R3-D3 - POTJ - Star Tours

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The 2002 Power Of The Jedi Star Tours line excited lovers of droids a great deal. While Star Wars fans always want to see Hasbro make astromech droids that actually appeared in the films, most of us would be willing to take any droid possible because they can be utilized in so many ways in our collections. There were some all-new droid sculpts made in the Star Tours sub-line, but Hasbro also retooled some previously existing sculpts to make “new” droids based on the Star Tours attraction at Disney. One such retool was R3-D3, a fantastic looking R3-series astromech droid that could be seen while waiting in line for the Starspeeder 3000 voyage into the galaxy. The only R3-series droid released before R3-D3 was R3-T7, an Attack Of The Clones Sneak Preview figure released earlier in the year. Surprisingly, Hasbro utilized another astromech droid sculpt instead, gave it a new “see through” dome and called it a day. And the results turned out splendidly. R3-D3 turned out great and although it’s limited in the way you can display it, it looks awesome and we bet you’ll fall in love with it rather quickly.

Utilizing 2000’s POTJ R2-D2 (Naboo Escape) figure, Hasbro completely repainted the sculpt and gave it an all-new head sculpt. Interestingly, it doesn’t look tired and the sculpt doesn’t look overused. R3-D3 has an incredible dirty paint operation and Hasbro added a vast amount of color to make it look quite different from R2-D2. We’re not so sure if R3-D3 looks exactly like the character seen in the Star Tours attraction, but again, it still looks fantastic and we’re thrilled with how well it turned out. R3-D3 does have some significant limitations however. Its legs are permanently positioned at an angle that makes the droid lean back. Obviously R3-D3’s third leg is also angled in a similar fashion to accompany the outer legs. It’s not possible to articulate its “feet” as there are no joints there, so you’re basically left with one position for the droid period. This certainly limits how functional the action figure is and may prevent it from being used in some of your dioramas. Should you decide to use this figure in a droid socket, well, that won’t work either. So “limited functionality” may be the best way to describe the usefulness of this action figure.

There are many spots of dirt collection on R3-D3’s body. In fact, this droid is quite filthy. The color flashes have been applied beautifully and they’re quite bold in spots. Hasbro definitely didn’t play the deco safe here and the final results are beautiful. If you have 2000’s POTJ R2-D2 (Naboo Escape) figure, you know about his rolling wheels. They obviously have been carried forward to R3-D3 also. They function quite nicely and allow the droid to roll along any surface quite easily and smoothly. It’s a simple action feature, but it works quite well. They of course become cumbersome when posing R3-D3 along inclines or declines. The wheels function as they’re intended in these instances and keeping this droid in place can be quite difficult. R3-series astromech droids are one of our personal favorites from the Star Wars films. We really do hope that Hasbro will keep beating them out to bring us all of the R3 units from the Star Wars saga. We know we can’t get enough of them and we believe many collectors feel similarly. R3-D3 may not be from a Star Wars film, but this droid looks so good that it’s believable that it was just off screen. This is one to definitely secure for your collection.