R4-6D0 - TBS [P4] - Six Inch Figures (TM35)

With Nevarro under siege by pirates, Greef Karga uses his trusted astromech droid R4-6D0 to send a plea for help to New Republic pilot Carson Teva.

Here we go again! Hasbro has developed new tooling, and they cannot wait to reuse it to amortize their tooling expenses while adding some diversity into a templated character form. Don’t get us wrong, we love the many astromech droid and clone trooper repaints Hasbro does. It adds color and charm to the 6-inch and 3.75-inch figure lines and helps the world build our collections. R4-6D0 is under the ownership of Greef Karga and uses the droid to phone for help as the Nevarro cantina gets attacked. And aside from that, not much else is known about this droid. It is the first R4 unit using the new tooling in The Black Series 6-inch line, and we’re happy to see Hasbro branch out the various astromechs that are part of the Star Wars universe. This colorful droid has red and orange details and an off-white body color underneath it. The new dome looks fantastic and comes with all of the same features that R2-D2 and R5-D4 had when they were released. The Mandalorian is undoubtedly a famous story in the Star Wars universe, and collectors always seem to relish the many characters Hasbro produces from it. We can only hope more droids like this get peppered into the lineup, and we desperately need others.

We always felt that Hasbro made a definitive astromech “buck” action figure in The Black Series 6-inch line with the release of the upgraded R2-D2, and we’re confident that this is the new gold standard from which we’ll see all other astromech droids built. A pattern is forming, and we’re thrilled to see it manifest itself in fantastic characters like R4-6D0. We hope and pray for this uniformity to happen and that they’ll break the molds of the original R2-D2 figure, never to make it again. We don’t believe that is a concern because they likely want to keep producing figures using this tooling to show off their work. There are no more removable side panels on the legs, thank goodness. These colored sections are bolder and more prominent, and it does the tooling a world of good by reducing the number of removable parts. The basic articulation system of the original R2-D2 figure is intact here. We get a swivel dome, two swivel main legs, three hinge-jointed feet, and a slide-out third leg. Coincidentally, no rolling wheels are on the bottom of any feet. We prefer this approach more as the wheels were accurate but a nuisance when displaying the droid on a shelf or display. However, a new feature is the slide-up dome, which houses a display area for R4’s attachments.

R4-6D0 has two opening vertical front panels. Each side has three holes where you can insert the four arm attachments into the figure’s body at various heights. Hasbro included a pinching arm, a datalink tool, a spray gun arm, and an unknown miscellaneous arm attachment. Each plug into one of the body’s six holes as you prefer, and the functionality is excellent. We get a lot of interchangeability here, and we love how Hasbro captured most of the astromech droid’s tools from the Star Wars saga, even if R4-6D0 didn’t use them. Hasbro also incorporated two articulated front arms (the ones horizontally in orange). We see this on the TVC figure, so it’s nice to see it here. Interestingly, Hasbro relegated R4-6D0 as a Walmart exclusive. There are some odd choices for retailer exclusives these days. But this character would have spiced up the general marketplace case assortments. Imagine finding a colorful droid like this one on store shelves instead of the umpteenth sexless female from Disney Star Wars. Maybe young boys would show an interest in Star Wars again. But what do we know? R4-6D0 has an MSRP of $24.99. It’s not a surprise; we should expect these laughable prices from here on out. But in all seriousness, this is a lovely action figure.