Recommended music: Don Henley – The Boys Of Summer
Are you keeping cool from the summer heat on this #StarWarsSaturday? If not, step inside Echo Base during The Empire Strikes Back. Today, from the Droid Factory line, it’s R4-M9!
As Rebellion troops prepare for an impending ground assault from the Empire, Leia addresses pilots while other soldiers scramble to their troop carriers and other battle stations. In addition to the other recently mentioned droids, there was another astromech that appears to move around the galaxy.
R4-M9 was one of the first droids seen on screen in Star Wars back in 1977. Tasked by the Empire to conduct computer and vehicle maintenance, the droid accompanied Darth Vader’s troops on the Star Destroyer Devastator. There, he assisted in their mission to retrieve the stolen Death Star plans from the Rebel Blockade Runner’s computer banks. Just a unique domed droid at the time, I believe the name was created in 1995 for the Decipher Star Wars Customizable Card Game (CCG).
Hasbro included this most famous version of R4-M9 in the Power of the Jedi line in 2002. This release also included a small mouse droid. Just a few months later, Hasbro included a droid labeled as R4-M9 in the second wave of the Star Tours figure line. This time, it featured bright blue highlights and was actually based on R2-D7, a droid found in the queue of the Star Tours attraction at Disney Parks.
Hasbro took one more shot at the background character by including it in the Droid Factory line in 2015. Like the previous Star Tours figure, it was exclusive to Disney Parks, but this time arrived in a 4-pack of droids as seen in The Force Awakens. R4-M9 is easy to spot in the film, seen in the foreground of the landing platform when Finn arrives at the Resistance base on D’Qar. While the paint and sculpt are solid, the astromech droids in this Build-A-Droid line all lack the cables on their feet.
This is the version I have standing in for my Echo Base picture today. Even though Hasbro has never made an R4 droid labeled for The Empire Strikes Back. While the white R4 droid seen directly in front of the Millennium Falcon in this scene may have darker, possibly black stripes, but the markings on the dome and body of this specific droid match up with what is seen on screen better than any other figure out there. Short story long, R4-M9 is in ESB. Canon. 😄👍
The Empire Strikes Back turned 45 years old this year! I “figure” there’ll be a new Episode V figure to share here for the rest of the year. Happy 45 years of ESB!
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