Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Perfecting A Hard-To-Render Digital Character Figure: The Vintage Collection Super Battle Droid Rocks!





The Good: Wonderful coloring detail, Good accessories, Wonderful articulation, Good balance
The Bad: Honestly, none.
The Basics: The Vintage Collection does all it can to fix the Super Battle Droid and here Hasbro succeeds admirably!


During my first marriage, I did not do much in the way of collecting Star Wars figures and so it took me a long time to get in an Attack Of The Clones Super Battle Droid. By the time I did, the Super Battle Droids were showing their unfortunate structural flaw, which was that their thin legs would warp and curl inward, making it impossible for the robot warriors to stand after a short time out of their package. Unfortunately for fans who want to stock up on the mass-produced soldiers in the Star Wars universe by buying multiples of the same figure, they were left with armies of worthless Super Battle Droid figures.\

Until now.

With the Star Wars Vintage Collection, the Super Battle Droid gets an overhaul and appears to have had its design faults fixed, along with the addition of more points of articulation, making it a perfect Star Wars action figure.

For those unfamiliar with the Super Battle Droid, these were the improved droids introduced in Attack Of The Clones (reviewed here!). The Super Battle Droids were mass-produced, thicker droids used by the Trade Federation and Count Dooku's forces and featured more armor and built-in weaponry that made them more formidable than the standard, weaker Battle Droids.

The 4" Super Battle Droid was completely recast from the Attack Of The Clones figure for the 2010 Vintage Collection and it is selling exceptionally well now.

Basics

The Super Battle Droid figure stands 4 1/8" tall to the top of its head. The Super Battle Droid is sculpted based entirely on the digital designs of the troops in the movie and Hasbro got the form perfectly right. From the squat head embedded in the top of the armor to the servos in the legs and arms, the Super Battle Droid looks exactly like the iconic weapon from the Prequel Trilogy.

The Super Battle Droid is colored with pretty amazing attention to detail. These gunmetal gray droids were mass-produced and featured mottled gunmetal shells, which Hasbro got just right in this iteration. The only color which the droid ought to have is the red power indicator on the left side of the robot's chest. This bit of coloring is included in this figure and the realistic sense of wear and shading enhances the sense that this Battle Droid was used in a real environment.

Accessories

The Super Battle Droid is a mass-produced robot and it does not actually need an accessory. Even so, Hasbro decided to include a blaster pistol with this one. This is a redundant accessory as his right hand features a built-in blaster node with two barrels. The near-flat blaster pistol is 7/8" long and features a round barrel with vents molded into it that look surprisingly menacing. The tiny gun is monotonal gray, has a scope and looks decent in either of the Super Battle Droid's hands.

Playability

The four inch toy line was designed for play and the Super Battle Droid is most impressive in that regard. First, the figure has decent balance. Flatfooted, Super Battle Droid is pretty solid, and because of the lower half articulation of the figure, it has decent posing options, though many outside having him flatfooted result in him falling over. Still, the holes in the bottom of his feet allow him to stand tall on any number of playsets in outlandish poses or stand in an action pose ready to slaughter Jedi on Geonosis!

The Super Battle Droid holds up exceptionally well in the articulation department, which is a surprise for a droid figure, especially that had so many problems in the prior iteration. This droid has hinged joints at the knees and elbows, as well as a ball and socket joint which allows a great range of motion for the bust. The biceps, groin socket and shoulders all have simple swivel joints that provide the figure with more than enough posing options to make the figure worthwhile!

Collectibility

The Super Battle Droid is part of the Vintage Collection line that was released late in 2010 and it is one of the harder ones to find at the moment. The Super Battle Droid is Vintage Collection figure VC37 and it easily replaces the Attack Of The Clones Super Battle Droid and given how this one does not have the structural flaws, this is the Super Battle Droid to stock up on (and get rid of the first one made by Hasbro!). This is a strong investment figure as when they are delivered, this seems to be one of the first sold out of the assortment!

Overview

The Super Battle Droid from the Vintage Collection is perfectly colored, as articulated as the digital construct and better balanced than any prior incarnation of the robot warrior. This is a perfect, mass produced army figure for the Star Wars play enthusiast!

For other Vintage Collection figures, please check out my reviews of:
VCP03 Boba Fett
VC11 (Twin Pod) Cloud Car Pilot
VC22 Admiral Ackbar
VC46 AT-RT Driver
VC48 Weequay Skiff Master
VC49 Fi-Ek Sirch

10/10

For other Star Wars toy reviews, please check out my index page by clicking here!

© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.







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