Droid Factory Playset

 Droid Factory Playset

Disney - Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge

Shop Disney continues to deliver the goods to Star Wars fans in the flyover states!  The Droid Factory playset is a new spin on the vintage Kenner Droid Factory.  I guess Disney figured they had done the build-a-droid thing to death and decided that water and color change features should be the ticket?  Meh.  I’m not so sure about the gimmick....but the set still looks nice.

I like the cleaner shape and colors.  Not as dingy as the used-universe model, but still sci-fi and tech-y.  There are some nice, clear markings designating the various stages of torture cleaning you can put your slaves droids through.  I take that last strike through back...you can’t sugar coat the “restraining bolt” station.

Your droids first go up a ramp to a conveyor belt and some sort of detector gate.  Are they scanning for breakages to address repairs?  Weapons?  Secret messages for the Empire/Rebellion?  Who knows...but it’s fun, and triggers some sound and light features when rolling the belt along.

From there, I guess some droids are allowed to walk or roll to the next area on their own.  Or a crane comes in for those in dire need of attention.  Either way, bath time!

There are two tanks.  One has a lowering mechanism, with robo-arms to assist in access and cleaning.  The other just straight up dunks them like clowns at a county fair.  “Thank the Maker!  This oil bath is going to feel-“ *DING!* *SPLOOSH!”

 

Now drag your metal carcass out of there and get over the drying fans!  There is a drip pan under the playset to catch water, but the fans dont actually move on their own.  This may be the one detractor.  It would have been nice to have some motorized fan action, even if they dont necessarily get the drying done.

Final station, as mentioned before, is the restraining bolt area.  They keep this one out around back as to not disturb the public with any metallic screams, or the unsightly business of having to shock or remotely restrain a droid during application.  Also on the back is the conveyor belt dial and several buttons that have a multitude of factory sounds and droid beeps and whistles.  You have to supply the screams, though.

The set comes with a gonk droid, but I purchased one of two offered 4-packs to get more out of the color-changing “fun.”  Not so much fun when your droid only goes from gray to dark blue or blue to black...cant see much of a difference.  Drastic changes, like white to red is where its at.  Overall, I would have preferred less solid washes for the color-changing.  Instead, I would have liked smaller applications resembling dirt, rubbing, carbon scoring...battle damage, if you will, that “washes” away with warm water.

    

The gimmick may leave you cold (or at least room temp), but at least the droids have the pull-apart build-a-droid components to swap around. This is still available online at $50.  I feel that is about $10 too much for what you get, but they do often run some good sales deals.  I think I got mine for 30-something.  Overall, I’m glad to see any play sets on the market.  Like some of the larger ships/park exclusives, one thing Disney is doing right with Star Wars is filling some gaps for us old school 3 3/4 inch figure collectors.

Take a look back at a couple of Disney exclusive ships/play sets:

https://terribletoyman.blogspot.com/search?q=Sandcrawler

Iron Man’s Hall of Armor

Iron Man’s Hall of Armor

Disney Toybox

Toybox is a Disney Store exclusive line that features articulated 5-inch figures from all of their properties: Mickey Mouse, Star Wars, Marvel, etc.  Outside of the Disney staples that fit in with my Kingdom Hearts figures, this line isn’t for me.  However, it has allowed for some decent vehicles like the Spider-Buggy, which works great with my Marvel Legends figures...and now this:

A customizable, multi-level, Iron Man Hall of Armors playset!  Well...its more of a display piece than playset.  Anyway, of course I needed one to display my army of Legends armors!

And since I have so many, I had to buy two!  The best part about this set, is that the panels can be arranged  side by side in different configurations or stacked.  Ive seen fans online with these stacked at least five high!  If you dont have that much space, one set on it’s own folds up into a nice cube/cylinder for storage or travel.

It also comes with one Toy Box Iron Man figure and some extra upgrade parts.  Some of these parts can kind of be fudged on Marvel Legends figures, depending on the size of their calves.  Color-wise, these seem tailor-made for the recent Starboost and Atmosphere armors.

 

There are a couple of  additional play features.  The main deck has a rotating display table.  There is a small, robot arm at the top of one panel to assist Tony in getting dressed.  And, my favorite feature:  an opening and closing iris on the top deck for quick blast off and re-entry!

The only real downside to this set, is that the foot pegs wont fit Marvel Legends.  Some armors will be easier to stand inside the pods than others, so make sure to position them well...or be prepared to see all of your Iron Men you just spent 20 minutes setting up topple down like dominoes.

The playset is normally $50 on the Shop Disney site, but I got mine before Christmas on sale for $30 each.  I was also able to get free shipping with a promo code.  Check in on that store from time to time...they offer a lot of great promos. But be careful:  they have the nasty habit of putting up products you never knew existed, or that you never knew you wanted til you see them!

Take a look back at the Toy Box Spider-Mobile (Spider-Buggy):

https://terribletoyman.blogspot.com/2018/12/spider-mobile.html

Commander Bond and the Knights of Ren

Commander Bond and the Knights of Ren

Disney Store PVC figurines - custom Hasbro figure

Since Disney stalled out on Star Wars, this leaves a large, sad gap in the 3.75inch figure line.  Yes, the Knights of Ren were a big washout (in the tradition of other cool-looking-but-armor-is-not-a-character characters, like Boba Fett and Captain Phasma), but surely my imagination could fix them if only I had plastic representations. Luckily, the Disney Store produces a similarly scaled line of PVC figurines to scratch that itch.

A set of 10 figures was $26, and included the 6 Knights, Kylo, a First Order Stormtrooper, Sith Trooper, and Jet Pack Trooper.  They are just statues, but they are highly sculpted and detailed.  Lots of nice metal weathering and mud where appropriate on the Knights.  

These guys were all given names after production (which I haven’t bothered to learn).  The one they made for the Vintage line (big ax guy) was just “Knight of Ren” on his card.  My favorite is gun arm guy.

The vintage line made a Sith Jet Trooper, but no standard jet trooper.  Which I find strange, since it was featured in one of the earliest released clips of “Rise of Skywalker” and made the cut in kiddie toys, along with the catapulting speeder thing.

 

That’s about all I’ve got on these.  They look nice and fill a hole in my collection until Disney figures out what to do with this mess in the future.  To spice up this lackluster review, I’m throwing in a custom figure.

Daniel Craig had a cameo (or at least his voice did) as a Stormtrooper in “The Force Awakens”, so I took a head from a “Golden Compass”(the atheist Narnia flop) figure, put it on a Stormtrooper Finn figure, and painted over the bloody handprint on the helmet.  I also dremeled out the helmet a bit to get it to fit better.  Quick and easy, but reminded me that I need a Galen Erso figure after all.  Rogue One sucked, but “Casino Royale” in the Star Wars galaxy is a win!

BTW...Sam Smith’s Spectre theme was awful: