I’ve long established that the COBRA B.A.T. was pretty close to the best figure in the 25th Anniversary era. The combination of sculpted detail, articulation, vintage aesthetics and modern improvements all came together into a single package of perfection that defined what collectors should be looking for in their modern updates to vintage figures.
I loved it.
Heck, I liked it even after Hasbro re-released it three times. I liked it a little less the fourth time. The fifth time, yeah, kind of got a little “been there, done that”. The sixth time? Come on now. Then the Club gave us the Nano B.A.T. Then the Inferno B.A.T.
Now… in a boxed set that costs over $400, you expect collectors to invest their hard earned, too easily disposed of cash on more B.A.T.s? Not just more B.A.T.s but essentially TEN MORE B.A.T.s?!
Yeah, no bueno.
In fact, the whole ten B.A.T. fiasco is probably the single most reason I did not buy a Convention Set this year (you can thank noted author James Kavanaugh, Jr. for this review!) and to this day the mere idea of paying Collectors Club cash for ten figures that are essentially barely repainted versions of retail figures that were eight dollars a few years back seems pretty ridiculous.
I know, I’m an adult collector, stomping my feet and proclaiming the “unfairness” of it all. ‘You don’t like it, don’t buy it’.
Well, I didn’t like it. And I didn’t buy it. But people still wanted me to review it. 🙂
The B.A.T. Squad Leader is your basic Battle Android Trooper with red parts and a version 2 head sculpt (that probably should have been originally produced for the FSS Inferno B.A.T. a short while ago). The head looks nice and the B.A.T. is a great figure, but at the end of the day, I have around ten B.A.T.s in my collection already, (ten individual B.A.T.s, not even counting army builders) I really am struggling to find a reason to stockpile any more, especially at nearly thirty bones apiece.
I do like the shade of red here, it contrasts nicely with the black and even the bright green, but ultimately it’s just a slightly darker B.A.T. version 2. You’d think for collector money that perhaps we could have at least gotten some semblance of an Overkill or something, but no such luck.
Accessories
The B.A.T. Squad Leader comes with the same accessory layout as every other B.A.T. so far, with the addition of a spring-loaded rocket launcher. He has two hands, claw, flamethrower and laser attachments, his backpack, the glass covering for his chest panel as well as the shattered glass panel as well.
Don’t get me wrong, the B.A.T. is and has always been a great figure. Pretty much everything you could be looking for. But it gets to a point where enough is enough and expecting to pay for 10 versions of a figure we’ve already gotten 10 times at retail and elsewhere feels more than a little unreasonable.
COBRA B.A.T. Squad Leader
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
3
Summary
Good figure and decent colors, but it suffers from the nature of redundancy. Yes the updated version 2 head sculpt is appreciated, but the endless rehashing of the Battle Android Trooper is getting old, especially at collectors’ club pricing.
One good thing about this review is that you won’t have to hear me complain endlessly about the quality of the new head sculpt… because there isn’t a new head sculpt.
Knockdown comes with Kwinn’s noggin underneath a repainted General Mayhem helmet, which actually approximates the Knockdown look far better than I thought it might. Not only that, but it actually gives us a removable helmet, which is something we don’t get very often these days from the Club.
That’s about the only good thing I can say about this particular figure, however. Knockdown is, unfortunately, kind of a mess otherwise.
The Club chooses an assortment of parts that you would never think would work together, but somehow they do, at least from an aesthetic perspective in attempting to replicate Knockdown’s vintage look. Unfortunately, even if they look like Knockdown, they don’t provide much in the way of function or fun. His arms are especially painful, coming from the Pursuit of COBRA Storm Shadow (the crappy one, not any of the good ones) which limits the elbow range of motion and makes the figure a frustration to pose. Knockdown uses Techno-Viper’s legs, which are a good choice, but the combination of the short arms with the legs makes him look squat.
Techno-Viper’s vest over his torso replicates the shape and design of the vintage Knockdown as well, but the stickers on the front are a pretty poor substitute for actual textured containers there. I’d almost prefer they simply left off that deco entirely rather than trying to replicate something three dimensional with decals. It doesn’t work.
Accessories
Knockdown comes with the removable helmet, the huge and bizarre vintage pistol and one of the pulse rifles that came during the Rise of COBRA era. It’s a strange conglomeration of accessories that I suppose accentuates the strangeness of the overall figure as well.
I wasn’t a big fan of the vintage Knockdown, and I’m not a big fan of this modern interpretation either. The parts combination is strange, the decals on the torso armor make little sense, and he just leaves me pretty cold altogether.
BattleForce: 2000 Knockdown
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
2.1
Summary
While I really like the use of Kwinn’s head sculpt here and the 30th Anniversary Techno Viper legs, most everything else on this figure is a swing and a miss. While accurate to the vintage look, the color and texture combinations do not work, the arms’ reduced articulation impacts the poseability of the figure, and his weapons are really nothing to write home about. Not a whole lot to be excited about here.
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
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
3.5
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.
As the lone survivor from BattleForce: 2000’s ill-fated mission to Trucial Abysma, Dodger has gained somewhat mythical status in G.I. Joe lore. He became an active character in my dio-stories for that reason and when Bench Press comics was poised to reinvigorate the G.I. Joe comic license, Larry Hama’s team featured Dodger front and center. For that reason, he’s generally the central focal point of most everyone’s BattleForce: 2000 memories, myself included.
This current iteration of Dodger does a pretty good job of updating him for modern day action. While not excellent, the new head sculpt does the job it’s meant to do (though without the microphone, grumble, grumble) and looks a lot better than Avalanche and Blocker. Dodger uses some great modern parts with excellent articulation (I will always love those arms) that retain some of the vintage aesthetic, yet also look nicely modernized.
Dodger has a great muted paint scheme, evocative of his vintage look with well orchestrated camouflage patterns on his legs and a great combination of gray and green to mimic his vintage look. I love that they gave him the brown tank top underneath the armor as well, and all told, this is a pretty great modern interpretation of the BattleForce: 2000 field commander. I still wish they were able to give him his microphone and dangit where are all of my removable helmets?!?
Accessories
Dodger comes with his familiar crazy two-handled rocket launcher (with spiked knuckles, naturally) as well as a great shotgun. As far as BattleForce: 2000 weapons go, Dodger’s might be the one I hate the least, and I’m a big fan of the shotgun (and love the fact that they included the shells on his wrist). Like the other members of the convention set, he doesn’t come with a lot of gear, but what he comes with makes sense.
The Club did Dodger right. Well, about as right as we can expect these days with non-removable helmets and no microphones, I suppose. Those additional details would have put this figure over the top, but as it stands, it’s a pretty decent addition to the ever-growing army of modern era characters.
BattleForce: 2000 Dodger
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
4.1
Summary
Great paint, a decent new head sculpt and good figure build combines to give us a really nice update to Dodger, the BattleForce: 2000 team leader. While not perfect, he’s pretty good and is up there with Blaster among my favorites in this boxed set.
Two years in a row that I’ve been unable to attend JoeCon and I’m starting to question what my life has become… even though I missed hanging out with some of my best friends in the world down in Orlando, Florida, the immortal James Kavanaugh, Jr. has stepped up in a huge way and assisted me with product so I could still get this review done and out to folks. I can’t thank him enough for his help and support, and to show him some love, check out his G.I. Joe guides at RAHCGuide.com.
So… BattleForce:2000. I’ll be honest, even in the vintage era the BattleForce:2000 concept never really grabbed me. In general I love the idea of the near future soldier, and it was some of those elements that really drew me into the 1990’s era of G.I. Joe, but the execution of BattleForce:2000 back in 1987 didn’t really appeal to me. I loved Dodger and Blocker was a fun figure, but many of the rest were just too far out there from a design perspective and ended up feeling a little chunky and not as fun.
That being said, you can’t argue with their importance in G.I. Joe lore, and they represent a chunk of characters from 1987 – 89 that fans have been asking for.
The Collectors Club brings us BattleForce:2000 but also works in some new renditions of the COBRA Battle Android Troopers to flesh out the set, an idea that was met with mixed reviews (myself included). Hasbro has been relatively relentless releasing B.A.T.’s ever since their first retail release in 2008, it’s difficult to see a need for yet another edition of the COBRA android, even with a head more resembling the v2 version from 1991. Not just the idea of the B.A.T. itself, but the huge amount of troopers in the box set generated some questions and concerns among the community, especially when you think about the cost of the set and the perceived collectible value of the figures within.
So with a concept that I’m not wild with against a squad of COBRA’s that don’t bring a whole lot of new things to the table…what would my reaction be once I got these in hand?
Let’s say I didn’t really have high hopes, but let’s dig into the set itself and see how it all shaped out.
