Original Review by Chris: 11/16/2014

During the escape from Naboo, the Queen’s Starship suffers crtical damage after being fired upon by the Trade Federation blockade.  A half dozen astromech droids made up of five R2 units and a single G8 droid scramble to repair the ship without hesitation.  WIth disregard for their own safety, the heroic droids set about repairing the ship amid heavy arms fire from the blockading armada.  One by one, the droids succumb to the enemy fire leaving only R2-D2 to survive and succeed in restoring power to the vessel allowing it to escape.  Captain Panaka reads R2’s designation aloud and the theater erupts in applause.  At this point you are thinking that the movie is uneven, but it might end up being no so bad.  Then the ship make an emergency landing on Tatooine, Jar Jar both steps in dung and eats a fart, and the movie makes “whoopie”.  Your hopes have been dashed.

As I’ve mentioned several times, rational fans have to compartmentalize the Prequel Trilogy and enjoy the few parts that work and ignore that which doesn’t like it’s too much grizzled fat on a seemingly decent cut of steak.  The heroism of the astromechs is one of those things, like Darth Maul, that work from Episode I.  R2-B1 is one of the fallen astromechs and its blue and yellow markings make it one of the more visually eye catching droids in this scene.  Because of this distinctiveness, it made sense for Hasbro to introduce the droid at the tail end of the Episode I line.  Those final figures were somewhat difficult to find and many fans would go without.  As time went on, missing out on that figure became less and less of an issue.  Hasbro was still feeling their way through collector grade astromechs at the time.  That R2-B1 featured a vac metalized dome despite no astromech droid featuring a “chrome dome”.  It was as if Hasbro was still blinded by the vintage Kenner R2-D2 figure.  It also lacked refinement such as floating wires that were introduced on astromech figures in the subsequent years.

By including R2-B1 in 2007’s repaint wave, Hasbro provided a double kindness to fans.  They upgraded a dated figure and gave fans an option for acquiring this character without dipping into the secondary market which was demanding a premium for the Episode I release at the time.  For this release, Hasbro used the R4-G9 mold from 2005 which remains a fan favorite to this day.  It seems they over-corrected the vac metalized dome issue with this flat gray paint application.  Screen shots of the actual droid show a more metallic appearance.  To make up for the perceived lack of value the relatively small figure offers, Hasbro included the power harness from the Episode I release to sweeten the pot.  This character was modified and released a third time for the Walmart Discover the Force subset during the Episode I 3D hoopla in the Royal Starship Droids multi-pack (yet EV-9D9 has never been updated…HASBRO JERKS!).  The later mold used the build-a-droid template which has the “speed holes” in the side of the torso and also includes a more metallic paint application to the dome.  I personally think the final release is the most faithful to the on-screen version, but which mold is better is ultimately a matter of opinion.  The base R4-G9 is still a very decent sculpt, so this version of R2-B1 earns an 8 out of 10.

Updated Review by Chris: 1/30/2020

Wow.  That was some original review.  “Eats a fart.”  Classic.  I don’t think I have anything to add.  Thank you for reading, everyone.

WAIT!  I forgot that I love to hear myself talk…when I read what I write and hear it narrated in my head. I’m going to do some writing/talking.

Sixteen seconds.  SIXTEEN BLESSED SECONDS.  That’s it.  That’s the amount of time that R2-B1 spends in the Star Wars universe.  At 25:49, we see R2-B1 roll out to go repair the shields.  At 26:05, R2-B1 is blasted into oblivion by the Trade Federation’s laser fire.  Gosh darn darn darn.  Imagine the luck of the Trade Federation.  They manage to pick off five astromech droids atop of the J-type 327 Nubian Royal Starship, but never manage to hit the ship itself.  What are the odds of that bad luck?  It would be like hitting the metal ring around the bullseye and having your dart bounce off five times in a row.  The odds are infinitesimally impossible.  But I’m getting off track.  SIXTEEN FILTHILY FLARN SECONDS!  R2-B1 has sixteen seconds of [expletive deleted] screen time, and despite this, the character has seen THREE FIGURE RELEASES.  Meanwhile, EV-9D9, who has lines of dialog and is part of the greatest scene in motion picture history, is mired with a woeful 1997 POTF2 sculpt, which was, by all accounts, a recast and partial retool of the 1985 EV-9D9 figure.  THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!  GIVE ME MY UPDATED EV-9D9 FIGURE, HASBRO!

So I should address the figure itself in this updated review.  I’m really torn regarding what is the better R2-B1 figure.  I feel like the light gray dome of this figure isn’t 100% accurate to the movie, but I’m honestly not sure.  In certain scenes, it really does look light gray, but that could be a product of environmental CGI lighting.  It just doesn’t feel right.  I stand by my assertion that the Build-a-Droid-based Discover the Force R2-B1 figure simply looks better, but it has those darn port holes.  It’s a tough call for me because I hate those holes as much as Nathan Johnson’s would be assassin hates cans. This is still a very good 8 out of 10 figure, but the Discover the Force version slightly beats it out. 

Oh, one more thing.  The forum people are assuredly going to mention my Queen’s Royal Starship story.  I might as well retell it here for the people who don’t venture into the forums.  Way back in the day I sold off the bulk of my collection in one lump sum.  At the time, I owned two Queen’s Royal Starships. One loose with the box and one still sealed in the box.  When I sold off my collection, I kept the sealed-in-box QRS for myself.  Shortly thereafter it came time to move.  As I was packing up the small portion of my collection that I kept, I picked up my prized sealed-in-box QRS and promptly hit myself in the face with it.  It was empty.  I accidentally gave the buyer both the loose QRS sans box and the sealed in box QRS.

[Editor’s Note:  This story never gets old.  I cry tears of joy every time it is recounted.]