Battle Droid (Arena Battle) [TPM] - SW [S - P1] - Basic (’02 #11)

Hasbro goofed! And it most likely isn’t even their fault. When preparations are in place for the next Star Wars film, licensees usually aren’t given the necessary assets to explain what’s happening in the movie. Sure, some crucial spoilers get often revealed, but inside information is needed to ensure they make cool toys; otherwise, important details get left by the wayside. Unfortunately, the burden to correct mistakes made in toys is usually up to the licensees to scramble and update at a later date. In Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones, the B1 Battle Droids change their color from tan to red, unless the red was a reflection of the red dirt and sunlight. Regardless, they look red. Because the Separatists had established their droid factory on Geonosis, a red desert planet, it made sense to develop a few battalions of the Separatist Droid Army to blend in with the surroundings. This critical detail did not make it to the Hasbro design team in a timely fashion, and Hasbro began assembling an all-new Battle Droid action figure for the basic figure line based on how we saw them in The Phantom Menace. So, Battle Droid (Arena Battle) is a misnomer for this figure because the tan version of the Battle Droid is from Episode I. Try as hard as you may, but you will not see any tan Battle Droids in Episode II. The very packaging of this figure is a significant glaring error. Thankfully, Hasbro had time to revise this figure before the line ended, and the red/maroon version made it out in a future assortment in early 2003.

The all-new Battle Droid (Arena Battle) sculpt is good, but you’re going to find you’re limited with posing options because of its articulation. We should qualify that assessment by saying the sculpt is far from perfection, but we appreciate that Hasbro developed and designed a Battle Droid that holds its droid blaster correctly in both hands. The collector is left with only one accurate and meaningful pose to recreate what we see in the film, but it looks great, even if for background fodder in your displays. We have to admit that we’re impressed with this figure because it looks fantastic in battle scenes, although it’s far from being super-articulated. We’re hopeful that time will allow Hasbro to continue bringing us better versions of this character in the future. Battle Droid (Arena Battle) comes with only seven points of articulation, but it looks nice displayed and has an impressive center of gravity for being such a spindly and thin Star Wars character. Hasbro spent a few extra pennies giving the Battle Droid a layered appearance. There are varying degrees of dirt and battle damage, and the slash marks from what we’re assuming are lightsaber wounds look brilliant. An extra nice feature of the sculpt is the head that includes a ball-socket joint because you get an excellent range of motion from the head, and it “locks” into place when upright and looking ahead. We have to note that we’re impressed with that nugget of detail. Hinge-jointed knees would have benefitted the Battle Droid (Arena Battle) action figure, but the legs uphold the body quite well. With a little bit of patience, you can position this action figure easily in your collection.

Surprisingly, Battle Droid (Arena Battle) comes with five accessories. These include the removable backpack, the droid blaster, the droid blaster firing effect, and two electro effects meant to recreate that this droid got blaster with fire from the Grand Army of the Republic. One effect tightly wraps around the droid’s right arm while the other tightly wraps around the droid’s left leg. What’s nice about getting both Battle Droid colors is that you have an update to the Battle Droids released in the Episode I line in 1999 and a matching “new” red/maroon Battle Droid from Episode II. Sometimes different color droids or clones are made at two different times, and it’s hard to get them to look the same in the line. Here we get the same sculpt, one on the heels of the other, in the same basic figure line, so the only difference between them is their color. And the bonus is that they’re good sculpts that should appeal to the collecting body as a whole. So take your pick. Hasbro has released Battle Droid (Arena Battle) (’02 #11) [TPM] – released first, and Battle Droid (Arena Battle) (’02 #11) [AOTC] – released second for your collecting pleasure. Both should impress you to some degree or another. With admirable articulation and fantastic sculpts, they should alleviate the need for an all-new sculpt for some time. Then again, we’re Star Wars collectors. We will probably want an all-new sculpt tomorrow.