TC-4 (5002122) Lego Star Wars Minifigure Review

Since 2010 Lego has released special giveaways/promotional minifgures to coincide with May the Fourth, the proposed international Star Wars day each year.  This has often been tied in with purchases from the Lego.com shop: spend x and receive a special promotion polybag.  They have also been provided to Toy Retailers such as Toys R Us and Smyths Toys as free giveaways with purchases above a certain amount and have been also been made available at toy fairs.

TC-4 was given away free at Toys R Us stores in the UK with Lego Star Wars purchases of £10 or more between 9^th February and 9^th March 2014.  In some stores it was sold on the open shelf at £4.99 with a limit of 3 purchases per customer.  TC-4 was first seen as a promotional giveaway for the first 150 customers at the Toys R Us Hong Kong store in January 2014.  At the time of writing this article there is continued speculation as to whether TC-4 will be the Lego May The Fourth Promotion for 2014.

Protocol droids have been a common theme in these promotional giveaways.  In 2007, 10,000 gold chrome plated C-3PO minifgures (4521221) were randomly included in Star Wars sets in a Wonka-esque move  to coincide with the 30^th anniversary of Star Wars.  In 2012, in polybag 5000063 we got TC-14 (the protocol droid which played host to Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan at the start of Episode I:  The Phantom Menace).  The chrome plating on TC-14 was the highlight of this nicely detailed minifgure based on the 2012 redesign of C-3PO from 9490 Droid Escape.

And now we have TC-4.  TC-Who?  Those eagle-eyed Star Wars fans will have spotted a red protocol droid in The Empire Strikes Back in Echo Base, but alas – no this is R-3PO and he popped up in 2011 in 7879 Hoth Echo Base.  Whilst TC-4 has a good resemblance to this droid, "it is not the droid we are looking for".  Like a Mos Eisley Sandtrooper you can keep watching the films, trying to spot TC-4, but rest assured there are no Jedi playing mind tricks on you, he is not in Episodes I-VI.  And no this is not the point I drop the bombshell that he is going to appear in Episode VII, although neither am I in a position to categorically deny say that he won’t be in the new film.  Consulting the oracle that is Wookieepedia, we have a reference to TC-4 in the Star Wars Chronicles:  The Prequels reference book.  TC-4 was apparently a red protocol droid who assisted Senator Palpatine and featured  in a deleted scene that never made it into Episode I:  The Phantom Menace. 

Wow.  I hope you were sat down for that one.

So we have an obscure, never seen before protocol droid, that is not golden, silver or even chrome.  Are Lego scraping the barrel here??  Let’s take a look at the minifigure.

TC-4 is a nicely detailed minifgure and I believe is the first time we see leg printing on a protocol droid.

The overall minifgure is dark red in colour and composed of three pieces.  If you have picked up the new 2014 Imperial Guard in set 75034 Death Star Troopers it is the same dark red as the arms. 

The head piece is the standard protocol head mould which we have seen since the year 2000.  The piece has yellow photoreceptors (eyes) with a black spot which is just off-centre.  Opening to the mouth is silver on the upper side. 

The Torso is printed on both sides and largely follows the C-3PO theme that was first seen in 9490 Droid Escape.  With a dark red base colour the droids plating is defined by dark grey lines, but is further accentuated through use of silver lines and black line details.  This combination of black and silver line detail is also seen around the neckline.  There is an exposed section on the lower torso to front and rear showing a collection of silver, gold, blue and dark red wires.  The number of wires, layout and colour of the wires differs from the C-3PO 2012 torso print.

The rear torso print is very similar to the C-3PO 2012, but has dark grey and silver detail instead of the black and dark red lines on C-3PO.

The hips and legs are dark red, both have printing to the front.  The hips have a single curved grey line which continues the torso print.   Longitudinal marks in a dark grey colour define the plating on the upper leg with dual silver lines on the right leg.  Silver and black lines on both legs define the detail around and below the knee joint.  Close inspection of the library of images of protocol droids from the Star Wars universe suggest that Lego have done a good job with the leg printing.

Without a doubt it is a nicely detailed minifigure.  Given its exclusivity it is no doubt going to be collectable and for those that can get their hands on them great:  put one in the display cabinet, any surplus keep them safe, forget about them and pass onto your great grandchildren so they can sell/exchange one for a return ticket to the Sea Of Tranquillity in years to come.

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