The Battle Droids were kind of silly almost from the get go.  I believe the first time we see them in action is when they are given instructions to “destroy what is left of” Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan after they were thought to have died in a cloud of poison gas.  The first instructions from an OOM command droid were met with the now ubiquitous “Roger Roger.”  At that point, we should have known these guys were chumps.  Just in case there was any doubt, a few seconds later, the Jedi emerged from the room, and dispatched the battle droids with what can almost be described as nonchalance.  Now, the Droidekas were another story…

As a quick point of order, the droids that appeared in the scene described above were actually Security Droids, as denoted by their red markings.  There’s also some inconsistencies in the canon history and differences between the OOM line of droids and the B1 line of droids.  It seems, as best I can tell, that they are roughly interchangeable, although it may also be that the OOM designations are left to the specialized units, and are a subdivision of the entire B1 army. 

The B1 Battle Droids were the main infantry droid utilized by the Trade Federation.  The unmarked Battle Droids were seen throughout The Phantom Menace, and in large numbers when they faced off against the Gungans on the plains of Naboo in what turned out to be a diversionary battle.  The droids weren’t particularly menacing, but in such large numbers, backed by tanks and other heavy weaponry, they could be formidable.  They quickly defeated the Gungan shields, and then faced off in close quarters.  As the battle progressed, the droids got the upper hand, and eventually defeated the Gungans.  However, they had an Achilles heel, which was that the entire Trade Federation droid army was controlled by a single mother ship in orbit above Naboo.  Once that silly kid tried his spin move, the Trade Federation was doomed.  Despite having defeated the Gungans in open combat, they quickly collapsed like wet noodles thanks to the heroism of Anakin Skywalker.

As I’ve recently mentioned several times here, I started collecting shortly following the launch of these Episode I figures in 1999.  As such, I missed much of the POTF2 nonsense about card variants, freeze frame rarities, and other oddball things that drove collectors mad.  The Battle Droids were a new kind of pain that Hasbro tried to inflict upon the collecting community, although if I recall correctly, it ended up not being that much of a challenge.  There were four paint variants of the the figure.  “Clean” was straight out of the Trade Federation foundries.  There were no paint applications beyond the eyes and some “grime” at most of the joints, which were carried through on all the variants.  “Slash” was the all-purpose QB for the Steelers had a prominent slice mark across its chest, probably to signify an attack from a lightsaber, and had some additional battle damage applied.  “Shot” had a completely different damage pattern, to include a large blast mark on the chest.  “Dirty” was a nasty fellow, who was ostracized by his other judgy droid comrades.  He was covered in dirt, as if he constantly rolled around in the grasses of the Naboo plains.  Or maybe he got caught up by the business end of a falumpaset, or worse, a fambaa.  Each variant was available at launch.  I don’t recall the exact method of distribution, but I assumed they were roughly equally dispersed in various assortments of Wave 1 (collection 1) cases.  I recall not having too tough of a time tracking each one down once I started collecting seriously.  I think I have multiples of each.

The sculpt is quite good, and it has some of the best articulation that Hasbro offered up to that point.  It had a ball jointed head, and swivel shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees.  Unfortunately, the lack of ankles, of course, renders the knees almost useless, except that you can make a half successful attempt to recreate the pre-deployment “folded” battle droid.  It doesn’t quite work, but it was probably okay back in 1999.  Since there is no rotational movement available in the shoulders or elbows, the droids can’t perform a two-handed weapon grip, so even with the added elbow articulation, you’re only able to get something a bit better than the silly straight-arm firing position.

These look best when standing at attention or as background fodder, or even to serve as some destroyed droids scattered on your shelf battlefield.  Later versions of this droid had additional articulation, most notably in the ankles, which allow for some nice attack stances.  Some versions have some pre-posed arms to allow for the THWG, which look nice.  However, no battle droid yet has been released with wrist articulation, which would be necessary to allow for a definitive version.  All that said, this 1999 figure is the sturdiest, while many others tend to collapse easily.  Unfortunately, as you might be able to tell from some of the pics, time has not been good to the plastic used, as not only are most of my battle droids tacky/sticky, but the limbs aren’t always straight.  Taking pics of all 4 droids lined up was a stressful endeavor.

The droid blaster fits well enough in the hand, but it also can be stowed away in the notch that is cut into the side of the backpack.  The blasters were stowed this way when the droids were in their folded positions.  The backpack itself is removable, which gives you a bit of display variety, but it also works as some battlefield debris if you use these figures as casualties scattered throughout your displays.

Overall, it’s a good figure, which has some value today, although newer molds are better.  I’ll give it a 6/10, which is very respectable for a 20 year old figure, especially one that has been surpassed in desirability by better versions over the years.  But it can still be useful in a display, so I won’t consider them obsolete, until Hasbro makes that definitive version that has full super articulation (including the wrists) and has no problem standing up.