C-3PO - Real Action Heroes

A fussy and worry-prone protocol droid, C-3PO was cobbled together from discarded scrap and salvage by a nine-year old prodigy on the desert planet Tatooine.

Sometimes licensees shoot themselves in the foot by showing off prototypes of their collectibles before they’re fully ready. This couldn’t be more true for the Real Action Heroes C-3PO figure. If we had never seen the production figure on display at a Toy Show, we would have made one of the biggest mistakes in our own collecting lives: passing on this figure. It’s sad that even after C-3PO went into production that Medicom Toy didn’t bother to update the prototype images and replace them with the production images. (See the solicitation image HERE. It looks nothing like C-3PO.) We believe had they done that we it's likely that C-3PO would have sold out beyond expectations, regardless of price, because it is truly one of the greatest high end interpretations of this character we have ever seen. That's no exaggeration either. This all-new sculpt was quite a feat for the staff of Medicom Toy to produce. They painstakingly recreated every last detail on C-3PO's complicated structure. From the sensors on the hands to the mechanics of his gears and pistons which give him much of his movement, Medicom Toy evidently had a clear cut goal in mind to ensure themselves that they would indeed be creating the consummate C-3PO collectible. There isn’t a detail missed. From the vacuum metallization shiny finish on his plating to the stunning use of electronics that give his eyes piercing brightness when lit to the impressive array of articulation, C-3PO from the Real Action Heroes line should be one of your priorities for you one-sixth scale collection.

C-3PO comes with what Medicom Toy refers to as a “highly articulated” body. In our assessment, this means that the figure isn't super-articulated. But would you expect C-3PO to be super-articulated? You get great movement in the head, shoulders, elbows, wrists and torso. And then the lower body gives minimal movement, despite multiple points of articulation that total somewhere in the ballpark of 18 points. (Many of the lower body joints are inhibited, but the figure still looks fantastic.) To be as screen accurate as possible, Medicom Toy ensured that C-3PO's right leg received a silver mismatched leg (right shin and foot area). The pieces of his exoskeleton have been brilliantly crafted. While C-3PO gives off a very clean appearance, a close inspection of the parts will indeed reveal dirt and/or rust accumulation. The wiring detail in C-3PO’s abdomen alone is beautifully decorated as well. There are more colors present there than we knew existed (provided it’s screen accurate) and the complicated arrangement of overlapping wires has been messily contained. It looks amazing. We won’t misrepresent this figure. Again, it doesn’t come with a ton of articulation, but there is enough here to make any type of collector happy as far as we’re concerned. We hope you care about how we feel about that too. But every detail on C-3PO is wonderfully proportional and he has a perfect silhouette. Nothing looks bulky or out of place.

The best feature on C-3PO is his light-up eyes. One thing is for sure, Medicom Toy knows how to hide functional buttons and incorporate them seamlessly into their figures. The textured and circular detail on the back of his head is actually an “on” and “off” switch for his stunningly bright light-up eyes. But we love how the power is supplied just as much. The box on his upper back is removable and there is a LR44 battery compartment which provides the power. So when we saw Chewbacca working on C-3PO’s back so he could restore power to C-3PO (including the illumination of his photoreceptors), you too can supply power to C-3PO in the same fashion. It’s fantastic to see Medicom Toy recreate this realism even on a collectible version, that we are able to make C-3PO light-up similarly. When you press the button on the back of C-3POs head, the photoreceptors emit a powerful bright light. At the right angle (due to the grating detail in his eyes), you can clearly see C-3PO’s “pupil” in the center of the three equidistant beams of light that provide the strong glow. You simply press the button on the back of his head again to turn off the light. There isn’t too much more we would ask for in a C-3PO one-sixth scale figure. What’s more, C-3PO perfectly complements the R2-D2 figure in this line. They may be a slightly smaller scale to other one-sixth scale figures, but they are simply perfect in our eyes. We love them both. They are must-have one-sixth scale figures.