Battle Droid [AOTC] - SW [TPM 3D] - Movie Heroes (MH04)

Battle droids are the perfect soldiers – programmed to fight without hesitation and deployed in vast numbers that overwhelm opponents. Individually, though, their limited cognitive ability makes them vulnerable when they go up against skilled Jedi who can outwit and outmaneuver them.

OK folks, this one really stick in our craw. What a piece a junk! It’s hard to believe we went ape crazy over this Battle Droid sculpt during the 2007 TAC Saga Legends line. Now we don’t even want to look at them anymore. How Hasbro thinks it’s even remotely fair to now singly card these at $8.99 (and higher) for one inferiorly articulated Battle Droid when they packed 2 of the super-articulated variety in 2010’s SW [SOTDS] Battle Droid 2-Pack (SL20) figure set. line is beyond our comprehension. 2007 has come and gone. It was a very fun time (we celebrated 30 years of Star Wars that year) and Hasbro released more figures than they ever did in one Star Wars collection. And while we had a blast, some of the product that got released then should never be released again. But apparently Hasbro has completely different ideas in mind. And a new price hike, make it a single basic figure instead of a two-pack and put it in ugly packaging and bam! You have the 2012 Movie Heroes Battle Droid, a figure that we’re even ashamed we bought to do this review.

The Battle Droid sculpt dates all the way to 2002 when it first appeared in the C-3PO (Droid Factory Assembly Line) Deluxe set. For about five years, this sculpt was technically the best version collectors could get for their collections, so Hasbro was actually quite wise to pump out so many variations of them when it came time for the 2007 TAC Saga Legends line. Today, the figures have overstayed their welcome and it’s literally a kick in the rear that we’re seeing this design in 2012 – and only one Battle Droid per card back. That just adds insult to injury. The Battle Droid has very poor articulation. It comes with swivel shoulders, swivel hips and a swivel neck. It can hold the included blaster pretty well, but forget about any believable or movie accurate poses. You can only extends its arm straight out when having it fire its blaster. (Boring!) And the figure still has terrible balance and you basically have to bend the figure (noticeably) to prevent it from falling to the ground. It’s maddening. We really looked for something positive here and we regret to tell you that anything good escapes us.

There will be repercussions for their decision. Whether this figure will become the worst peg-warmer of all time, or kids and novice collectors learn after the fact that much better versions of the Battle Droids action figures exist, we are all going to feel very ripped off at some point. We don’t want to accuse Hasbro of doing something this awful to the Star Wars brand intentionally, but we have to point out that the fruits of their labor are proving otherwise. Again, there was no good reason at all to rerelease this version of the Battle Droid. This move is beyond being cheap. It’s utterly incomprehensible. hasbro needs to keep the best action figures they made in the line at all times. Scooping the bottom of the barrel (as we’ve called it) is so egregious. And we are starting to really get alarmed about the possible ramifications that will result from this mess the line is in at the moment. It would be indignant of us to encourage you to refuse buying most of the figures in the Movie Heroes line, but it has to do a 180 at this point. Hasbro needs to know they can’t keep producing this garbage.