VINTAGE STAR WARS 1978 DIECAST ARTOO-DETOO (R2-D2) BY TAKARA

A Hong Kong seller sold this for way below market price. I grab it when I saw it on eBay - Takara's diecast R2-D2 still mint in box with unused stickers and missiles still on tree! When I started to do some research on this figure, I realized that other specimens had a chrome dome whereas mine is all white. Did I get a rare variation? Before we go into that, let's take a look at the box art.

It comes in a styrofoam box!

It comes with 3 missiles, display base and stickers.

The entire body is diecast. The dome and legs are made of plastic. It's quite heavy for this little fellow. The dome rotates. All the legs have tiny wheels (see pic below). And it has shooting missile feature! The blue base have Star Wars logo and R2-D2 embossed on it.

Turn R2 around and I discovered that my unit's dome actually had discolored due to oxidation. As you can see, there's still a little chrome left on R2's dome. The button on its back is to shoot the missiles. Well I guess there's no white dome R2-D2' variation after all. Nevertheless I am happy to find this toy. It's quite rare and it's vintage Star Wars!