The Good: Amazing sculpt and detailing, Rarer
The Bad: Exceptionally low playability, No accessories
The Basics: Impressive in the detailing, the FX-7 Medical Droid is still, largely an inaction figure from the "Power Of The Jedi" Star Wars toy line. Still cool.
As I prepare for my big move, I am wading through my various collections and weeding out the items I am ready to part with so that I have less need for storage of those that I can't seem to let go of just yet. After all, I don't know how much space there will be when my wife and I move in to our own home together and having had an entire house of my own to fill with stuff, there is a serious amount of weeding to do. So, as I consider various Star Wars action figures, I have begun to consider them on which ones are truly necessary and enjoyable and which are the best of their particular type (i.e. there are some twenty different Han Solo figures to choose from, which one(s) is (are) the essential?). In the case of FX-7, there is only one and while it is hard to consider this inactive droid action figure at all essential, because The Empire Strikes Back remains one of my favorite films of all time, he seems to have survived the cut and is going in the storage box.
For those unfamiliar with FX-7, this robot is one of two medical droids who repair Luke Skywalker following his encounter with the Wampa creature in The Empire Strikes Back (reviewed here!). This multi-armed, medicine dispensing droid shoots drugs into the Bacta tank to revitalize Luke Skywalker after he is nearly killed by the giant white Wampa creature and recovered by Han Solo. The figure is a faithful representation of the droid which appears briefly, stays in one spot and does little.
The 4" FX-7 figure is pretty cool and it fleshes out the full Star Wars universe wonderfully.
Basics
FX-7 is a droid seen on Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back. The figure stands 4" tall to the top of its rotating head. FX-7 is essentially a gray column with a protruding arm and eighteen retracted arms used to dispense medicine. The figure is made of hard plastic and has soft plastic arms, both for the permanently extended arm (the one that injected the medicine into the Bacta tank in the film) and the retracted eighteen arms.
This toy is a wonderful sculpt, looking precisely like the droid. FX-7 is amazing in his coloring detail and the figure even clicks like a droid when the lower sleeve that houses the eighteen arms is turned. The control panels all over the figure's columnar body are appropriately detailed. This is one of the best detailed figures Hasbro ever produced; it is a surprise they did such a good job on a background character like FX-7.
Accessories
FX-7, medical droid that it is, requires no accessories. In this scale, one of the medicine vials seen in the film would be impossible to replicate reasonably, so this figure comes with no accessories. One might suggest that this is an accessory to the Luke Skywalker In Bacta Tank figure that was released as part of the Power Of The Force line!
The only disappointing aspect of this figure's lack of accessories is its lack of a Force File. As part of the Power Of The Jedi toy line, FX-7 should come with a Jedi Force File, like the Bespin Guard I reviewed (here!) did. This, alas, does not.
Playability
The four inch toy line was designed for play and the FX-7 Medical Droid is a real toss up in that regard. The figure is a column with no legs; it is a stationary droid. The head swivels, as do the eighteen retracted arms. The outer sleeve that holds the arms turning is a real nice touch, but this hardly makes the figure more playable.
Each of the eighteen arms on the midsection may be pulled out and they have an "elbow" joint. However, because each hand ends in a curved claw, these cannot hold any accessories. At best, your FX-7 can achieve various poses of freaking out. Outside using one's imagination to expand the conceptual mobility of the droid, this is a low playabilty figure, despite the options for arm articulation.
On the plus side, this is one of the most stable Star Wars figures Hasbro ever made and it is untippable, no matter what combination of arms are extended or retracted.
Collectibility
FX-7 is part of the expanded saga Power Of The Jedi four-inch series, a series of Star Wars action figures that was fairly common. Still, the FX-7 was part of a later line of the Power Of The Jedi figures and remains one of the harder ones to find. In other words, FX-7 is a good investment as it may often be found selling higher than its original issue price. Because there was only one FX-7 (to date) released, this remains a decent figure for those fleshing out the entire Star Wars universe.
Overview
FX-7, despite its low playability, is going into my storage pile because someday I will have space to celebrate Star Wars by putting up little dioramas of the figures all around the house again. When that time comes, how could I have a Hoth scene without this droid? Still, objectively, it is hardly the most interesting figure.
For other Star Wars droid figures, please check out my reviews of:
2010 Saga Legends IG-88
Legacy Collection BD52 R2-X2
Original Trilogy Collection #006 Tatooine Transaction R1-G4
5.5/10
For other toy reviews, please visit my index page on the subject!
© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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