R5-D4
Chihuahua
Nick Eppinga
Nick Eppinga
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I: Unitoy
II: Not an R5 COO
III: Not an R5 COO
IV.1: 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.
Updated 29/03/2026:
- On the COO sheet, the mould family 4.1/b has be reclassified. The newly discovered F4 R2-D2 1977 Hong Kong COO figure becomes 4.1a/b, and previous R5-D4 F4.1a/b is moved to F4.2a/b.
- R5-D4 F4.2a/b becomes F4.3a/b.
- R5-D4 F4.3a/b becomes F4.4a/b.
- Addition of “Red Bar” figures in F1, F4, F5 and F8 graphics – or noted where missing.
- Addition of the Poch variation with orange legs.
- F8 Kader light orange paint dome figure included alongside the orange dome figure.
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 MIHK SW/ESB version
- Unitoy MIHK “Red Bar” Sticker (missing)
- Unitoy MIHK ESB era small wedge sticker
- Unitoy No COO SW era large wedge sticker
- Unitoy No COO ROTJ/Trilogo version
- Unitoy 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 and early Jedi output, Kenner HQ decided to move a lot of the current production line away from the Unitoy factory for 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. 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 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
This F4 KADER family began with R2-D2 and a 1977 date stamp, and the cavity’s featured a “5” or “6”. After a short production run, this R2 1977 torso mould was re-assigned for the soon to be produced R5-D4. To reflect the new R5-D4 patent date, the stamp was altered to 1978.
You may have spotted that the cavity stamp rotates during different phases of production from HK, Macau and Mexico. The part of the torso cavity that is stamped, is independent of the cylindrical part of the tool and was slotted into position. By placing this part of the tool forwards or backwards, the number would be facing a different direction. If you disassemble an Kader R2 or R5, you can spot cavity stamps on all the plastic parts used to create the toy.
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).
Above you can see following variants (left to right):
- Kader HK COO Dark blue sticker. SW/ESB era version
- Kader HK COO “Red Bar” Sticker ESB era small wedge sticker
- Kader HK COO Light blue sticker. 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
POCH 1978 HONG KONG
Poch (early PBP) received a mix of painted and unpainted Kader HK parts to produce their figures in Spain. The well documented version with orange dome and dark red legs is joined by a newly acknowledged Poch variant with bright orange legs and a mid orange dome. Both have the 1978 HK COO torso, though I’ve heard of 1977 R2 torsos also being used.
Above you can see following variants (left to right):
- Poch orange legs SW era large wedge sticker
- Poch light orange dome, dark red legs SW era large wedge sticker
To identify an R5 figure as Poch with any certainty requires a combination of traits – the more the better. Poch figures are often unique and feature a combination of torn plastic burrs, messy paint, excessive flashing, poorly aligned stickers, paint overspray, a dull satin chrome finish on the neck and preferably with Euro origins.
FRENCH TRILOGO (Meccano exclusive) 1978 SCAR/SMOOTH NO COO
Above you can see following variants (left to right):
- Kader “Scarred” No COO Mid-red (overstock) dome
- Kader “Scarred” No COO Dark-red dome
- Kader “Smooth” No COO Dark-red dome
UNITOY 1977 MADE IN HONG KONG COO
Above you can see following variants (left to right):
- Unitoy MIHK SW/ESB version
- Unitoy MIHK “Red Bar” Sticker
We’ve found both large and small MIHK COOs on early 21bk Unitoy cards as well as Trilogo cards. These moulds were used in various stages without any reason other than it just happened to be the mould that was picked up off the shelf by the tooling manager on the day.
COO aside, the rest of the figure shares the same details with it’s Unitoy brother, the SW/ESB era F1 MIHK COO. To recap, the key details for the mould family 5 Unitoy R5 are:
- 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 COO
Above you can see following variants (left to right):
- Kader HK COO Light orange dome. Dark blue sticker. SW/ESB era version
- Kader HK COO Orange dome. Dark blue sticker. SW/ESB era version
- Kader HK COO “Red Bar” Sticker ESB era small wedge sticker
- Kader HK COO Light blue sticker. ROTJ era version
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
