I have very mixed feelings about the Battle Droids. From a deco standpoint they look good. But that sculpt has proven to be so flimsy that it's become a liability. But what to do?
The EPISODE I Battle Droid is cool, but it suffers from only being displayed well in a couple of poses. It makes the figure very boring and somewhat unrealistic. Still, it's very sturdy and it's held up well since it was released in 1999.
The SAGA Battle Droid was a much more dynamic, combat oriented sculpt. And I think a lot of people were looking forward to it in 2002. But then they got them and found that over time they were keeling over under their own weight with limbs bending.
So which one to choose? It seems that Hasbro thinks that the latter is better, as long they can get the plastic to be somewhat more sturdy. It still hasn't really worked out that way. I think it *MIGHT* be possible to add some more articulation to the EPISODE I sculpt, but it would be dicey. Can that sculpt support the addition of ankle joints? Or what about shoulder joints more like those on the current Super Battle Droid? Better articulated elbows would be needed too, but I don't know how Hasbro could make that work on a figure with such a skimpy frame. It really appears to be all about tradeoffs and what is physically possible on a droid that has to seriously restrict what Hasbro can do in this scale.
