Guess what? I’ll be buying more.Spy Troops Wave 2 (Wave 7) - B.A.T.
I know I’m not quite alone when I say that I was a pretty big fan of the Wave 4 B.A.T. Yeah, he did sacrifice some arm articulation…yeah he was pretty out of scale compared to other figures…but it all made sense. As a robot, I could see his arm articulation not quite being the same as a human, and sacrificing that gave him a much more realistic look to his thin, metallic arms.
His dark colors contrasted with the metallic color of his “flesh” and that tripped out head and body design looked somewhat unrealistic, but served the purpose of an attack robot perfectly. He was overly thin and spindly, but again, it made sense.
Now, I consider myself a moderate army builder. I try and pick up groups of trooper figures, but I don’t find it necessary to stockpile hundreds upon hundreds of faceless COBRA legions. It just isn’t necessary to me. I can utilize a group of four-five figures in a scene for a Dio much better than trying to cram 35 Vipers into a shot. Just the way I do it. That coupled with the fact that I’m not a big fan of repaints made me somewhat hesitant to look forward to this Wave 7 B.A.T. He was going to be pretty much a Wave 4 repaint…I have a bunch of the B.A.T. packs…five Wave 4’s…even a handful of the originals. Why the heck did I need MORE robot troopers?? As such, I was pretty confident I wouldn’t find a use for these guys and would just buy one pack for the Widescope, and drop the B.A.T. 3.2 in a drawer and leave him there. So, I bought one.
Guess what? I’ll be buying more.
This figure pretty much makes the Wave 4 B.A.T. obsolete. He maintains the same basic black and silver base, but as a cool homage to the original, has a cool yellowish trim. He still has that cool-as-heck slim, robotic build, but with some more splashes of different colors, he really comes to life. He seems even more like a B.A.T. than his predecessor did. But that’s not the most important part of this crucial improvement. What really blows the Wave 4 B.A.T. out of the water is what should have been on the original to begin with…the arm attachments.
The weapons that lock onto the forearm has been the staple of the B.A.T. trooper since 1986. I’m really not sure why Hasbro didn’t follow that recipe with the Wave 4 version, but didn’t really consider it a big deal at the time. Well, now that I have this version, it is a big deal…those weapons make a big difference! That insanely long blade just looks deadly…and that flamethrower/rocket launcher type thing is huge and scary. But my favorite attachment is the little machine gun, which just fits the figure perfectly. It’s small so he can move with it, but it looks like it will pack a big punch as well. Very neat attachment, for sure! The only downside I can see to the whole figure and assortment is that he doesn’t come with a plain attachable hand…that would have been perfect. Heck, even the slightly goofy looking backpack looks pretty neat with it’s snake motif and spots for every accessory to adorn.
All in all, the Wave 7 B.A.T. only has a few small adjustments, but these small adjustments really make the figure leaps and bounds better than the previous version. Those little splashes of yellow…the new accessory compliment…they make all the difference in the world. Only problem now is that I have to hunt down some more! I’d say even if you own the Wave 4 B.A.T., pick this guy up, he’s worth it, although with more B.A.T.s coming out in Wave 7.5 and with the Toys R Us Exclusive APC we may get into some B.A.T. overkill (no pun intended) REAL soon, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed by this figure. Widescope’s pretty neat, too.
