One year after the movie Top Gun changed the landscape of fighter jet films, a pilot joined BattleForce: 2000 named “Maverick”. Coincidence?
As far as pilot figures go, Maverick didn’t blow my socks off (notice a trend with these BattleForce: 2000 characters yet?). A strange flight suit with bizarre chest armor and a flat out weird flight helmet all add up to a bizarre amalgamation that doesn’t really fit the specialty. Not as detailed or realistic as Slipstream, not quite as unique or interesting as Ace, Maverick just kind of hovered in between and didn’t make much of an impact.
Heck, he didn’t stick around long enough to make much of an impact.
So what could they do with this current iteration of Maverick to improve on him? Well, turns out they did a pretty good job. The figure is tall and slender, much more streamlined than the vintage version, and while this more stylized helmet somewhat resembles Maverick’s, it looks a lot cooler (in my mind). Bulky arms and legs fill out the flight suit style quite nicely and the modern parts provide decent articulation and sculpting crammed full of excellent detail. I actually love Maverick’s build a lot more than I thought I would. Unlike the vintage figure it looks and feels much more like a flight suit, but with the addition of Matt Trakker’s armor system, still retains that technical look of the original BattleForce: 2000 pilot.
The updated parts, the updated helmet, and you have a pretty awesome new version of the character which actually makes me wish he wasn’t dead.
Accessories
Maverick comes with a great helmet (repurposed from Rise of COBRA among other places) a reproduction of his vintage submachine gun and a removable pistol that slides back into a holster on his right hip. Great accessories, all told, and unlike many of the vintage weapons, I actually don’t mind this one at all.
Maverick’s a really solid update to the original. Great flight suit build, cool accessories that compliment it, and a paint scheme that pays homage while still feeling somewhat fresh. Good job on this one.
BattleForce: 2000 Maverick
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Character
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Sculpt
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Articulation
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Paint Deco
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Accessories
Summary
Yay a removable helmet! Of course it’s not a NEW head or helmet, but we all take our small victories somewhere. In all seriousness, Maverick is a really solid update to a mostly subpar original version, with a great looking flight suit, modernized helmet, and vintage accurate color scheme. He’s not going to win any “best of” awards, but he’s a good update and the figure feels fresh.
[wpebayads]
Now see, we diverge here on Maverick. Color palette is great, but that’s it. The armor and helmet look like they don’t belong and do not sit on the figure in a way that looks natural to me or blends well. And that choker part of the armor just looks dumb.