R2-D2 (40th ANH) — Star Wars The Black Series 40th Anniversary

Overview

R2-D2 at #07 in the 40th Anniversary lineup is the Black Series tribute release of Kenny Baker’s iconic Astromech Droid — Artoo as he appears across A New Hope’s Tatooine, Death Star, and Yavin Base sequences, and across the broader original trilogy. Released individually carded in Spring 2017 in Kenner-style packaging that replicated the original 1977 cardback art design. Mainline non-exclusive at $19.99. 6-joint articulation — appropriately lean for a droid character class with no humanoid limb configuration. Ten accessories — the highest accessory count in the entire 40th Anniversary line. The figure is structurally a re-release of the 2013 Black Series R2-D2 (figure id=2070), shipped at standard retail in the new commemorative packaging. The only physical difference between the 2013 and 2017 production runs is the date stamp on the inside of R2-D2’s left leg, which now reads 72151.

The Initial Case-Rate Shortage

A specific distribution note worth flagging: initially this figure was only included once per case, which made it harder to find than the standard 40th Anniversary figures. Hasbro’s case-pack ratio for the line allocated only one Artoo per shipping case, while other figures shipped at higher per-case rates. The result was structural scarcity at retail despite the mainline distribution — collectors building the complete 12-figure 40th Anniversary set struggled to find Artoo at standard retail pricing during the initial release window.

Hasbro realized the shortage and shipped solid cases of this figure during the Fall of 2017 to online retailers and specialty shops such as ThinkGeek/GameStop. The mid-cycle distribution adjustment made the figure more accessible by late 2017, but collectors who wanted to acquire all 12 figures at simultaneous release were affected by the early-2017 case-rate constraint.

For collectors evaluating the figure today, the post-shortage distribution adjustment means aftermarket pricing has stabilised. The figure is now available at MSRP through standard secondary market channels.

The Ten-Accessory Loadout

R2-D2 ships with the most generous accessory loadout in the entire 40th Anniversary line:

• 2 removable leg panels (the standard outer-leg configuration)
• 2 booster rockets (the alternative leg-panel attachment for the flying configuration)
• Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber hilt (the screen-accurate Death Star escape hidden-equipment moment)
• Sensorscope (the dome-mounted equipment for environmental scanning)
• Periscope (the dome-mounted equipment for visual reconnaissance)
• 3 removable dome panels (covering the sensorscope, periscope, and lightsaber mounting holes)

The accessory loadout supports multiple distinct display configurations: standard wheeled droid (default), flying configuration (booster rockets installed in place of leg panels), Tatooine search configuration (sensorscope deployed), Death Star escape configuration (periscope deployed), or Luke’s-lightsaber-hidden configuration (lightsaber hilt mounted in dome).

For collectors building scene-specific dioramas, the multi-state configuration flexibility is the figure’s primary value proposition. A single $19.99 figure purchase covers Artoo’s screen-accurate appearance across multiple A New Hope sequences. Detailed reviewers’ direct assessment: the figure is beautifully sculpted, detailed, and it comes with a TON of accessories.

The Three Removable Dome Panels

R2-D2 has three panels on top of the dome which can be removed. The included sensorscope, Luke’s Return of the Jedi lightsaber, and a periscope can be plugged into the holes underneath the panels. The dome’s modular configuration captures the screen-accurate Astromech Droid equipment-deployment system — the panels conceal the equipment when stowed and pop off to reveal the deployed components.

This works overall great — but unfortunately Luke’s lightsaber can’t be put all the way into the dome. The lightsaber-mounting hole has insufficient depth for the hilt to seat fully, leaving a small gap between the hilt base and the dome panel surface. For collectors who plan to display the lightsaber in the deployed-storage configuration, the figure works correctly but the partial-mounting reads as slightly off compared to the screen-accurate Death Star escape sequence.

The Booster Rockets

The two outside panels on R2-D2’s legs can be replaced by two booster rockets. The screen-accurate “flying R2-D2” configuration from the prequel trilogy and various Original Trilogy moments captured cleanly through the swap-out leg panel system. For collectors who want to display Artoo in flight configuration, the booster rocket installation is straightforward and structurally reliable.

The standard leg panels and the booster rocket components are functionally interchangeable. Collectors can rotate between the standard wheeled configuration and the flight configuration based on preferred display state.

The Internal Arms

There are two front panels on R2-D2’s body which can be opened — when opened these let you pull out two of R2-D2’s arms. The internal-equipment configuration captures the screen-accurate moments where Artoo deploys his various tool arms (the data probe arm during Death Star plug-in sequences, the buzz-saw arm during repair scenarios, the various other Astromech equipment).

For collectors who want to display Artoo in active-deployment configuration, the deployable arms support the screen-accurate equipment-in-use display state. The arms are integrated rather than separate accessories — they don’t need to be tracked as removable components.

The Dome Rotation and Middle Leg

R2-D2’s dome can be rotated 360 degrees, which moves the middle leg in or out of the body. The dome rotation makes a clicking sound during movement — appropriate to the screen-accurate Astromech Droid mechanical behaviour. The connected mechanism between dome rotation and middle-leg deployment is a clever engineering touch that captures the source material’s droid behaviour cleanly.

For collectors who care about screen-accurate Astromech configuration, the dome-rotation/middle-leg coupling supports both the standing tripod configuration (middle leg deployed) and the rolling bipod configuration (middle leg retracted) display states.

The Two-Wheel-Per-Foot Engineering

A specific engineering positive worth flagging: each foot has two wheels in it. In the 3.75-inch line, the droids mostly have one wheel in each foot — which sometimes makes the droids lean a bit forward or backward. This is not the case here. The 6-inch Black Series Artoo has dual wheels per foot, providing meaningfully better standing-stability than the 3.75-inch alternatives. The figure stands reliably without forward or backward lean across the various display configurations.

For collectors who’ve struggled with leaning Astromech droids in other Hasbro lines, the dual-wheel engineering is a meaningful structural improvement. The figure stays upright in static-display configurations without tipping.

The No-Electronics Configuration

There are no electronics built into the droid and the front eye doesn’t light up. The figure is purely mechanical — no battery-powered light or sound effects. For collectors who expect electronic features at the 6-inch flagship-collector scale, the absence is meaningful. The figure relies entirely on sculpted detail and articulation to capture the character class without supplementary electronic enhancement.

This is appropriate for the Black Series line’s overall design philosophy — Hasbro reserves electronic features for higher-tier product configurations (the various Disney Park animatronic Astromech releases, the higher-end specialty Astromech products). The standard 6-inch Black Series figures don’t include electronic features as a baseline.

The Scale Critique

A specific size negative worth flagging: unfortunately R2-D2 is too small in comparison with other 6-inch scale figures. The figure undershoots the screen-accurate Artoo proportions relative to human-scale characters. When displayed alongside Luke at #01, Leia at #03, or any other human-character figure in the line, R2-D2 reads as smaller than the source material’s proportional relationship suggests.

For collectors building scale-accurate displays where character height ratios matter, the undersized configuration is structurally inappropriate. The workaround is the standard one: aftermarket custom modification, or accepting the slight scale variance as a Black Series line characteristic. Subsequent Black Series Astromech releases have addressed the scale question with different tooling commitment levels — but the 2013-source Artoo body sculpt undershoots the canonical proportions.

Articulation

6 joints. 360-degree rotatable dome (with clicking sound), 2 swivel hips, 3 swivel ankles. Lean joint count appropriate to the Astromech Droid character class — the figure has no humanoid limb configuration and doesn’t need the joint complexity that human-scale figures require. The dome rotation is the figure’s primary expressive articulation; the leg swivels support the standing-vs-tripod configuration changes.

Distribution and Mural Position

Standard mainline 40th Anniversary release at $19.99 through wide retail channels — Target, Walmart, Toys R Us (still operating in Spring 2017), Amazon, hobby shops. The mainline distribution and the standard pricing make Artoo accessible despite the initial case-rate shortage. Aftermarket pricing on the secondary market has remained reasonable due to broad eventual availability.

R2-D2 sits at the seventh position in the 40th Anniversary 12-figure mural display. For loose display, the figure works best alongside the other 40th Anniversary releases (Luke at #01, Vader at #02, Leia at #03, Han at #04, Chewbacca at #05, C-3PO at #06, Obi-Wan at #08) for the A New Hope ensemble configuration. The figure pairs specifically with C-3PO at #06 for the Threepio-and-Artoo droid duo display that anchors so much of the source material’s narrative.

Secondary Market

Single-carded mainline release on Kenner vintage cardback, Spring 2017. Available at MSRP through standard retail and the secondary market with broad availability since the Fall 2017 distribution adjustment. Verify all ten accessory components are included — the small dome panels, the sensorscope, the periscope, Luke’s lightsaber hilt, both booster rockets, and both standard leg panels. Several of these are easy to lose during transit. No production variants documented beyond the date-stamp difference vs the 2013 source release.

Verdict

R2-D2 at #07 in the 2017 40th Anniversary line is structurally one of the most accessory-rich figures in the entire commemorative set. The ten-component loadout supports multiple distinct display configurations from a single figure purchase, the modular dome panel system captures the screen-accurate equipment-deployment behaviour, the swap-out leg panel system supports both standard wheeled and flying booster configurations, the internal-arm deployment captures Astromech tool-deployment moments, the dual-wheel-per-foot engineering provides reliable standing-stability, and the dome rotation with clicking sound captures the source material’s mechanical character behaviour.

The undersized scale relative to other 6-inch figures is the figure’s most defensible structural negative. The lightsaber hilt’s incomplete dome-mounting depth is a minor engineering miss. The lack of electronic features is consistent with the line’s baseline approach but undershoots collector expectations for the 6-inch flagship scale. The initial case-rate shortage made the figure structurally hard to acquire during the 2017 release window.

Buy this figure if you collect the 40th Anniversary line as a complete set, if you appreciate the Kenner vintage cardback packaging, if you want the most accessory-rich Black Series Astromech available, or if you build chronological R2-D2 displays. The 10-accessory loadout makes this one of the strongest value-per-dollar figures in the line despite the scale and electronic limitations.

The Astromech Droid with the highest accessory count in the line. The figure with the modular dome panels and the swap-out booster rockets. The Artoo that took until Fall 2017 to ship at full availability. Mainline distribution, Spring 2017.

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Part of Star Wars The Black Series | Phase 3 40th Anniversary Collection. Related: C-3PO (40th ANH) P3-40A-06 | Luke Skywalker (40th ANH) P3-40A-01 | Obi-Wan Kenobi (40th ANH) P3-40A-08.