R1-G4 (Tatooine Transaction) - SW [S - P3] - Basic (’04 #06)

An old model astromech droid abandoned after the capture of its owner, R1-G4 was one of the droids that the Jawas scavenged to rebuild and sell to Tatooine colonists. Using cobbled-together weaponry, the Jawas probably incapacitated the droid then dragged it to their immense treaded sandcrawler. R1-G4 was one of the droids rounded up when Imperial stormtroopers arrived on Tatooine looking for the escaped droids R2-D2 and C-3PO.

There is one thing that collectors will never be able to take away from the Star Wars “Saga” line. And that “thing” is the wonderful sculpting Hasbro gave a large chunk of the action figures in this collection. This is a line where you’ll have to put your articulation preferences to the side because if you don’t you’ll never be able to cherish the dynamic sculpts of characters from across the Original Trilogy as well as The Phantom Menace and Attack Of The Clones. Take for instance R1-G4. It’s definitely an action figure that lacks a large amount of articulation, especially by the definition we hold, but it is nonetheless already a definitive take on the character and will never need to be revisited again, aside from a gray repaint to make a different R1 unit from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. R1-G4 is easily one of our most favorite action figures from the entire Star Wars “Saga” line. It may just be mostly a hunk of solid plastic with little articulation, but it is sculpted beautifully and painted even better than it sculpt to match the very briefly appearing character we saw for sale outside of the Jawa sandcrawler.

R1-G4 is powerfully sculpted with incredible attention to detail. Little but yet very important details like the droid’s slouching posture has been included here amongst many other mechanical features. You’ll find wiring, two claw grips (which make up about half of this action figure’s articulation alone) and other separately sculpted attachments worked into this figure to bring the truest sense of realism forth possible. You might be interested to learn however that Hasbro sculpted the cable/cord that carried this droid down from the sandcrawler has been mistaken for an antenna here. It's not a huge deal however. Again, the sculpting that went into R1-G4 (Tatooine Transaction) cannot be taken for granted. The droid has a swivel dome and swivel lower body section, but because the tooling is so streamlined, you may not know these points of articulation are even present. You may also be interested to know that the utility “arm” on its dome is also swivel articulated. Hasbro even took the time to sculpt the tread on the bottom of R1-G4 (Tatooine Transaction) to add extra details that perhaps many collectors would normally take for granted. They likely were able to add this particular detail because of the money saved because of the droid’s limited articulation, but for whatever reason, it was worth the extra time and effort to do this.

You know we’re crazy over the tooling, but you should know that the paint job significantly rivals the sculpting. Hasbro expended multiple paint operations to recreate an exact replica of the character seen in Episode IV. Let is reiterate. It’s an exact match. The paint job on R1-G4 (Tatooine Transaction) could have been more accurately ascribed. Aside from a few unclean lines and some muddiness in some of the white applications, R1-G4 (Tatooine Transaction) is gorgeous. The gray patterns on the dome are especially impressive. It’s easy to see that although this droid is simple in articulation, it’s diametrically opposite in deco. R1-G4 (Tatooine Transaction) has the very special distinction of being a character Kenner had planned at one point for the vintage line but ultimately never came to fruition. For the many collectors who grew up with these classic toys, seeing R1-G4 (Tatooine Transaction) is especially nostalgic, in fact poignantly emotional. It’s so wonderful to see this “old school” model astromech finally get produced for the basic figure line. Hasbro gave collectors a huge gift here. We are so thankful to see it get manufactured with such love and care. It is a must-have figure.