Action Figure Overview: Star Wars - R5-D4 (Kenner 1978)
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| My childhood R5-D4 (Kenner, 1978) |
Even though I know my family saw Star Wars in the theater, I was too young to remember that experience. However, I vividly remember the first time I saw Star Wars figures in the hands of another kid in my neighborhood on the way to school. I wanted Star Wars figures of my own so badly that it was painful having to wait until the weekend to go to the store. I remember getting my first four figures with amazing clarity, which is surprising considering that event took place decades ago. Over the next few months, I was able to get all of the first 12 figures and they were easily my favorite toys in the late 70s and early 80s.
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| Death Star Droid and R5-D4 from the 2nd wave of Star Wars figures (Kenner, 1978) |
Apparently, I wasn't alone in my love of these toys! These awesome action figures sold so well that Kenner quickly decided to add another 8 figures to the line. My favorite of the new eight was the Luke Skywalker in his X-Wing Flight Suit. I also thought the four aliens from the Cantina were great! Power Droid was the weakest figure of the set in my mind, but I did like Death Star Droid and R5-D4. Even as a very young kid, there was something weird about those last two. I wouldn't have been able to articulate it at the time, but they felt like knock-offs of R2-D2 and C-3PO. In my mind, the Death Star Droid seemed like a sinister "bad guy" version of C-3PO, but R5-D4 was a harmless, less awesome version of R2-D2 who spent equal time being a bad guy hanging out with Death Star Droid and a good guy having adventures with R2-D2 and C-3PO.
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| Vintage 1978 Kenner R2-D2, C-3PO, Death Star Droid, & R5-D4 |
R5-D4's big scene in Star Wars happens when Luke and his Uncle Owen are buying droids for their moisture farm. After purchasing R5-D4, the droid blows his motivator and Owen exchanges him for R2-D2. In this scene, Luke says something strange about R5-D4: "Uncle Owen! This R2 Unit has a bad motivator." How could this droid be an R2 Unit when his designation is R5-D4? Wouldn't he be an R5 Unit? However, if you think about it, no one ever calls the droid "R5-D4" anywhere in the movie. Luke first refers to the droid as "Red" before the motivator incident. From what I've read, apparently Kenner named the action figure and I guess whoever came up with the name wasn't really paying attention to the only dialog about this droid in the entire movie when they decided on R5-D4!
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| "Uncle Owen! This R2 Unit is an R5 Unit!" |
As more material came out about Star Wars, we learn that R2-D2 and all of the droids who look pretty much like him are "Astromech" droids. There are several Star Wars sources that go into more detail about R5-D4. For example, the Star Wars Technical Journal from 1995 tells us that there are R2-AG Astromechs which are R2 Units housed inside of R5 casings. This entry was most likely created to explain the continuity error in the movie (which was really only a continuity error because of the name of the action figure). In the Star Wars card game, the R5-D4 card makes the claim that the droid intentionally blew his own motivator to keep R2-D2 and C-3PO together. This idea is also found in the comic book Star Wars Tales #1 from 1999 which includes an 8-page story about R5-D4 called "Skippy the Jedi Droid" in which R5-D4 is actually a Jedi who sacrifices himself to protect R2-D2 from the Imperial Stormtroopers and keep the Death Star plans in the hands of the Rebellion!
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| R5-D4 on one of his many Star Wars adventures! |
As a kid, none of this mattered to me at all. I hadn't noticed that Luke called R5-D4 an R2 Unit in the movie. And in all of the years that I played with my figures, R5-D4 never had a bad motivator! My Star Wars adventures had very little to do with the movies anyway. To me, he was just another cool droid that I could add to my cast of characters. Although he usually took on a supporting role while R2-D2 took center stage, I was still very happy to have R5-D4 wheeling around my Star Wars universe!
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| Vintage Star Wars R5-D4 action figure (Kenner, 1978) |
The R5-D4 action figure was manufactured starting with the second wave of figures in 1978. Based on the fact that he can be found packaged on cards with the logo from all 3 movies (and I've seen him on a Return of the Jedi, 77-back card), it's safe to say that he was in production at least until 1983. I'm relatively confident that he was also available on the Tri-Logo cards in 1984 as well. There have been very few action figure lines other than the vintage Kenner Star Wars line that had the same figures in production for so many years! That is truly a testament to the popularity of the original Star Wars figure line!
Did you have Star Wars figures as a kid? If so, who was your favorite figure? What did you think of R5-D4? Tell me in the comments below!
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I love the pictures you have take off this little guy!
ReplyDeleteThank you! Taking the photos is a big part of the fun for me with these posts! :)
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