Hasbro Star Wars - The Power of the Force R2-D2 with Holographic Princess Leia Review

R2-D2 with Holographic Princess Leia: 

While repairing his new droid R2-D2, young Luke Skywalker unwittingly short circuits its recording system, causing a holographic image of the young Princess Leia to appear. She implores the help of Obi-Wan Kenobi, and then disappears as quickly as she emerged. -  From the action figure package's product blurb.

 If you've watched George Lucas' six-Episode-long space-fantasy Star Wars, you know that one of the most important supporting characters in the saga about the Skywalker family and its pivotal role in the rise and fall of the Galactic Empire is the seemingly ordinary but unexpectedly heroic astromech droid named R2-D2.  In all six films, R2 (or Artoo) is often Lucas' deus ex machina, performing last-minute (and often life-saving) tasks - restoring a damaged ship's deflector shields, turning off the Death Star's garbage mashers, or tapping into computer networks to provide his human masters with vital information.

 R2, of course, plays a vital role in 1977's Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope (aka Star Wars); Rebel leader Princess Leia Organa entrusts the astromech droid with the secret plans of the Empire's planet-killing Death Star battle station, and she also records a message to Obi-Wan Kenobi, a Jedi Master and former General in the Grand Army of the Republic who is living on the Outer Rim planet Tatooine. 

Acting on orders from Leia, whose consular vessel has been intercepted by Darth Vader's Star Destroyer Devastator, R2 cajoles his protocol droid counterpart, C-3PO, into boarding an escape pod and accompanying him to the desert world below.  On Tatooine, fate - or the whims of the Force - places the droids in the moisture farm of Owen and Beru Lars, who are the foster parents of 19-year-old Luke Skywalker, son of R2-D2's long-ago starfighter "partner" Anakin Skywalker.

As Luke is cleaning the little astrodroid, he inadvertently triggers off part of Leia's holographic message to Obi-Wan Kenobi: R2 projects a tiny image of the Princess, looping her desperate plea over and over - "Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope."

The Figure: Ever since 1978, when Kenner Toys of Columbus, Ohio produced the first wave of 3.75-inch scale action figures based on the heroes and villains of Star Wars , R2-D2 has always been "front and center" in any collector's treasure trove of figures.  I still, for instance, have my somewhat primitive 1978-era Kenner version of the plucky astromech stored away in my attic, and I've tried to get as many of the Kenner/Hasbro updates as my budget will permit.

 Like Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, and other major players in the Star Wars mythos, Kenner and its erstwhile rival Hasbro have often updated and re-released variations on the theme of R2-D2, tweaking the little white, blue, and silver droid by giving him subtle but noticeable little extras like weathering, different accessories, and even scene-specific paint jobs.

After all, R2 action figures have come a long way since the first crude renditions made in Hong Kong  hit toy store shelves in the late 1970s; gone are the detailing-by-stickers and lackluster "close but no cigar" depictions of R2's silver-and-blue dome.  The considerable advances in toy-making tools and techniques, particularly in molding and painting, have made more "true-to-life" sculpts that give the figures closer resemblances to their on-screen human, alien, or - in this case - robotic counterparts.

R2-D2 with Holographic Princess Leia, which was released  in 1999, a few months before Hasbro closed its Power of the Force line in order to switch over to its Episode I tie-in collections, is one of the hardest figures to find, and one of the most expensive.  (How expensive, you ask? The first time I saw one - at a Miami comic book store - it had a price tag of $25.00, a bit over three times its Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price of $6.99.)  Apparently, Hasbro made a limited amount of these R2-D2 with Holographic Princess Leia figures, and collectors and/or wily buyers known as "scalpers" snapped them up fast to sell them on the Internet at inflated prices.

 R2-D2 with Holographic Princess Leia  is much sought after - even almost a decade after Hasbro released this variant - because (a) it's a rare "retractable third leg" edition - most R2s come in either two-leg "standing" mode or the three-legged "travel mode," since the retractable leg adds a bit of unnecessary complexity and will, if overused, wear out and break; (b) it's a Classic Trilogy CommTech figure, which comes with a Communications Output Memory Module chip, which in conjunction with a CommTech Reader, gave Star Wars figures the "ability to speak"  and (c), because it has a tiny mini-figure of Princess Leia as a hologram. 

Because Hasbro - like its former rival Kenner - knows Star Wars fans with money, artistic talent, and the know-how often like to create dioramas that recreate certain scenes from individual Episodes, it now gives figures detailing that match specific scenes from a particular movie.   R2-D2 with Holographic Princess Leia, therefore, has a slightly weathered look with a subtle "dusty" look on his legs, back, and treaded "feet" to replicate the effects of R2's trek through the desert wastes of Tatooine.

All of R2-D2's features, whether they be the radar "eye," the holo projector lens, or the various panels and vents, are nicely sculpted and painted, a far cry from the days when they were rendered as a wrap-around sticker applied on a white plastic cylinder topped by a simplified silver and blue dome with only close approximations to the real droid's "facial" features.

Princess Leia's holo is small - so small that I won't open the carded bubblepack so I won't lose it - but it's made of the same translucent plastic Hasbro uses to recreate Star Wars'  iconic lightsaber blades, in perhaps a darker shade of blue than, say, Luke's lightsaber.  It's hard to make out details, but she seems to be wearing her hood up and holding her hands clasped at her waist.  For an accessory of that scale, though, the craftsmanship is rather nice,

As I mentioned earlier, this was one of the last Power of the Force CommTech figures before Hasbro went over to its Episode I line, and it features several R2-D2 "lines" of beeps and whistles plus, of course, Princess Leia's "Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope." 

Because my  R2-D2 with Holographic Princess Leia was purchased online, my specific figure seems to have been originally sold in Europe, since the packaging includes product blurbs and copyright/authorized distribution information in English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian.  Also, the space where the CommTech blurb would normally be on the U.S. packaging is covered over, perversely, by a label for the European Episode I - CommTalk (not a typo, mind you!) figures.

On the whole, this is a very cool version of the R2-D2 action figure and a very desirable collectible, especially if one's fortunate enough to find a carded one in mint or near-mint condition.

As with all the Star Wars action figures, Hasbro recommends this toy for children 4 and up since the small parts pose a clear and present choking hazard, especially for children under 3 years.