The astromech droid R3-M2 first appeared in the 2016 Disney Theme Park ‘Droid Factory’ exclusive, which featured four droids from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The other three droids in the set were C2-B5, R2-BHD and R5-SK1. We’ve seen C2-B5 from numerous licensees even though the droid was barely seen in the finished film, and LEGO were one of the few not to produce him (as yet). In fact, the only astromech released to-date from LEGO’s Rogue One range is R3-S1 which comes with the Y-wing Starfighter (set #75172).
This makes R3-M2 the second LEGO astromech from Rogue One, and there’s not a lot of information known about him. The polybag that R3-M2 comes in, feels and looks differently to the norm – it has a softer less crunchy feel and it’s been sealed in a different way too. Size wise it’s the same size as other polybags that feature a minifigure.
Inside there’s a clear bag of LEGO (containing 23 pieces, of which only 21 are used), a small sticker sheet, a folded sheet of instructions and a background piece for the stand that’s made from some form of thin pliable plastic. The background measures 3cm wide by 6.8cm tall, and its printed with what looks like the inside of a Imperial or Rebel base, as well as the logos for LEGO & Star Wars, and finally some copyright/set information.
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You start off by building the stand, which includes a flat black 1×4 tile for you to apply the sticker to. The top of the stand is finished off by a regular minifigure stand on which R3-M2 stands. As you can see from the pictures there’s the ability to connect multiple stands together, and at the time of writing we don’t know how many more figures like this we’re going to get – if any. Although it would seem churlish for LEGO to go all out in this manner if we weren’t getting additional Star Wars minifigures in the same vein. I know many fans that would gladly buy additional figures like this to build their collections. Hasbro did something similar many years ago – they packaged generic stands in a box with a sticker sheet for various figures. Imagine having stands for all your Rogue One minifigures, and then doing the same for The Last Jedi, and perhaps even revisit films like A New Hope – which just so happens to be celebrating its 40th Anniversary this year.
I’m delighted to get another new astromech from Rogue One, although the dark brown printing on the clear dome is quite hard to see. I really like the presentation of R3-M2, and I’m very much looking forward to finding out what connects to the base in due course. We don’t know yet how R3-M2 will be made available to the public, but as soon as we find out we will let you know. In the meantime, we’ll be giving a couple of these away on the next Star Wars Collectors Cast coming soon.
Many thanks as ever to the LEGO company for providing Jedi News with a copy of the set to review, and some to giveaway too.
