R2-A6 - EI - Action Collection

In a galaxy far, far away, an evil force is gaining strength and threatens an entire civilization. Two courageous Jedi, a young queen, a Gungan outcast, and a slave boy named Anakin, band together to save a planet under attack as the fate of the galaxy hangs in the balance.

Although Kenner/Hasbro produced a few astromechs based on the original Action Collection R2-D2 figure, it took them a couple more years to provide collectors with a direct “repaint” of it to turn it into a completely different character. For the Episode I line, that changed, and they released the most random astromech droid in the Action Collection line: R2-A6. R2-A6 is a bizarre choice because it's barely seen during the Battle of Naboo. It’s one of the droids that fought in the Battle of Naboo seated in a Naboo starfighter, but often mistaken for on the queen’s Royal Starship droids, The latter is R2-N3. Not part of the 3.75” Episode I CommTech line, it’s odd that Hasbro chose a character to make in the Action Collection scale that they didn’t produce for the 3.75” scale which is the focus of their license. (Editor’s Note: Thank to The Saga Collection’s Astromech Droid Pack II, we finally got a 3.75” version of R2-A6.) Ultimately, R2-A6 doesn’t bring anything new to the table but a different color.

Hasbro tooled a fair and accurate representation of an R2-series astromech droid Action Collection figure. All of R2-A6’s components are in place and accurately reflect the onscreen character or any Star Wars astromech droid for that matter. A sculpt from 1997, it’s not that old, but it’s, unfortunately, limiting in movement. The two outer legs don’t fully articulate. The move from an upright position to a slanted position (for use with the extension of the third leg), but they stop at a certain point and prevent more aggressive posing because the options don’t exist. You’re prevented from moving the legs after a certain point. The limitation of movement in the legs is a disappointment. The dome of R2-A6 swivel completely, which is a nice feature, but Hasbro vac-metallized which is screen-inaccurate for the character. They should have used a brushed-nickel style of deco for optimum screen-accuracy. But as all collectors know, Hasbro has a blind spot with this error, as noted by the consistency of its constant use.

If we were in control of the Hasbro Star Wars Episode I line, we would have chosen a droid with a little more color. R2-B1 and R2-R9 are much brighter, more distinct, and drastically different than the color palette of R2-D2 or R2-A6. It’s a short and sweet description of the droid, but R2-A6 is nothing more than a green R2-D2. And by green we only mean where R2-D2 has blue, R2-A6 has green. Imagine the first-ever blue-colored R2-series astromech droid with yellow detail, or the first red-colored R2-series astromech droid with white detail in the Action Collection line. Still, a part of us applauds Hasbro for making a character in the Action Collection line that they have no intentions for releasing in the 3.75” line. It creates want. It creates desire. And it keeps us engaged in the Star Wars toy line by making us think about how many characters need to be done in the standard 3.75” scale. R2-A6 might not bring much newness to the table, but we appreciate its release in the Episode I Action Collection line.