Octuptarra Droid - TCW [R] - Vehicles (Exclusive)

This advanced combat droid stalks into battle on spider-like legs, blasting its multiple laser cannons at Republic forces. The Techno union has created scalable sizes; smaller sizes excel in agility while a much larger size is used as combat artillery. Octuptarra droids take part in battles on Christophsis, Mygeeto and Coruscant, among others, and guard General Grievous at his secret headquarters.

Hasbro clearly did their due diligence to give us some of the best Star Wars products yet in the 2009 year. Octuptarra Droid is one of these fine examples of an exquisitely sculpted toy with a beautiful paint job and articulation that exceeds what the toy actually needed. That coupled with exclusivity should have guaranteed a fast sell-through, but unfortunately it just cluttered shelves. This surprise result also puzzled the fine folks at Hasbro who didn't understand why this product just sat on the shelves. (Um, we knew why, can you say $35?) A vehicle/droid that was seen in Episode III, it should have been a hot commodity to both Prequel Trilogy and The Clone Wars fans and while it may be a highly desired vehicle, obviously price remains to be the stumbling block for exclusives. This is a shame because one to two things will happen: exclusives will be released in even lower numbers or they will stop altogether. We see evidence of this already happening. The third series of Walmart exclusive Droid Factory sets have been canceled. We hope this isn't a sign of the times because if it weren't for exclusives, there would be a lot of things that we clamor for that would never make it to the shelves. And it is a medium for the riskier product to guarantee seeing the light of day. We will just remain hopeful and steadfast that no matter what, exclusives continue to be worthwhile to Hasbro and their retail partners because it would be egregious for them to go the way of the dinosaur one day.

Interestingly, the 2008 TAC Tri-Droid (08 05) basic figure and this Walmart exclusive are interchangeably misnamed. Per multiple sources, the Tri-Droid is the large 50 foot plus vehicle while the Octuptarra Droid is the 3.7 meter tall droid. Obviously, this is exactly opposite (scale wise of course) of the way these droids were named in the toy line. While this may not be a big deal for most (simply because mistakes like this are inevitable with Hasbro) it does cause confusion and if you're not zealously following literature of the behind the scenes stuff, you can be misled. You will be thrilled to know that the Octuptarra Droid has basically the same articulation as the smaller basic figure. This is an incredible feat by Hasbro. The Octuptarra Droid has more articulation, more mass and more "size" than any other vehicle/droid in the mid-size vehicle assortment (it's absolutely incomparable to any other), so it's clear why Hasbro was intent on recouping some of their pennies by making this a store exclusive. Only do we know now from opening this droid up and playing with it do we realize that it is indeed worth the original $35.00 MSRP. Something was missed in translation from the 2009 Comic-Con coverage as well as pre-release photos of this monstrous beast because we had no idea how impressive the final product would be. We hope you are sitting down while reading this because you will need a chair once you find out this toy has 26 points of articulation. Clearly capable of blowing almost every basic figure out of the water when it comes to any articulation competition, the Octuptarra Droid impresses us in this department beyond belief. The joints are designed extremely well and are tight and stiff to hold up the weight of the head and body. It is a magnificently constructed toy.

This version of the Octuptarra Droid is based on the droids that were seen in the Battle of Christophsis in The Clone Wars film. If you check out the various Star Wars information banks on the web, you will discover that other versions in different colors exists (yes, we assume repaint will be coming somewhere down the road). A very durably made Star Wars toy, the Octuptarra Droid wows us in so many ways, we believe you will find yourself speechless about all the wonder this toy possesses. While the original price of this droid is indeed high, when compared to the quantity and quality of similarly sized vehicle (like the ARC-170 for example), the Octuptarra Droid is a bargain. It is almost the same size as the ARC-170 and uses almost the same amount of plastic. So this exclusive is a deal because there is a lot of “product” stuffed into a box the size designed to house a mid-size vehicle. Octuptarra Droid is MUCH bigger. Before Christmas 2009 came, Walmart realized they still had too many units on hand so they ran various specials and lowered its price. But it didn't seem to do much to move them out. After Christmas came, Walmart blew them out for $17.50 so they are clearly on their way out. Unfortunately, it seems to be the only time they starting moving off of the shelves. We highly suggest looking into adding this vehicle to your Star Wars collection. We wish we had gotten ours sooner. Trust us when we say we had no idea what this exclusive truly was until we opened it up. The box is very deceitful and makes you think that the product is MUCH smaller than it actually is. We hope this review inspires you to pick up this awesome toy and we believe you will not have buyer's remorse for picking it up. In fact, we'll surmise that you will want to spread the word too about how incredible this piece is. Trust us when we say it would be a big loss to pass over the Octuptarra Droid. We rave over a lot of Star Wars stuff in this column, but this one is worth its weight in praise (and plastic).