Something Is Squeezing My Skull
Hasbro, you know I’m your biggest cheerleader, but even I have a hard time trying to pitch this one. I can forgive the strange, limp marionette bodies of the upcoming Battle Droid Pilots from the STAP Attack Battle Pack, but there is no way I can forgive the 1998 head, which is so inaccurate that it actually makes me hide the Battle Droids from that era from my own home displays. (They’re the DEAD ones, in case you’re wondering.)
Now I’m hoping that I’m wrong. It wouldn’t take much to retool a newer head and slap it onto the marionette body, but the smart money is on this being a straight re-issue (with the Confederacy of Independent Systems logo and symbol on the STAPs). I’m not that hard to please, am I? I bought the Rebo Band set at full price, despite the tiniest of changes.
I’m doing my best to get behind the retailers’ demand for more and more exclusive product, but this is about as unforgivable as whatever nastiness Paris Hilton is spreading. I thought these were going to be held back to somehow fix an obvious and odious mistake, but now I see that they’re due in Toys’R'Us stores any day.
No? Oh well, at least I tried. I guess this means I’m off the cheerleading squad for a little while, but at least I went out swinging.
Yes, a Battle Pack with two vehicles and three figures is a good deal. I’m just asking for accuracy and love for characters who are mere cannon-fodder.
May 2nd, 2008 at 7:23 am
Yeah, wow, seems a bit lame of Hasbro to do this but I’m not losing sleep over it because I’m not a big fan of these anyway..of battle droids in general, except droidekas and even then that took some time. I don’t know, without even going into a PT vs OT debate, these things just kinda suck. The design is lame, they look under-designed, like they were the skeleton for something yet to come but that got forced into production because of time constraints or bad judgement. They lack imagination, character, menace. Probably so that kids and their parents wouldn’t complain when the good guy-Jedi hacked them to pieces, rather than hacking to pieces opposing planetary sentient forces…so, lame even in intent. The regular battle droids look like a hobby horse that decided to walk upright and carry a gun that it uses ineffectually. The super versions look like they did the same thing but on steroids. And the voice/personality…okay, that doesn’t come with the figure so I won’t go there…but this set just looks like a larger accessory pack to me. These figures have always suffered from the fact that I can "see the plastic" in a sense. I don’t believe in them so they appear even more fake when made into figures. Even if the figures were more movie accurate I’m sad to say I’d still skip it because it seems like it is lacking in character and I feel like I’m paying for something that is substandard and should accompany something cooler and more important. And maybe Hasbro knows this and that’s why they didn’t go overboard in retooling etc. Anyway, that’s my two cents. And it feels good to get that off my chest lemme tell ya!
May 2nd, 2008 at 7:42 am
Don’t hold it back sinkie.
I think the idea behind the Battle Droid (from the in-universe perspective) is that they were meant to be simple, cheap, and abundant. If I read my New Essential Guide To Droids [not a paid/sponsored link] correctly, even the Super Battle Droid uses a lot of the same components as the regular version.
I actually, genuinely, truly like the toy (the STAP and even the Battle Droid). My complaint is simply that the head sculpt from 1998 was totally inaccurate, and there’s no excuse for missing this chance to fix that error. I wasn’t quiet about it when they revealed this mess at Comic Con, and I just won’t shut up about it.
Once I buy them (and I will, sadly) I will sneer at them with derision every time I look at them until they disappear into the jumble of better toys that will hide their inferior, shame-worthy heads.
May 2nd, 2008 at 7:56 am
Hehe, yeah, we’re suckers that way aren’t we, buying it even though it frustrates us on some level. It just so happens that my dislike of the design is strong enough that thankfully, beyond the few I’ve purchased in the regular figure line and already owning two of the original STAPs, I just feel I can quite easily pass on this one. But I can understand your beef. I’m wondering if there is something in the stats (if they even have stats on this) about the battle droids level of appeal that would make them go, "mneh", shrug, and release it almost "as is".
Thanks for the "logic-behind-the-design" tip, but man, I still don’t like it. I guess I get it on that level, but hum bug! I’m not sure any amount of logic is going to sway me. At least designs like the Droideka, Tri-droids and such look insect like and kind of more alien and threatening on that level. I love the tri-droid btw and half the reason I’m getting the Mygeento battlepack is for the variant…the other half being the SA Bacara of course!