Legacy Collection 2
TC-70
Build A Droid
Original Review by Chris on 2/26/2014
TC-70 is more articulated than the TIE Pilot. I don’t even know what country this is anymore.
If you bought all six of the Legacy Collection (2) figures (and unless you cherry picked individual figures off the secondary market, you had no choice), you end up with all the components to build your very own TC-70 protocol droid. TC-70 was Jabba’s protocol droid during the Clone Wars era. She would help translate for those who would help locate Jabba’s kidnapped punky muffin, Rotta. That’s right, Star Wars fans. “Punk muffin” happened and there is nothing you can do about it. This character had only been released in the stylized animated form previously.
The protocol droid Build-A-Droid template is one of Hasbro’s crowning achievements to date. Fans perennially ask that C-3PO see release using these BAD parts. Therefore, TC-70 starts off as a very strong figure just based on its lineage. It comes from good stock. That only leaves to detailing in question and I think Hasbro did a great job with that.
This mismatched color on the limbs has an Original Trilogy “used universe” feel which seems natural for Tatooine, even during the more civilized times of the Republic. It’s becoming more apparent every day that I’m a sucker for paint washes. Giving a figure a wash, even a slight one, really highlights the sculpt, and that is the case here. It’s not significant, but it’s just enough to bring out the subtle details in the sculpting. For me this ended up being the best figure of the wave and it didn’t even get a card. 9 out of 10.
Well that wasn’t a very funny review. I better force in a Family Guy reference. On your mark. Get Set. Terrible.
Updated Review by Bret on 5/8/2020
I just watched the final arc of The Clone Wars. Fantastic. So in honor of that, here’s a figure from the show, while we wait for Hasbro to give us something from this past season. TC-70 was Jabba’s protocol droid and interpreter during the Clone Wars. She was not the droid referenced by EV-9D9 (whose figure is just fine) as C-3PO’s predecessor who was disintegrated after angering Jabba, as that droid had masculine programming. Sometime before then, TC-70 had left Jabba’s service. She was voiced by Nika Futterman in The Clone Wars, who is better known as the voice of Asajj Ventress.
Hasbro’s short-lived “Legacy Collection 2” line looks like it was meant to have restarted the popular Build-A-Droid line following the early (temporary) demise of TVC in 2012, which was precipitated by the TPM/Walmart debacle. No singles made it to retail, and was later offered as a 6 pack set on Amazon. I actually found mine for $14.99 at a Toys R Us Express in a mall. This was presumably due to the partnership between the two entities where TRU’s online storefront was hosted by Amazon.com. That partnership, which seemed profitable for TRU at the time they made the deal, was dissolved and ended up playing a large role in their downfall of TRU as they were very far behind other online toy retailers. But anyway, yeah, this set was a thing. There were other known figures planned for the line. The new sculpts found their way into the first phase of the next line - the reviled Black Series.
So this set of 6 allowed you to build a 7th, the outstanding TC-70. Everything Chris wrote in his original review stands today. It’s a tremendous protocol sculpt, and it would have been great if Hasbro went this route for C-3PO, whereas instead they gave us a new, strange sculpt that elicited a divided community response. The figure is an awesome sculpt with outstanding articulation and paint apps. TC-70 makes a fine addition to your realistically styled Clone Wars collection, and can substitute as a background protocol droid in any display you choose.
It probably doesn’t deserve to keep the original 9/10 now that we have a more standardized grading scale. We’ll give it a more reasonable, but still excellent, 8/10.
