R2-H16 - Droid Factory

All different types of Astromech droids populate the Star Wars galaxy. Each droid is different and has their own unique personality and colors. This jovial Astromech is optimized to function and serve in remote, sub-zero environments. Join R2-H16 on his adventure throughout the galaxy. May the Force be with you... and your droids!

It appears Disney Parks has found a somwhat lucrative trend to follow as they’ve released the second “Holiday” R2 Unit in their popular Droid Factory line. They do a great job of making something holiday-themed without making it look completely ridiculous either. With a little bit of energetic brainstorming, a Star Wars holiday themed action figure is once again made possible. And we now have a friend for last year’s R2-H15. As Disney continues to knock great Build A Droid concepts out of the park while Hasbro sits on it lazily, it’s great to see that this once great pack-in premium is being utilized in some other fashion. Disney has been rather consistent with releasing their own unique brand of astromech droids for various special celebratory events. If there is an occasion to release some celebratory Droid Factory figure, it’s a good bet Disney is going to do it. Now an astromech droid with a floppy winter hat has been added to the standard R2 unit Build A Droid sculpt to create R2-H16, a series we hope to see continued for the next couple of years. Droid lovers should consider themselves fortunate, and the rest of the Star Wars collectors should also be happy to add yet another droid with unique paint operations into their collections as well.

R2-H16 is a cool-looking astromech droid, but it doesn’t grab you as strongly as last year’s R2-H15. Nonetheless, we’re happy to add in to our collections after more than a decade of receiving no holiday-themed action figures from Hasbro. R2-H16 is really for all intents and purposes a simply decorated action figure done up in the colors of Christmas. Sure, this droid is bright and colorful and has contrasting colors to bring it to life, but there aren’t any fancy patterns or details utilized here making it pop out that strongly in your collection. We would love to see some cool Christmas-specific patterns added to these droids to make them really unique. Perhaps even a plaid print would make these holiday themed astromech droids look pretty amazing. With a solid dark red base color, R2-H16 is flashed with red, gold and green highlights (once again just like Culture Club’s Karma Chameleon song from the 80s). The droid is bright, cheerful and exudes all of the wonderful sentiments and feelings that Christmas is notoriously able to bring forth each and every year. While its sculpt is nothing out of the ordinary because it utilizes the standard R2-series Build A Droid mold, R2-H16 has that edge because of what it represents.

The paint operations aren’t perfect, but we doubt any collector would find that much fault with the way it has been painted. It is very well done despite its imperfections. We have to concede that the addition of a floppy-eared green winter hat is equally cute as it is silly. But interestingly it seems to fit on the droid well as Disney was able to tool a hat the correct size. This cap doesn’t look too small or too large. We still prefer to display the figure without it however. It’s just a personal thing; we like our droids to fit in more with the Star Wars universe than an Expanded Universe (if that makes sense). You may feel differently about that. R2-H16 will look fantastically on the shelf with the rest of your holiday-themed action figures including R2-D2 & C-3PO, Yoda, Jawas and Holiday Darth Vader; the figures Hasbro gave us throughout the many years. And let’s be honest. They’re all Expanded Universe in one way or another. Whether it be Hasbro’s concepts, Disney concepts or something documented in concept art, they all help to round out the Star Wars universe a little bit more interestingly. R2-H16 definitely brings renewed interest into the holiday themed action figures.