden button (multiple times) on the top of the Imperial Probe Droid, you can alternate the color of the photoreceptor from bright white to bright orange. The effect is very cool and satisfyingly screen accurate. Sideshow also added a talking feature where “dialogue” of the Imperial Probe Droid from the film can be repeated by pressing a button on the droid’s side.

Imperial Probe Droid comes unassembled in eight separate pieces in the box. Sideshow Collectibles included explicit directions to carefully assemble the droid. Each arm attachment is individually labeled and arms 1-5 and then three separate other attachments are labeled A-C. Each piece has unique male parts that plug into unique female parts which makes life very, very easy for the collector. Some plug in very loosely, while others feel like they will sustain damage if you force them into the piece. It's very stressful. Once again, the arm attachments are beyond impressive. Each has been painstakingly manufactured to included actual gears, pistons and functionality. We’re overwhelmed the details Sideshow Collectibles added to these arm attachments and these additions alone make this the best Imperial Probe Droid collectible on the market. We clearly remember almost breaking down to pre-order the Attakus Probot/Imperial Probe Droid piece they were working on, but now that we have this, we know that Sideshow’s efforts reign supreme. The last thing we would like to mention is that the Imperial Probe Droid sits atop an environmental display stand (cast in plastic) and stands upright on a black pole. We love the Imperial Probe Droid. And we don’t want to take away from that because those feelings are genuine indeed. But it’s way too light and if Sideshow Collectibles has to “fool” us by making their products heavier in an unscrupulous way, then we hope they can find a way to do this. Because right now pieces like this just don’t “feel” right at all.