Bandai 1/12 C3PO Droid

"I am C-3PO, human-cyborg relations."

―C-3PO

C-3PO, sometimes spelled See-Threepio and often referred to simply as Threepio, was a 3PO unit protocol droid designed to interact with organics, programmed primarily for etiquette and protocol. He was fluent in over seven million forms of communication, and developed a fussy and worry-prone personality throughout his many decades of operation. Along with his counterpart, the astromech droid R2-D2, C-3PO constantly found himself directly involved in pivotal moments of galactic history, and aided in saving the galaxy on many occasions.

C-3PO was built from spare parts by Anakin Skywalker, a human slave who lived in Mos Espa, a city on the Outer Rim world of Tatooine. C-3PO's memory was erased, though R2-D2's memory was not. C-3PO and R2-D2 were assigned to the Alderaan cruiser Tantive IV, where they served senator Bail Organa for nineteen years. At some point during this time, 3PO's right leg was fitted with a mismatched droid plating.

They then became embroiled in the Galactic Civil War, when Leia Organa of the Rebel Alliance entrusted them to bring a copy of the Death Star plans to the Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi on Tatooine. After meeting Skywalker's son Luke and the smuggler Han Solo, the droids helped rescue princess Leia from the Empire's Death Star. They became directly attached to the three humans, helping them and their rebellion defeat the Empire and restore freedom to the galaxy, most notably when he convinced the Ewoks to aid the Rebels at the Battle of Endor.

Following the Battle of Endor, C-3PO continued serving the Skywalkers and Han Solo during the time of the New Republic. About thirty years after the events on Endor, C-3PO was still serving as an aide to Leia Organa, who had become a General in the Resistance, a private military group opposed to the First Order, a military junta that emulated the Old Empire. By that time, C-3PO sported a red left arm and had his translating database updated so that he could communicate in seven million different forms of communications.

From Wookipedia

Bandai continues to amaze me with their attention to detail and quality of design/fit with each of their Star Wars kits I have built.

The C3P0 kit comes with four sprues. The main sprue contains clear, chrome leg and gold plated parts. The second gold plated sprue has the arms and the other gold plated leg. The 3^rd sprue is all the polycaps necessary for articulating the droid while the last sprue contains the mounting base. They provide stickers and waterslide decals for all the necessary details including the eyes.

From what I can tell, the detail matches what is seen from the movies. Based on what I have read on the internet is that this way better detailed than the action figures of equivalent size and the limbs are more articulate.

C3P0 comes with the option for moveable or fixed arms. Being the odd sort who makes his model robots dance to Styx's Mr Roboto, I opted for the moveable arms even though the fixed arms provides plated actuators and is more accurate finish wise.

There are other options to do C3P0 in various situations including captivity (including an optional faceplate for a dented face) or eye removal (when Salacious Crumb pulled his eye from his socket and tried to eat it in Return of the Jedi.) I opted to go build the basic healthy C3P0 and not the bondage/tortured versions.

I simply followed the instructions following each step. I used stickers for the eyes and the detailed wiring on the torso.

One thing you must do is to carefully cut off the plated parts from the sprue so as to avoid removing the gold or chrome plating off the part. Unfortunately there are parts where that is impossible to do (shoulder sockets in particular.)

The only area that needs some careful planning is the moveable arms. Make sure both actuators are installed before added the other arm halves.

The fit of the parts and polycaps is so good that I didn't need any glue on the major assemblies. I used a small drop of glue to secure each of the few tiny parts to the body.

It only took me about 4 hours of actual work from opening the box to mounting C3P0 on the stand.

No painting required except for some small touch ups. As mentioned above I used the stickers and didn't touch the decals.

C3P0's limbs and head were quickly popped onto the torso and the droid was mounted on to Bandai supplied base. That was it.

This is the easiest kit I've ever assembled. I recommend this kit to any Star Wars fan (modeller or not) as anyone who has the finger dexterity to use a small knife can build this model. There is really no need to paint it as no metallic finish can even come close to the quality of the chrome and gold plating.

Bandai has developed another winner.

Dan Lee

11 October 2016

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