I loved discovering the Han Cholo booth at Celebration Anaheim, but couldn’t quite afford to buy the amazing sterling silver jewelry – so I was of course very excited when Han Cholo released the ‘Shadow Series’ of stainless steel versions. One of the items at the top of my shopping list was the R2-D2 pendant, I paid US$58.80 from SuperHeroStuff (making use of a promotional code at the time) – it is still available, the regular price is US$69.99. It is currently listed as ‘sold out’ at Han Cholo, but more stock will be available soon.
The pendant comes packaged in a ‘drawer-style’ black gift box, which features an all-over starry sky background, with the Star Wars and Han Cholo logos embossed in silver on the front. The back of the box has smaller logos printed in white, this time with website addresses, together with the Disney logo and the text ‘For Ages Cool And Up’. The pendant sits on a foam square inside the box (the foam has a black velvet top layer), with the rest of the chain length tucked behind.
The R2-D2 pendant is one piece, with two cubic zirconia stones for detail as R2-D2’s eyes/lights (one black, one red). It has a hollow portion in the base, so the figure feels quite sturdy without being too heavy. The detail is really nice, all the lines are accented with black antiquing. The figure stands easily on it’s own – the standard ‘(c) LFL’ copyright text is stamped into the underside of one ‘foot’. R2-D2 stands approximately 33mm high, with the hanger measuring approximately 9mm across.
The pendant hanger features the Rebel Alliance logo on both sides, with black antiquing to accent the design. The chain itself is quite unique, with rectangular links – Han Cholo uses this style throughout their Star Wars jewelry collection. At 30″ in length, I can put it on over my head without undoing the clasp, so it’s a little longer than most of my other Star Wars necklaces, but the length suits the ‘chunkier’ style of chain. The chain closes with a standard lobster style clasp, with a little tag that features the Han Cholo logo on one side, and the Star Wars logo on the other.
I was keen to compare this necklace to two other sculpted R2-D2 necklaces I own – the 1977 Weingeroff and 1983 Adam Joseph versions. All three are very close in size, though Han Cholo’s version has slightly longer main body and thinner legs than the other two. Han Cholo’s version has R2-D2 in 2-leg mode, rather than 3 like the other two pendants, and is missing R2-D2’s battery boxes/power cells on the inside of his legs down by his ‘feet’ (a little odd, considering the accuracy of the rest of the details and scale), which are present on the two vintage versions. Sculpting differences aside, they are all great necklaces that suit different occasions and outfits. I can’t wait to pair my new Han Cholo R2-D2 necklace with a fun outfit to show off this great jewelry piece.
