Darth Vader's Sith Starfighter - Hasbro - 30th Anniversary Collection (2006)

The Astromech Collection - Only We Can Make It Happen!

Posted by Paul | September 28, 2013 at 01:17 PM ET

So, as a community we definitely do a lot of grumbling about what Hasbro has been doing (or more accurately not been doing) with the collector-focused part of the toy line. While there is always room for improvement, cost has stopped Hasbro in their tracks in many instances, to the point that they just can't bring us the volume of things they did in the past. This in turn makes it rare for us to find something that interests us. We then become slowly disengaged. Less stuff makes some collectors happy, but for others it only makes us pine for more, or simply lose interest in the hobby. 2012 was one of the worst years for collectors, but Hasbro brought us one of the greatest multipacks of all time: the Royal Starship Droids Battle Packs set from the Discover The Force line. It sold out very quickly and people are still trying to acquire it for their collections. It got us thinking. (more....)

If Hasbro could bring us multiple sets of straight repacks utilizing the various Build A Droid sculpts (and maybe one or two other previously tooled droid sculpts), it would be something that would engage both kids and collectors: Kids for the "building" aspect and collectors for giving us a whole new wave of characters to check off on our wishlists. What follows below are eleven ideas of four figure multipacks that only use the previously tooled Build A Droid sculpt (save for a couple of exceptions). We want to present these ideas to Hasbro at the NYCC Preview Party to see if they would be willing to bring us something of this magnitude, but we need to know how you feel about it first. Sets like these will kill multiple birds with one stone and, in our opinion, make everyone very happy. But we NEED your feedback and suggestions in order to do this. Please come together and add your two cents. If you want to see other droids not mentioned, let us know, add pictures in the comments or do whatever it takes to make your voice heard. We will inform Hasbro of everything. To Hasbro: Put the Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi sculpts down! And don't release another version of them for at least a year. Give us something that kids and collectors can equally enjoy and support. We WILL buy this!

Special thanks to site Star Wars Astromech Droids for great reference materials and detailed notes about so many backgrounds droids from the Star Wars saga.

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace Droid Pack:
R2 "Mystery Droid" (Black R2 unit on the Queen's Royal Starship), a corrected version of R2-T0, an undesignated astromech in Watto's shop, and the yet-to-be-released "in limbo" R5-X2.

Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones Droid Pack:
Undesignated red and white R2 unit on the streets of Coruscant, battle-damaged "R2" unit also on the streets of Coruscant (maybe the remains of R2-R9 from Episode I – a joke), an update to R4-A22 (Dexter's Diner) and a first time offering of R4-T8 (also outside Dexter's Diner)

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith Droid Pack:
Two undesignated R2 units on the Republic Coruscant landing platform right after Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi rescue Palpatine from the Invisible Hand. I need help however coming up with two other astromech droids to make a four-pack. Your assistance, please.

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope Droid Pack A:
Finally a release for the long-rumored R2-A5, an undesignated black R2 unit from the Rebel Briefing Room, an "R2-D2 looking" atromech on the street of Mos Eisley but with black details added, and an update to R3-T6.

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope Droid Pack B:
An update to R4-E1, and update to R4-I9 (in black even if it's technically incorrect), and update to R4-M9 and an undesignated all-white (with some gray details) R5 unit.

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope Droid Pack C:
An unconventional set because it would require to non-Build A Droid sculpts. The gray R1 unit (they would have to use the sculpt of R1-G4, a Build A Droid version of 3B6-RA-7 (different from MB-RA-7 of course), finally a Build A Droid version of C-3PO and finally a release of the vintage Kenner Power Droid (just use the Special Action Figure Set version Hasbro).

Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back Droid Pack:
A Build A Droid version of R-3PO, a first time offering of R3-P5 (that has been incorrectly designated as R3-Y2 for years), an undesignated R4 unit and just for fun an update to the erroneous R3-Y2 figure from the Entertainment Earth exclusive set. It's still a cool figure, right?

Star Wars Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi Droid Pack:
An update to R2-Q2, a first time release of the other "BAR2" astromech situated right next to Jabba's dais on the sail barge, and the R3 and R5 units on the Home One, yet to be named or made in the basic action figure line.

There are SO MANY astromechs from The Clone Wars, we just quickly culled together three simple examples.