Hot Toys R2-D2 Deluxe Version

[fantasticfrog]

The reviews are in... and yes, absolutely awesome little astromech.

I love the 'screaming' sound that winds down and down...

Despite the many before, here's my fast and dirty comparison between SS and HT


View attachment 479175



Is this Luke hilt better or worse than any of the other Jedi Luke hilts?


In hand the SS is way more dirty than the HT -- almost tan in most places -- so much so its does make it look like a different droid... or as close to a change-of-clothes as R2-D2 can get. Worth keeping for the drink tray purposes as I assume most people have now relegated their SS astromech.

The SS blue has a great metallic sheen to it -- as you can see in my pic -- but its not really accurate as nice as it looks.


Despite my comparison, there really is none. Look a the girth alone.

I stuck my ss r2 with bespin luke and yoda as part of my dagobah shelf. He looks fine there. Ht is definitely the best r2 by far. Now we need a ht 3po. If he is announced tomorrow, we can hAve him in hand by 2023.

 

[jedibear]

Great comp shots, WG!

Finally got this in....and...

Just, WOW!



The die-cast dome on it's own just adds so much.
It's definitely a quality piece. I'm sure there will be plenty of "accuracy" debates, but I find it looks really good.



So solid and really sharp detailing. I haven't even cracked the attachment tray yet.



I still enjoy the SSC version and as a few have already commented, it may be time to add that drink tray to jazz it up for display. But this version....as cool as the inclusion of all of the attachments are (and the photo fun they are sure to provide)it's this clean, straight up version that is so striking to look at. Well done indeed, HT!

 

[TaliBane]

Yeah, while the SSC R2 is still a very solid fig (if it has had the dome wipe mod that is) the biggest improvements with this HT R2 are the girth, the intense blue color and crisper white and of course the real metal dome.

The blue is pretty much a perfect match to the "enhanced" blue they did for all the DVD and Blu releases in the past decade.

 

[pjam]

Great shots and comments guys, can't wait to get mine fri fingers crossed.

 

[Skywalker(OG)Kush]

I got mine yesterday, awesome figure but i dont like the gap on the bigger compartment on the left side. It doesnt seem to close fully. Also dont like how difficult it is to pose him properly with his middle leg down. I own the ssc deluxe version as well, and while hot toys blows that one away in literally every other facet, it doesn't have these two issues that could have easily been fixed. I think the middle leg issue is due to ht versions middle leg being positioned slightly out of place; its a little too far towards the front of his body. Ssc r2 has the leg a bit further back in the body (more towards the middle) and it makes a huge difference.

 

[Lejuan]

All this talk of Tama vs HT vs SSC and it's easy to forget that we went years without a 1/6 droid. Gentle Giant was going to put out a statue, but it never made it to production. Releases like this remind me how fun collecting can be.

 

[Matt S]

All this talk of Tama vs HT vs SSC and it's easy to forget that we went years without a 1/6 droid. Gentle Giant was going to put out a statue, but it never made it to production. Releases like this remind me how fun collecting can be.

well said. I hope hot toys does release their r5d4. I would get that in a nanosecond.

 

[pjam]

Ht needs to do an ot c3p0 companion piece, that's the droid I'm looking for now.

 

[ZE_501]

Ht needs to do an ot c3p0 companion piece, that's the droid I'm looking for now.

Sadly it's years away. They have some of the parts prototyped as evidenced by the TFA Threepio they showed and never released, but as someone said above...maybe 2023 if they actually showed it this year?

 

[faststreetsofhongkong]

Its always puzzled me why no 3P0


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[ZE_501]

well said. I hope hot toys does release their r5d4. I would get that in a nanosecond.

After this R2, so would I.

Its always puzzled me why no 3P0


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A lot of Hot Toys decisions puzzle me.

 

[TaliBane]

Sadly it's years away. They have some of the parts prototyped as evidenced by the TFA Threepio they showed and never released, but as someone said above...maybe 2023 if they actually showed it this year?

It's coming up on FOUR years ago they previewed the TFA 3PO - and nearly two years ago they previewed the AOTC 3PO.

So yeah, wouldn't hold my breath, especially with not one, but now two HT R2's previewed, put up for PO, and shipped in the years since. You'd think the very best time to get the HT 3PO out there would be as people are buying one of the HT R2's, but that wasn't the case.

I do think that 3PO is tough - he's an extremely tough figure to manufacture, but isn't as desirable as R2, partly due to appeal, partly due to that sculpt/mold/finish complexity translating into a much higher price. I mean if HT R2 with tools is $250, surely HT 3PO with a swap out arm would be around $300.

And yeah, even if it was previwed again at this year's SDCC and went up for PO a couple on months later it'd still be late 2021 before it shipped - more than FIVE YEARS after the TFA 3PO first popped up. Talk about a "grow old waiting" hobby.

 

[Wor-Gar]

Sobering reality of HT 3PO.

Who'd have thought that the company that out-of-the-gate gave us Chewbacca (granted not a great one but still) would get so lazy and dismissive of the counterpart to probably the most symbolic couple of the entire Star Wars saga and the most recognizable icons seconded only to Vader himself.

Considering Asia loves robots... and HT has diecast down to a science for Iron Man... there's simply no excuse that he hasn't been put up for PO.

But we did get K-2SO. Go figure.

 

[LoveMinusZero]

The 3P0 thing is certainly a headscratcher. There has to be something going on behind the scenes, I honestly can't see it just being some kind of laziness or someone at HT just not liking 3P0, it's something else. I can't imagine what though, I have to admit. Especially considering, like Wor-Gar said, C-3P0 along with R2, Vader and the Stormtrooper are not only the most visually iconic SW characters, but easily among the most iconic film characters of all time. It's not like they're just going to leave him out.

3P0 may have lost some of his magic since the OT, the PT and ST taking him from the loveable fussy, worrywart to a bit of a lame, deadweight tag-along, who's only there because the creators think he's supposed to be. That being said, it doesn't diminish his OT iconic status. HT would be insane not to release him, so I believe there's some reason holding them up.

 

[Wor-Gar]

They must feel that 3PO should be diecast to go with R2's metal dome and the prices just haven't arrived for Star Wars figures where they need to be to deliver a diecast 3PO.

Someone said he'd be $300... but with diecast, lights, sounds... he might be more in HT prices if Iron Man is any indication. And I don't think Star Wars has broken the $300 threshold for a single HT figure (except maybe DX Luke and that came with two full figures).

Perhaps HT is waiting to unleash General Grievous first, so that his pricing -- $367 -- will be a primer for people to accept little C-3PO at somewhere between $299 and $319.


Either all that... or maybe its just that the gold paint needed for this figure is just too damn expensive per unit.

 

[LoveMinusZero]

How much was the Diecast Robocop originally though? I can't see 3P0 being more complex than him, certainly not IronMen with their million moving parts.

 

[Wor-Gar]

No, but Iron Man has moved on past the $400 mark now. So that lines up nicely to put a simpler figure like 3PO -- and Grievous -- in that $300 range.

I'm not saying 3PO will be $300+... but whatever it is with him, its likely a cost problem (diecast or paint) and he needs to be moved up into a higher level price range to mass produce with the necessary profit margin.

If not, he's a no brainer to make and get out there. So where is he, where's he been? Have the receptions for him from TFA and AOTC just been so bad that HT decided he doesn't need to be made?

HT has had the Star Wars license now since what.. 2014? That's 6 years. Engineering too hard for them on 3PO... but not K2?

 

[TaliBane]

The other issue is it's not like there aren't other somewhat newer high-end 1/6 3POs out there, and nowhere near as many people are willing to pay big bucks for a 1/6 3PO (vs say Vader) - many people paid $$$ for the Tama, then there's a pretty solid effort from SSC that seemed to sell fairly well. There's also the Medi 3PO, even though it's a bit older and slightly undersized.

So even of a smaller pool of potential buyers, quite a few of them have already paid fairly high prices for a "current technology" 3PO. It's not like the Tama was $210 and the SSC one was $150 just a few years ago. Both were/are up there price-wise (though I recently grabbed a SSC 3PO for not much over $100 which I'm turning into a Hoth droid.)

The other thing is that this was a TFA 3PO where they sculpted him with a thicker torso/body (where they redid the suit for an older/heavier Daniels) so to me it wasn't quite slender enough for OT 3PO, even if I love that face sculpt. And a few (very) minor suit details are different OT vs ST.

Though interestingly, the AOTC version they previewed 2 years (that also didn't go anywhere) appeared to be partly newly sculpted - the body looked more slender and the face sculpt didn't look the same (even though you'd think it would be) so maybe they'd have sculpts to assemble a OT 3PO between those two prototypes they've shown.

 

[Matt S]

After this R2, so would I.



A lot of Hot Toys decisions puzzle me.

Yeah, I'm feeling that way. How many things have been shown yet never offered? Jango is the biggest no-brainer to me......did their Maul not sell a Gazillion copies, and now they are being conservative? No idea! But give me a killer Jango sculpt plus all the extras, and I'd drop $260+ instantly.


As for C-3PO, aside from the hands, the Sideshow one is great. And did their re-release fix that issue?

 

[ZE_501]

All interesting points, but is anyone inclined to don a tinfoil hat with me for a moment?

Is the combo of Threepio and R2 ... *too* iconic?

Does withholding him and preventing that pairing keep collectors buying other Star Wars releases via drip feed, never quite satiated?

The Truth is out there.


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