Vintage Star Wars R5-D4 action figure review Kenner 1978
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- Опубліковано 7 вер 2024
- R5-D4? We Had That! This little Astromech came out as part of the second wave of Star Wars figures in 1978. He looked a lot like R2-D2 to me and he was pretty much a mystery as a kid. What do you think about this little droid? Let me know in the comments below!
WeHadThat.com
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Still have mine! Been hoarding my figures from the late 70's and early 80's since I was kid.
My dad had this one as a kid and gave it to me, which made me love astromech droids and especially R5-D4 and the other R5 droids. This guy isn't too mysterious-he's the droid Uncle Owen bought at the Jawa droid sale, before his motivator blew so he purchased R2 instead. Now he's in the Mandalorian and the Book of Boba Fett.
He literally explained this in the video. You should watch it...
Haha@@lake_cooper
I loved R5-D4!
I remember getting him, Obi Wan, farmboy Luke and Hoth Han X-mas of 1980, as well at the the "Darth Vader Star Destroyer". I was also into the Black Hole around that time, so the "Star Destroyer" wound up being the Cygnus, and R5 became Old Bob.
I always liked R5's design better than R2's and I wanted that figure more than R2. Imagine if they made a Cygnus to go along with the figure line back then? Even a smaller die cast version would have been sweet.......that ship is arguably the most underrated aesthetically in the realm of sci-fi movies.
@@thesilveraura2177 I love the USS Cygnus. It looks like it would be as much at home in a Jules Verne styled sci- fi movie as it did in the future setting of The Black Hole.
There was a prototype toy of the USS Palomino, but it never made it to production. I would've loved to have had the figures from TBH... especially V.I.N.Cent and Maximilian (whom I've always dubbed as "King of the Cylons).
My brothers and I used an extra R2-D2 wrapped in white tape as our old Bob for the Black Hole adventures. I had the V.I.N.CENT figure and Maxamillion figure as well. I never got the rest of them, but a couple years later my youngest brother got a Sentry Robot Figure. All of those figures are long gone now, who knows where. R5-D4 was a cool droid and when the Y-wing came out I always had R5 in the droid socket.
@@martok2112 Yes! Totally out of a Jules Verne universe.
Even in the 90s that figure line was near impossible to find complete and in decent shape. When I was a young punk I'd be at every toy and antique show, nagging the dealers, looking for any of TBH figures as well as the Tron line. (Another tough series) Eons later I found a Maximilian that was in respectable shape that I still have.
I built the Cygnus out of my Lego heap. It was awesome.
Kenner just gave the droid a random alphanumeric designation so they could sell the figure with a name. I like the way the name R5-D4 eventually became canon, with the R5 series offered by Industrial Automaton as a low-cost alternative to the R2, R3, and R4 models. Wookieepedia has a great article about the R5 series, written in the style of a corporate after-action review about how bad the R5 series droids ended up being. Luke calling it an 'R2 unit' was likely a rural-style affectation of calling all astromechs 'R2's, kind of the way people in the South call every brand of soda 'Coke'.
I have been in multiple parts of southern states my whole life and have never heard people refer to a non-cola soda as a "Coke."
@@thorguff I heard it mostly in Alabama and Georgia.
@@thorguffIt was more common before the ‘80s. I remember my parents, relatives, friends, and strangers calling sodas Cokes or dranks; sometimes they would as you what kind of Coke to you want to drank.
Bweep bwoo! He’s a classic! Interesting facts on the name and continuity.
When I was a kid I was pretty spoiled. My uncle was a chemist/shift foreman at the chemical plant that supplied Kenner with the dyes it used to make its products. This was back before they shipped most of their manufacturing and supply pipeline overseas. Because of this he would often be given products for testing which included dyeless action figures as well as ones that had been finished that they would perform various tests on to see how durable the paint they used to paint them was. Between him and my best friend at the time whose dad worked as a product designer at Hasbro we both ended up with pretty much the entire late 70's to late 80's Star Wars & GI JOE lines. I remember having numerous Darth Vader, C-3PO, and Hoth transport action figure cases full of figures.
Sadly, when I moved away from home in the late 90's my aunt gave them all away...along with most of the rest of my things. I still cringe just thinking about how much sentimental value all that stuff had.
Great memory, and I hate to heap additional regret onto your sentimental loss, but in the toy collector's community, those dyeless figures would be just one step above being prototypes, which means they would have been worth a considerable sum, even if in slightly distressed condition. Just be reassured that some lonely toy-collecting weirdo like me somewhere got a close-to-Holy-Grail item thanks to your family's generosity.
She must have hated you
Did your unclde also ask you to stay away from a strange but wise old hooded man living in the neighbourhood? Sort of spooky fellow who likes to talk about spirituality and stuff?
R5-D4 is one of my favorite figures.
If I remember correctly, the Radio Drama had Artoo messing around with R5-D4 before the sale to cause his motivator to go bad.
R5-D4 will always have a special place in my heart because after the original 12 action figures were released the next 8 were hard to find. R5-D4 was the first one of the second wave of figures I found in the checkout lane of our grocery store. 45 years ago and I'll never forget that day.
Awesome vintage toy memories!!!
My original R5 sits on my workbench and is the unofficial mascot of all my projects. He's always been one of my favorite designs and figures. When they came out with the Y-Wing with the removable droid spot, R5 was immediately promoted to flight duty.
Even though I begged and begged for that Sears cardboard Cantina, my parents wouldn't budge. My first encounter with the second wave of Star Wars figures was in late winter/early spring of 1979. We went on a rare weeknight visit to the mall and in Woolworths was an endcap of Star Wars figures with all 8 of the new wave. I picked R5-D4 and the Power Droid and was very happy with them.
I don't know why I had the cardboard Cantina playset. I think I got it for Christmas and I guess my parents just knew how much I liked Star Wars figures and since it was new, they got it for me.
I didn't see Star Wars (1977) when it was first in the cinema, however I was bought my first Star Wars figure in 1977 when visiting the toy shop. I chose R5D4 and I still have it today.
He's a great one!
Poor R5D4 he was the toy I got for my eighth birthday because all the “good” toys had sold out! But he quickly earned a place in my hart.
I think it's that R2 units are possibly the most common astromech 'droid, so the name 'R2' is used generically, like ballpoint pens being called 'BIC's', or 'Biros', or vacuum cleaners being called 'Hoovers'. Luke would have known it was an R5, but called it an R2 out of familiarity. Owen Lars knew exactly what Luke meant.
Good point about Owen knowing what Luke meant!
R5-D4 was one of the first figures I got after seeing Star Wars. I found out you could take its head off with a simple Phillips head screwdriver.
I had a great time disassembling R5 and R2 and making various mashups with the parts.
I did the same after getting a 3D printer a few years back and modeled them in a simple CAD to reproduce them. Not to exact specs, but they turned out okay
I used to swap heads on some of my figures. You couldn't do this with all of them, but by the time The Empire Strikes Back series of figures came out, they pretty much all had a head-on-a-peg design that let you pop them off and back on. I'd also wrap them up in tinfoil and pretend they'd been carbon-frozen.
Nice!
Oh yes, I played with Star Wars action figures as a kid. I had the land speeder before I had any figures. My first two figures were Chewbacca and Luke Skywalker. My absolute favorite figure would have to be Darth Vader. As a kid who played with his toys outside and sometimes a little rough, I went through four of them! The last Star Wars figure I bought was one of the Ewoks in the Power of the Force line. I bought it at K-mart on clearance for about eighty cents. As a young adult I sold my Star Wars collection to a collector for a few hundred dollars, I later regretted that.
I've been lucky that I've never sold any of my Star Wars toys except my Cantina playset as a kid and my Death Star playset as an adult (because I didn't have anywhere to put it)
Canonically, R2 units were the most popular of the “R” series Astromechs, so it is likely they are commonly referred to as “R2” units, regardless of their actual series numbers.
Like how cotton swabs are commonly called q-tips
I think more like how adhesive bandages are called Band-aids.
I think what you mean is how all tissues are called Kleenex.
I think you mean like how people call anyone dressed in a a red suit with a white beard “Santa”
Like facial tissue is called Kleenex
I received my R5-D4 figure for Christmas in '79 from an uncle really who had no idea what it was. I still have it.
I picked up R5-D4 as soon as I saw it on the shelf, then begged my mom to buy it for me. Thought it was cool to have another droid like R2 in my collection. When I saw Star Wars, as a kid I thought/figured R2 did something to cause R5 to explode....lol.
Star Wars toy memories!
I think it should be noted that in the first film Episode 4, and the entire original trilogy, all the background Astromech droids were simply referred to as "R2 units" by the creators of the film (except R1 that is). The names we know today, like R5D4, came from other later sources that labeled these nameless R2 droids that appeared in scenes from the first trilogy.
I guess with all of the after-the-fact information that came out, I sometimes forget that when they were making Star Wars, it was just a movie, not a religion...yet.
My first R5-D4 action figure came packaged in the Rare Offerless ESB 41D card back. Good thing I bought 3 of these R5s and saved the card back and plastic bubble together.
I loved my R5-D4! For a very long time, for reasons I cannot completely explain, I much preferred the R5 head design and red colors to R2's dome and blue coloring. (Part of that might have been Kenner's rather horrific action figure design.)
Me too👍
I get it.
Now look what you've done! I'll have to go back to watch that scene again. After all these decades of watching & talking about Star Wars, I never noticed that slip up. Lol
I just look at as R2 was the most commonly known astromech droid and they generally are called R2 units. Like when most call tissues "Kleenex" regardless of brand name,
It wouldn't bother me to think that "R2" was a genericism like "Xerox", "Kleenex" or "Velcro". "R2" droids may have well been the first to really penetrate the market and therefore those models that came after would by been technically different but still known (especially "down on the farm") as "Artoo" units. But then again, little details like this are what keep fans engaged with the material. It's a part of the fun. I too thought of the Death Star Droid as a "Silver C-3PO"! Mostly because I really wanted a U-3PO action figure (which didn't exist!).
Childhood toy adventures!!!
Luke Skywalker was my first Star Wars Action figure when the movies first came out. My mother had to wait in line and only could by 3 figures. Darth Vader for my brother and Princes Leia for my little sister. Of the original ones that came out I eventually had 2 stormtroopers, Sandman, C3PO, R2, Chewie, Han Solo, Jawa and the Star Destroyer guy. My brother later gave me his Darth Vader. Then I got Hammerhead, R5-D4, 2 Death Star Droids, Greedo, 2 Luke Skywalker X-ing pilots, and Power Droid. I would get many more later as time went on. Always brings back memories and memories of Christmas.
Nice to see R4 getting a revival in The Mandalorian… Peli has him working in her garage complete with scorched markings of the blown converter
It is nice!
I had that! When i was a kid an antique store within biking distance sold old Star Wars figures loose without accessories. I had R5-D4 and an ewok (not Wicket).
i was 5 when Star Wars came out but i was also in the middle of a 2 or 3 or 4 year long road trip with my father, sort of just driving along desolate highways out in the middle of nowhere and camping in national parks. i wasnt around any other kids and i wasnt around any TV's, i was at The Grand Canyon and The Painted Desert and The Petrified Forest and Carlsbad Caverns i had no idea star Wars even existed. i have some specific memories of playing with Star Wars toys with my two friends in the late 70s once we finally settled down, but i dont think i ever actually saw Star Wars until it was on cable probably not long before Return Of The Jedi came out.
i have a very specific memory when i was probably about 8 which would have been 80 and it had just been raining really hard all morning, and when the rain stopped for awhile i went outside to play and there was a spot beside the front porch where the water would always run off the roof so there was a little bit of like a pothole there. now that little hole was full of the rain water and a few little tiny tyfts of moss or something were sticking out of the puddle and i just thought it looked like Yodas swamp "which im not sure how i knew about at that time" so i was playing with my Yoda figure next to it and the ice cream man drove by. i had just recently learned from somebody that if you asked the ice cream man if he had any spare dry ice he might sometimes give you some, so i stopped him and asked and he gave me a little sliver wrapped in some brown trash bag looking paper and i went over and dropped it in the puddle so now my little swamp had fog coming out and i remember just sitting there admiring how cool it looked.
I had this R5-D4 figure and liked it very much -- it was unique. Oddly enough, my parents never bought me R2-D2. I remember having 3 different Lukes, Obi Wan, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, Darth Vader, the Hoth Han Solo, Lando, Boba Fett (my personal favorite) -- but never the standard Han Solo, C-3PO, or R2-D2. I don't even think I ever got Yoda!
No Han Solo!?!?
The book, Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View reinforces story about R5-D4 intentionally blowing his motivator to keep R2-D2 an C-3PO from splitting up and allow R2 to continue his mission to contact Obi Wan.
Yes in the new stuff r5 is also a rebel droid, and knew r2 had a more important mission. In the old stuff r2 just sabotaged him just in case .
Just waiting for Return of the Jedi: From a Certain Point of View to come out.
@@loydwalters4334 This year, 2023, is the 40th Anniversary of Return of the Jedi, so I have a feeling it will come out sometime in 2023.
@@GremmPaltakin lol Disney garbage
@@GremmPaltakin I have no idea.
Still have one. Always love the color of this little droid.
Thanks for sharing! Well R5-D4 was my very first SW action figure. By the time I didn't know who he was because I haven't seen the movie. Anyway at the age of ten (1981) I saw "A New Hope" for the very first time and I was. blown away. My fav figure(s) back in the early 80 were the the six bounty hunters. Unfortunately my Kenner collection got lost nevertheless my current collection of figures, vehicles and playlets is huge and nowadays R5-D4 (Vintage Collection) is one of my top ten figures!
Awesome!
Thanks for trip down memory lane! I had many of those action figures including R5-D4. I don’t think I had the Imperial droid though. I wish I still had mine because I bet they’d be worth some money today. I remember getting C3-PO and his joints were all stuck at first, so he was just stuck in that standing pose like he was in the package. I don’t know if it was the gold paint or what, but they eventually gave way and his arms and legs could be moved.
Most of the common figures aren't worth that much. Their weapons, on the other hand, are worth quite a bit more since they were the first things to get lost.
I got my first R5D4 at an Auto Expo my uncle took me to in Australia in 1979. We had a big toy expo the previous year and it must have done so well hot on the heels of Star Wars that most of the toy people came back for the car expo. I got Luke X-Wing and Hammerhead at the same time during the May '79 school holidays. The rarest by far from that second wave in Australia was Power Droid but by Christmas I had them all...then this weird figure called Boba Fett appeared on card backs. I thought it had ended but Kenner was just warming up. My pocket money back then was 5 bucks a week and Star Wars figures were never more than $2.50, but it took a long time to find the rarer ones in stores...
Star Wars figure memories!!!
Nice overview! I gather I'm a little older than you, but your recollections of each "wave" of action figure "drops" brought me back.
I'm building a 1:1 R5-D4, because he's my favourite droid.
In the process, I've come to realise that R5-D4 is quite a bit taller than R2-D2, or indeed most of the other astrodroids in the first movie. In fact, Arfive is about as much taller than Artoo as Jack Purvis was taller than Kenny Baker. I've no proof - but I'm quite convinced the main reason Arfive's dome is so tall is to Mr. Purvis would fit in the costume.
And yes, any time you see a droid in two-leg mode, it's a costume, not a prop. There's a small person inside.
R5D4 was the first Star Wars toy I had. I was 1 year old. I went to a comic book convention in DC when I was 14. I found a dealer from Ohio selling vintage figs on cards. I bought several figs including boba Fett from this person until he gave me the contact info of a retired Kenner exec. I bought the 12 12 backs and R5D4 and death Star droid. I still have them. Cool. Cool.
I actually didn't become a big Star Wars fan till I was an adult. And I never thought much of R5-D4 until I played "Jedi Academy." There was a mission where you go to Tatooine to recover an R5 unit that had information. They never said but I always assumed it was the same droid from Episode IV.
But I have collected quite a few R units over the years. My first was R4-G9 from a "Preview" toy collection for Episode III. After that I kind of became obsessed with R2 units (yes I call them that. FIGHT ME!). I got a figure of R5-D4 where if you turned the head the motivator would come out. It makes me happy now to see in Dinsey canon he is now partnered with Din Djarin on his adventures. His scene fighting the mouse droids always makes me laugh.
Great video. For that matter I can't remember many times R2-D2 was called R2-D2 in Star Wars. Star Wars mysteries are great though. I didn't have R5-D4 until later, like 1989 when I found him at a local comic book store. For me he was a cool addition but unessential.
I take that back about R2-D2. C3PO says "R2-D2 where are you?" in the first five minutes of the movie!
I thought Princess Leia also said something about "This R2 Unit"
I still have all those plus all the 78 release’s. What a Christmas that was. 🍻
This was one of my favorite figures of my childhood
My R5 was mostly a background character in my Rebel bases.
As a child I would play with heroes. Mainly how the Jedi cut down the Stormtroopers. As an adult, I like my legos astromechs and have R2 and Chopper droid figures for the SW Rebels series
Awesome!
Luke says a couple strange things in Ep4. He also calls R2 and CP3O “robots” instead of “droids” while he and Obi-wan are inspecting the sand crawler. It never gets a mention though.
I never noticed that.
I had found a well played with R5-D4 online and bought it for $3.00. It now sits in the droid compartment on my Kenner Y-wing.
Has anyone mentioned the old radio drama shows, yet? In them R2 actually sabotages R5 to blow his motivator. As it goes the radio drama was based more off an earlier draft of the script; where the droids were a bit different than they ended up being in the movie. (Also, yes; my Death Star Droid and R% were counterparts like 3PO and R2.)
I didn't know there was a radio drama! Did they have the same actors?
I was 6 years old when I first saw Star Wars. I loved all my action figures. I recall reading somewhere that R2 actually sabotaged the R5 unit during the part where Uncle Owen is bargaining with the Jawas. Not sure why I remember that. The original novelization perhaps?
I remember my first POTF Star Wars figures in the mid 90s. I got Leia, C3P0 and Vader. I'm 37 now and still collect action figures lmao
I think Luke was just mistaken. How often does a farmboy on Tatooine stumble across astromechs to be expected to be able to tell them apart? I like the theory that R2 sabotaged R4's motivator. It was in the radio drama I think.
I was also young and my primary Star Wars experience was the toys for years. When I finally saw the movie again, I was shocked R2 and R4 had a retractable third foot.
Ah, the retractable 3rd foot! Didn't the droid factory have one of those?
Great video! I love your take on R5 going on adventures with R2D2 and C-3PO. Sounds fun! I loved these toys as a kid. They were the only way for us to continue our Star Wars adventures until the Empire Strikes Back was released. The Darth Vader figure and the Stormtroopers were probably my favourites - but there was something special about the interpretation of Chewie as well.
I really loved these toys as a kid!
The original Star Wars novel stated that R2 sabotaged R5 In order to make certain that he would be selected… As a kid I loved all the figures, but Boba had an extra special place in my collection. I had 2, 1 for close up beauty shots & the other, flew into the wooden fence, flew into the stucco on our house & many other would be injurious stunts.
Awesome childhood adventures!
I grew up with theses toys, and had R5-D4. If I remember correctly he had a "clicky" action when turning his head. I also saved up my upc codes and got the original Boba Fett figure in the mail. I was so disappointed that his rocket was glued into the launcher... the one figure I regret not saving and keeping "mint in the box"
I still have that little droid :)
R5-D4 shows up in a few episodes of the Mandalorian!
In the Star Wars Radio Play by the late, great Brian Daley back in 1980, R2-D2 actuator rigged the R5 unit to blow its motivator. C-3P0 even quietly called him out on it (which actually serves as the narrative of just what Artoo was doing).
For a good long time, the Radio Plays of the original trilogy were considered Canon.
I remember listening to the radio with my older brother when that came out and Empire as well. Brock Peters was a great Darth Vader and Mark Hamill was Luke Skywalker of course.
@@theperceptor9287 I really liked what Daley did with writing General Carlist Rieekan for the radio play of Empire Strikes Back. There was a demeanor about him that reminded me of some of the officers I served under when I was in the military. In the radio play, he was even more concerned for his soldiers (not that he wasn't in the movie). Rieekan came across as more real to me.
Trivia note: The actor who played Rieekan in the movie appeared later in Full Metal Jacket.
Yes, Brock Peters was an excellent Darth Vader, and I personally consider him to be the second official voice of Vader behind James Earl Jones. (RIP Brock Peters)
@@martok2112 I almost forgot about the way Rieekan showered some concerns about his troops. It's been too long since I've heard the old radio broadcast, I've forgotten a lot of the actual radio story itself, thanks for the reminder.
@@theperceptor9287 You can find the radio plays for all three on UA-cam. I recommend (if you would like to hear the radio plays without episode breaks) channel Nige L.
@@martok2112 Thanks for the info 🐱
I guess it was my very first figure I got as a kid. Maybe the paint job just fit me - thank you for pointing that you with Porkins, never saw that in the movie.
First time I saw the DeathStar droid was at a friends house, I distinctly remember it being face down and going, "oh you have a C-3PO" and as I turned it around those bug eyes glared at me and I screamed and threw it across the room.
These were all the rage for us back in 1977, I was eight back then.
R5D4 was the first figure I ever received as a child. Got him from a stall at the Great Yorkshire Show in 1978 when I was six. Hadn’t seen the film then so I didn’t even know what he did or what to do with him.
my dad has a lots old starwars toys mostly from kenner, but they got destroyed and left to rot outside. now years later i stumbled upon them in a box in our backyard, i knew even then how valuable and cool they were so im now trying to fix them by using WD40 repaint and even fixing electronics and i found R5-D4!
A great wealth of info and character synopsis. R5 was the second Star Wars figure I ever owned so he stood in for R2 until I got the one released for The Empire Strikes Back with the retractable scope.
Not buying the storylines about the purposeful blowing of his motivator or being a reincarnated Jedi, both of those are ridiculous additions to the lore. Having it be pure luck that R2 & C-3PO continued their journey together is much more exciting than sloppy ret-conning, imo.
FANtastic review/rewind!!! You took me home!!!
as a kid my friends always had this toy but the sticker was always rubbed off so i never knew what droid it was.
I had a bunch of star wars guys. R5 was one of the cool ones i played with a lot.
Great video!! For me its..I still have that! Since 1978.
This was a gentle and refreshing float downstream!
SUBSCRIBED 🏆🤖🇬🇧
Ben Kenobi and Hammerhead were my favorite figures! I had a lot of the ESB and ROTJ line.
So many amazing Star wars facts in this video. What a great cure for insomnia!.
I suppose an in-universe explanation for Luke referring to R5-D4 as an "R2 unit" might be that Luke (who has had a sheltered upbringing on a farm) is simply wrong, and has never seen an R5 unit before. He might just think it's an R2 unit with a different head.
R5-D4 is indeed my favorite astromech droid! :D I've got the modern version of the toy, myself! :)
Good memories😄😄R5-D4 was my first Star Wars action figure back in 1982.
Thanks for clearing that up. It's been drivin' me nuts for 45 years. It's a goddamn R5 unit.
I remember those toys! I had a Luke in khaki jumpsuit complete with a glass window he could be thrown out of... I also had an oboe wan kenobi, greedo, snaggletooth... I think it was the good one too... back then the "good ones" were in the bargain bin probably...
Also this weird sand Luke who wore mostly white and came in an orange space ship I've never seen in the movies. I got that one for Christmas in the mid 80s I think... *edit- I found the ship on the Web. Called an ast 5... didn't come with Luke. Must have got him separately
I had a fair few original "Star Wars" figures as a kid, but I didn't have the original R5-D4. I've been collecting modern "Star Wars" figures since 1995, though, and the best version of this droid so far has got to be the 2006 The Saga Collection version with a "bad motivator" that pops up when you turn his head. After that one, the Build-A-Droid version that came packaged in the TVC line felt like a bit of a letdown. Don't get me started on the "missile-launching" version from 1996 . . . .
I hated the missile launcher R5. Worst fig ever but he was the only R5-D4 available at the time.
I really just know mostly about the old, vintage Star Wars figures.
Thanks for this historical breakdown about R5-D4. Very interesting!
Thank you!
Still have all my original figures. Actually, I managed to collect all of them eventually as they went into clearance at Asda UK and the CO OP. Even have my original plastic caped Jawa that was a freebie with either the Palitoy Land of the Jawas or a John Menzies promotion. Don't have the Land of the Jawas playset anymore, but my Palitoy Death Star survived as well as my Palitoy Cantina (with box). My favorite figure was always the Hoth Rebel Commander as I used to pretend he was Tom Sellek as Magnum on Hoth. 😂
My favorite action figure was the little frozen Han Solo that came with the Slave 1 spaceship. It was black plastic and you had to put stickers on the sides that resembled the lights and readouts.
Great video! I like the review and the backstories you included.
I still have it. For me it was an older model before the R2-D2 existed in the Star Wars universe.
I always took great care of my Kenner Star Wars figures and vehicles and I only lost one gun; a Jawa gun. Other than that, I still have all of the original weapons, capes, and accessories while having kept my figures safe and sound and organized in my Kenner action figure cases. :)
I tried, but we had shag carpet. I remember being on my hands and knees looking for guns at the end of the day and I would sometimes not be able to find one.
Luke calling him an R2 unit could also be chalked up to Luke not being particularly familiar with astromech droids.
I do have that!
i have roughly 50 original figures from the OT movies. Fun backyard adventures took their toll on a lot of them, but they are very durable.
My favorite figure was/is Boba Fett. I mailed-away proofs of purchase back in '79. That figure was versitile at being either a good guy or bad guy against my other action figures like GI-Joe, Dukes of Hazzard, The A-Team, etc. I even carried that figure al throughout elementary school, getting it taken away many times🤣
Jason, did you ever Blu Tack your Boba Fett to the top a Scalextric Mini Cooper?
He flies!!! Best wishes from Warwickshire in 1979! 🤖🇬🇧
I liked the "Skippy the Jedi Droid" comic book short starring this little dude
R5D4 is very underrated I loved him still do actually 😁👍
My great Aunt gave me my 1st Star Wars figures. One was Greedo and the other was R5-D4. I still have both of them; don't ask about the condition. (Or any the condition of any of my figures)
I actually didn't get to see Star Wars until it was broadcast on Television. I remember that the TV network made BIG deal out of it and had a celebration broadcast.
While I liked R2 and C3P0, to be honest, when the movie was over I remembered R5 more than either. It always felt to me like no one cared. He was trotted out, had a problem, and then they just threw him back in the hold, presumably to be fixed or sold for parts, who knew. I also thought he looked much cooler than R2. I felt like he had been screwed over. And as the years went by, seeing more movies... we have often seen other Droids show up multiple times in movies and series through the years, but I don't remember ever seeing an R5 unit, though from time to time I HAVE specifically tried to find one. I always felt the poor unit got a bad deal, and I it has never set right with me. One of those things that you always wonder about and never get the answer to: "What happened to all the R5 units?"
(I know the novels might have covered this. but for the most part I have just watched the movies and series)
This is a neat video about the toy line. I was a pretty poor kid, and in the end, the only figure I ever got was Hammerhead, but it was one of my favorite figures for years.
I had this droid as well as R2D2 (which disappeared). This R5-D4, I offered it in 2000 to a designer with whom I worked and who had some SW miniatures. He was super happy. This figurine was better at his place than in a box at my parents'. (from France)
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I was “too old” for the toys in 1978, but, I do have the Lego Mini-figs. I have both R5-D4 and R5-D8, and I have the former displayed with R2-D2 running from Jawas. I had heard that R2 asked R5 to help keep him and C-3P0 together before, but not the Jedi theory. Great video
The Luke with toothpick saber got you a sub. 👏👏👏
I can relate with R5 every morning when I wake up and have to get ready for work.
I had R5-D4 when I was a Kid. I Was bothered by the "this R2 unit has a bad motivator..." comment in the movie. I caught the difference right away, as I watched the movie every time possible.
I loved star wars figures. I really liked power droid because his legs clicked. Greedo and hammerhead were my favorites as well. I still have my stormtroopers and boba Fett figures in a box with some of my childhood toys
I definitely had this figure, although I really wanted R2-D2. His role in the first Star Wars movie was disappointingly brief.
Brief but important! I'm sorry you didn't have BOTH figures!
I had a surprising number of the original release of Star Wars action figures ! But my favorite ones were:
1: First Boba Fett (likely because he could fly)
2: C3PO (because he was a human shaped robot)
3: X-wing Luke (because he looked somewhat like a spaceman)
Honorable mentions are the first Stormtrooper, Greedo and Hammerhead. I often pitted similar figures in scenes together though. Like Boba Fett with the Stormtropper, because they both had full face helmets on and Greedo with Hammerhead because they didn't .
My absolute favorite figures though were my Micronauts Time Traveller, Galactic Defender and Space Glider, because I was an articulation snob. I NEVER played with my Star Wars figures with Micronauts EXCEPT C3PO because a) he had vac-metallization like the heads of the Micronauts and b) C3PO really wasn't that articulated on screen either so it kinda fit. Same applied to my Battlestar Galactica Muffet and eventually the swivel armed Gi Joes like Grand Slam and Duke (Which came 2nd in my heart after the Micronauts because of the superior articulation and they could wear helmets and backpacks and guns and binoculars !.
I've always loved the Time Travelers!
A better retcon for why Luke called R5-D4 an R2 unit is because Luke didn't know the difference. He might have called it an R2 unit because when watching all his starship video-mags, all the coolest pilots had R2 units and called them that, he saw another astromech of vaguely the same shape and he called it an R2 unit because he wanted to sound like he knew all about astromechs and anything else star-fighter related.
THAT makes sense!
Love the detail! It’s got so much character.
Best summer of my childhood was when Kenner stopped producing those SW toys. Suddenly you could get them all for almost nothing, TIE-Fighters, X-Wing, AT-ST, all the good stuff for some pennies. Glorious days, my friends, glorious days....
I really liked R5-D4 growing up... better than R2-D2. I liked the color as well as the shape better. I remember wishing that R2-D2 and R5-D4 were in reverse roles. I would have liked it better that way, I recall. :-)
Weakest? WEAKEST!? Sir, I take the greatest possible exception! All hail the Power Droid! Anyway, I got the R/C R5-D4 some time ago and it's in the same scale as the original line and pretty fun. Good video, Happy New Year!