Destroyer Droid

Rollin' with the homies. Complete with twin blasters on their arms, droideka are destroyer droids designed with one goal in mind: annihilation. A droideka can completely envelop itself in a glove of protective energy via its compact deflector shield generators. I've said before that Destroyer Droids were one of the coolest things to come out of The Phantom Menace, and that assessment hasn't changed. They're still great, and now we finally have a Black Series version! It's apparently a "fan channel" exclusive, which means no Walmart or Target, and possibly Amazon but only several months after every other online store. Just like the Battle Droids looked like their creators, the Geonosians, Destroyer Droids look like the alien race that made them, the Colicoids. If you've never seen a Colicoid, they're like if Mojo were a Brood. They don't have flat heads like the Destroyer Droid, though. According to the official schematics, those two "eyes" poking out from the front are non-visual radiation sensors, while the one on the antenna sticking down is the primary sensor. Given this toy's increased size, the construction is a lot more about small individual parts assembled together than just sculpting it to look that way. Moving pistons, flexible hoses, crazy little combined hinges... it's truly impressive work. More general fun facts about the design of the Destroyer Droid: the entire "spine" is made of battery packs, the fold-out flappy-doodles on the hips are its shield generators, and that body ball at the bottom contains a repulsor lift to help offset the weight of the droid. Neat! The brown parts are covered in bronzium armor, to provide extra protection. When the Detroyer Droids were being designed, the idea was that rolling was the only way they'd get around, with their little legs to be able to walk, so the animators had to figure out how that would work. The Black Series toy gets scads of articulation, beginning with hinges in the middle of leg and swivel/hinges where they join just being a stationary tripod for when they were firing; George Lucas then decided he wanted them the body; the two front legs have an additional hinge so they can narrow or spread. The shield generators can open or close, there's a hinge at the base of the spine that clicks between three positions, the guns and elbows are hinged, there's a swivel in the bicep, the shoulders are swivel/hinges, as are the joints where the arms join the sternum. A while series of hinges allow for fine-tuning the chest, neck, and head. The "face" part is on a balljoint, and that entire part can slide out of the curved backshell plate. There is no doubt this is the most articulated Destroyer Droid toy ever. There is, however, one joint it doesn't have, and it's kind of a crucial one. If you look at where the rear leg joins the body, you'll see there's a recessed grey stripe that runs underneath the ball. On the Destroyers seen in the film, that track allows the back leg to slide down it, moving forward in the process. This allows the tip of the back foot to almost reach the droid's "nose," making it enough of a circle to roll around. There are so many joints in this toy, it can almost roll up the way it's meant to, but without being able to slide that leg forward, we can't really do it. It's almost enough, and ends up being more frustrating as a result. It's so close; so close! In full disclosure, the tubes on the arms also keep them from turning far enough to fold in properly (they basically tuck their guns into their armpits), but the joints could get them there if not for that, so they're less disappointing than the leg. Did Hasbro even consider making that a slot? If they could do it for the head, they could have done it for the leg. God, it hurts to see them try so hard and come so far, but then, in the end, have it all not even matter. Sadly, the figure doesn't include any accessories. Ideally, it would be like the 2007 figure and include blast effects for its guns (purposely designed to sound like an AT-AT's cannons to sell how powerful they are) and a half-sphere deflector shield. We don't want a Destroyer Droid that's "good enough," we want the ultimate version. This toy is like 90% of the way to perfect, and only a few small changes would take it the rest of the way there. Absolutely get one, it's outstanding as it is, but never forget that it could have been even better. -- 01/11/25 What's the best new thing introed in every Star Wars move? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.

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