R2-D2 - SW [TPM 3D] - Movie Heroes (MH03)

R2-D2 is one of the droids aboard Queen Amidala's Royal Starship. The plucky astromech droid saves the day when the Queen is forced to flee Naboo after the Trade Federation invades the peaceful homeworld. The Queen's ship is damaged during the escape, and R2-D2 successfully repairs the vessel so that it can complete its getaway.

There are many figures that Hasbro has made a small mint on but one in particular, 2005’s ROTS R2-D2 (III 48) figure, may rank somewhere within the top ten. It was one of the most popular of 2005 and was repackaged countless times in the Saga Legends line year after year. It’s a figure with a decent sculpt, fun electronics (lights and a plethora of sound effects) and was made with the kids in mind first. It’s a figure that lacks in articulation, but Hasbro did manage to squeeze in five points of articulation without compromising the electronics in any way. What’s more interesting perhaps is this figure’s history. This version of R2-D2 wasn’t all-new back in 2005. If you’re a longtime collector, you’re aware that Hasbro reworked the 1998 POTF2 Power F/X R2-D2 figure and made it specific to Episode III. With some new paint, new electronics and all-new sound effects, Hasbro cleverly made something old new again for the last movie of the Star Wars saga.

So now in 2012 Hasbro sees fit to release the electronic R2-D2 again in their brand new Movie Heroes line. While we’re not fond of Movie Heroes line at the moment, we have to give credit where credit is due. We can easily consider the R2-D2 (MH03) figure “new enough” for our collections again. Hasbro gave the figure an all-new paint job. We’re assuming the paint job was inspired from the scene where R2-D2’s name was revealed to Queen Amidala after he saved her Royal Starship from certain doom. (There was a great Power Of The Jedi R2-D2 figure that appear on product listings as R2-D2 “Name Reveal” and we feel that this particular figure serves that spot in the line now.) The figure may not have the power chords on the feet like the newer and more updated models do and the wrong eye port has the light-up electronics, but this is a fun action figure nonetheless.

Hasbro has not only updated the paint job, they have updated the sound effects as well. No longer content with a single digit count, Hasbro has crammed over 30 individual “phrases” into this newly updated R2-D2 figure. That is simply amazing by our account. We kept pressing his button over and over and it endlessly had one new bleep and blurt (or multiples) after another. Obviously with time comes better technology, but even collectors can still be impressed with the energy that Hasbro puts forth in some of their products and their logic for determining which ones will receive updates. Again, we’re not completely sold on the Movie Heroes basic figure line. We think it needs a complete refocus and a new approach. The sad thing is its just begun. (And everyone seemingly agrees that it has started off on the wrong foot.) But give R2-D2 another chance. We bet this little droid will make you smile once again.