See-Threepio (C-3PO) - TVC - Basic (VC06)

The Vintage Collection’s See-Threepio (C-3PO) figure is a figure that may first appear a little too hard to swallow for many collectors, but he strangely grows on you in very positive ways. He absolutely fails to impress in some areas like the non-vacuum metalized finish or his bizarre and random removable plates), but he comes with some really neat features that make it extremely hard not to like him. He definitely doesn't have the capability to impress and satisfy the entire collective audience, but we bet that many will be very happy to get him in their collections and even more will be picking him up based on the clamoring of others. And it is only once you start playing with him do you realize just how well he was designed. The sculpt is done quite well although his removable panels may create an aesthetic isn't entirely ideal. In comparison to some of the awesome action figures we have been getting over the last few years, C-3PO will absolutely come in secondary. But he is meant to bring something new to the action figure table that we really have seen with him to date. Of course he isn't perfect. For example, his parts can be out of proportion with each other. Specifically, the symmetry of his body plates are askew and don’t line up together well. And the pieces that are removable just don’t stay in place that well after they are removed the first time. We think that the engineering department was asleep at the wheel here. But the good news is that the faceplate tends to stay on the best. Other pieces like the thigh armor drove us crazy to get it to stick back into place without immediately falling off again. (But it is possible.) Because of the removable faceplate, he really doesn’t resemble the onscreen character that well and we think that this was an action figure that would have been much better served were it released in pieces more like others in the popular Build A Droid series. (We love the Build A Droid figures and we think the mold for the 3PO protocol droid was just phenomenal.) It's not that Hasbro hasn't tried with C-3PO, they absolutely have. It's just that U-3PO in the Build A Droid collection was just made so well. But there is something definitely likeable nonetheless about this C-3PO and we think it takes some adjusting before you see it.

See-Threepio (C-3PO) comes with sixteen points of articulation. His shoulder cuffs add two extra points and since all they really only do is swivel, it isn’t too much to get you excited. This super-articulation makes us rejoice, but we don’t think it improves the quality (and definitely not the aesthetics) of this action figure much at all. Some have disagreed, but we will remain firm in our opinion that C-3PO is too small. This droid is about a quarter to a half an inch shorter than both the 2008 TAC C-3PX (Build A Droid) figure and the 2009 TLC U-3PO (Build A Droid) figure (and all other C-3PO action figures released to date). We really don’t know what has happened here and we find it unfortunate. Why is Hasbro screwing up scale this late in the line? Has this been a figure that has seen delay after delay and they just wanted to knock it out to get rid of it and off of their plate? We really don’t know, but we think that Hasbro needs to think a little more clearly when releasing another 3PO protocol droid in the main line. We'd like to know why Hasbro didn’t use an already excellent and established template for C-3PO, but it appears they were more concerned with giving this version of him a little more play value, and that's exactly what they did. We don't mean to harp over U-3PO but that droid was probably the most perfect 3PO droid for the line and it seems as if Hasbro is not that inclined to use it over and over again. This is a very big shame, but we will let it go. It would have been much more exciting to get a gold painted version of U-3PO in this vintage package than what Hasbro decided to stick in here. (But we are also stuck on movie accuracy too, this is not what Hasbro had in mind here.) This is not a figure that will be the definitive update for anything unfortunately. But we think we are more bothered by the fact that Hasbro included this particular version of C-3PO in The Vintage Collection more than that they released him at all. Because like we said, this figure has really grown on us.

We have sourced this figure to the Expanded Universe, specifically to the Clone Wars. But his play features also directly source him to The Empire Strikes Back, specifically in two scenes, one where Chewbacca is starting to put him back together (with 3PO's removed back plate and all) and when R2-D2 is trying to get the Millennium Falcon into hyperdrive mode where C-3PO is holding his leg and crying "You haven't finished with me yet!" We would have liked to see a wholly movie-specific version of C-3PO on a vintage-styled card back from one of the six films. This means we would have preferred no removable plating. So our best guess remains that C-3PO is based from somewhere within Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars Volume 2. And besides, this action figures looks very "cartoony" so this may be the best place to designate him. (We're reaching here, folks.) This is the scene where it's documented when he received his new gold plating, so it makes the most sense that this action figure is somehow inspired from that period in Star Wars lore. And with the changing of the dull and mismatched plating to the updated gold plating would result in him showing his Episode I “naked� self. We can’t think of any other situation where this “look� would exist. If something like this doesn’t bother you, then you are perhaps much more mentally stable than us, but we wish that Hasbro would reserve these “fancy� interpretations of the most popular Star Wars characters for other avenues (and especially not include them in a line a line that boasts itself as The Vintage Collection.) But those grumbles aside, C-3PO has some really cool surprises. His head and torso come apart in separate pieces and his back plate also can be removed to show some control buttons. His right leg can also be removed and he can hold it quite well in his left hand. These are the aspects of the figure which give him movie-specific characteristics and for that we are thankful. And it's just some of the things that make us start to adore this figure. So, C-3PO may be bittersweet, but he certainly isn't a disappointment in The Vintage Collection. We warmly welcome him even if he is different than any C-3PO to date. Hasbro has given the figure enough to be very interesting. We would have preferred a vacuum metalized body, but the method they used works for him. C-3PO may or may not exceed your expectations, but there is no denying that this is a version we just haven’t seen before in the basic figure line. And that is what is making us fall for him.