Sculpt--3/5
What?! Only a 3 out of 5 for sculpting? The sculpting isn't bad, but I'm getting tired of the inaccurate proportions that plague Hasbro's astromech droids. The body is way too long, making R2 look skinny or streched-out-looking. Either Hasbro needs to cut-down on the height of the body, or they need to make the body wider. As it is, R2 just doesn't look as stubby and squat as he should. The long body means long legs as well, which are also inaccurate. But besides their length being inaccurate, they are also missing some little details. For instance, there are supposed to be raised plates near the "ankle" of the leg but since this detail was never sculpted, they are instead just painted on (they are the silver patches near R2's "ankle").

This R2 figure is a repaint of older astromech figures. The head is from R2-Q5, the black Imperial astromech released in the POTJ line. This head is characterized by the smooth main "eye" which lacks definition. A hole has been made at the top of R2's head to accomodate the drink-serving arm included in this set. The body and legs are likewise from earlier astromech figures like R2-Q5 and R4-M9; the feet even bear the same copyright date of 2001.

Articulation--5/5
R2-D2 is articulated at the head, legs, "ankles", and has an extendable third leg. There's really not much more you could ask for in terms of a basic astromech figure. .

Features--NA/5
There are no features associated with this set. Looks like action features have finally gone the way of the dodo.

Accessories--2/5
Why such a low score? It's the drink tray--this thing is kinda pathetic. It has some nice, ornate detailing on its sides, but the tray where all the drinks are is poorly sculpted and the drinks are kind of leaning outward. The drinks themselves don't even look like drinks, they just look like tubes sticking out the tray. The tray fits on R2's legs nicely though and the included arm is a decent accessory though its details are a bit soft. You also get a figure stand which you've most likely seen before.

Paint--3/5
Not bad, but nothing spectacular. The blue paint seems to have a lot of fuzzy edges and just isn't as defined as it could be. They also forgot to paint the blue accents on the third leg, leaving it plain, white plastic.

Overall--3.5/5
This is a good basic R2-D2 figure...in fact it's the first R2-D2 figure since the Commtech chip version that has good articulation and no built-in action feature. That's a big plus and is probably the best reason to own this figure, especially if you've been collecting all the other astromech droids Hasbro has been releasing. The drink tray is the only disappointment in the set and had it been better in design and sculpting, this score would be slightly higher.

--Photos and review by Garett Yoshimura
garett@carrotnetwork.com