The Good: Great coloring detail, Good accessory, Wonderful articulation, Good balance, Great investment value
The Bad: The only way to assemble is through some pretty lame Legacy Collection figures . . .
The Basics: The Legacy Collection Build-A-Droid HK-50 creates the assassin droid wonderfully and is well worth assembling, even if it means getting some less wonderful figures!
Since I started getting Star Wars action figures again, there have been few things that have bugged me more than the Build-A-Droid figures. The concept behind the Build-A-Droid figure is that for every four to six figures one buys, there is a part of a droid and that droid may be assembled to give fans a fifth, sixth or seventh figure "free" for buying the others. My issue is not with the concept - it's fine and has been done by other toy manufacturers to boost sales as their toy lines become less familiar or otherwise profitable - but rather with the fact that most of the droids one has to build are not at all recognizable to fans of the Star Wars Saga. Even so, the first droid I managed to successfully build was HK-50, a droid that was the bonus in the 2009/2010 Legacy Collection line. HK-50 is not from any of the Star Wars films.
The 4" HK-50 is a super-articulated figure from the 2009 and 2010 Legacy Collection and it is one of the most sought-after build-a-droid figures because of the popularity of the character from the Star Wars - Knights Of The Old Republic II video game. HK-50, as it turns out, is an assassin droid and it looks pretty badass.
Basics
HK-50 stands 3 7/8" tall to the top of its head. HK-50 is sculpted based entirely on the digital designs of the droid in the video game and Hasbro got the form to fit every image I could find of it online! HK-50 is a powerful droid body with a somewhat insectoid head. The face looks like a stylized skull or a bee and that only makes it look more like the efficient killing machine it is supposed to be!
HK-50 is colored with pretty amazing attention to detail. This metallic blue droid was mass-produced and has every servo, port and armor plate replicated in meticulous detail. The figure is colored accurately with lighter steel-colored panels and darker accents to give it a sense that this droid is assembled in a factory, though it is a clean model and this has not been in the field.
Accessories
HK-50 is a mass-produced robot and it comes with a short blaster rifle. The blaster rifle came with the same figure that had the head piece. The near-flat blaster rifle is 1 1/2" long and looks like an automatic weapon in its barrel. The small gun is monotonal gray, does not have a handle and looks decent in either of HK-50's hands, so long as HK-50 cradles it with the other hand that is not wrapped around the trigger.
Playability
The four inch toy line was designed for play and HK-50 is exceptional in that regard. First, the figure has decent balance. Flatfooted, HK-50 is entirely solid, and because of the lower half articulation of the figure, it has decent posing options. Even poses outside having him flatfooted can be done without using the holes in its feet! Even so, the holes in the bottom of its feet allow it to stand tall on any number of playsets in outlandish poses.
HK-50 holds up extraordinarily well in the articulation department, which is a surprise for a droid figure. This droid has hinged ball-and-socket joints at the ankles, knees and elbows, as well as a ball and socket joint which allows a great range of motion for the bust. The shoulders, groin socket, neck and wrists all have simple swivel joints that provide the figure with more than enough posing options to make the figure worthwhile! This is incredibly poseable and that makes it very worthwhile for play!
Collectibility
HK-50 is part of the Legacy Collection line that was released late in 2009 and early 2010 and it is one of the harder ones to assemble, largely because it was packaged in parts with so many lame figures, like the guy seen running through Bespin in The Empire Strikes Back. Still, there are people who bought all of the standard figures needed to assemble HK-50 and sell him assembled in the secondary market. His value there is pretty high, though, and is likely to remain high unless this figure ends up packaged on a card of its own in the future.
Overview
HK-50 is a worthwhile droid figure worth assembling for fans of the broader Star Wars universe!
For other Legacy Collection figures, please check out my reviews of:
BD17 Princess Leia (Slave Leia)
BD34 Leesub Sirln
BD37 Clone Commander Deviss
BD39 Jawa with Security Droid
BD41 The Utai
BD42 Jeremoch Colton
BD43 Agen Kolar
BD47 Commander Bacara
BD49 AT-AT Driver
BD50 Wing Guard
BD52 R2-X2
BD54 Zuckuss
BD55 Snowtrooper
10/10
For other Star Wars toy reviews, please check out my index page by clicking here!
© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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