R4-K5 (Darth Vader’s Astromech Droid) - TSC - Basic (SAGA 066)

By the time we thought The Saga Collection was wrapping up in the summer of 2006, Hasbro pleasantly surprised us with a very cool announcement at San Diego Comic Con of that same year that three more waves of figures would be coming. The extra waves were necessary since the upcoming collection celebrating 30 years of Star Wars was in need of some fine tuning and was delayed until March of the following year. So Hasbro came up with action figure concepts that stretched across all six films and dug deeply into the Expanded Universe including books and concept art. And with a great base sculpt like 2005’s ROTS R4-G9 (4 of 4) Sneak Preview figure, it would make sense that Hasbro would use this over and over to bring us some very unique (and much wanted) astromech droids. And that’s exactly what they did for R4-K5 who serves as R2-D2’s replacement. Anakin Skywalker, now known in the galaxy as Darth Vader uses this new astromech in his newly painted Jedi starfighter.

R4-K5 is a wonderful addition to your collection of astromech droids. It’s not very often that we get astromechs that are all black. This is a shame because R4-K5 is awesome and we would love to see a whole bunch more get released into the basic figure line. There are plenty of black astromechs throughout the Original Trilogy, so Hasbro has many options for making this become a reality for collectors. R4-K5 previously only existed in the text of a book. Hasbro has made its appearance a reality with its inclusion in The Saga Collection. If you recall, we got just a taste of R4-K5 when Hasbro released 2006’s TAC Darth Vader’s Sith Starfighter right before the 30 (77-07) began the following year. Hasbro has graciously “completed” the figure with a great sculpt and a stunning paint job and it should be popular amongst the most discriminating collectors. R4-K5 unsed to be a Jedi's astromech droid and evidently had a completely different paint scheme, but those details are unclear as to what they exactly are.

R4-K5 is as dark as its owner. While it would be incorrect to refer to its color as black, the dark gray is close enough to refer to this droid as dark. The droid is highlighted with black details and the only other color outside of this color scheme is red which as been used to color the the buttons on its lower right and one of the eyes on its dome. Perhaps the most exciting this thing about R4-K5 is the way in which the dome was painted. Hasbro has abandoned the shiny dome and utilized a paint job that looks like its brushed nickel. We are thoroughly impressed. By twisting the dome , the third leg rolls up into the cavity. Unfortunately, the foot on this third leg has been assembled backwards, so it never sits flush with the ground while the two other main legs are. This shouldn’t be happening at this stage of the game. Despite this minor issue, R4-K5 is a true pleasure for collectors. You may want to ensure it makes it to your collection soon because it likely will never see re-release again. Hasbro has a gold mine on their hands. No new tooling an infinite repaint opportunities abound. Let's hope they get down to business soon.