It's been a dry spell in terms of new figures in my area, but my girlfriend came through with finding a stash of VOTC C-3PO's at a nearby Target and bought me one! 3PO was the last VOTC figure I wanted, and now that I have him I'm not so sure why I wanted him in the first place.

Sculpt—1/5
VOTC figures have a lot of their strengths in the sculpting area, but this figure breaks from the generally high standards of the other figures with its mangled misrepresentation of C-3PO. This figure is seriously ugly, and any resemblance to the movie C-3PO is barely present. One look at the face and your thoughts may go like this: "What robot is this supposed to be?...Is this a Star Wars figure??...OMFG it's supposed to be C-3PO! NOOOOOOOOOO!!!" Ok, that's exaggerating a bit, but really, this is absolutely the worst 3PO headsculpt ever done. It's way too small, the mouth is practically non-existent, and the chin area is too narrow. And let's not forget his extremely long and skinny neck! The neck doesn't show this much in the movies and it helps make this figure look even more freakish than it already does. Overall, the details of the headsculpt are a step backwards from any previous C-3PO figure.

Now let's move on to C-3PO's hideously sculpted body. The chest plating is actually not too bad, but it definitely doesn't have as much detail as older POTF2 and Saga C-3PO's. Some details just look a little smoothed out like some of the circles at his abdomen or the little cylinders at his neck. What happened to the sharp detailing that is a staple of the VOTC line? It certainly isn't present here. The midsection where all the wires are looks nice enough, but this figure shows too much of it. The movie C-3PO didn't show this much, and thus it makes this figure look miss-proportioned. Looking at the figure from the side, and you'll see that he's much too skinny. Yay! Our own anorexic C-3PO! The crotch area is also a bit weird; C-3PO has quite a...uh...bulge...let's move on. The arms are decently detailed but again, these details just aren't sharp and look more smoothed out than they should be. One nice thing about this figure is the detailing of the palms of C-3PO's hands; they managed to sculpt all the little plates that comprise them.

Last but not least, let's not forget these awful leg sculpts. These things look like they've been through a rock tumbler. They are dreadfully skinny and the hips are rounded and smoothed out. They are also unsettlingly feminine, having a very curvy look to them. Additionally, the legs are missing some detail on the sides of the knees. How did we get from the great sculpt work on R-3PO to this?

Is there anything good about this sculpt? Well, it is nice that they've at least posed C-3PO in a slight walking pose, something that hasn't been done yet. Maybe the best thing about this C-3PO figure is the fact that he can fit into Luke's Landspeeder perhaps because of his small stature.Hmmm what else...his feet look nice.

Articulation--1/5
C-3PO has five points of articulation: neck, shoulders, and hips. This figure has made no attempts to try something new. Supposedly, articulated knees were planned, but the vac-metalized finish is the reason that idea was scrapped due to the metal finish flaking off. I still think a good articulated waist can be done, but articulated knees are the thing I think everyone was hoping to see. On the plus side, there is a reason for the ugly look of the hips--they allow C-3PO to sit pretty well. On the other hand, past C-3PO's can sit just as decently without the deformed look of the hips.

Accessories--NA/5
Did you really expect anything?

Paint--3/5
This is one of the more decent areas of this figure. C-3PO has a paint wash to make him look slightly dirty. I like it; it's not too overdone but it does suit itself more for C-3PO's look in A New Hope. The wires at C-3PO's midsection are painted well and are clean and defined. 3PO's eyes are painted, but the black dots in the center are a bit misaligned and make the eyes look strange. 3PO's silver leg is also painted; it's too bad it's not vac-metalized silver like on the Millenium Minted Coin/OTC version. As is, the painted silver just doesn't look shiny enough, especially compared to the rest of his body.

Packaging--5/5
You know the deal. Recreated vintage look in a nice clamshell case. While the card front is not a perfect recreation of the vintage version, it is close enough and will bring fond memories of the originals if you are old enough to remember them. The card backs don't continue the vintage feel, but at least they show an original carded vintage figure so you can see how far action figures have come. The clamshell does a good job of protecting the packaging inside and looks pretty snazzy to boot.

Overall--1.5/5
Hands down the worst VOTC figure, this abomination should be avoided unless you are really want a complete set. The figure offers very little in advancing C-3PO figures in general--the only thing really "new" is his posing. If you are looking for a highly detailed and accurate C-3PO figure, you will not find it in this figure. Perhaps the worst Star Wars figure of the year. Joke for you: What would an Ewok call VOTC C-3PO? Answer: Holy Crap.

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