Friday, November 23, 2007

Death Star Droid (Star Wars 1978-79)




Seen in the first movie in both the Jawa Sandcrawler and the Death Star (the Death Star one is black), this droid is one of the more listless figures of the original line. At least the one from the 1990’s line had a mouse droid with it.

It came with no accessories, and had a shiny metallic finish and a bug-like head. It was released on cards from all three movies.

Why should you own this figure? Five reasons:

1. If you own the Sandcrawler you need to fill it with as much useless junk as possible, including this figure.
2. A more bureaucratic droid I have never seen.
3. If you have a headless one, and a bodiless C-3PO, they pretty much match.
4. The shiny metallic finish is kind of cool, until you play with it too much and you see the original plastic.
5. Oh, I give up. This figure was booooooring.

Backstory:

This droid’s official designation is an RA-7 protocol droid. They were fairly useless droids, but the Imperial Security Bureau used them to spy on other Imperials. Their limited use, however, caused many an RA-7 to be disposed of or “lost” by many an Imperial Commander – which is probably why one was in a Jawa Sandcrawler. There were so many aboard the first Death Star that they earned the nickname “Death Star Droid.” The similarity in body to C-3PO probably relates back to the first film’s limited budget.

2 comments:

flyguy said...

yes he was a bit shit wasn't he : ) (or she)

Tom said...

Not boring at all. C3PO had no one to fight in my backyard battles except this guy; they were made to be enemies.