"Artoo Detoo! It Is You! It Is You!"

I recently posted an article on the Star Wars Action Display Stand featuring the original 12 figures from my childhood collection. Sadly, the decals on my Artoo units didn't survive that well - a combination of water-damage and scrapes from being plugged into square astromech droid socket on my home-built Lego X-Wing. So my Artoo unit on the display stand actually has a reproduction decal. Horrors!

I subsequently decided to find a new all-original solid-dome Artoo for my collection. I found a nice looking one on eBay for a reasonable price and it arrived yesterday, in time for an impromptu photo session with my old repro-decal Artoo and an all-original Sensorscope version.

Here's the new Artoo that just arrived. A bit of wear on the decal and some very slight discolouration - but that, to me, bespeaks the genuineness of the piece.

A couple scrapes on the back side but nothing too major. Finding a really minty solid-dome Artoo is tough, and $$$, but this one was a nice compromise between condition and cost.

Original Sensorscope version. Nice white decal here - but it seems to me that it's easier to find nice decals on SS Artoos than it is on solid-dome ones.

Back side of the Sensorscope Artoo. All of the examples in the photographs have the standard HK COO.

Repro decal (left) vs. original. Repro is whiter and has nice detail, but lacks the distinct patina and texture of the original 35-year-old sticker. hard to tell from this angle but the droid on the right has noticeably darker blue paint apps. I've read that this can be a feature of the "early-bird" pieces but I am a bit of a skeptic on that one... in any event there were so many EB figures produced I find it hard to ascribe any extra rarity value. A double-telescoping saber Ben Kenobi, it ain't ;-)