The B1 Battle Droid has confounded Hasbro engineers as well as collectors since 1999.  Well, maybe not quite that far back.  The 1999 version was quite excellent for the time, considering what was typical for a contemporary action figure.  In fact, with each new Battle Droid release, there was an upgrade (sometimes as a tradeoff) that pleased collectors.  After the sturdy, but “robotic”, Episode I figure, we got a more pre-posed but natural looking droid in POTJ that could perform a two handed weapon grip.  Some versions had interactive accessories like blast effects.  Others had great paint jobs that looked like pre-Ghost Haslab level quality.  But thrown in the mix were the super cheap 5POA (or less) versions that offered little to the collector.  And after reaching its peak with the 2009/2010 Geonosis sets (here, here, and here), Hasbro gave us the “1 step forward 2 steps back” approach with the VC78, which was repainted and re-issued multiple times in TVC (as well as the ill-fated and short-lived “TLC3” line).

But technology advancements and collector expectations have raised the bar significantly as to what a modern TVC figure should be, and it certainly doesn’t mean rehashing a 15 year old sculpt that has more warts than we can count.  So Hasbro finally announced a signficant upgrade for the B1 Battle Droid with the (surprise) reveal of this 4-pack.  But how significant?  Is it what we thought it would be?  Is it better?  Is it worse?  Read on for the exciting conclusion of “Does This Battle Droid Rock, or Does it Suck?”

I have the memory of a goldfish.  This is perhaps most frustrating for two people in my life: My wife and Chris.  I was this close to texting Chris and declaring that Hasbro surprised us by including a Battle Droid Commander in the pack!  And then I looked at the reveal photos, and of course, this isn’t news at all.  But then I immediately discovered the next huge secret and was this close to texting Chris again:  Each battle droid is weathered differently!  But then I looked at the reveal photos again, and of course, this isn’t news either.  And then it finally dawned on me, so I texted Chris:  Signs is the dumbest movie ever made!  He hasn’t texted me back.

Anyway, after working with this Battle Droid for the purposes of taking photos for this gallery and review, I had some ups and downs in determining a final verdict.  First, the sculpt.  As we knew, only the legs are new.  The entire upper body, including the torso, arms, and head, is identical to VC76.  The lower body, including the hips, shins, and feet, are entirely new. 

I must say, as was hoped when the set was revealed, the lower body is most definitely an improvement.  The things that worked with VC76 are carried forward with the new design, notably the hips and knee range of motion.  The hips are slightly ball jointed, which at the bare minimum keeps the status quo. The battle droid can’t do Jedi splits, but the hips still allow for some good posing.  The knees also carry forward the extreme range of motion. There’s probably no figure (at least that I can recall) that has the ability for the knee to flex about as far as is “humanly possible.”  Again, this was something that VC76 could do, and thankfully the ability returns here.  This is due to the design of the back of the thigh (which has a vertical ridge) and the calf, which has a corresponding vertical slot.  You can bend the knee almost 180 degrees back, and the calf “slot” slides over the thigh “ridge” allowing for a perfect “fit.”  I’m not sure if this is possible with a human figure, but Hasbro nailed it back then with VC76, and fortunately did the same with the new legs here.

As for improvements, the knees are “ball jointed” this time.  Yes, we tend to casually call joints that flex in multiple directions as ball-jointed, which is technically not correct in many cases.  In this case, it’s a swivel “wheel” joint that allows the knee to bend back (and forward, if you’re insane), as well as a pin joint that swivels from left to right which is great for incremental posing possibilities.  The ankles are of the rocker variety, vs. just the forward/back flex of the previous version.  It’s the first Battle Droid that has multi-directional knees and feet.

Perhaps most importantly, the legs are redesigned to be thicker, which in theory, should allow for greater stability.  In fact, I don’t know if it’s possible to recreate image 17 with any previous battle droid.  That in and of itself is a huge win - but for full disclosure, it took a frustratingly long time to get the droid to stay that way long enough to snap a pic, and even when I finally succeeded, the figure toppled over about a minute later.  Almost all previous battle droids, with the notable exception (usually) of the original EP1 figures, have a tendency to bend under their own weight and fall over given time.  That time might be measure in days or weeks, but more often in seconds or minutes.  The plastic itself doesn’t seem to be particularly sturdy, it just seems so due to the thickness of the parts, not the actual quality of the material.  A final conclusion would have to be reserved for the future, after we see how well these figures hold up. 

So far so good, as these are excellent improvements that go a long way in giving us a satisfactory battle droid.  But the goodness more or less ends there - and in fact, a new problem is created.  The original problems with the sculpt remain.  The arms have minimal articulation (swivel shoulders and elbows, no wrists) and are thin and bendy.  Only one hand can grip the blaster; a THWG is not possible - unless you take advantage of the very bendy plastic and force the issue, as is the case for image 21 above.  It looks okay, but generally that pose is only good for a few seconds before the left arm rebounds towards its original form.  Another problem is the backpack, which lacks a slot/pin/peg/whatever to allow for the blaster rifle to be stored, as it was when the droids deployed from the MTT on Naboo.  You can otherwise do a passable job of recreating the crouch position.  (Better articulation with the arms would allow for the hands to clasp the knees as they do in the film.)

The backpack, extra antenna, and blaster are identical in sculpt to their originals from VC76.  For some reason, the set includes 2 additional blasters, for a total of 6.  I would rather have had electrobinoculars for the droid commander.

So here’s the problem with the lower body improvement.  The figure overall looks off because the legs are much thicker and out of proportion to the spindly arms.  I’m not sure why Hasbro gave us a half-measure improvement instead of designing the figure from scratch.  I’m sure funding/budget had something to do with it, but I would have preferred to wait for the full redo, rather than this version.  I feel that I have no problem whatsoever, from an aesthetic point of view regarding the thickness of the legs.  If the upper body matched, I think the battle droid would look awesome, and not suffer from extra limb thickness to allow for better articulation.  To be clear, the legs look solid, the upper body looks meager and weak. 

Hasbro should take a cue from their own success with the lower body, and do the same ball jointed shoulders (as the hips), and double swivel with the elbows (as with the knees), and some kind of wrists that are closer to ball joints, and hopefully without the forced swivels that we get these days that only go in certain directions).  I would also hope that Hasbro can do additional improvements to the upper body.  There should be waist or torso articulation, the head should be able to tuck forward into the chest more completely with the back of the head getting stuck on the backpack.  And the backpack should not only accommodate blaster storage, but should also be secured better.  They’ve been popping off way too easily on every repaint of this figure since it debuted as VC76.

Overall, I’m happy with what Hasbro did, but disappointed they couldn’t finish the job.  I bought 3 of these packs, but I would hope that the figure is fully updated before I go all in and do a complete update of my Separatist forces.  Fixing the upper body would be huge.  I just hope the plastic is good enough for the long haul, otherwise is all going to be extremely frustrating.  VC76 got a 6/10.  I’ll give this 7/10.  It might be the best battle droid out there, but we need much better.  Soon.