Got mine earlier today and I have to say I was initially disappointed. I know there was plenty of warning as to how cheap it felt, but I wanted to give the piece the benefit of the doubt. What feels cheap is not just that some of the compartment doors open up on their own (the two blue arms, the panel to the right of the 2 front grills, the life scanner door, and the top circle panel all open on their own on mine if you tip him in certain directions), it's that they kinda rattle around a bit when they are closed. It's the fact that it feels like those doors don't fit properly and are loose that give it a cheap feel. No joke, I was lightly blowing some lint off the big eye and life scanner door on the dome opened! Someone mentioned that the Probe Droid felt a bit cheap--the Probe Droid is definitely sturdier in construction than R2, simply because there are no flimsy compartments that rattle around. Some of the blue paint on the dome doesn't quite reach the edges of the panels they are on, which also makes it look a bit sloppy. And I think they might have gone a bit overboard with weathering the dome. There is an overall speckly grey finish on top of the silver surface that really wasn't necessary. The matte finish of the silver plastic probably would have made it look dull enough.
All that said, I warmed up to the little droid fairly quickly. Luckily nothing came broken and pretty much works how it's supposed to (loose doors aside). R2 truly looks great, and perfect with the Tama Threepio. Within normal viewing distance (maybe a foot), he looks great (you really don't notice the seams), and with minimal handling you forget all about the rattling doors. The lights look great, but it makes it more evident that it should have had sounds to accompany the beautiful lights. He's definitely photogenic.
Here are some pics:
Here's a straightforward shot to show the relative heights, which I think work fine:
And here's R2 next to the placeholder my wife made for me for Christmas!
I didn't take too many shots, and none with the accessories since I'm actually a little under the weather today and even stayed home from work.
Sideshow really should have done something to help the doors stay in place. I was expecting the doors to stay closed with magnets, since it takes a magnet to open the door. It's a damn shame that that really affects the experience of having R2.
But like I said, I did warm up to him and I am very glad I got him.
BTW, I wanted to thank Vonhahn for his video showing how to pull out the periscope and life scanner so they stay up. I couldn't get them to stay up til I saw your very helpful video.
And thanks to Wor Gar for the hint on how to open the dome to get to the batteries.
