Kenner Droids C-3PO & R2-D2

 Ah, 1985. What a year if you were alive back then. Back to the Future came out, GI Joe and Transformers came on everyday after school, She-Ra debuted as He-Man was winding down. And Saturday morning cartoons were shown on the big 3 networks of CBS, NBC & ABC. If you were me, you got up early, and dined on cereal while turning on the TV and having the volume low enough to not wake anyone and watch TV while loudly crunching cereal. Well, for this review you need to find a box of C-3PO's as I review the Kenner Droids versions of our favorite droids, C-3PO & R2-D2!

Debuting on ABC in the Fall TV season of 1985 was the Droids/Ewoks hour, which was on the tail end of ABC's Saturday morning cartoon lineup.  While there was no Han, Luke, Leia, Chewie or Lando there was Boba Fett, IG-88 and new characters introduced in the 1st Droids story arc. The 1st story wave characters all got action figures: Thall Joben, Jord Dusat, Kea Moll (only the 2nd female Star Wars figure Kenner made) and bad guys Sise Fromm, Tige Fromm and the ultra rare figure Vlix who was made only in Brazil. And of course, the show stars C-3PO & R2-D2!

C-3PO is a repaint of the removable limb version from The Empire Strikes Back. Instead of vac metal paint, he is painted as seen in the animated show. He has the same 5 POA as his Kenner movie version and has removable arms and legs. He has a more lifelike facial expression because that's how he was animated in the show. The paint applications on the figure are really good, because now there was technology to apply different paint colors to the same figure. When I cover the Rebel Commando from ROTJ next year I'll explain the process, but this represents a Kenner first (although Hasbro had been doing this on their GI Joe ARAH figures at that time painting camouflage, but more camouflage painted figures came out after 1985, as well as characters with different colors on different body parts).

For R2-D2 Kenner repainted another prior release and added a new sticker on his chest to better resemble animated Artoo. This time, Kenner went with the POTF2 version of R2-D2 that contained Luke Skywalker's lightsaber. As you rotate the dome, the lightsaber handle lifts up. The launching feature would happen in the POTF2 era. So why this version? Well in the 1st Droids story arc, Thall Joben uses a lightsaber to get out of a tricky situation (he isn't Force sensitive, but says someone paid him to fix a Speeder and left the lightsaber inside. The person needing the repair never came back for it). R2 has the same 3 POA (dome and both legs) as his Kenner counterpart.

Additionally these figures came with coins, similar to the POTF figures that had come out just before the Droids figures were released. Both C-3PO & R2-D2 have character specific coins, as far as the other figures I can only speak for these 2 figures, as well as Boba Fett having character specific coins.

Now, are these essential for your Kenner era collection? Well, not really. Yes, these are clever repaints of existing figures, but it all comes to personal preference. If you like animated style figures, they are perfect fits. But if you prefer realistic looking toys, these 2 you might pass on. But, they are fun toys if you have them. With modern VC equivalents in the market today, Droids cards aren't going away yet. But if you are a vintage junkie, you will want to make these a part of your collection. Images from Galactic Figures for the toys. Carded images from eBay.  Now to take a DeLorean ride to 1985....