4A-7 is a evil spy droid working for the empire in the Clone Wars CGI animated movie. He's also the subject of today's toy review. I spotted 4A-7 just the other morning at Target and while I was lamenting the price raise on GI Joes, I realized this guy was actually cheaper than a new Joe. This is one of the rarer new Clone Wars figures so I decided I might as well bite and picked him up.



4A-7 is mostly comprised of C-3PO parts with a new head and accessories. This works out to be pretty good for Mr. 4A-7 however as the Clone Wars C-3PO is perhaps the best version of that character or at the very least the best articulated. 4A-7 retains all the articulation but has a few extra perks that make him more interesting.

Packaging:
I like the rather basic square design of the new Clone Wars packages. As much as I thought the clone trooper helmet package was a neat idea, this makes the figures stand out so much more. I also like the deep red coloring on the package that helps separate it from what seems like years of white and blues on Star Wars figure packaging.



There's some great artwork on the front of the package of 4A-7 as well as some nice pictures on the back. The back of the package not only has a cool picture of the figure itself, but a still frame from the Clone Wars movie in which 4A-7 appeared. There's a bio rundown as well. Not much to say about 4A-7 since he didn't have a huge role in the film.



Articulation:
One of the reasons I've been drawn into the Clone Wars animated figures is their increased articulation. Star Wars figures can be a bit of a puzzling science to those of us who aren't knee deep in the figures. By that I mean, it's often hard to determine what level of articulation any given Star Wars figure might have. Sometimes a new figure will be loaded down with ball joints and hinges and other times a new figure will be equipped with just a few swivel cuts. The Clone Wars figures almost all have superior articulation to the more normal counterparts.



Since this is based on the C-3PO body if you have the Clone Wars C-3PO then you'll know what his articulation level is. For you outsiders who just assume the Clone Wars C-3PO is still only barely articulated, I can enlighten you a bit. For starters he has a ball jointed neck. The ball joint works well enough allowing him to turn in a few different directions as well as look up and down but because his neck is fairly long it does seem to be slightly limited.


Dancing with the Droids!
He has ball joints at the shoulders but his shoulder pads interfere with them a bit. He has pin/post style ball joints at the elbows but these joints are really thin and one of my arms appears to be stuck. It seems like it wants to swivel but when I start to turn it I can feel it forcing and I know if I continued to turn it I'd rip his arm off. I think this is the first time I've had this happen with a Hasbro figure and I know it's the first time I've had this issue with a Star Wars figure. It's a bit of a bummer. The swivel works fine on the other arm.


"This is good dirt."

He also has swivel cut wrists. One of the wrists popped right off on mine, but it popped right back in as well. 4A-7 has a mid-torso joint, t-crotch legs, hinged knees and more pin/post style ball joints at the ankles. An interesting thing to note about the knees is that they are naturally bent a bit but you can make them bend forward a tad similar to the way Shocker Toys figures can.

Sculpt:
I'm a sucker for cool robots and I love anything that resembles Fritz Lang's Machine-Human which this figure does. Of course C-3PO is clearly inspired by Lang's Machine-Human as well but the muted colors here really make this 4A-7 droid seem like an alien counterpart to that classic design. The antenna gives it a different feel and this is certainly a droid who you could see being a bounty hunter or stuck in the background of your cantina scene. Just know that they don't serve his kind there.



The strange sort of bug eyed look is an interesting one and I quite like it. The package claims it has "glittering eyes" but the effect doesn't really shine through much on this version. Apparently there is a variant version with bright blue glittering eyes as well as a golder paint scheme to match the film counterpart a bit more.


Clone War Science Theatre 3000?
The eyes can be removed and pop out quite easily. Once they are out this droid looks considerably different. In fact he reminds me of Crow T. Robot a bit. Might be reason to pick up two of these guys as you basically get two looks in one.



The paint work is really where this figure shines. There is only a mild bit of wash here and there but the copper color that it's washed in makes it have a somewhat steampunk appearance. That instantly makes him all the cooler in my opinion. The rest of the body looks identical to C-3PO but so do a ton of other droids in the Star Wars universe.



Accessories:
4A-7 comes with a reused gun from IG-86. There's nothing wrong with it and it's still a neat looking gun, but considering that IG-86 is one of the few Star Wars guys I own, I'm a tad miffed that I didn't get a new weapon. Such is life I suppose.



His other accessory is a small hologram of Anakin, Ahsoka and little Rotta the Hutt. It's got a quite impressive amount of detail with all of the characters being easily recognizable. Perhaps the coolest part is that it's translucent blue and I'm a freak for anything translucent. It really works well on these holograms. Since this is a scene from the movie, it goes to show how much research Hasbro puts into these accessories. Even if this is essentially a little piece of plastic, it's a logical one.



That's all he comes with. It's not much, especially at this price point, but droids are a hard lot to equip. Seeing as how C-3PO came with nothing, at least with 4A-7 you're getting a bit more value.

Additional Notes:
I'm really bummed out about the stuck arm. I may try to boil it or do the freezer trick but I never have much luck with either. Granted the arm is in a decent position so at least I can have him point his gun and such, but I hate plunking down $8 on a toy and then being afraid to mess with it for fear it'll break.



Value:
I bought this at Target for $7.49... I don't know if I've ever bought a Star Wars single figure from Wal-Mart but I believe they go for about $7.88 there. As you know, Wal-Mart is more expensive on everything now, the exact reverse of their advertisements. At $7.50 he's not a terrible value but he's not a superb one either. With the stuck joint I'm inclined to knock him down a few pegs.



Score Recap:
Packaging - 8
Sculpting - 7
Articulation - 5 (Assuming your version isn't stuck bump that up to a 7)
Accessories - Blaster, Hologram
Value - 6
Overall - 6.5 (or 7) out of 10

This guy just barely clocks in at under 7. If his joint wasn't stuck I'd give him a full 7 and be content with that. There is a lot of reuse here, but it's a fine little droid and it has a pretty cool alien/steampunk/robot look going for it. Now I pretty much know I'm going to be buying a Clone Wars C-3PO just so I can mess around with this droid body some more.



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