I don't always take my own advice.
Celebrate the season with specially designed Star Wars figures from The Black Series.
It was three years ago that I said "if you're on the fence about this year's C-3PO, the odds are great that they'll be doing an R2 to go with him at some point in the future; better to get in now than try to back-track later." And did I ever get that Holiday Edition Protocol Droid figure? No, I did not. Not even when I saw it for, like, $12 a couple weeks before this figure was announced. Predictably, now that 2025 has brought the prophesied Astromech, that older figure's price has risen. More the fool, I!
This figure uses the Black Series R2-D2 mold, of course, but not the original one; rather, this is the second version, also seen on droids like R5-D56. And much like 56, it might have been better
if they used the conical head instead of the dome one: much like this year's Stormtrooper had softgoods antlers to turn him into a reindeer, the Astromech gets a beard and Santa hat. (Note, that's Santa, not Santo.) And the hat fits fairly well, but wouldn't it have fit an R5 astromech better? Or at least more securely? As it is, the thing wants to slip off fairly easily. If they'd molded it from plastic instead of making it from cloth, they could have taken advantage of the fact this head has two removable panels on top (originally intended for R2's periscope and radar array) where the hat could have been plugged in.
For whatever reason, fans somehow got it in their heads
that the first Black Series R2 mold was too small,
despite all evidence to the contrary, so now we've got one that's too big. Look, just because we played with Kenner R2-D2s that were made too large when we were kids, it doesn't mean a modern toyline has to coddle us by repeating that mistake today. Size creep is wrong in Marvel Legends, and it's wrong in the Black Series.
Being the new(er) mold, however, means he's got new(er) articulation. There's only so much you can do with an astromech droid, but as we pointed out in the R5-D56 review, this mold no longer suffers from the "rotate head to extend/contract the stabilizer leg" thing, and that's a definite win. The head can be pulled up to reveal the droid's guts, plus some storage for accessories, and in addition to the removable panels on top of the dome, there are two vertical doors and two horizontal bars on the chest that can open, as well.
Sadly, the beard attached to the hat blocks those from opening, so it's good all that is removable. His body is mostly red, with black feet, white on the outside of the legs and the center of the torso, a golden dome, and a green eye. The paint really carries the "Santa" theme
even if you choose not to display him with the hat on, giving him a belt and collar and even clasps for his jacket. They did a great job! Since the unique hat would have taken a slice of the budget, he doesn't actually come with all the accessories the normal releases do, and thus doesn't have enough things to fill all the spots available. All we get are a single pinchy arm in gold, Yoda's walking stick repainted as a candy cane (super clever!), and the replacement jet boosters that can plug into the legs - those are gold and white, and have translucent blue exhaust flames that fit onto them.
This R2 mold was introduced in the 2023 Retrun of the Jedi anniversary
line (on those big Retro cards), but was almost immediately re-released in Mandalorian packaging at general retail. When it was, this was the text on the back of the box: As Luke Skywalker ushers Grogu into his Jedi training, he's accompanied by R2-D2, who is particularly enthused to encounter the foundling. Pretty fitting, it turns out!
All the Holiday Edition releases include a pack-in, some tiny character to help make the scene. The Astromech includes our second Giftsmas-y Baby Yoda, though this time he's more than a head in a bag. When Hasbro finally did a full solo release of Grogu (as opposed to that first one they sped out in tiny packaging), he was a new mold, designed to sit in his hoverpod. This is that seated figure, with his smock painted red and white so he'll look like a Santa, too. Despite being so little, he moves at the head, shoulders, and wrists.
This poor Holiday Edition Astromech doesn't get a name - he's not 54N-T4 or KL4-U5 or H01-101-IO or 730-N or anything like that - but he's still an awesome design with a cute hat and a desriable little buddy sharing space in the tray. I haven't seen him in stores yet, but Target had him on their website while a sale was going on, so I went ahead and ordered him. However, the theme of this set and the previous mention of Return of the Jedi does make us ask: when will the Holiday Edition line finally include Nik Sant?
-- 11/29/25
What would you name this droid? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.
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