Review: Star Wars: The Last Jedi - Elite Series Die Cast R2-D2 and C-3PO

With the new year new stuff comes by but when you're on a budget or are just really bad at spending, you get older stuff such as the Elite Series R2-D2 and C-3PO which were on clearance with a little extra off since they had a red sticker. These were part of The Last Jedi set of figures that look really cool on a checklist that came with them, but don't really look that cool. The ones from the checklist are renders of the characters but the actual product look nothing like that. I watched Episode IV in full recently with my family and we enjoyed the movie but my mom fell asleep. Having recently watched that, I saw R2 on clearance before but no trace of 3PO so I just waited until I saw both. That time was this past Friday! I got both for $15.99 along with two The Black Series Rebel Fleet Troopers. They're very nice but there's a couple things I can nitpick.

The box isn't anything special, they're a little too big for the figure inside honestly. It has the name of the character and it's pretty plain. 

The back has an explanation of the Elite Series collection and some bio on the R2 and 3PO.

"In collaboration with Lucasfilm, Disney Store is proud to introduce the Star Wars Elite Series, a premium line of die cast action figures featuring iconic characters from the expansive world of Star Wars. This exclusive collection is meticulously engineered and crafted with Star Wars fans in mind."

Let's take a look at the figures!

C-3PO

"The threat of the First Order is of great concern to the ever worried protocol droid C-3PO. He continues to serve General Leia Organa on the bridge of the Resistance cruiser."

This C-3PO figure is based on the appearance from The Last Jedi where all of 3PO is gold. It's a pretty good representation if it wasn't for one thing... 

The arms are missing the connectors on the arms but they're sort of articulated, they're extremely limited. The shoulders are also sculpted in a specific pose so they look strange in certain positions. They swivel and go out slightly, you wont get much poseability from the arms. 

 The paint applications on the stomach look random, they don't look like wires, instead they look like someone scribbled on the stomach and called it a day.

He also comes with a stand that has the logo and a peg. It looks nice and thankfully there's a hole on the bottom of the feel that allow 3PO to peg nicely on it without falling over.

The sculpt throughout the figure is fantastic but it's so limited in articulation that it's very disappointing but it does what it needs to I guess. As long as you don't look at him from the back, the exposed screws wont be much of an issue. Leg articulation is lame, but he does have it and it's enough. I don't think you're going to get 3PO in any dynamic positions considering he's not much more than an interpreter and not very good at telling stories.

For some reason he looks like an "Aye aye aye aye aye!" kinda robot

R2-D2

"Luke Skywalker's faithful astromech droid remained dormant for years after his master disappeared. Now reactivated, R2-D2 travels with Rey and Chewbacca to a remote island where Skywalker is in exile."

This R2 unit is neat and honestly a little chunky, he looks very round and wide, but it's okay. He's a little bit of a brick but he's supposed to be that way, he has arm articulation and ankle/wrist articulation! The head can also turn around and do a 360. Detailing on this droid is everywhere and unlike 3PO, he has more than just two colors! The white and blue look good as well as the silver details. The screw holes on the back are covered which makes me wonder why they didn't cover 3PO's. 

 The neat part about R2 is that you can hide the middle leg with a simple push, to get it back out you can just push it again for it to spring up.

He is very heavy, he looks it too! On R2's head there's a little siver piece that just rotates for some reason, I'm not sure why it's there but it's there.

 Underneath R2's feethands there's bumps painted black that are supposed to be the wheels, honestly they didn't really need to be there. If you saw with 3PO, he has a peg on the left foot but R2 doesn't because he's a rebel.

He's a strong independent droid who ain't need no peg hole! He stands on his stand well but I just wish the peg wasn't there to get in the way. 

The two are neat on their own but it is nice to have both together.

 With the limited range of poseability, honestly it's a nitpick since the droids themselves don't really move much in the movies. Seriously, C-3PO's arms are so limited, especially in the elbows, that I don't know why they bothered to make that a joint.

 3PO's shoulders could have been done a lot better honestly and with the die cast being the main selling point, I don't think 3PO's ankles would hold up for too long. As for die cast, everything minus the head, feet, and hands are die cast metal. For R2-D2 everything but the feethands is die cast metal.

I'm not really that interested in collecting these unless they're heavily discounted since the full price per figure is probably around $26 bucks. If they were more articulated and much nicer, I'd get them at that price, and I guess it's fair since they're mostly metal. And okay, maybe the droids are limited but what about the other figures in The Last Jedi line like Jedi Master Luke, or Chewie... well, I do have Finn in his First Order disguise and I'll take a look at him at a later date. The Elite Series figures are another rabbit hole I don't want to get myself into, I already got into The Black Series figures, both the 6" and 3.75" as well as Marvel Legends on both scales, and the Lightning Collection for Power Rangers soon! I also like the imports but they're expensive and hopefully I'll be able to get my fix.

But since they're available... They're good for what they're worth... on clearance.

I'm glad the scaling isn't terrible when it comes to other The Black Series figures.

I honestly thought that they would be so out of scale that these two would just sit off to the side on another shelf by themselves.

Seeing some clips, C-3PO was a little taller than Luke, he's about 6" in this scale, well a little taller.

As for R2, he's wonky, a little oddly proportioned in my eyes, doesn't he? He looks way too big.

The paint on them looks okay, I wish 3PO was a little more chrome ya'know. I guess he wasn't that shiny to begin with in The Last Jedi.

Even though I feel as if I should complete this line, I don't really want to, I don't know but I don't regret these two.

Here they are next to Farmboy Luke that came with the Landspeeder and 30 TBS Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Next to BB-8 that came with 02 TBS Rey and 29 TBS Resistance Base C-3PO. As you can see, The Black Series C-3PO is a lot better detailed all around, although he doesn't have elbow articulation, the overall poseabily is better.

And of course next to 61 TBS Jawa. Again, I have very little to no regrets in getting them for the price that I got them in. If you see them on clearance, I highly recommend them, they'll let you recreate scenes from the movies and you'll be happier! Like I wish I was!

Looks like a family photo