Of course, it was always the astromech figures I liked, not a slavish desire to nail each and every one. Hence I don't even bother noting all the R2-D2 variations, and I threw this turkey above on the "ditch" pile.
However, for years those were the only exclusions, and I've built quite a helpful little army. Then last year a pack of clone troops was issued with this guy, who doesn't even get a name besides "Astro Razor." Yuck. Somehow the tossed-together color combo on this one completely turned me off. Little effort, fellas?
When the TRU exclusive Y-wing came out with this exclusive little dude, I mooned over him a number of times but was never really tempted. I'm tracking a loose one on eBay at the moment, so perhaps in this one case it's not hopeless. But I don't do the sneaky stuff anymore and buying a whole big toy like that for a droid is too much.
Then this groovy chap made the scene, but as I'm sure you know you have to build him with parts purchased separately with a bunch of other figures. As if that weren't obnoxious enough, one of them is the fat dancer from Jabba's palace. Nein danke.
Same with this guy. Great droid, I totally want him, but no way am I shelling out the dough.
And the same day I see the two assembloids above, I spot this guy in a Hoth battle pack that costs 20 bucks. If I didn't already have the white 3PO, I'd do it. And I might still do it... it's less cash than the Y-wing. But it's kind of discouraging.
Then it turns out I don't even know what discouraging is! While I'm digging up pix of the three dudes above on Rebelscum (unsuccessfully, you might notice, as they're too recent) I see a picture of this beat-up R2 unit in the site's rotating "recent pictures" sidebar display. HUH? That leads me to the new Wal-Mart exclusive Droid Factory sets, three of which feature new astromechs, but each with some other figures I don't give two poops about. Besides Watto there are these two.
This one is particularly ugly.And THEN, while I'm pulling pix to illustrate this particular bit of rage, the damn "recent pictures" display freakin' does it AGAIN with the droid pictured below.
It's some remote control 3 3/4" droid that came out in Japan in 2007. Mama mia! I can't even figure out how to track this thing down from the opening Photo Archives page, so I'm linking it here to properly preserve my misery. This guy is especially handsome, so it's a bummer. Cheapest on on eBay is 22 bucks without shipping.
So yeah, think I'm gonna throw in the towel on this. I played nice, I bought my Clone Wars R2, I could still angle for the Y-wing R5, but jeepers -- seven more annoying-to-buy droids hitting me all at once like that? I know my limits.
3 comments:
Very nice post! I never appreciated how many astromech droids they have made. Believe it or not, I have that Y-Wing droid because, yep, I have the Y-Wing (never opened it). That Astro Razor is indeed ugly, it's so random. I'm so disgusted with the Droid Factory series. I want the droid parts but I don't want any of the stupid figures you must buy to acquire them. No need to stress about it though, I'm sure we'll be able to pick up the droid pieces some day. I wish they would come out with a new catalogue of all the Star Wars figures. I'm thinking that they are somewhere in the neighborhood of 1000 at this point.
Oh yeah, until I saw that picture of R5D4 you posted, I NEVER knew that those two guns (?) rotated up from the legs! Sure enough I pulled mine out and it was proven to be true. I'm an idiot.
Hmm. I don't know if I noticed that or not, I was so disgusted with that figure.
I'm thinking that orange-headed astromech (with Kit Fisto) might fall under "too ugly," so perhaps the Watto and Plo Kloon combo packs are worth it.
There's one of those Y-wings kicking around at work in the box, but the figs are gone.
Speaking of that, the receptionist has a Justice Lords Martian Manhunter figure on her desk! I need that one!
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