The beautiful gentlemen behind the Full Force podcast have graced us with their dulcet tones for another thrilling episode! They take a look back at the latest G.I. Joe news and spend some time with Derryl DePriest himself discussing Micronauts and a debrief on the first inaugural HasCon.
This is a FOUR HOUR marathon that you simply must listen to to believe. Great stuff from The Full Force. Check out the show notes on their Facebook page, or hit up the show itself on their Podbean Page (also embedded below).
I’ve covered the BattleForce: 2000 parts of the Convention Set review, and now it’s time to take a look at the bad guys!
The COBRA B.A.T.s have been a mainstay at retail ever since their debut in 2008. They are fantastic figures, no doubt about that, but their prevalence impacts their desirability, and I don’t feel like there’s anything in these versions that warrants the steep Collectors Club price tag.
Check out the reviews below or on the G.I. Joe Collectors Club Review Page.
Instead of “it’s Malibu Stacy with a new hat”…it’s Malibu Stacy with a new head. It’s nine Malibu Stacies, with ten new heads, and it still doesn’t feel worth the cover price.
Believe me, I don’t want to railroad the point of the repeated uses of the B.A.T., I do wish the Collectors Club hadn’t done it, especially now with only one more opportunity for a convention set before losing the license, but it’s said and done, I suppose I should move on.
Plus I pretty much said everything I needed or wanted to say with the B.A.T. Squad Leader Review. I was kind of a dick.
Like the regular B.A.T. releases we’ve received over the years, this figure is good from an aesthetic and functional perspective, with some great accessories, fantastic sculpting and very impressive articulation. They managed to capture the essence and energy of the original Battle Android Trooper and make all the right improvements to it, offering dual replaceable limbs and maintaining the backpack storage unit (though with only room for two attachments). Later on in the line they came up with a battle damaged head sculpt and chest plate which added some fantastic variety to the figure, and the chest plate is carried forward here, though not the head, because they’ve evolved to the second generation B.A.T. head for this release.
I might have appreciated this update a bit more if the Club had taken some steps to make it feel like more of an evolution, rather than just repainting it from the neck down and slapping a v2 head on top. If you remember, the version 2 of the B.A.T. was pretty structurally different than its predecessor, more streamlined, a more rounded shape, and overall a pretty different look. Calling this B.A.T. an “upgrade” when it’s basically just a new head feels kinda hollow.
Even with the limitations on the sculpt, though, they did a good job trying to mirror the v2 paint deco at least. The black, orange, and hints of florescent green all call back to the vintage version and work surprisingly well even on this older body. That being said, though, it’s still exceptionally difficult to view this as a proper version 2 B.A.T.
Accessories
Like the Squad Leader, this B.A.T. includes a bunch of accessories. All of the same attachments you’re accustomed to (as well as the newly tooled sword that came with the Inferno B.A.T.) and the busted chest plate. He’s equipped for just about anything.
Yes the B.A.T. is a good figure. No I can’t rationalize including nine of them in this set, or the idea that simply dropping a new head on the existing body is a suitable upgrade. This one ranks high on my list of Convention Set disappointments, hopefully next year the Club can go out on a high note.
COBRA B.A.T.
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
3.4
Summary
What else can I really say? A decent base figure that I’ve already got more than enough times in my collection, with a new head sculpt that doesn’t feel especially new. The B.A.T. concept feels tiring and this update does nothing to change that.
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.
