Destroyer Droid - SW [TPM 3D] - Movie Heroes (MH12)

A more threatening weapon than a battle droid, destroyer droids are employed by the Trade Federation to compensate for weakness within battle droid armies. Also known as droidekas, destroyer droids were engineered specifically as mobile machines of destruction, capable of eliminating practically any opposition.

Now that Saga Legends is dead, Hasbro is pretty much continue the premise of it via the Movie Heroes line now. But instead of getting some classic super-articulated action figures, Hasbro is finding their simplest sculpts and charging a premium for them. Sure, you get some extras like a Galactic Battle Game card, a die and a display stand, but figures that were once $4.99 are now $9.99 and from a collector’s perspective it’s quite painful. We’re pretty confident that the Destroyer Droid will ALWAYS be a character in any Hasbro greatest hits line. They never get tired of re-releasing this action figure. We’ve received our fair share of them released throughout the years and it shows no signs of stopping. Just released in 2011’s Star Wars [Shadow Of The Dark Side] line (Destroyer Droid SL31), the Destroyer Droid once again comes with parts to play a game. The first wave of Movie Heroes is a disaster. Collectors are perplexed and astounded by Hasbro’s twelve choices for this case assortment. It’s essentially rehash hell. Hasbro actually believes it is a perfect wave for retail as it has characters that kids love. It clearly is what it is however. It’s here and it’s not going to change. We’re just a little setback by it because it will endanger new figures planned for the line because it will block distribution.

Back in the day, Hasbro made the fun and well-sculpted 2005 ROTS Destroyer Droid (III 44) figure. It's held up alright throughout the years, but frankly the figure is a bit boring at this point. After its basic figure release, it quickly became a staple in the many Saga Legends lines. And it's even had quite a history before that too! Like so many other droid sculpts from the past, the Destroyer Droid started from Hasbro’s 2002 SW [S - P1] Destroyer Droid (Geonosis Battle) (’02 #48) figure. They also tweaked the figure quite a bit and repainted it, but the shell of the figure still remains with this release. Yes, it has an annoying action feature and maybe its posture isn’t terribly screen accurate, but the figure does look OK. Now the figure is part of the Movie Heroes line. Hasbro very slightly tightened up/refreshed the figure with a new paint job when it started in the Saga Legends lines, and it is this version that has been brought forth into the Movie Heroes line. The same action features are still in place which add some extra play value for kids. The “shoulders” on the Destroyer Droid are still terribly loose, but they need to be to activate the action feature. You’ll notice that all of the figures in the first wave of Movie Heroes are chuck full of action features. Collectors are not Hasbro’s focus for this collection of figures.

There is no way possible that the Destroyer Droid is going to be the most popular figure in the Movie Heroes line. Besides, Hasbro is competing against itself because they produced a superior version, 2012’s SW [TPM 3D] Destroyer Droid (3 of 12) in the Walmart exclusive Discover The Force line. You get a whole lot more with the Discover The Force release and it’s an infinitely better action figure. Hasbro should have released that figure more often than they do this one. The Movie Heroes line must serve some purpose that we’re just not seeing. But they’re overlapping too many figures within this sub-line as well as the other lines like Discover The Force and The Vintage Collection. Too much of the same things just isn’t wise. When figures keep getting released and released over and over again they tend to lose their magic and because of this collectors with money lose interest. Then the figures start to rot on pegs. We don’t know how many collectors will see the Destroyer Droid as a necessary purchase, so perhaps this one has been released exclusively for the young kids in mind. A simple yet important retooling of the sculpt would have updated this character to be more screen accurate, but the first wave of the Movie Heroes line has all be either straight repacks or repaints of very old sculpts.