ARC-170 astromech droid R4-C7 from Clone Wars season 1

Target often releases exclusives. For the last few years there are exclusive G.I. Joe, Transformers, and Star Wars releases at Target. Mostly they're repaints and/or repacks, but these battle packs often come out with something new, or a pretty cool version.

The window boxes that have become so common these days certainly look cool, just look at that picture here and check out how all of the figures are posed on a background as if it were a scene. It's an attractive box it gave the designers space to create a very nice battle scene. The photo in the the back of the ARC-170 Elite Squad Battle Pack shows a crash landed Republic Gunship and the five figures that are included in the box. Wait a minute! But how come then it is an ARC-170 squad? Where is the ARC-170? In the background you can see an ARC-170 flying by, but it seems these 4 clones and the red-blue astromech are the only survivors of the crash, probably flying that Gunship. Additionally, there are only two clone pilots, the remaining two foot soldiers have absolutely no association with an ARC-170. They could be en route to a destination aboard that crash landed Republic Gunship, when they were hit, and the survivors are protecting themselves, till the reinforcement, or an evacuation transport arrives. So in my opinion, the background is very spectacular, but very confusing. We do not see the ARC-170 vehicle, and there would be landed near them, it will be only the fighter of the two pilots, and the astrodroid, the other two foot soldiers cannot do anything with it.

Astromech Droid 2007 release in the ARC-170 elite squad battle pack

"These multi-use droids are found everywhere, thanks to their many functions that include repairing ships like ARC-170 fighters and providing navigational support. They are equipped with a variety of tools to meet almost any need or situation." This sentence can be read on the back of the box. The Astromech Droid included with this set didn't get a name. I call him an ARC170 astromech, however, it is not decided, if he really flies an ARC, or was just a passenger of that crashed Gunship. He looks like just like any other R2 or R3 series Astromech Droids that figures, but he got one major difference: this droid's leg extends/retracts depending on which direction you turn his head. It may be handy, if you want to place him into his socket behind the pilot cockpit in toy ARC-170, which is behind this randomly selected clone pilots from the set.

Otherwise, this Astromech Droid is a lot like any basic R2 unit, with the distinctive shape that we've used to learned for the last thirty years. His coloring, as with all of the droids of this design, is the only thing that sets him apart from the other droids of this design, The color choices don't feel all that appropriate for this set, since everybody else has a purple color in a random region of their armor, except this little fellow, who got a red head dome, and a dark blue torso. The droid's color scheme makes him stand out from the other included figures; so I think the Clone Wars line is closer to his true identity, I suppose some of Anakin's Shadow squadron pilots might have been his owner, and none of these purple clones. Or maximum any of the two clone pilots.

During the Clone Wars, members of this R-series droids were used by the Republic for a variety of roles, including use aboard starfighters like the ARC-170 and capital ships like the Acclamator-class assault ship. We could see a similar orange astromech droid unit in the first season of the Clone Wars animated film. He was standing in the background behind Anakin's pilots in that hangar, from where the Shadow squadron took off to attack the Malevolence, General Grievous' flagship, which was armed with the dangerous ion weapon.

We could see a green R5 unit and an orange R2 or R3 unit in the Clone Wars beside him, too. I have already introduced that green R5 and the orange astromech in this site, so you can see all three of them, custom made by made hand, being together as seen above, on the Clone Wars screenshot. We do not know the blue-red droid's type, or identifier. We do not even know, if he is an R2 or R3 unit. R3 units usually transparent head dome, but that is not always that way. So we do not know too much of this little guy, he is so new, that he do not have a name, and do not have a type, so I called him an "ARC-170 astromech". (Update: we know his name now: R4-C7) We even do not know, who is his pilot, who the droid aids in the space battles, but I suppose either one of that purple clone pilots from the set, or any of Anakin's Shadow squadron.

His torso is not totally dark blue, though. Most of his torso and three legs, called threads are blue. The spacecraft linkage, and the repair arms plate are silver, together with the shoulder part of the leg. Also, the system ventillation and loudspeaker exhausts are silver. The dome is red, but the equipments and the auditory sensors are grey. The system indicators glow yellow. The radar eye is black, while the lower eye is yellow. The total head is a custom work, since I could not managed to get an R2 or R3 head, I custom made a spare, and extra R7 head, with putty work on it even the nose, and other parts were made by my own hands.

The figure is a very special one. It was made from different color Build a droid (BAD) parts, and for that it is a quite special custom figure, which was never before seen, and never was released by any. I traded, bought, or just got the parts from fellow Hungarian Star Wars fans, readers of CustomStarWars, whose names are listed in the Hungarian "Csere bere" section site, where I say a special thank you for all those guy, look, what those parts became, how can birth a brand new droid from different colored rubbish.

Please take a look at my custom ARC-170 astrodroid unit figure!

Custom ARC-170 astrodroid unit figure front

Custom ARC-170 astrodroid unit figure from the left

Custom ARC-170 astrodroid unit figure from the right

Custom ARC-170 robot figure from the back

Thanks for visiting the site CustomStarWars. Come back ASAP, as there will be plenty of interesting things here!

 by: Norbert Rostas