Super Battle Droid - ROTS - Basic (III 4)

Manufactured by Count Dooku, the tough, deadly and durable super battle droids are used by the Separatist forces in battle. These droid armies clash with the clone troopers throughout the galaxy.

The "R2-D2 versus Super Battle Droids" scene was quite unexpected in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith, wasn’t it? Did you ever expect to see R2-D2 getting picked up by a droid bully to only then defend himself by spraying grease on them and setting them ablaze with his booster rockets? We didn’t. But we loved the scene and developed a new affection for Super Battle Droids. Admittedly, we thought they moved around a little too much like Frankenstein in Attack Of The Clones, so to see them in this capacity was not only entertaining, but also showed their vulnerabilities. Just like the Battle Droid (III 17) figure, Hasbro also reached back to the 2002 SW [S - P1] Super Battle Droid (‘02 #06) sculpt to bring us a 2005 version of the Super Battle Droid. The figure has a decent sculpt, albeit a little too short, but it also severely lacks in articulation as well. A lowly four points of articulation grace this figure so don’t expect to be able to do much with it.

A little too “colorful” in our opinion, the Super Battle Droid doesn’t seem that realistic based on the paint operations Hasbro used. We don’t recall them looking this “animated” (for lack of a better term). In an interesting move, Hasbro has also brought forward the interchangeable right cannon arm (which fires a colorfully red projectile). This feature wasn’t in any of the Star Wars films, so this is why this figure has been allotted to the Collection 1 series of action figures. The action feature works very well, but we’re just not sure how necessary it is (outside of the kids market of course). Its limited four points of articulation are very unfortunate here because in order to make the Super Battle Droid stand up (especially with the interchangeable arm), you have to pose him in weird stances to prevent him from falling to the ground. Plus, the Super Battle Droid itself is already in an action stance which gives it a lean most of the time. (It’s a very frustrating figure.)

Super Battle Droid characters can be seen throughout Revenge Of The Sith. Besides the popular scene with R2-D2 on General Grievous’ Invisible Hand, you can see them on Kashyyyk and Utapau as well (and we’re sure many other planets in Episode III). If you’re into having your figures interact with one another, you may want to dig out your R2-D2 (III 7) figure. That R2-D2 figure is the “attack” version of R2-D2 and it even comes with Super Battle Droid parts thus showing that the figure was also inspired by the scene on the Invisible Hand too. Besides, the figure have enough action features between them to keep kids and collectors busy for ours. Even if aesthetics are out of the window here, there is plenty of genuine play value which helps to make up the loss of accuracy and authenticity. Super Battle Droid will bring you nothing you. You’ve seen this figure before time and again. So it’s time to receive an all-new sculpt because this one doesn’t cut it anymore. (Editor’s Note: Hasbro updated the Episode III Super Battle Droid in the 30 (77-07) line as 2007’s TAC Super Battle Droid (30 08) figure.)