R2-D2 it is you it is . . . wait what? Sure it is! It's the McQuarrie concept versions of everyone's favorite droids. R2 looks like he's freaking out because of his flailing appendages but otherwise is very cool. I like his more metal-looking finish. Rolling garbage can for sure. Threepio looks like he wandered off the set of Metropolis. Which was the general idea that McQuarrie wanted to reference in his famous concept painting. Anyways these guys were packaged together as convention exclusives and probably fairly limited in numbers, but I bought them from a Snowtrooper. And opened them up! These were the droids I was looking for, you know. NOt all of us get to go to fancy conventions whenever they feel like it.
The last couple of weeks I've been reading my Art of Star Wars books. I love concept art. It's so neat to see what directions were being explored and how the final product differed from the idea. Here we have a McQuarrie concept for the Snowtroopers. I've been wanting to get ahold of a couple of these for a while now and finally completed a deal with a Snowtrooper, appropriately enough. As far as the figure itself goes, I wonder if Hasbro figured the majority of them would be staying in their cards. Because it's a great looking figure it just can't stand up very well! A perennial problem with snowtroopers/marines. Must be their skirts. Although these guys don't have skirts. Oh well. Just gotta find some more stands I guess.
Turns out there were two versions of this Concept Art trooper, and I got them both from Snowtroopers. The older, from 2004, is clearly the inferior of the two. Less detailing, and his plastic is yellowing. The TAC version is way better, which is why the other troopers are cheering for him to kick stormy butt. Dark Horse should do a comic series using all concept art. That would be cool! As cool as this McStormtrooper. AKA Darth Vader's riot police. Pawlus liked the first version.
This figure is what sucked me back into collecting Star Wars figures- I bought one or two for each prequel that came out but that was it. Then I saw this guy and that was it for me. Oh well, it's a better hobby than smoking. Cheaper, too. This figure is based on Ralph McQuarrie's concept art for Boba Fett. I kinda wish they went with this version in the movie- but maybe the color scheme was too close to stormtroopers, I don't know. There was also an "Animated Debut Boba Fett" figure that I got at the same time- but that is an entry for another day. I got two of these guys because it came with two helmets- the other one has some sort of robotic breather and looks pretty cool too. And for some reason his belly opens and there's a gun in there. Here's what Adam Pawlus has to say about him.
