R2-D2 - TAC - Saga Legends

Left alone to guard a pair of Jedi starfighters in the hostile landing bay of the Invisible Hand, Artoo is captured by super battle droids. Thinking quickly, he sprays his attackers with highly flammable lubricant and activates his booster jets, frying the battle droids' circuitry.

In 2005, Hasbro released an electronic version of R2-D2 with a very perplexing card back bio. On the Revenge Of The Sith version of the figure, a very non-canon series of events are described, none of which happened as stated. As we all know clearly, R2-D2 didn’t accompany Padmé to Mustafar. C-3PO did (along with Obi-Wan Kenobi stowed away). R2-D2 arrived with Anakin Skywalker (technically Darth Vader at this point in the film). R2-D2, the one and only electronic basic figure in the Revenge Of The Sith line, is now being offered in Hasbro's "Greatest Hits" line of figures known as Saga Legends. This version of R2-D2 is a figure that both kids and collectors warmly receive. Any action figure of R2-D2 that lights up and makes sounds is going to be popular. Articulation obviously suffers with these types of figures. The wires inside prevent some parts from moving completely and we believe there are many collectors who don’t like to sacrifice this in lieu of bells and whistles. Still, it is absolutely a very good sculpt of our most favorite astromech droid, so it’s possible that collectors may just overlook some of the faults we’re addressing. Although, we're not sure if they're going to plop down another $7 and change to get another one.

R2-D2 looks very clean and for the most part well-painted. He is a very, very slight repaint of 2005's ROTS R2-D2 (III 48) figure. Hasbro has been really good at ensuring that the lines are applied very crisply and that the panels are sharp and boxy. In these regards, R2-D2 looks relatively perfect in our opinion. The eye port that lights up is sadly inaccurate. That should be solid black and the smaller eye port below it should have the electronics, but this is something that Hasbro has no plans to fix, especially since this figure was tooled way back in the modern line's infancy and has been released multiple times as is since. R2-D2 is basically the exact same sculpt as 2002’s SW [S - P1] R2-D2 (Coruscant Sentry) (‘02 #14) figure (with its root figure dating back to the POTF2 era), but for the 2005 ROTS figure and this release Hasbro gave him all-new sound effects (and obviously included less accessories). Limited with only six points of articulation (one of which we’re including is the button press for the electronics lights and sounds), R2-D2 lacks the most by having a dome that doesn’t rotate. What’s worse is that his dome is cocked to his right about 20 degrees and frozen in this position forever.

We would really like to see Hasbro attack an all-new electronic version of R2-D2, making sure that they encapsulate every last accurate and authentic detail into the sculpt. Again, electronic figures are certainly welcomed, but this particular sculpt is already outdated, despite the enhancements Hasbro made to it to make it more relevant to the Prequel Trilogy. But we’re talking about a figure that is beginning to age and has really reached obsolete status already. This doesn’t mean R2-D2 is a bad figure. But that also doesn’t mean we we’d like to see Hasbro update it again some day. The electronic R2-D2 action figure doesn’t really bring that much new to the table, but it goes without saying that it’s a figure that will bring some form of enjoyment to Star Wars fans. We’re just so very surprised that Hasbro didn’t dust off the 2004 VOTC Artoo-Detoo (R2-D2) (With Extension Arm) figure and somehow bring it into the line through the eyes of Episode III yet. On this Saga Legends release, R2-D2 is still based on Episode III by the spound effects and the character's bio, but comes with, for reasons unknown, an Episode V coin.