R5-D4
Chihuahua
Nick Eppinga
Nick Eppinga
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I: Unitoy
II: Not an R5 COO
III: Not an R5 COO
IV: Kader/ Poch/ Meccano
V: Unitoy
VI: Not an R5 COO
VII: Not an R5 COO
VIII: Kader
DON’T RELY ON JUST THE COO TO IDENTIFY A FIGURE. Mould, paint colour, plastic colour and figure assembly traits are also needed to confirm your figure’s origins.
UNITOY 1977 MADE IN HONG KONG COO
The Unitoy figure debuted on the 21bk Star Wars era MOC. This also shows up sporadically on mid-ESB era cardbacks from both Unitoy and Kader where it has been repackaged (smooth bubble seal). Unitoy were also responsible for many of the late era NO COO R5s which can be found on Trilogo cards.
Above you can see following variants (left to right):
- Unitoy R5-D4 1977 MIHK Standard SW/ESB version
- Unitoy R5-D4 1977 MIHK ESB era small wedge sticker
- Unitoy R5-D4 1977 No COO SW era large wedge sticker
- Unitoy R5-D4 1977 No COO Standard ROTJ/Trilogo version
- Unitoy R5-D4 1977 No COO Light blue sticker (missing)
R5’s torso is shared with the Unitoy R2-D2. Given how close in design the two figures are, this is a great production shortcut Kenner used, which allowed them to create two characters with minimal need for bottom-up figure creation, as the only new sculpting and tooling required for the head and silver “neck” of R5.
In the mid to late stages of ESB & early Jedi output, Kenner HQ decided to move a lot of the current production line away from the Unitoy factory with many characters. Presumably, this is all related to the cost efficiency of the Chinese/Macau alternatives. This is seen in the form of shorter runs in all Unitoy produced figures, seconds/overstock parts going to Spain for Poch to paint and assemble and shortly afterwards a majority of the ex-Unitoy steel moulds going to Spain for their PBP line as they moved into injection moulding their own figures. The Unitoy factory wasn’t being retired, just a reshuffle in their previous lines with legacy figure and vehicle production moving to China/Macau with the in the upcoming ROTJ line just around the corner.
- Smaller dome than Kader
- Large or small eye spray mask
- Large or small wedge
- Orange-red paint for dome and legs
- No leg EPMs
- Tall or medium height platforms foot soles
- Unitoy used a flanged screw to assemble their Astromech figures
UNITOY 1977 NO COO
KADER 1978 HONG KONG
Kader created a new tool for the R5 torso and stamped it with a 1978 copyright date. This version debuted on the 20bk and was a mainstay through the ESB, Jedi and Trilogo eras.
The “Red Bar” sticker variation is a factory error produced from this factory (refer to the sticker guide below). Poch (early PBP) received unpainted Kader HK parts to produce their figure in Spain.
Above you can see following variants (left to right):
- Kader R5-D4 1978 HK COO Dark blue sticker. Standard SW/ESB era version
- “Red Bar” Kader R5-D4 1978 HK COO ESB era small wedge sticker
- Poch R5-D4 1978 HK COO SW era large wedge sticker
- Kader R5-D4 1978 HK COO Light blue sticker. Standard ROTJ era version
- Wider dome than Unitoy
- Large eye spray mask
- Chrome “shoulders”
- Mid-red for the dome and legs
- A leg sculpt which is shared with the Kader R2-D2.
- EPMs are found on both the upper leg strut and also on the battery pack on the foot
- Wide-domed Phillips head screw used for assembly
- Produced with dark/mid blue (SW/ESB era) and light blue (ROTJ/Trilogo era) stickers
FRENCH TRILOGO (Meccano exclusive) 1978 SCAR/SMOOTH NO COO
Above you can see following variants (left to right):
- Kader 1978 “Scarred” No COO Mid-red (overstock) dome
- Kader 1978 “Scarred” No COO Dark-red dome
- Kader 1978 “Smooth” No COO Dark-red dome
UNITOY 1977 MADE IN HONG KONG COO
- Smaller dome than Kader
- Large or small eye spray mask
- Large wedge sticker
- Orange-red paint for dome and legs
- No leg EPMs
- Tall or medium height platforms foot soles
- Unitoy used a flanged screw to assemble their Astromech figures
KADER 1978 HONG KONG
- Wider dome than Unitoy
- Large eye spray mask
- Chrome “shoulders”
- Mid-red for the dome and legs
- A leg sculpt which is shared with the Kader R2-D2.
- EPMs are found on both the upper leg strut and also on the battery pack on the foot
- Wide-domed Phillips head screw used for assembly
- Produced with dark/mid blue (SW/ESB era) and light blue (ROTJ/POTF era) stickers
- The “Red Bar” sticker variation is a factory error produced from this factory (refer to the sticker guide below)
The “red bar” sticker is an error. There’ve been a few theories on why this exists, but the most likely reason is it’s a remnant from the R2-D2 blue separation which wasn’t removed on one of the many copies. In short, one red bar sticker remains on a sheet of many stickers without.
The other thing this suggests, is that the external printers used by each factory were different otherwise you’d more commonly find the red bar on Unitoy 1977 R5s. Either that, and less likely, is that each factory retained their print separations and a mutual printer produced stickers exclusively of each other.
REPRO stickers have been in circulation for decades now, and the most recent versions have even been designed to artificially mimic the yellowing effect of the ageing process. In the making of this guide, I saw dozens of figures sold on eBay as vintage, priced as vintage, but in actuality had reproduction stickers applied purely to dupe unsuspecting buyers.
Parts can easily be swapped around and for decades this has been done, and done incorrectly. If you have an R5 which has anything different to what’s shown here, I’d take a look at the other parts on the figure using my sculpt detail guide to see if the R5 has been tampered with. These Astromech figures have been messed around for decades by sellers/collectors looking for the cleanest example and indifferent/ignorant to the fact they’ve created a Frankenstein figure.
20-A – SW Canada
20 – SW Italian Harbert (salesman sample)
21-A – SW US
21-C – SW US
47-A – ESB US
48-E – ROTJ US
65-B – ROTJ US
77-A – ROTJ US
77-A – ROTJ US QC sign off
