Hasbro has tried many times since 1999 to get the Battle Droid right.  The first version from Episode I could, from a certain point of view, be considered the best.  While too stocky in build, they were made of sturdy plastic, and could stand upright a lot better some of the later iterations of the character.  Standing, of course, is the absolute bare minimum a figure must do in order to achieve a Bantha Skull score above 0.  Of note, these battle droids sported hinged elbows AND knees, as well as a ball jointed head.  Off the top of my head, I can’t recall any Star Wars figure having this quality in 1999, but I certainly could be wrong about that.  Later sculpts of the Battle Droid greatly improved on the accuracy and “slimness” of the body and limbs, and, most importantly, added hinged ankles, and even a slightly articulated ball joint at the hips and shoulders.  All of this created the accurate looking droid that we have today, but the flimsy nature of the plastic (which has plagued the character’s figures since the beginning) gives it questionable longevity, even if you get an unbent sample out of the package.  Also, no B1 Battle Droid figure has yet to have articulated wrists, which make the THWG (Two Handed Weapon Grip) nearly impossible to achieve.

So with that, we have the bulk of the review of this figure complete.  The only real thing to touch upon is the paint applications.  Inspired by the coloring from the Clone Wars microseries, these appear to be a more rusty red-brown than the bright red that were seen on the Attack of the Clones-sourced figures.  As most of you probably know, I’m color challenged.  Not full on color blind, but I just don’t see colors they way you are supposed to.  With that in mind, I always thought the red AOTC droids were ridiculous.  The on-screen versions didn’t look anything like the alarming red that Hasbro chose for the figures.  But I am clearly no expert.  These CW droids, while not like the on-screen AOTC colors, seem more realistic to me than the fire-engine red.  But whatever.  I am who I am.  These do seem to fairly accurately represent the artwork on the card.

Aside from a nicely applied dab of black paint for the eyes, there are no other markings on the figure.  The droids are completely clean, which also seem to accurately portray the simplified coloring of the animation source.  What is pretty nifty, however, is the silver details applied to both the muzzle as well as inside the perforations of the barrel hand guard. 

This is the 5th use of this sculpt (if you count the recent re-release of VC76 as one of them).  Despite the articulation shortcoming, Hasbro has been all-in on this sculpt since it debuted during the ill-fated TPM3D debacle in 2012, which almost ended our hobby.  The figure is good - but not great.  I’m not sure if we’ll ever see a perfect Battle Droid from Hasbro, but I hope they keep trying.