I don't much care for BATs. I didn't like them when I was a kid. And, the idea of robots hasn't really developed any additional appeal to me now that I'm an adult. I like the 1991 BAT figure...
I don't much care for BATs. I didn't like them when I was a kid. And, the idea of robots hasn't really developed any additional appeal to me now that I'm an adult. I like the 1991 BAT figure because the colors are great. (The fact that no one has yet painted the 1986 BAT mold in 1991 colors seems like a hugely missed opportunity.) But, I've never been overly fond of the 1986 BAT's design. It's not bad, per se. I just don't get the hype. Even as a kid, I thought the figure was wildly overrated by other kids. I just didn't see the appeal.
One of the upsides of being a rational person is that you can realize that something, while not for you, personally, can be something that most other people like. And, with that knowledge, you can learn to take advantage of opportunities when they arise, even if they aren't something in which you'd normally partake. Such was the case with Black Major's 2022 BAT releases. He created a new mold and offered the classic 1986 sculpt in a rainbow of colors. Most were small runs, dispersed among various resellers who marked up the prices to, in some cases, as high as $35 per figure. But, the Black Major himself offered a special deal to those who pre-ordered. They had the choice of 2 BAT colors and could buy up a small army for about $9 per figure. I may not like BATs. But, you don't often get the chance to buy even factory custom figures for that price. So, I jumped at it and added a bunch of blue and red BATs to my collection.
I've always felt the BAT would lend itself to classic Cobra colors. Black Major did make some Cobra blue BAT's back in the very early 2010's. But, they were relatively hard to find and I never came across a lot of more than 1 figure where the price was right. In the late 2010's, Red Laser Army made a couple of blue and red BATs. But, their availability was problematic. One seller even pulled some shady stuff and dragged Red Laser Army's reputation through the ringer due to their terrible offering scheme of some, otherwise, cool BATs. So, there was never really any good options to pick up an army of the robots in the classic Cobra colors.
Black Major fixed that in 2022. Among the many BAT colors are this red and blue version. There are other versions that are blue, red, orange, purple, green and grey. In 2023, there are glow in the dark figures, some that look like Overkill and even niche homages like Boba Fett and Batman paint jobs. Pretty much every collector desired paint job for BATs is now available. But, for me, the staple for my collection is just the classics. So, I plunked down the money and added a small cadre of these blue and red BATs to my collection.
Once in hand, these BATs are nice. The blue is the lighter color you often find on blue factory custom figures. It's brighter than classic Cobra blue. But, it does nicely mesh with the multitude of Vipers, Alley Vipers, Night Vipers and Cobra Troopers that have been released by factory custom makers in the past few years. They will integrate with classic army builders. But, they do stand out among 1986 Vipers or 1983 Cobra Troopers. On their own, though, they make for a formidable force. And, they are a nice match for some of the 2022 and 2023 Hasbro Cobra Commander figures.
Now that I have these figures, though, I still find that my uses for BATs are limited. The idea of battlefield robots always seemed boring to me. You just turn them on and they move forward. Sure, they can mow down people who don't have the explosive firepower to stop them. But, that's fun a couple of times. After that, the human element that is essential to storytelling simply fades away. You lack the decisions that humans make which turn a carefully tuned exercise into chaos. It's in that pandemonium that the actual story occurs. Here, people become heroes and villains in an instant when a random decision they made (often out of fear or panic) turns out to be right or wrong. This can deify incompetent leaders and vilify honorable people who made the right decision for the right reasons but it still went wrong for them.
This is why I've always found robots like the BAT to be so mundane. You can't really tell stories about them unless they become sentient. And, in that case, the robot is then a human: at least from the storyteller's perspective. The Battle Droids threatened to suck the soul out of Star Wars. But, the Clone Wars humanized the Clone Troopers and elicited great stories by exploiting the personality and humanity of the Clones. Turns out, they were a lot more interesting than simple robots. Fortunately, vintage Joe story tellers didn't rely on BATs too often. And, in cases where they did, the BATs were a faceless foil to showcase the heroism and bravery of people: not celebrate the mindless automation of poorly conceived robots.
But, I'm drastically in the minority on that point. Most collectors love the BAT and there's an argument that he's the most popular vintage Cobra army builder. People build massive armies of the figure. Even if it's just to stand them in 2001-esque rows on some dusty metal shelf in their basement. But, that's OK. I like a lot of offbeat and obscure figures. Others love the classics. There's no wrong way to enjoy a hobby that has well over 2000 different figures to chase down when you include international releases and factory customs in the count.
These BATs have the standard complement of accessories that were included with the 1986 figure. There is the backpack and 4 arm attachments: hand, laser, flamethrower and claw. The hand is red while the remaining accessories are all silver. In addition to this standard fare, though, the figure also includes two additional accessories. The first is a remade 1992 Eel weapon. It doesn't make much sense with the BAT. But, as an avid fan of the 1993 Eel, I have given the extra silver weapons from these BATs to my burgeoning 1993 Eel army. The figure also includes a blue gatling cannon. While the weapon is large, it is exactly the type of thing that robots could carry into battle as the size, weight and sheer force of the weapon would be less of an issue to a non-human. I'm not, usually, a fan of the robot with stupidly big gun trope. But, the gatling is in scale with the BATs. And, the figure's claw can easily grip the weapon to make for fun posing.
The figure quality on these guys is pretty good. The joints are tight and the paint masks are crisp. The figures have replaced the glued on lenticular with a painted Cobra logo. The lack of sticker does take something away from the figures. But, it's also one less thing that can go wrong. The handle on the silver spear gun is a bit large...likely just a function of it's later introduction date. But, the figure can still hold it. The thumbs are more solid than Hasbro's post-vintage offerings. They are, though, still more pliable and less prone to breakage than vintage thumbs. And, the figure has an added paint detail on the head that is the robotic Cobra logo.
The blue and red BATs haven't really taken off in the collecting world. So many BAT flavors were produced in a short time that it was difficult for any one coloring to really break out. You do see these blue and red figures show up in Joe photography moreso than other colorings. But, the relative availability of them allowed for some people to stock up and then reduce their army. As such, you can still find these figures in the $15 to $18 range. If you're patient, you can even still find deals on multiples that will drop the price per figure below that range. This is good, though. I'm not sure that $40 aftermarket factory customs are really a good thing for the hobby. And, as our numbers shrink and the desire to army build anything and everything has subsided, figures like this BAT remaining affordable is a decent byproduct that still allows newer collectors to enter the hobby without breaking their entire budget on just a couple of cool figures.
