R7-D4 - TCW [SOTDS] - Basic (CW64)

R7-D4 is Plo Koon's astromech droid that provides navigational and repair assistance on the Jedi's starfighter. The Jedi flies many challenging missions during the war, and his resourceful astromech works quickly to keep the Jedi's vessel in flight despite numerous encounters with Separatist vessels and vulture droids.

The Clone Wars basic figure line is really beginning to take off in more ways than one. The figures that make up the second half of 2011 are essentially all-new sculpts (except for the repacks obviously) and this is quite surprising when you think about it because Hasbro already has a ton a great tooling that they can use over and over again. As if 2011's TCW [SOTDS] Captain Rex (CW62) figure didn’t surprise most of us enough, we are excited to report that R7-D4 is another all-new sculpt as well. But what makes R7-D4 particulary interesting is that it is a Build A Droid figure. Hasbro could have just rehashed the available sculpts already in their catalogue of parts, but they didn’t. Hasbro is clearly reinventing the line and trying to find ways to bring us the best sculpted action figures they can in the basic figure line (and other platforms as well) or just deciding the sneakiest ways to throw in additional play value. Tweaking and improving already great figures is a testament to their newfound mission. And if R7-D4 is any indication, it appears that Hasbro is not only updating the line, they are seemingly cleaning house and retiring older sculpts in favor of premium aesthetics and detailed accuracy or again, play value. If we had any complaint at all with R7-D4, we would have to whine about the droid not being R4-F5 instead. (And that would just be silly because that is just based on us wishing that Filoni connected the dots to Tartakovsky a little bit more than he does.) R7-D4 rids the astromech mold of the obnoxious back door cord and instead relies on incorporating the best possible form of how the astromech droids appear in The Clone Wars television series. But that is only the beginning of how this incredible new sculpt supersedes all previous ones.

What you’ll probably notice immediately is the change in how the third leg attaches to the body. It turns 360 degrees around which is a nice feature, and it can detach from the body with a little force because it plugs into the Build A Droid body quite tightly. It can't however go up into the body cavity for storage when not in use. This may seem like a set back, but it looks so much better as is that we’ll take its limitations in favor of having a brilliant looking astromech droid. Because of this new third leg, the figure angles back when "walking around" and the perfect angle and for that we're impressed. Keeping in mind that this figure is an all-new sculpt that comes apart in five pieces, Hasbro carried forward the two opening front panel features. But probably more exciting than the panels are the excellently and newly sculpted utility arms. They are extra thin and look “sharper” and "crisper" than before and even though they are a bit more difficult to pull out from the barreled body, they really look better than ever now to the point of looking fantastic. You’ll have to compare your 2008 TCW [F/S1] R2-D2 (No. 8) figure or your 2010 TCW [SOTDS] R4-P17 (CW30) figure side by side next to R7-D4 to see the improvements made to the new mold. The best way we can describe it is crisper and cleaner. From the diminished line on its dome (where the two halves are glued/molded together) to the more accurately proportioned and shaped panels on the front and back of its body, you’ll quickly see why you’ll want all future astromech droids to be based off of R7-D4. In a small setback, Hasbro added extra “holes” below where the two legs attach, exactly like the Build A Droid sculpts had. And R7-D4 has the distinction of being the first animated Build A Droid figure! As we have mentioned, it breaks down into five separate pieces: dome, body, left leg, right leg and third foot.

And if an updated body is still not enough to make you excited then take in the magnificent paint job. Hasbro has really stepped up to the plate with their paint operations. R7-D4 has a relatively simple color scheme, but it’s the small things that should make you appreciate what Hasbro has done. For example, R7-D4 has sequential “lights” running horizontally on the back of its dome (just like their previous astromechs). Yes, we have seen this pattern before, but check out how nicely they were applied this time. There are now five perfectly squared/rectangled “lights” and they couldn’t look better. Is this insignificant detail even worth mentioning? We have to say yes. We are detail-oriented and we love it when Hasbro takes time to enhance an action figure. Good paint jobs are extremely important to great sculpts. And the best news is that neither was sacrificed for R7-D4. Despite being an all-new sculpt, R7-D4 still fits in wonderfully with the rest of the astromech droids in The Clone Wars line. So you’ll have plenty of fun pitting R7-D4 against R2-D2 to recreate their little spat in the Jedi Temple. (Some reports have stated that this new droid sculpt doesn't fit well in the droid socket. It stays in there loosely and sits a little too low.) But whatever you decide, you can be happy knowing that Hasbro is shaping up The Clone Wars line and truly making some of the best action figures they ever have now. It’s the small things. R7-D4 is small in stature and small in its appearance in The Clone Wars, but this droid is extra large in quality. Kudos to Hasbro! It will be really interesting to see if Hasbro has plans to develop the Build A Droid feature into The Clone Wars format!