Figure Name: Sixth-Scale OOM-9 Droid
Figure Maker: Sideshow Collectibles
Retail Price: US$64.99
Available at: Sideshow Collectibles 

As always, the box goes first. It's a pretty basic, no-frills box, with a magnetic front cover that opens up to reveal the window and info on the droid. A lot of companies seem to be going with this type of box layout now, but the magnetic clasp that closes the front cover works pretty well. You can also see all the accessories that come with this droid ... and there aren't many.

Out of the box ... you might begin to wonder what you paid for. After all, it does look a little thin in spots, but there's a lot hiding under the initial appearance. You might also notice that the OOM-9 Droid stands on its own without falling over or needing a stand, which I always find to be a plus.

Some of that initial worry begins to fade when you see the detailing Sideshow has put into this figure. Every seam from the OOM-9s we saw in the Star Wars prequel films is present here, along with a little additional weathering with paint scrapes and rust spots. The head looks quite nice, for example, but I do note that the neck joint doesn't have a whole lot of range to it.

Here, you can see the arm and some of the joint layout on the droid. It looks a little bit thin, and perhaps it is in spots, but the original design from the films was just as thin-looking. I didn't really feel as though this would be a figure that breaks, but it might be a good idea just to handle it with care, especially around the forearms and fingers.

There's no shortage of joints here at the wrist, thumb, knuckles, forearm, elbow, upper arm and shoulder. You might not use all of them, but they're available to give you some options, and Sideshow has integrated them pretty well into the design. By that, I mean they aren't all sticking out like sore thumbs. They also hold their pose quite well, too.

The front of the droid looks rather nice and weathered ... but there're no joints here and the details aren't superb. It's something that does the job it needs to do and not a whole lot more.

On the back, it's more detail, but not a whole lot of it. You can see the communications antenna, which comes as a separate piece and is inserted via a slot in the back. There's not a whole lot to look at here, though; it's very basic.

Hopping on down to the legs, they again have that slightly detailed, but still basic look to them, along with three joints: the ankles, knees and hips. Pretty standard layout and there's not much pivoting you can do with them. It feels very much like a robot,

As far as range of motion goes, the OOM-9 Droid has it in spades ... in some places. The legs don't have a super high range of mobility from side to side, but the arms do, giving you about as much poseability as you need. The hip joints are more like what you'd expect to see on the droid, though, so it's not as big of a negative as you might imagine.

It's also quite stable, enough for me to be able to pose it doing a headstand with no stand needed. Your figma is NEVER going to be able to do that.

You can also have your droid doing push-ups, if you wanted. Though droids don't need to, really.

Our robot friend comes with only two accessories. First, we have his blaster rifle, which actually fits a bit loosely in his hands. You can get it to rest as you see above, but it might be more difficult to do anything else that's intensive.

Here, you can get a little better look at the detailing on the blaster. It's pretty good, and the silver paint lines on the barrel are among the cleanest I've ever seen. Looks great.

The other accessory is a pair of binoculars so that our droid friend can look out into the distance and see those Gungans that are about to tear it to shreds. Like the blaster rifle, you'll have to balance them a bit in the hands of the droid (and it can fall out a little easy), but when slotted in right, they stay put.

From the side, you can see some of the weathering paint applied ... and a seam running down the middle of the whole thing. That's kind of a bummer, as it makes the binoculars feel a bit cheap, like something you might find in a figure at Toys'R'Us.

Sideshow's Sixth-Scale series figures seem to be pretty good deals as far as price goes, and the detailing on them is superb. However, I can't help but feel the OOM-9 Droid is a little underwhelming. It is, after all, based on a mass-produced droid meant to be thrown at enemies in huge numbers, without a damn given if they survive the battle. As such, it does feel a little more fragile than it actually is because of the thin appendages. There's also not much in the way of accessories to talk about, either. So really, what this figure becomes is more of a piece to round out a collection than a centerpiece. Do keep that in mind, but also know that even with it being a basic battle droid, Sideshow has done alright with it.  

[Thanks to Sideshow Collectibles for sending this figure along for review!]