Battle Damaged B.A.T.

By KansasBrawler

Like I talked about with my review of the 25th Anniversary Battle Damaged Snake Eyes, I’ve always been a little conflicted on my opinion of battle damaged figures. Damaged costumes are cool, but represent a very limited window for the character. However, as I discussed in the Kre-O review of it, the B.A.T. is a character that lends itself to the battle damaged look. When the Defense of Cobra Island set was revealed, I was intrigued by the concept of a battle damaged B.A.T. figure. The added pieces included raise the figure’s overall value, and it’s a really nice piece even if it’s not my go-to display version of the B.A.T.

The Battle Damaged B.A.T. figure uses almost the exact same mold as the carded released B.A.T. figure. Since it’s a battled damaged version of the standard B.A.T figure, it makes sense for them to share all their parts. If you want to get the low down on the 25th Anniversary B.A.T. figure, check out the Field Report I did on it a while back. To make this a battle damaged version of the B.A.T., Hasbro gave us two new pieces. First of all, the Battle Damaged B.A.T. has a damaged chest plate. It looks like the standard B.A.T. chest plate, but there are three bullet holes sculpted into it, along with a bunch of cracks and a few larger chunks of ballistic glass missing as well. It’s a nice effect and I really appreciate that the chest panel details on the modern B.A.T. are sculpted elements instead of a sticker because it allows for some additional detailing like this damaged chest plate. I do wish there had been a way to sculpt some damage into the B.A.T. tech details on the chest itself, but then that would mean it wouldn’t like right with the undamaged chest plate over it and would have cost Hasbro some additional tooling dollars since it would have required them to retool the chest piece. The chest plates are swappable, but honestly, I’ve never tried because, at least on mine, the fit is extremely tight and I don’t want to risk damaging anything. The Battle Damaged B.A.T. also takes advantage of the easily swappable heads that modern Joes have. The B.A.T. gets an extensively damaged head to go with its damaged chest. A significant portion of the upper left side of its face is missing, revealing the inner workings of the B.A.T.’s head and showing us one of its eyes. The faceplate is cracked extensively and there’s another large hole in its right temple. What I love about the Battle Damaged B.A.T. is that the damage shows how much of a beating the B.A.T. could take. This is definitely a B.A.T. like the one from the DDP story arc “Malfunction” that could take a heck of a beating and not one of the cartoon B.A.T.s that would blow up just as soon as you look at them. That’s my preferred style of B.A.T. and it’s nice to see one that looks like it’s taken some major damage and is still operating in the field.

Since the Battle Damaged B.A.T. is a damaged version of the B.A.T. v1, it also makes sense for the paint schemes to be fairly similar. The base of the figure is black with yellow used on the boots, belt and straps. That’s a fairly straightforward look and it’s the one the B.A.T. has had since 1986 and it’s one that still works today. The chest detailing is fairly colorful, with some blue, red, and yellow color work in there, and it’s very neatly applied. The robotic parts are silver and unlike the carded B.A.T. figure, there’s no gray wash on there. I do miss how the wash brought out the detailing, but at the same time, I thought the wash on the carded B.A.T. was just a little too liberally applied and it made the arms look more like the B.A.T.’s arms were covered in grease instead of some shadows. I like the slightly cleaner look on this B.A.T., though if I’m being honest, some grease or dirty paint work would be appropriate for a battle damaged robot. The B.A.T.’s faceplate is still silver, but the inner workings of the head are painted red. The red helps it pop a little bit, but I do think Hasbro’s paint team missed the mark by not painting the exposed eye red and maybe throwing a little silver up there as well. Unlike the carded B.A.T., there’s not nearly as much problem with the black bleeding through the yellow on my sample, which is a plus.

While the overall design and paint scheme are very similar to the other modern versions of the B.A.T. released up to this point, this version of the B.A.T. gets some radically different accessories and I think that’s a great move. The Battle Damaged B.A.T.’s primary weapon is the cartoon-inspired laser pistol that we first saw with 25th Anniversary Tomax and Xamot. It’s a nice piece and it fits well with the B.A.T., though the hand’s grip is a little loose on it. The Battle Damaged B.A.T. also gets the same pistol the carded version came with to fill its holster. I like this pistol, and I’m a little surprised we haven’t seen more often than we have. Instead of the standard B.A.T. backpack with alternate hands, the Battle Damaged B.A.T. gets a nifty artifact from their first appearance in the comics. When Dr. Mindbender (or, as they called him a couple times in the issue, Dr. Brainwave) first unveiled the B.A.T.s, he billed them as robotic delivery devices for his creeper vine spores. Instead of a backpack that carries hand attachments, those B.A.T.s had a large canister backpack that could open up and release the spores. That’s what this B.A.T. has. The backpack is well-detailed, though for my money it does open just a little too easily. I nearly lost the three creeper spores a few times during this review when I’d pick the figure up and move it around in my hands a little. The backpack can hold three purple creeper spores. They just rest inside the backpack, but I really do like them. They look like they came right off the page and that’s an asset. To round out his gear, the Battle Damaged B.A.T. also gets the vine base from the second 25th Anniversary DVD Pack Roadblock. I never thought Hasbro would be able to reuse this piece, but they found a way to that makes sense and fits with the second figure they released it with. In my mind, that’s absolutely brilliant and Hasbro should get some serious props for that decision. While it may be missing the iconic hand attachments, this B.A.T. is as close as we’ve ever gotten to a first comic appearance B.A.T. and I think that’s a pretty interesting way to handle it. We’ve never gotten a battle damaged B.A.T. figure before, but with the non-damaged parts and the backpack, we also get another figure we never had before and that’s a neat touch. It was a great call to include the non-damaged pieces with this and it really adds value to the overall Battle Damaged B.A.T. package.

The Battle Damaged B.A.T. really benefits from being a robot. While I was a bit down on Battle Damaged Snake Eyes because the damage is so limiting, I don’t really see that as a limitation here. After all, it’s not like Cobra Commander is going to spend a lot of money fixing up B.A.T.s. They’re kind of designed to be disposable. A damaged B.A.T. fit well in my collection and I’m sure as a kid, I would have loved using the Battle Damaged B.A.T. at the end of a battle. The swappable parts help make it even more worthwhile since it provides a B.A.T. for anyone that may have missed the original release. The Battle Damaged B.A.T. is an excellent figure and it’s a nice addition to not just the Defense of Cobra Island set, but my collection at large.