Super Battle Droid - SW [TPM 3D] - Movie Heroes (MH02)

Tough, deadly and durable super battle droids are used by the Separatist forces in battle. Droid armies clash with the clone troopers throughout the galaxy. Super battle droids are fearless and tireless fighters that will keep firing upon their target until they have reduced it to smoldering ruins.

In 2005 for the Revenge Of The Sith line, Hasbro took a Star Wars “Saga” sculpt of a Super Battle Droid and made it relevant to Episode III. Now they’ve taken this updated 2005 Revenge Of The Sith figure and are heading in the opposite direction to make it specific to Episode II once again. But more interesting than this is that Hasbro passed over all of their updated sculpts of the B2 Super Battle Droid in favor of inferior ones to add to their controversial 2012 Star Wars [The Phantom Menace 3D] Movie Heroes line. Hasbro believes that kids’ action figures are toys and don’t need to be loaded with articulation. But we believe their plan is instantly backfiring because it is longtime collectors getting their offspring involved in this hobby and have already groomed them that more articulation means a better action figure (as well as a better plaything). Despite using an older figure, Hasbro has updated the paint operations a bit, although it’s very difficult to tell if they’ve successfully recreated a Super Battle Droid from the Battle of Geonosis (as the character bio and Galactic Battle Game card depict). All of the other accessories from the 2005 ROTS Super Battle Droid (III 4) figure have been carried forward with this release. So you do get some cool play features with this version. It just seems obsolete to revisit this figure once again when there are better versions available now. Why go back in time? We should be moving ahead.

The Super Battle Droid has quite a history in the Hasbro toy line. Originally starting out in life as 2002’s SW [S - P1] Super Battle Droid (‘02 #06) figure, Hasbro then took this basic figure release, retooled it a bit and released it in the Deluxe line. It is this Deluxe figure version that has been tweaked a bit further to be released as a basic figure once again in the 2005 Revenge Of The Sith lineup. So, it’s probably the most accurate to say that the 2012 SW [TPM 3D] Movie Heroes figure is a repaint of 2005’s ROTS Super Battle Droid (III 4) figure. In all honesty, the figure has a decent sculpt, albeit a little too short, but it looks pretty good. It’s important to note however that this Super Battle Droid severely lacks in articulation. It comes with a lowly four points of articulation so please don’t expect you’re going to be able to do much with it. A little too “colorful” in our opinion, the Super Battle Droid doesn’t seem to be colored after the gun metal gray that we saw in Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones. Also, we don’t recall them looking this “animated” (for lack of a better term). For extra play value, Hasbro was sure to include the interchangeable right cannon arm (which fires a colorfully red projectile). This feature wasn’t in any of the Star Wars films of course, so it’s definitely meant for the younger fans. From this perspective the Super Battle Droid may have some merit in 2012, although we still don’t think it’s worth it.

It seems odd to us to include characters from Attack Of The Clones and Revenge Of The Sith into a product line that is focusing on the release of The Phantom Menace in 3D. Those plans never materialized, but the line seems unfocused and a bit disjointed with these random additions from Episode II and Episdoe III. Would it have been better to make the first wave of Movie Heroes all based on characters from Episode I, and then filter in action figures based on the other films in subsequent waves? To us that makes the most sense. With all Movie Heroes figures you get a stand, a die and a Galactic Battle Game card that we originally saw in the Star Wars [Shadow Of The Dark Side] Saga Legends and The Clone Wars [Shadow Of The Dark Side] basic figure lines. This time however they revised the card art quite a bit to make a fresh appearance in the line. The cards look cool and they’re two-sided now. The front describes the character’s name, and the reverse side (back) has all of the point allocations for the character’s skill sets. The stand has been changed to a bronze/gold color and the die is now black with gold print. Regardless of these extras, we’ll confidently state that these pack-ins don’t make up for the 100% price increase. This is a $5 figure. There is no way around it. Hasbro should at least consider better sculpts for this line, because there are better Super Battle Droid figure begging for re-release instead.