R2-D2 (Coruscant Sentry) - SW [S - P1] - Basic (’02 #14)

Ten years after the fight to save Naboo from invasion, the galaxy is on the brink of civil war. Under the leadership of a renegade Jedi, thousands of solar systems threaten to secede from the Galactic Republic. A courageous Jedi Knight, his impulsive and headstrong apprentice, and a queen-turned-senator are drawn into the heart of the conflict... and the beginning of war.

The ever-faithful R2-D2 is utilized to guard Senator Padmé Amidala. Always resourceful, R2-D2 sounds an alarm when an attempt on her life is made by an assassin droid that inserts kouhuns assassin centipedes into Padmé’s sleeping chambers.

It was inevitable that R2-D2 would make his way into the very first wave of the Star Wars “Saga” line, but it is probably less expected that Hasbro would dig out an old electronic version of him from The Power Of The Force Power F/X series to do it. It’s true, R2-D2 (Coruscant Sentry) was likely chosen to be made out of the 1998 electronic figure because of the light-up features in the film, but its release as a basic figure in 2002 makes it definitely feel dated and the nature of the sculpt makes it very limiting on what you can do with him. If you’re into light-up features and sound effects, this is a great action figure for you. Five new “Episode II specific” sound bites were added to the chip and every time you press the center of his body, the sound effects go into a rotation to make the figure “talk” and whistle as you desire. In Episode II, R2-D2 guards Padme Amidala as she sleep in her apartment, but not even R2’s sensors can alert the senator in time. Only Jedi instincts rescue her from the Kouhun centipedes as Anakin and Obi-Wan dash into her room and handle it the Jedi business way.

So, R2-D2 (Coruscant Sentry) has been tweaked for its 2002 release. Most interesting is a new 2001 date stamp which tells us that some tweaking has been done to the design, but it most likely has been concentrated on the electronics inside rather than anything on the outside. R2-D2 (Coruscant Sentry) comes with only five points of articulation, two swivel legs,two hing-jointed ankles and a hinge-jointed third foot, because if Hasbro allowed a rotating dome, it could have compromised the integrity of the mechanics and wiring inside of the figure, so we’re left with a rather dull action figure. It’s not because it is bad, it’s just that we have seen this electronic version of R2-D2 for far too long now and it has become a bit stale and common. The eye port incorrectly lights up in brilliant orange and the sounds that emanate from his body cavity are loud and borderline obnoxious. With only movable arms, R2-D2 (Coruscant Sentry) doesn’t have the needed body movement required to make this an action figure that meets the standards of most of the collecting public. The only difference in tooling that we can notice is that the magnets have been removed from the feet. Other than that it’s just a repaint.

What makes this R2-D2 (Coruscant Sentry) action figure unique are the included kouhun centipedes. Despite their small size they actually look pretty good. They’re I scale with R2-D2 and they looks creepy and crawly enough to make you shutter a bit. What’s most impressive about them is that they possess an excellent paint job each. A few different layers of paint have been used to bring these creatures to life. Interestingly, they’re not completely screen accurate with the actual creatures in the film. The ones in the film had a much more obvious tubular body whereas the toys interpretations of these creatures are flatter and perhaps based on a real earthly centipede instead. We’re not exactly sure, but there is indeed something off with them. Buy when posed alongside R2-D2, we think that they look great. We would have loved if Hasbro could have created an all-new sculpt of R2-D2 instead of what they released here, maybe with some cool scanning effect attachment or better and more screen accurate light-up features. But we suppose we will just have to wait for a future release when it is decided that an approach like that would be the ideal route.