A character that didn’t already have representation on my Star Wars shelf? And I got to build it? So many good things about this C-3PO…
When this figure was announced I was excited. As time got closer, the excitement built. Then he warped through customs and the post office faster than any other overseas order I’ve ever made and he caught me by surprise. Which was, you guessed it, exciting. So exciting I blew right into building him and forgot to take pics of the sprue trees and box contents. But it’s on the video, so make sure to check that and the various snags I hit while building him.
And forewarning, 3PO is a pain to photograph. So some pics may be off, the background and lighting changes throughout, and my bald head can be seen in some. So I apologize for that but I hope you can get a good idea of what to expect if this kit is on it’s way to you, or if you’re on the fence about buying him.
First off, the box.
Pretty standard to what we’re used to with the model kits at this point. Shiny black, a nice graphic on the front, and some pictures of the actual figure. Opening the box is where all the fun is. Like I said, I forgot to take pictures of the actual sprues so we’ll jump right to the assembled figure.
I said he was hard to photograph. But the figure is impressive in a lot of ways. The finish is the biggest eyecatcher. Shiny, reflective, chrome and gold goodness. It picks all light and color, almost melting into the background if it wasn’t for all the glare stabbing you in the face. And I mean that in a good way. With that in mind, it’s easy to lose all the detail packed onto the figure. That’s one of the main draws for the model kit line for me, because each and every piece of the figure is a separate part none of the detail gets lost into an overall mold. It’s all there to be ogled.
Yeah, I forgot the tiny piece on the outside of the left knee during the photoshoot. It’s on there now.
The downside to individual pieces and 3PO’s various interchangeable parts is the fact that some of the pieces are just tiny. Microscopic. You fight with one aspect and hope that another doesn’t fall off into the blackhole we call the floor. Take for instance the interchangeable faceplate. The alternate face comes with a dangling eye and a ding in the head.
To change them out you just pull the face and hope it comes off easily. The problem is the tiny pegs that stick out both sides of the neck, Frankenstein-style. Those are separate pieces that just wedge into a slot between the face and the back of the head. With the face on they are secure. You go to change them out and those run a risk of jumping ship and going on their own tiny adventure. Even though I don’t plan on changing the faces much I opted to glue those tiny pegs in. It would drive me nuts if they were lost.
You can also use the dinged head without the damaged eye piece, which I ended up doing. The dent just gives a little character to an otherwise pristine look.
He also comes with an interchangeable chest piece. This doesn’t let loose any bolts of war but it is a little harder to remove. The only difference between the two chests is the addition of a restraining bolt on one.
Looks great but if he’s going to have a restraining bolt he needs to be dirty and dusty and in need of an oil bath. Maybe I’ll grab another when I get around to also ordering another R2/R5 set for customs.
3PO comes with two sets of arms. The standard set has no articulation between the shoulder and wrist and doesn’t have a lot of movement in general. The second set does have elbow articulation and slightly better movement at the shoulders. It has an awesome piston set-up that moves as you bend the elbow but unfortunately the pistons are a mustard yellow color. I can only imagine they aren’t gold plated so they can remain a little flexible.
On the subject of articulation, he doesn’t have a lot of it but it moves where you would expect for a guy sardined in a metal suit. Yeah, sardined. You can check out the full articulation scheme in my video review/build. I don’t go through the whole build but hit on all the snags and interesting points of putting the figure together, followed by the full review.
Back to features, for some reason the back plate also comes off, revealing a chrome panel with a clear plastic overlay. I don’t remember this from the movie but it’s a nifty feature that I’ll probably never use.
The last major accessory is a communicator. A tiny little communicator. It thankfully has a peg that plugs into a hole in his finger. It’s stayed pretty secure so far.
Out of the box the eyes didn’t come out as good as I had hoped. The sticker with the little black dots didn’t really show through the clear piece that plugged over them so I ended up painting dots on the inside of the clear plastic. There is a hole in the back of each so it was easy enough to just dab a little black in there and then scrape off the excess. World of difference, short of lighting up the eyes with LEDs. I also painted the abdomen wires and the details in the palms of the hands, as the stickers would have covered up all of the underlying sculpted detail in those spots.
Besides the (understandable) lack of articulation, and this is going to sound whiny, another slight drawback is how bad the finish picks up fingerprints. Don’t get me wrong, I love the finish. I love all things chrome and gold. But I almost don’t want to touch him because I’m going to leave traceable evidence all over him. Fingerprints, ya pervs. Also, I think dust is going to be a problem too. But it’s worth it to have a shiny protocol droid on my shelf finally. Because I can now finally do this…
Yessss, so cool. That’s the Bandai R2 model by the way, not the Black Series version. Nearly perfect scale.
And he looks great with Luke.
And then a comparison shot of all the Bandai Star Wars models so far.
Overall, I’m ecstatic with this figure. Sure, the articulation is a little lacking but he looks absolutely fantastic. I needed a C-3PO for my Star Wars shelf and this is it, I don’t need another one, even though I’d cave if a Black Series one came out just to see what’s what with it. But I’m not in a hurry anymore. And if you’ve followed my reviews on this line you know that I enjoy the build as much as the finished product and this time around is no different. There were a few more tweaks that I had to do compared to previous figures but that comes with the territory. That’s part of the joy.
If you skipped down to here, I’ll sum it up. Get this C-3PO.
Next up, the Biker Scout with Speeder bike in June. That’s too far away!
