In the movie National Lampoon’s Vacation, Eugene Levy’s character, Ed the salesman, is trying to upsell the Family Truckster to Clark.  In one of the classic lines from the movie, he says:

You think you hate it now, but just wait until you drive it.

I would like to put my own spin on that line.  You think you hate the Heavy Battle Droid now, but just wait until you open it.  Hasbro is putting this Battle Droid mold to heavy use recently.  A few months prior, Hasbro reissued the mold for the Photo Real update to the VC78 - Battle Droid figure.  Fans immediately complained that the plastic used for that update was rubbery.  I don’t know if the plastic on the legs of this Heavey Battle Droid Gaming Greats release is rubbery or not, but the points of articulation are incredibly loose to the point of making the figure difficult to pose.  It’s even a bit of a challenge to get the Heavy Battle Droid to merely stand upright.  In some of the more dynamic poses, the joints will actually collapse under the weight of the figure, and this is a featherweight offering. It’s the reason for the limited diorama shots (just one).  When it takes me over a half hour to get just one diorama shot set up due to difficulty posing the figure, and then I’m still disappointed with the results, it completely demotivates me.  Simply put, this figure is not fun.

While I can’t say for certain if the legs use a rubbery plastic, the arms definitely do.  This Heavy Battle Droid is virtually a Bend ‘Em figure. It feels like a figure made out of cocktail straws.  My sample’s right elbow was stuck, and in freeing it, I thought the upper arm was going to twist apart.  Now this rubberiness does have a side benefit, intended or otherwise.  The left arm can be so heavily contorted that it can be bent and twisted to mimic a two-handed-weapon-grip even though the figure lacks the requisite articulation for such a pose.  You can see this in images 8 and 9 above.  The arm can bend to the point that the left hand clips onto the bottom of the DLT-19 Heavy Blaster Rifle, but it is not a permanent pose.  The only thing keeping the plastic from returning to form is the strength of the hand’s grip, but since it’s likewise made of rubbery plastic, it will eventually give way.

This brings me to my next point.  Just because you give someone a first baseman’s mitt does not mean that they’re a first baseman.  Likewise, just because you pack a figure with a DLT-19 rifle, it does not mean that figure can interact with it well.  The way that this Heavy Battle Droid interacts with the included long rifle is poor at best.  It has to tuck the stock under its arm which twists rifle, and has a tendency to pop the grip free from the figure’s hand, which only has a loose and tenuous grasp to begin with.  Additionally (and in continuing to belabor the rubbery plastic issue), the stress of this pose causes the arm to contort to the point that it retains the pose.  When switching to the smaller E-5 blaster, it’s hard to get the Heavy Battle Droid to aim in straight due to that deformation.

There are some positives with this figure, and the first is the deco.  The alternating copper and flat black paint scheme makes this far and away the most visually compelling Battle Droid figure to date.  If you do get the figure in a decent pose, it’s striking appearance will make a compelling display piece. I don’t hate the way the Heavy Battle Droid looks.  Second, these Gaming Greats cards have all looked stunning and this is no exception.  The cards do not influence the score of the figures here, so this gets a 6 out of 10, which is on the low end of the Vintage Collection grades.  It’s the only Gaming Greats figure I did not army build, and I don’t regret it for a second, but I have ordered a “collector grade” carded sample from Big Bad Toy Store.