Another great deal I got at Target yesterday is the R2-D2 "Laptop" for pennies under $5. Originally retailing for $20, this is a neat little learning toy for the younger Jedi or Sith in your family. There are games where you can learn to recognize letters, shapes, and numbers as well as a twist on Simon Says. Everything is narrated by C-3PO, though it's not Anthony Daniels that provides the voice work. Whoever it is does a decent enough job, but it's obvious, to me anyway, that it's not Mr. Daniels.

The top pops open slightly, on occasion, when you hit the release lever and then you just swing it open the rest of the way. It's a simplistic keyboard layout with the letters in alphabetic order instead of your normal keyboard layout. Two rows of touch pad buttons lay above the letters. The top row activates the eight games while the second represents both numbers and shapes. A string of gray buttons is at the bottom of the keyboard that allows you to get the answer, repeat the question, play a weird tune and watch 3PO do a dance on the screen, display the Star Wars logo on-screen, or power on/off.

The screen itself is very small, about 1" x 1", and centered in R2's chest. It's black and white and the graphics on it are pretty simplistic, but do the job well enough. Oh yeah, R2's eye lights up when you answer correctly or incorrectly, accompanied by an appropriate sound. The games are fun, but never end. At least, I've not played one long enough to get to an end. You can swap games at any time too, which is nice if your little one (or you) get stuck. 3PO's voice can get annoying after a while and there's no volume control, so I find myself turning it off after just a few minutes of playing around. I can only imagine the horror parents with kids that have this must go through if their kids play it for extended periods of time.

I'm glad I have it as a part of my R2 collection and that I didn't pay full price. It's worth about $10, maybe $15, but not the original retail of $20. As they say on the Price is Right, "That's too much!"

This morning's picture is the middle portion of a shelf on my side of our bedroom. On the left edge of the picture you'll notice the left hand and leg of Ultimate Bumblebee from the Transformers movie. That's the end of my movie Bumblebee collection, which takes up the first 1/3 of the shelf. On the right edge, you'll notice larger R2-D2 domes. These are the snack bowls and hat and they take over the right 1/3 of shelf alongside the EPisode 1 R2 carry case (filled with R2-D2 figures right now) and the two AT-STs from the Target Ultimate Battlepacks.

The middle of the shelf is where today's fun lies. It's filled with Astromech droids with a couple R2-D2s from the 30th Anniversary Collection (TAC to us collector types in "the know") thrown in for good measure. You can see the Entertainment Earth sets in here as well as both versions of R2-B1, the blue and yellow droid. The one up front is from the Episode 1 line while the one in the back is from TAC. You may notice I have two R4-19 droids, the mostly black, cone-headed R4 unit. The one on the second shelf was painted by my friend Zobovor as a gift to me while the one on the back shelf was released in the Saga Legends line this year. As for the rest, I couldn't begin to tell you their names outside of that they all begin with the letter R. Well, except for the red-dome, blue-and-white body droid. He's simply called Astromech Droid, so I call him RV-GX. I figure it's the only way I'll get a figure that's any sort of tribute to my fandom.

I got my McQuarrie Star Wars figures in the mail yesterday, so for now the circle is complete. There's the Stormtrooper, Luke, C-3PO, Chewbacca, R2-D2, and Boba Fett. We'll see how easy it will be to get the rest of this sub-line later in the year. I'm still pretty miffed at the Star Wars figure situation, so Hasbro hasn't won me back yet.

I think I like C-3PO the least. Oh, he's accurate and all to the original concept, but he looks like a depressed woman. Chewbacca is massive and I think I almost like it better than the way he looked in the movies. Well, not the head so much, but I like the additional clothing. Luke is fine enough, though he looks more like a G.I.Joe underwater specialist than a Jedi. The Stormtrooper is neat, despite the limited articulation. At least the paint job is an improvement over the one released a few years back. Not surprisingly, R2-D2 is my favorite. I love the arms on his dome and the two clawed arms in his chest. If this figure were released with the movie version's color scheme, I think I'd have a favorite R2-D2 of all time.

Hopefully, a friend of mine will be able to pick up the McQuarrie Obi-Wan/Yoda set from San Diego Comic-Con (going on right now) or it's off to eBay for me again.

Stupid exclusives.