Review : Bandai 1/12 C-3PO

When any Star Wars figure range is launched C-3PO is going to be one of the characters in the top 10 wants from collectors, possibly even top 5. He is an icon within the Star Wars universe and therefore it is bizarre that after almost 2 years and numerous promises, Hasbro has yet to bring him to retail in their 6" Black Series. They have therefore left the door ajar for Bandai to come and kick in in with their C-3PO model kit.

Unlike the other Far East manufacturers, like Revoltech, Bandai are keeping this range priced competitively vs the Black Series, albeit supplying them as snap together kits. 3PO came in at just under £18 shipped from Hobby Link Japan to the UK and took about 10 days to arrive. For those who don't want the hassle of importing, then keep an eye on Amazon.co.uk as a number of retailers have been selling these kits direct through Amazon - although be warned they still ship from Japan in most cases - with the seller having to absorb any custom fees as part of their sellers agreement with the UK Amazon site.

This will be my 3rd boxed kit from Bandai. and certainly looks the most complex when it is unboxed. For any one who is new to these my recommendation is to ensure you have a pair of craft clippers, a sharp craft knife and a decent work area - well away from any nooks and crannies where stray pieces can get lost. For some parts on this, and on the previous R2/R5 kit I would also have a touch of glue to hand.

The instructions are in Japanese, but pictorially are easy enough to follow. Be aware that within the kit there are numerous options to include on the model. These are a dented head, retraining bolt chest piece, eye socket hanging out from Jabba's palace and two versions of the arms - one fixed, one articulated. Although it is possible to swap and change some of these afterwards my advice is to ensure you are clear which finished version of 3PO you want.

The build took me just over 2 and a half hours, and is relatively straight forward. There are a couple of ridiculously small parts which are very hard for fat fingers like mine - so you may want a pair of tweezers. And unlike the prior kits I had to trim lots of parts from where it came off the sprue. Watch out for the stickers/decals you need to apply during the build - these are the eyes, the tummy wiring and some wiring at the back of each knee (this one you can swap out for a metal version).

Once built 3PO is a thing of beauty and perfectly scaled to fit into a Black Series display. The vac metal finish is very shiny and some people will want to dirty him up with black wash. For me I have left him as he came out of the box, and he is therefore probably close to his appearance at the Medal Ceremony at the end of A New Hope. The stickers are limited on this model and are mainly around the tummy wiring. The tummy wires are moulded, which means you can paint them if you want, but the stickers work really well once applied and then locked in with a couple of coloured parts.

Articulation is very very limited. There is some rotation in the shoulders and if you have built the articulated arms the elbows do bend to a degree. The head rotates, just, and there is a tiny amount of movement in hips and ankles. The widest movement is in the knees but without supporting articulation there is no a lot you can achieve by bending the legs. Don't let this put you off as the real C-3PO doesn't have too much movement anyway.

It looks like Bandai have really got one over Hasbro with getting 3PO into 1/12 collectors hands early and like I said with the R2/R5 review it would be nice now for Bandai to use the mould and get out some other droid variations.

If you have the patience to build him, and aren't worried by a lack of articulation, then this IS the droid you are looking for and gets a solid 4 out of 5 from me.

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