Monday, March 11, 2013

Basic Green Astromech: The Star Wars Legacy Collection R4-J1 Build-A-Droid Figure Is All Right!


The Good: Great coloring detail, Articulation as good as it can be, Good balance, Good 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 R4-J1 creates yet another astromech droid for the diehard fans.


The only way to get the R4-J1 figure for Star Wars fans was through getting four figures in the 2008 Legacy Collection and given that the line was mostly concept figures, it is understandable that the line did not catch on with casual fans. Unlike the awesome HK-50 (reviewed here!), R4-J1 is just another Astromech droid.

The 4" R4-J1 is a super-articulated figure from the 2008 Legacy Collection and it is a decent support Astromech Droid, but has little to distinguish it from other Astromech droids. This one, however, was actually in Attack Of The Clones (reviewed here!). If R4-J1 does not sound familiar, it is because it was never called by name and only appears in the background.

Basics

R4-J1 stands 2 5/8" tall to the top of its head. R4-J1 is sculpted based on the standard Astromech Droid, with a conical – instead of domed – head. Outside the head and coloring, it is virtually identical to the best sculpts of R2-D2 or R2-X2 (reviewed here!). The body of the droid is barrel-shaped and it has two legs. He legs are nicely detailed in that they have the wires on the feet molded right into the droid! The head has the standard R2-type sensor panel as well as the cone-like port that R2-D2 had.

R4-J1 is colored with pretty amazing attention to detail. This bright green and white droid is highlighted by lighter steel-colored panels and darker accents to give it a sense that this droid was assembled in a factory. Even what appears to be a fan at the front bottom of the barrel trunk is meticulously painted with the dark recessed area not bleeding out into the “guards” for the fan! This is a very clean Astromech droid.

Accessories

R4-J1 does not come with any accessories, which makes sense because it does not have any hands!

Playability

The four inch toy line was designed for play and R4-J1 is great in that regard. As an Astromech droid, the figure has wonderful balance. Flatfooted, R4-J1 is entirely solid, and because it has the central foot to balance the two side feet.

R4-J1 holds up well in the articulation department, which is a surprise for such a simple droid figure. This droid has simple swivel joints at the ankles for the side legs, “shoulder” joint and head. As an added play feature, the boxlike feet have wheels to allow one to move it across a flat surface easily.

Collectibility

R4-J1 is part of the Legacy Collection line that was released in 2008 and it is one of the easiest ones to assemble, largely because it was packaged in parts with so many lame figures, like a Clone Trooper armored Obi-Wan Kenobi and another Clone Trooper. Still, there are people who bought all of the standard figures needed to assemble R4-J1 and sell him assembled in the secondary market. His value there is fair and is likely to remain high unless this figure ends up packaged on a card of its own in the future.

Overview

R4-J1 is an average Astromech droid that the diehard Star Wars fans will want, but will not impress casual collectors or make it worth the effort to hunt down the component parts for.

For other 2008 Legacy Collection Build-A-Droid figures, please check out my reviews of:
R4-D6 Build-A-Droid
GH1 Commander Gree
GH4 EVO Trooper
BD2 Sandstorm Jedi Luke Skywalker
BD3 Sandstorm Chewbacca
BD7 Bane Malar
BD17 Coruscant Landing Platform Clone Trooper
BD20 Saleucami Trooper
BD35 Pons Limbic
BD40 Captain Needa
BD43 Ugnaught Engineer

5/10

For other Star Wars toy reviews, please check out my Toy Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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