C-3PO (Death Star Rescue) - SW [S - P3] - Hall Of Fame

C-3PO and R2-D2 are crucial in assisting Luke Skywalker to launch a rescue mission to free Princess Leia from the heart of the gargantuan Imperial space station, the Death Star. Both droids navigate the complex Imperial computer system to provide the rescuers with timely assistance and status updates. The fussy, worry-prone protocol droid finds himself in the middle of tumultuous and dangerous situations as part of the Rebel cause to free the galaxy.

You have to admit that Kenner surprised us all a little when it came to the figures in the Toys R Us exclusive New Millennium Minted Coin Collection from 1998. They could have easily just repacked the basic figures already released into this store exclusive lineup. But they didn’t. Clearly the selling point of these sets were the included reproduction Kenner coins now in gold and with a newly struck reverse side, but all of the figures in these sets were either repainted, retooled and/or kit-bashed to make something new for the collecting community. Tweaking existing sculpts was definitely the biggest selling point for collectors looking for something new to purchase. C-3PO was a great example of this. Taking the head, torso and arms from 1998’s POTF2 [FF/TKC] C-3PO [New Pull-Apart Feature] figure with the legs from the C-3PO figure in 1997’s POTF2 [FF/TKC] Purchase Of The Droids Cinema Scenes set, they inadvertently created a "new" version of the popular droid which ended up turning out better than expected. They also gave the figure a brilliant all-new vac-metallized paint job which gives him a shiny new finish, sort of how he looked at either the beginning or the end of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, and made collectors everywhere quite happy.

Still, this version of C-3PO is meant to represent him from another part of the film. Hasbro felt this figure was great in 1998, and in all honesty it's great again in 2004 as a perfect candidate for Hasbro's Star Wars "Saga" Hall OF Fame collection. Re-titled as C-3PO (Death Star Rescue), this is intended to represent the worrisome and fussy protocol droid as he appeared on the Death Star when he provided information to Luke Skywalker of Princess Leia's whereabouts and/or directions to get out of the Death Star space station. If you think about it, the Hall Of Fame assortment is really a hodgepodge group of characters, but this is Hasbro's way of keeping the most popular characters from the Star Wars saga in the basic figure line at all times. In all honesty, the group of figures chosen didn't make much sense as a whole, but the market dictates that they were needed in the toy line, and this is the way they're coming to us. It's no secret that all collectors would rather see all-new updates to these characters instead, but this is the hand that's been dealt for now. And here is a new chance to pick these up for the first time if you missed them in the past. C-3PO doesn’t come with a whole lot of articulation as you know, but it’s hard to criticize what a fine job Kenner did to cobble this action figure together.

You wouldn’t even know that C-3PO was made from two different action figures. But that’s the magic of Hasbro and how they can make “old” new again. He doesn’t come with any accessories. We would love to see Hasbro give him a comlink one day, but that just isn’t in the plans right now. But other than that, we’re quite pleased with this release. As you know, the New Millennium Minted Coin Collection is all about the brief reintroduction of coins. C-3PO comes with a reproduction of the original 1984 Kenner coin, with a newly revised reverse side and a new color: gold. We have to say that we would have loved to see the original coin in its entirety, but that could possible play with the aftermarket value of the original coins. It’s good Kenner is keeping each generation of coins pure from each other. They developed a beautiful display stand which accommodates both figure and coin. It’s nice to have them posing next to each other in such a classy array of different collectibles. Retailing for $4.99, C-3PO (Death Star Rescue) is half the price of his New Millennium Minted Coin Collection counterpart. This time he comes with a display stand instead of a coin display stand. The newness of this action figure is interesting. We just have to see if this re-release resonates with the rest of the collecting community.