Black Series 6" Battle Droid

I just received my Black Series 6" Battle Droid in the post today.

I am not a huge fan of the prequels as most of you will know, but I am fascinated by the idea of a droid army, and there is something in the design of the battle droids which I find appealing.

This figure is part of the latest wave of the Black Series 6" figures, and No.83 in the series.

The figure comes in the familiar Black Series box with a clear plastic tray holding the figure and accessories.

With this one you get a blaster, backpack (pre fitted) and alternative aerial pack.  As this is clearly painted up as a 'soldier' and not an officer droid it is difficult to say what else might have been included.

The moulding is crisp and precise on this one and it has a good level of really nice detail shown too.

The paint on this one is very nicely done, with some quite subtle weathering in the form of silver paint applied to represent scratching, and darker colours for dirt and blast marks etc....  As I said this is not cheap looking or too heavily applied, and really adds to the character look of this figure.  I am a little disappointed that Hasbro did not also give this figure a pin wash, as that would have made all the lovely little details pop that little bit more, but this is something you could easily do yourself if you wanted too.

This has great articulation and the joints are firm but not stiff to aid in posing the figure and also allowing it to stand unaided well.  The articulation is, to me anyway, one of the points where this figure shines.
The shoulders rotate and flex out a little, and there is another rotating joint below the shoulder allowing the upper arm to be rotated. the elbow joint is a straight up and down pivot joint with good movement, with again a second swivel joint below the elbow.  the wrists can pivot and swivel and the hands are moulded into some nice set positions with the right one being perfect for the included blaster.  The mid torso has a forward and back pivot joint which has a little flex in it to accommodate limited side to side movement too.  The hips are ball joints with good rotation and some side to side movement, and the knees are once again pivot joints.  The ankles have a pivot joint allowing the feet to move up and down and a swivel allowing them to rotate.  
I deliberately left the head to last as it is the key to this figures 'second' look.
The head has a pivot joint where it meets the neck, with a good range of up and down movement.  The bottom of the neck has a second pivot joint and also swivels.  Here is the neat bit though, the bottom joint also extends out of the body so the droid can be placed in its foetal like 'delivery mode'.  
I think Hasbro have done a really great job on the articulation of this droid and especially to allow the delivery mode to be done as well.

The accessories are nicely done too, with a really nicely painted/weathered blaster, and a backpack which has extendable/retractable aerials.  The figure comes with the backpack pre fitted, and the blaster can also be clipped to the side of this pack.  A second set of aerials is also included for when the figure does not have the backpack in place.  I think once again this is a nice touch as it would have been far easier for Hasbro to just mould the backpack into the figure and leave it at that.

So, if you are into the prequels then this is probably a must have, or if like me you like the battle droids it is too I suppose, but this would make a nice addition to any Star Wars collection I would think, and is in my opinion a very nice and functional figure.  
It is perhaps one for the army builders amongst us too, although if that is your goal I would get what you want of these quickly as I can't see them staying on shelves for long.

So I hope you found this brief review interesting and helpful, and the only thing really left to say is "Roger Roger" (sorry I couldn't resist)



















Paul

Nice review, Paul. That delivery mode is really neat. Thanks for sharing.

Stryker2011 wrote:Nice review, Paul. That delivery mode is really neat. Thanks for sharing.

Yeah its really cool that they made it to do that. I don't know if 'delivery mode' is the correct term or not, but it is what made sense to me.

Glad you like it

Paul

Great review! Thanks for drawing my attention to these — I don’t really keep up with Black Series releases, so I hadn’t even realised these were available. You are absolutely right they are a must have , and would go perfectly with my Figuarts Geonosis Anakin and Padme, along with any potential 1/12 Clone Wars customs I might do at some point. Will try to get ahold of some!

I thought these might interest you Skywalkersaga.
I believe these and the Mimban Han figures in the latest wave have 2 figures in each crate, where the rest of the wave is one per crate, so there should be more of these about. But I don’t think they will stay available for long so best get what you want now. This one came from Star Action Figures on pre order.

Thanks for the heads up — will keep an eye out for them!

Thanks for the review, Paul. They do seem pretty neat, and I'm always impressed how well action figures can convey robotic characters (although it would make sense that they do). Like you, I'm not much of a Prequel guy, but I used to own one of the Medicom RAH battle droids, but gave it away as a present to a friend when I moved. That was also a very nicely done figure, but the only reason I had it was because it was bundled in an eBay deal with something I really wanted.

I wonder if a 1/6 version of one of these, with a black paint job, would fit in the Jabba diorama...

If it's specifically for modd'ing, sometimes you can find the older Hasbro 12" battle droids from TPM era floating around for pretty cheap. The paint jobs on those aren't amazing, but if you were repainting them anyway, they might work. : )

skywalkersaga wrote:Great review! Thanks for drawing my attention to these — I don’t really keep up with Black Series releases, so I hadn’t even realised these were available. You are absolutely right they are a must have , and would go perfectly with my Figuarts Geonosis Anakin and Padme, along with any potential 1/12 Clone Wars customs I might do at some point. Will try to get ahold of some!

Seriously, if you got the funds, I'd recommend you get the Figuarts Battle Droid Geonosis version. Very well articulated (but read the instructions on the articulation as it is a little delicate to handle but that's due to the design of the droid itself). You can go close to movie accurate delivery mode (hands can actually grab its legs in this mode and again, instructions on how to do it). I love it and wish I got the regular droid version at the time as well. You also get a bonus C3PO head to put on top of the battle droid for more added hilarity (if you are into this and want to recreate a movie scene).

doodlehobby wrote:
Seriously, if you got the funds, I'd recommend you get the Figuarts Battle Droid Geonosis version. Very well articulated (but read the instructions on the articulation as it is a little delicate to handle but that's due to the design of the droid itself). You can go close to movie accurate delivery mode (hands can actually grab its legs in this mode and again, instructions on how to do it). I love it and wish I got the regular droid version at the time as well. You also get a bonus C3PO head to put on top of the battle droid for more added hilarity (if you are into this and want to recreate a movie scene).

Thanks for the rec! Those Figuarts ones do look very nice. Perhaps at some point I could get a Figuarts battle droid and then 'pad it out' with a couple of the Black Series.

GubernatorFan wrote:Thanks for the review, Paul. They do seem pretty neat, and I'm always impressed how well action figures can convey robotic characters (although it would make sense that they do). Like you, I'm not much of a Prequel guy, but I used to own one of the Medicom RAH battle droids, but gave it away as a present to a friend when I moved. That was also a very nicely done figure, but the only reason I had it was because it was bundled in an eBay deal with something I really wanted.

Thanks mate,

That medicom sounds good.  I have been looking at the old SideShow 2 packs and may try and find a set at a reasonable price at some point.  I just don't know where they would fit in with my collection though really as I don't have any other prequel 1/6 scale figures, and probably wouldn't add others at this point.

EDIT:  OOPS!!   I just realised this is completely untrue   I of course have Zam Wesell from the prequels in my 1/6 Bounty Hunter collection.  It appears I have lost track of what I actually have anymore  

Paul

Stryker2011 wrote:I wonder if a 1/6 version of one of these, with a black paint job, would fit in the Jabba diorama...

I can't see why one shouldn't have found its way there, and I think it would look great in that sort of environment too..... or dare I say in the droid dungeon R2 gets sent to, where the gonk droid is being tortured etc....

Paul

scalawag wrote:

Stryker2011 wrote:I wonder if a 1/6 version of one of these, with a black paint job, would fit in the Jabba diorama...

I can't see why one shouldn't have found its way there, and I think it would look great in that sort of environment too..... or dare I say in the droid dungeon R2 gets sent to, where the gone droid is being tortured etc....

Paul

Yeah, definitely! I love seeing leftover Clone Wars-era scraps or scavenged armour/ships/droids, etc still hanging around and/or being used during the Dark Times. It's canonical, as well -- some of the refurbished Y-Wings that the Rebels use are originally from that era, for instance.

doodlehobby wrote:

skywalkersaga wrote:Great review! Thanks for drawing my attention to these — I don’t really keep up with Black Series releases, so I hadn’t even realised these were available. You are absolutely right they are a must have , and would go perfectly with my Figuarts Geonosis Anakin and Padme, along with any potential 1/12 Clone Wars customs I might do at some point. Will try to get ahold of some!

Seriously, if you got the funds, I'd recommend you get the Figuarts Battle Droid Geonosis version. Very well articulated (but read the instructions on the articulation as it is a little delicate to handle but that's due to the design of the droid itself). You can go close to movie accurate delivery mode (hands can actually grab its legs in this mode and again, instructions on how to do it). I love it and wish I got the regular droid version at the time as well. You also get a bonus C3PO head to put on top of the battle droid for more added hilarity (if you are into this and want to recreate a movie scene).

Thanks for the heads up doodlehobby.  The fig arts looks like a great figure too and well worth a punt.  

Due to my ignorance of the character really, I didn't know that the hands grab the legs in delivery mode.  Having tried it with the Black series I can confirm that it is possible to grab the lower legs with the hands on this figure also.  The articulation on this one is very robust to, and I don't feel that any of the joints will break any time soon. I think it being moulded in a slightly more pliable plastic probably helps here to.




Paul

Aww, it's adorable, I love it.

All I'd do to make these a little more to my tastes is maybe add a wash to bring out some of the detail as you'd mentioned, but aside from that I really like them.

skywalkersaga wrote:Aww, it's adorable, I love it.

All I'd do to make these a little more to my tastes is maybe add a wash to bring out some of the detail as you'd mentioned, but aside from that I really like them.  

Yeah a dark pin wash would really make all that detail pop more.

Paul

@scalawag sorry, going to highjack your thread... just going to post this as a comparison with SHF. Despite it being delicate (ie. handle it like a model than a toy), it's definitely fun to mess with.

Droid Deployment 1 by Vicki Lee, on Flickr

Droid Deployment 2 by Vicki Lee, on Flickr

Droid Deployment 3 by Vicki Lee, on Flickr

Droid Deployment 4 by Vicki Lee, on Flickr

Action Droid 1 by Vicki Lee, on Flickr

Action Droid 2 by Vicki Lee, on Flickr

Relaxing Droid by Vicki Lee, on Flickr

Only downside is it can't hold its rifle or stick to the back pack! It easily falls off just staring at it. LOL

Okay, is there a rank difference, or something, from the cream to the brick colored droids...?

Stryker2011 wrote:Okay, is there a rank difference, or something, from the cream to the brick colored droids...?

The brick colored droids are the ones stationed on Geonosis.

What are the other ones, then? I’ve managed to block most of the prequels from my memory — aside from the truly silly and horrible stuff (R2 can fly, Vader made 3PO, and The Force is an STD).

Stryker2011 wrote:What are the other ones, then? I’ve managed to block most of the prequels from my memory — aside from the truly silly and horrible stuff (R2 can fly, Vader made 3PO, and The Force is an STD).

LOL I can't recall much of the prequels either. Though I did love the battle droid design and its ridiculous AI personality. I think there were markings on droids to denote their function and rank like security droids or officers.

As far as I'm aware, like doodlehobby noted, these types of battle droids are often coloured based on the terrain they are deployed to, and in the Clone Wars animated series there are many additional colours that crop up as well. Sometimes, they also have patches of colour on them, like yellow or blue, which I believe matches whatever 'unit' they are in. On the Republic side, the Clones likewise have different coloured armour which sometimes changes depending on the terrain, as well as colours aligning with their legion or battalion. For instance, General Kenobi's 212th have orange-y yellow coloured stripes and markings on their armour, while General Skywalker's 501st have blue. The general 'Republic' troops that serve on Coruscant have red highlights on their armour, and so on.

There are SOOO many types of droids during this era and I find them all pretty fascinating! I also love how in the TCW series, Filoni made some of the tactical droids look and talk a bit like Cylons from the original Battlestar Galactica...such a delightful little reference.


And on the rest of the subject....yeah, guys, I get it: people on this forum don't like the prequels. But I don't think that fact needs to be a caveat in every single thread that happens to include something about them. I mean, my goodness, no one is going to view anyone here as 'lesser' for simply appreciating some minor aspect of the Prequels.  On my part, I always run under the assumption that the majority here don't like them -- and that's fine with me, I'm used to it. I knew it before I even joined, and thus expected it from the start. Though, from my PoV, it is not necessary to reiterate it every time even the barest mention of the PT comes up....that just becomes tiresome, not to mention alienating. :/ And believe me, I get it -- as you are all well-aware, I loathe the so-called 'sequels' with a fiery passion, and do not consider them as part of the SW canon. When I first joined the forum, I mentioned this quite a lot because I was uncertain if I was going to be running into that kind of content here or not, and wanted to make sure that I could find ways of avoiding it in order to protect myself, as I find the sequels to be not merely annoying, but also an extremely emotionally distressing subject. At this point, I feel it's enough to just mention it in my signature, in hopes that people will respect my wishes to avoid content relating to those. So far, everyone has indeed been very respectful about it, for which I am thankful. : )

My personal view is that everyone should feel free to pick and choose what parts of SW they like and what they want to view as their own personal 'canon'. I come from a fandom background, where the attitude towards how people interact with the stories they enjoy is that people should 'ship and let ship', or in this case, 'fan and let fan'.

Now, as is pretty obvious, I happen to love the Prequels. No... ADORE them. And especially the Clone Wars side of it. The Twilight of the Republic era is incredibly beautiful and moving to me, and is intrinsic to my entire understanding and appreciation of the SW verse. So much so, I feel quite strongly that the saga is incomplete without that half of the story. But I'm happy to leave those thoughts to myself, and to my fandom blog -- I'm not going to engage about the specific merits of the Prequels and that whole era here, as I do not wish to overshadow the point of scalawag's thread, which is to appreciate this particular aspect of it, at the very least. : )

skywalkersaga wrote:As far as I'm aware, like doodlehobby noted, these types of battle droids are often coloured based on the terrain they are deployed to, and in the Clone Wars animated series there are many additional colours that crop up as well. Sometimes, they also have patches of colour on them, like yellow or blue, which I believe matches whatever 'unit' they are in. On the Republic side, the Clones likewise have different coloured armour which sometimes changes depending on the terrain, as well as colours aligning with their legion or battalion. For instance, General Kenobi's 212th have orange-y yellow coloured stripes and markings on their armour, while General Skywalker's 501st have blue. The general 'Republic' troops that serve on Coruscant have red highlights on their armour, and so on.

There are SOOO many types of droids during this era and I find them all pretty fascinating! I also love how in the TCW series, Filoni made some of the tactical droids look and talk a bit like Cylons from the original Battlestar Galactica...such a delightful little reference.


And on the rest of the subject....yeah, guys, I get it: people on this forum don't like the prequels. But I don't think that fact needs to be a caveat in every single thread that happens to include something about them. I mean, my goodness, no one is going to view anyone here as 'lesser' for simply appreciating some minor aspect of the Prequels.  On my part, I always run under the assumption that everyone here doesn't like them -- and that's fine with me, I'm used to it. I knew it before I even joined, and thus expected it from the start. Though, from my PoV, it is not necessary to reiterate it every time even the barest mention of the PT comes up....that just becomes tiresome, not to mention alienating. :/ And believe me, I get it -- as you are all well-aware, I loathe the so-called 'sequels' with a fiery passion, and do not consider them as part of the SW canon. When I first joined the forum, I mentioned this quite a lot because I was uncertain if I was going to be running into that kind of content here or not, and wanted to make sure that I could find ways of avoiding it in order to protect myself, as I find the sequels to be not merely annoying, but also an extremely emotionally distressing subject. At this point, I feel it's enough to just mention it in my signature, in hopes that people will respect my wishes to avoid content relating to those. So far, everyone has indeed been very respectful about it, for which I am thankful. : )

My personal view is that everyone should feel free to pick and choose what parts of SW they like and what they want to view as their own personal 'canon'. I come from a fandom background, where the attitude towards how people interact with the stories they enjoy is that people should 'ship and let ship', or in this case, 'fan and let fan'.

Now, as is pretty obvious, I happen to love the Prequels. No... ADORE them. And especially the Clone Wars side of it. The Twilight of the Republic era is incredibly beautiful and moving to me, and is intrinsic to my entire understanding and appreciation of the SW verse. So much so, I feel quite strongly that the saga is incomplete without that half of the story. But I'm happy to leave those thoughts to myself, and to my fandom blog -- I'm not going to engage about the specific merits of the Prequels and that whole era here, as I do not wish to overshadow the point of scalawag's thread, which is to appreciate this particular aspect of it, at the very least. : )

Thanks for the info.

I never mentioned I hated it. I honestly can't recall most of it as I've only seem it once when it first came out in theaters. I'm rather impartial to it. I much prefer the novel depictions of the clone wars (cloned jedi that went insane triggering the war). Of course that isn't canon anymore. LOL.

But back on the subject of the figure, I might troop build with the SHF geonosis version if I had the additional funds These can still be found in etailers at almost the same costs as the black series.

You're right doodlehobby -- I had checked as well, and the SHF Geonosis battle droids aren't really all that much different in cost from the Black Series at the moment, which is a bit surprising, but nice to know.