Photo Real Update:  Chris - 2/5/2021 07:05 AM

First of all, is this even Photo Real?  I have no idea, but I’m calling it that to be on the safe side.  Please don’t yell at me.  It’s Photo Real-like in that the eyes of the Battle Droid are almost an optical illusion.  When starting at them from a distance, they give the appearance of fully painted eyes, but when zoomed in, you can see that the paint is basically an outline around the recess of the eyes.  This sort of trickery is the calling card of Photo Real which I’ve often said represent something from the Pointillism school of art.  If you don’t know what that is, watch Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, absorb its message, and get back to me.

This figure is part of a four figure “Fan Channel” wave of re-releases.  Most of those re-releases are of dubious merit.  This Battle Droid is the only one that has some validity as an army builder.  It was first released in 2012 in an infamous onslaught of The Phantom Menace product which was likely the reason that the first run of The Vintage Collection came to an end.  The most noticeable difference between this release and its predecessor is that the color of the head actually matches the body.  The 2012 release looked like it had a head transplant.  Unfortunately, this release is overdone with silver paint applications on the head which give it a jarring sheen.  One step forward.  One step back.

I wasn’t a fan of the base figure as you can see from my original review below, and I’m still not a fan.  If you’re wondering why I have so many of a figure that I don’t particularly like, it’s because several of them hit clearance at my local Target.  I’m not made of stone.

Editor’s Note:  This review has been updated with our second look at TVC…

Original Review:  Chris - 12/25/2011 03:43 PM

Pfffffffffffffffffffffff.  Where to begin?  The battle droid mold was just updated recently in the 2009 and 2010 Geonosis Arena sets. Since then, it’s been in frequent rotation in the Saga Legends line as a two-pack no less. So there should be some compelling reason to go back to the well so soon.  The new mold got smaller.  I’m not sure if that is more or less screen accurate, but it feels like the previous mold was a tad too large.  So perhaps this is for the better.  The eyes are now sculpted into the head and not just a tampo application like the previous version.  This is a welcome addition. Unfortunately, one of my favorite features of the old mold is now gone.  The blaster rifle no longer plugs into the backpack. This is as big a disappointment as the missing holster on the Rebel Fleet Trooper.  Like its predecessor, this mold neatly folds up for MTT transportation, but with no where to store the blaster in transport.  Hmmm,  I wonder if the occasionally rumored MTT has anything to do with the sudden need for a smaller scaled battle droid.

This battle droid still can’t achieve a two handed grip on the blaster.  Now THAT would have been a hugely compelling reason to upgrade this figure so soon, and would have finally urged me to call “army build!” on a battle droid figure.  So far no mold has compelled me to get more than a few. That pattern holds.  I don’t hold Hasbro accountable for this particular limitation of the figure.  It’s LFL’s fault.  The character’s limbs are simply too thin to achieve the necessary points of articulation.  Additionally, I swear the on screen two handed blaster grip in the movie is a CGI cheat.  The wrist or forearm on the character seems to rotate despite no articulation point to achieve this. Back to the articulation on the actual figure, the previous mold was able to achieve better abduction at both the hips and shoulders.  Despite what I sense is inferior scaling, I like the old mold better in many ways.  Given that an Episode 1 battle droid will be released in the more economically priced Movie Heroes line this figure becomes almost a total head scratcher.  Overall, I give this figure a 6 out of 10.

Updated Review:  Chris - 8/23/2018 07:05 AM

Fans are basically reasonable.  I’ll give you a second to stop laughing.  Good?  Okay, so fans are basically….OKAY, KNOCK IT OFF.  I’M SERIOUS.  I know you think that fans make up some miserable, ultra-whiny, never-happy collective.  The reason you think that is because the complaining is the observable condition.  What does well adjusted dispassionate indifference to an unimportant subject sound like?  It’s silence.  It’s a comment not made.  It can’t be measured.  It’s actually the majority of this hobby, and I truly mean that.  The fact is “you can’t please all of the people all of the time,” so someone IS going to complain and since that is all we can observe, we think that’s all we do.  Back to the opening position, fans are basically reasonable and even though the Battle Droid mold had just been updated three years prior to this figure’s release, if there were a compelling reason to re-purchase, collectors would have gladly done so.  The most obvious reason to revisit the Battle Droid so soon is to enable the THWG (two-handed weapon grip).  That was not done for this release.  Fans complained.  We’re a whiny bunch, aren’t we?

The E-5 Blaster Rifle clips to the Battle Droid’s backpack in the movie.

Because this figure still does not facilitate a THWG, in many ways it represents a regression from previous releases.  Specifically, the E-5 blaster rifle no longer plugs into the figure’s backpack.  Since we now know that this figure’s existence was likely prompted by the release of the Multi Troop Transport (MTT) (check it out, there’s a Bantha Skull original film in that review), the omission of this feature is almost unfathomable as that is exactly how the droids were transported.  A little side note on the MTT:  it might be a case of Hasbro selectively listening.  Yes, a lot of fans asked for an MTT to be released, but there were seemingly an equal (or perhaps greater) number of fans expressing zero interest.  I think “no” votes should carry twice the weight as “yes” votes.  “No” votes are a lot less likely to change when the product is released.  “Yes” votes constantly wait for clearance.  Hasbro, please put Bantha Skull down for 10,000 no votes for both Tzizvvt and Cane Adiss.*  Nevertheless, the MTT killed the general release “big vehicle” program as hard as 2012’s TPM wave 1 killed the Vintage Collection. 

In the original review, I said this figure was perhaps better scaled.  I was wra-wra-wra-wra-wrong. According to Wookieepedia, the B1 Battle Droid stands in at 1.93 meters.  That’s roughly 6’4” to you and me, kids.  This is imminently verifiable on film as the Battle Droids are roughly eye to eye with the likewise 6’4” Liam Neeson in the Theed hangar scene.  In the 3.75” scale (1:17.87), that would equate to a figure that is 4.25” tall.  This figure is 3.875 inches tall.  The 2009 predecessor was exactly 4.25”.  It feels like this inaccurate down-scaling was done as an economy of size decision for the MTT.  The hits keep rolling. 

So that leaves the sculpted eyes as the sole upgrade remaining from the 2009 release, and that simply isn’t enough.  The previous release is probably superior to this one.  As was a common misstep during the 2012 The Phantom Menace 3D product deluge, an equal, or superior, offering to a Vintage Collection figure was contemporaneously available in the less expensive Movie Heroes line.  The MH04 Battle Droid certainly qualifies in this case.  Another HUGE upgrade for that figure over this Vintage Collection release is that it has partial ball jointed hips.  It allows the figure to strike more natural battle poses to include the semi-seated aiming crouch the Battle Droids frequently employ on film.  Because this figure cannot spread the legs apart, when posted in that semi-seated stance, it looks more like it’s engaging in a bodily function. 

Upon finally doing the maths to check the scaling of this figure, I’m tempted to lower the score to a 5, but I will keep it at 6.

Verdict: Re-Sculpt (Prioritize when the technology makes it feasible) 

I would still like a B1 Battle Droid that can perform the THWG (two-handed weapon grip).  I actually customized one to determine the feasibility and the determination was “not very.”  To facilitate the THWG, the Battle Droid would need the equivalent of a ball jointed elbow (i.e. hinge + swivel) and a swivel wrist.  The spindly design simply doesn’t accommodate this.  The post that would enable those joints wold be so thin that it would tend toward breakage.  I don’t know what the following technical terms mean, but I’m going to use them anyway.  Perhaps as injection molding and co-molding technologies advance, this will become possible.  An obvious alternative is a swappable left arm that is pre-posed to grip the barrel of the E-5 Blaster.  Most of that definitive figure is already here.  It’s mostly the 2009 figure with this 2012 head and a new left arm. 

Verdict Guide:
Re-sculpt = The figure is not definitive, and a new version should be developed.
Re-issue = This version is definitive (or close enough), and shows sufficient secondary market demand to warrant a straight repack.
No Action = This release does not require new attention.