R3-T7 - POTJ - Sneak Preview

Ten years after the fight to save the Naboo from invasion, the galaxy is on the brink of civil war. Under the leadership of a renegade Jedi, thousands of solar systems threaten to secede from the Galactic Republic.

A courageous Jedi Knight, his impulsive and headstrong apprentice, and a queen-turned-senator are drawn into the heart of the conflict... and the beginning of war.

R3-T7 was released a month before Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones hit theaters, but even if you saw the film you likely missed this droid altogether. In fact, most fans believed that R3-T7 was from a deleted scene in the film, created way before the final cut of the film was determined. They were wrong. R3-T7 is indeed in Episode II, albeit the astromech droid is barely noticeable in the scene in which it appears. In fact, unless you’re looking for it you probably will miss it entirely. After Anakin and Obi-Wan defeat Zam Wesell in the Outlander Nightclub, they rush out with her in tow onto a busy position of the Coruscant streets. The camera panned upwards in an aerial view and way in the background you can see both R3-7T and R5-C4 roll across the screen. You’ll never get a good close up view of them in the film. Only reference materials will reveal this droid in detail. Thankfully, Star Wars collectors will get a good view of this droid in the Power Of The Jedi Sneak Preview line which features four figures from Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones. R3-T7 is another great astromech release and we’re glad that it was on Hasbro’s radar to produce in 3.75” scale.

R3-T7 is a retool of 2002’s POTJ R4-M3 action figure. This time however the figure comes with a newly sculpted R3-series astromech dome and an all-new third foot. For reasons unknown, Hasbro decided to waste tooling dollars on creating a third foot without faux wheels, as R3-T7’s third foot is “smooth” unlike the two outer feet. The new dome is quite impressive. It’s loaded with a ton of gears and circuitry and the translucent shell showcases the splendor of it all beautifully. As this is the very first R3 unit in the basic figure line, we hope Hasbro brings us a ton more R3-series astromech droids in the future. Still not perfect, R3-T7 still has the third leg issue. It still doesn’t completely go all the way up into the body cavity and the third foot “dangles” instead of tucks itself away discretely. We find that problematic and one of the only major issues with this sculpt. Still, the new dome is quite exciting and we bet that collectors may overlook the “bug” here and just appreciate the newness brought forth. R3-T7 comes in a beautiful lime green color scheme. We’re not entirely sure if Hasbro nailed the color or not, but we can tell you that we’re thoroughly impressed with its appearance.

The part of R3-T7 which may allow fans to believe it’s based on a deleted scene is the included electro effect. It encircles the astromech droid completely. Thankfully, it’s easily removable and can just serve as an accessory for some alternate play value and nothing else. Many of the characters in the Star Wars “Saga” line have these screen inaccurate accessories also, so it makes sense that Hasbro would include them on the introductory characters as well. With a total of seven points of articulation, R3-T7 is a worthy candidate in the basic figure line. R3-T7 strongly resembles R3-Y2 from Echo Base in The Empire Strikes Back. It may be prudent of Hasbro to quickly utilize this sculpt to bring collectors as many Original Trilogy R3-units as possible. And just a slight change in color (and perhaps a few paint operation changes) this could be easily done to create R3-Y2. Astromech droids are an important point of the Star Wars saga and it’s wonderful to see Hasbro make a concerted effort to get them into the basic figure line right from the start. Episode II has a ton of them, so it’s quite possible that Hasbro will be busy for years recreating them for us in the basic figure line, or any other way possible in the future. (Editor's Note: An incorrectly colored R3-Y2 was released in 2006's TSC Astromech Droid Pack Series II multipack, so we need a redo.)