Official solicit:

Star Wars Tri-Droid Figure

Infinitely scalable and highly versatile, tri-droids in various forms saw combat on a number of worlds during the Clone Wars. Most were sized to integrate seamlessly into the Droid Army ranks, but their efficiency of design allowed for even more massive versions that towered over the forces of the Republic.

Add this incredible figure to your “galaxy”! Tri-Droid figure is based on the droid character from the Star Wars saga!

Spring 2008
MSRP6.99USD

I’m not much of a Star Wars collector, never really was either. And I think it’s pretty safe to say that by this point in my adult life, the 3 prequel films complete and utter Lucasian (ooh how nerdy!) interference has now retroactively made me hate all things Star Wars entirely, especially the original 3 films. I won’t be so melodramatic as to say the guy ruined my childhood, because SW wasn’t a huge part of it to begin with, but George Lucas certainly did his best to take a dump on the fond memories I did have as a child of the franchise, yeah?

That said, I do have a Darth Vader mask sitting next to my desk as I type this, and I have one of those toy lightsabers that lights up and makes noises packed away somewhere too. So I guess maybe I’m not completely turned off by the merchandising aspect, just the films themselves.

So with that little disclaimer in place, I can preface the whole review by saying that if you want some Star Wars historical accuracy level of knowledge coming into this, then you’re in the wrong place friend. I don’t know much about these prequel films and it’s characters, or any of the spin-off characters from the cartoons, nor do I care to either. What I do know though is cool toys. And that’s why you’re here, because you know I know it too.

And for that vote of confidence, I thank you. Now on with the review!

The first time I saw the Tri-Droid on shelves in a store, my eyes were instantly drawn to it. A friend joked to me recently I should just rename this site Superheroes & Robots (and LNT too) because that’s pretty much where my only interest in toys lie. And I suppose that’s true, but aside from those two things, what else is there?

Whoever just said Bratz, please excuse yourself from my website immediately.

Anyways, so I saw this guy on the shelves, thought he looked cool, but as I said above, I don’t really do the whole SW collecting, so I passed. Cut to a few weeks later, I see some pictures of the Tri-Droid on a toy collector message board I frequent, and thought he looked so great I was a fool to pass him up before. So it was decided then that the next time I saw him in stores, he was mine!

Great price point on all the SW figures, this guy was even on sale for 5.99USD, which made buying him an even easier decision. As you can see on the off-the-card picture (above far right), there is a little assembly required here, although there’re no instructions provided as to how. That proved a little difficult for even my advanced reasoning and logic capabilities given I’m an adult, so I can imagine anyone in the AGES4+ range will have an even harder time - you just gotta look at the picture on the back and wing it though, hoping you snap the legs into the right spots! Don’t be scared, you can do it, I know you can!

Out of package, and (I hope) properly assembled, the Tri-Droid strikes a menacing posture. I have to say, the center “abdomen” section of the toy isn’t that big, no more than 2.75 inches tall, and on card look smaller than that even. However, once his legs are attached and he is standing, he has an average height of about 5-6 inches, and can go up to about 8 inches maximum as well.

Paint apps, as with most of the SW toys, are great. Greater even than pretty much any other line Hasbro produces, which is kind of odd considering some of the awful paint jobs I’ve seen on some of the recent GI Joes, Transformers, or especially some of those Iron Man toys earlier this year - yikes! The little details are spot on, the washes, the coloring of the plastic the toy is made of itself, the variations in tone and color, as well as nice choices for metallics all make this guy look like a shiny rustbucket droid. I love it!

There’s a ton of articulation on our mechanical friend here, but as you can see there isn’t a whole lot to him at all anyways. 19 points of movement overall, most of that comes from the 5 points in each leg, and then the various moving turret/lasers on the middle section of the droid. There is also a twisting joint in the center of the droid which allows full 360 degree rotation, which is nice and helps for moving the gun turrets when in standing mode!

Also, remembering how small the center of the toy is in size, looking at him completely spread out is pretty impressive. With the legs fully spread, he’s got a radius of just over a foot, that’s pretty damn big given the height on most of the SW humanoid characters is no more than 3.75 inches, making the Tri-Droid a monster to deal with for most!

Only drawbacks with this figure stem from manufacturing materials. The Tri-Droid is made from the softer plastic material many action figures are made from today, instead of a harder more solid kind. That means he’s going to bend and sway some, without snapping off at the points. On one hand that’s a good thing and gives the toy added durability, but it can also be a bad thing too. Like for instance if your droid was squished into his packaging at the plant and shipped out all crushed, over a period of time that softer rubber is going to stay in the crushed shape it was forced into, like the feet of mine. I had to constantly bend and reshape to keep him standing, but no matter what it would always go back to it’s crushed form. Boo. Also, that softer plastic means the smaller/thinner pieces of the toy are far more fragile, I’d imagine the gun turrets on these are the first to go, and seem especially eager to be snapped off by a careless hand - so be careful there.

In the end, as I said, there isn’t much to this guy, but there doesn’t really need to be. Colors are great, sculpt is great, size and mobility are great too, what more do you want? He crawls and stands and even looks neat when he’s got his head flipped upside down! If they would have made Star Wars figures like this when I was a kid, I’d probably actually really hate George Lucas now. Instead of just mildly hating him like we all do.

And deservedly so, too.