Hasbro has seen fit to ignore some pretty character-rich
scenes from the classic trilogy over the years. For some time it was the
infamous Cantina in Mos Eisley, and others would claim Jabba’s Palace is still
sparsely populated (I would disagree, but there’s so many other figures from
Jabba’s bachelor pad that I’d still love to see done!). Still, another scene
that hasn’t been touched on too much for its droid-rich character environment is
the “Purchase of the Droids” scene in A New Hope… Lots of cool oddball droids,
but very few figures to show for them. A pretty nice Gonk Droid, and a sad
excuse for R5-D4 just don’t cut it, but Hasbro’s latest creation of an R1-G4
(Tatooine Transaction) figure really does make one drool for more droid
figures from Hasbro.
This spiffy R1 droid is a big hunk of plastic. He’s heavy,
semi-poseable, and very accurate in sculpt and deco… It’s pretty much what you
would want from this figure, and fills a neat void next to your Jawa army. Read
on for all the astro-navigation goodness this droid delivers… Well, all he’d
deliver if he were real, I guess.
Anyway, just read on… This was a fun one to review.
J
PROS
Sculpt: Not much one can complain about
here… Hasbro has a good knack for sculpting its droid figures to a tee, and
they really did here with R1-G4. The figure has lots of scuffs, scrapes, dings,
dents, and all the other general damage you’d expect of a droid who’s seen some
hard days at the hands of disgusting Jawas.
On top of the heavy-duty damage this fellow has seen over
his (quite obvious) many years, there’s plenty of raised details and separate
pieces molded into the figure. This figure sports a nice large hose and distinct
“skirt” piece around the base, and several raised areas that represent
electronic detail. The dome and body have some nice little grasper arms sculpted
separately, as well as hoses, and some other added details to the dome area.
A nice subtle detail some have noticed is the treads
underneath the figure… Ever wonder how R1-G4 gets around without the Jawas
moving him? Now you know… He has a little track of treads underneath his body
to get him from point A to point B.
One separately molded/added piece to the top of the dome
isn’t accurate though, and that will take a slight point off in the Cons portion
of the review. Few have noticed this, including Hasbro it seems, but I’ve seen
this pointed out by a few people at various forums. I doubt I would’ve even
noticed it had I not read about it elsewhere.
Articulation: Short of this figure having
working treads of some sort, his articulation is about what you could expect…
He’s not an overly complex character, so he’s not really able to do much, or be
posed… The droid lends itself to only limited articulation, but Hasbro did its
best to make him as poseable as possible. Good for them on that point.
The figure sports the following articulation:
-1 rotating “head”/Dome
-1 partially turning lower torso joint
-2 extending “grasper” arms (neat little feature I might add)
Like I said, it’s not a TON of articulation, but for this
figure it’s about as good as you’re going to get. It makes you see why the R1
model was superceded by the R2… R1 is like the Ford Pinto of droids, I
think. Not a particularly hot model, but he translates into a figure with lots
of character.
Decoration/Paint Application: This figure
sports some good paint applications overall, as the droid had a good bit of
intricate detailing like straight lines, odd patterns, and splotchy damage
marks… Hasbro nailed them all pretty well on the figure I have, so I can’t
complain much.
The figure has 3 yellow rings that circle the body at 3 different points. Mine
are as straight as possible on the dinged-up body, and look pretty great. Like
the lines on an old car, they conform to the dents like they were there all
along, and took as much abuse as the body itself did. Pretty cool looking
weathering there.
A strange series of patterns on the dome and body have
scratches and scrapes in them, and the proper detailing appears all over the
figure. The dome’s colors are a grey shade, and the body has various white
markings. They’re all quite well done. I noticed the yellow details appear
around several raised areas of my figure as well, and I don’t see much of any
bleeding or missed spots. This is pretty good considering the thinness of some
of these spots the yellow covers.
Other details include black paint on a hose, a skirt piece that’s a lighter
shade than the body, and LOTS of silver specks and flecks all over the droid
that illustrate some heavy usage over the years. Many of the larger silver marks
are set in the heaviest dents and dings in the figure, and really look quite
well there.
Overall, the figure has a great paint job. Considering this
is an area in which Hasbro sometimes does well, yet sometimes falls woefully
short (depending on the figure), it’s refreshing to see this figure get the due
respect that it deserves.
CONS
Accessories: Unfortunately, R1’s not
sporting any accessories… I’d say that this is probably the biggest detractor
to the figure. You get Zip, Zero, Zilch with this guy. While he’s not a small
figure, he’s also not Ephant Mon sized, so an accessory of some sort would’ve
been appreciated, though I’m not even sure what could be included, aside from
perhaps a Jawa.
A sleeping Jawa like those seen outside the Cantina (Drunk
Jawas as I like to call them) might have been a nice nod though… I’ve always
wanted one of those Drunk Jawas, and that would’ve been a perfect little
additional to add, even if it wasn’t really for this specific scene. In the end
though, this figure looks good in his packaging, and fills it out, but it just
feels slightly dull after opening him and you have nothing but a big old droid
there in front of you.
My point? It’s always nice to get a little extra accessory with any figure, no
matter how dull. I felt the same way about the Dignitary figures, which only
came with a stand. With creative accessory pack-ins, Hasbro can really impress
the consumer for a minimal amount of additional cost (especially if it’s
something they’ve already sculpted and have on-hand - like say, the Galoob
Mousedroid?).
The “Antenna” Thing: There’s a weird little
silver antenna-like thing on the dome… No big deal, right? It’s just part of
the figure, right? Well, no it’s not. I guess Hasbro added this on because they
didn’t have enough reference material to work off of, so this makes the figure
slightly “inaccurate” to it’s screen appearance, I guess, which you’d notice if
you watch the film closely.
I didn’t even originally notice this myself, until it was
later pointed out to me that the antenna thing isn’t an antenna at all. It’s
actually the hoist device the Jawas used to lower R1 down to the Tatooine
desert, to try to pawn him off onto the Lars family. Very strange that Hasbro
didn’t have other reference materials that didn’t include the hoist in them. I
know when working on a custom, I tend to use every reference picture I can
possibly find. It’s a shame Hasbro has this semi-minor blemish on an otherwise
great figure.
Still, it’s not a huge deal to me, and it won’t have a seriously negative effect
on my overall opinion though. It’s just rather disappointing to have a single
flaw like that stand out at you on this guy.
OVERALL
R1-G4 (Tatooine Transaction) is already
proudly displayed in my little Tatooine nook, which was previously filled with
mostly Tusken Raider customs and army builders. So it’s nice to add some more
color to that section, to go along with Beru’s butterfly collar on her 1970’s
duds. R1 really does stand out, mixed in there between some Jawas, Sandpeople,
and the Lars family members.
Now all we need is for Hasbro to crank out the
remaining droids from that line-up, and of course the Sandcrawler, and we’ll be
set for some serious used droid selling action! Uh, yeah, it’s pretty dull when
you think about it, but R1 still made such a great figure!
So keep your eyes peeled for R1, as it was initially released back in late
December. I’ve run into him a couple times in just the last month, so hopefully
you can still find him in your area too. He’s a good figure for anyone to add to
their collection, so I can’t help but recommend you pick up R1-G4 as soon as you
can!
JJ
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