Review of Hunter - The Bad Batch
Star Wars Sixth Scale Action Figure

Introduction

There's been a lot of sixth scale troopers. A lot. Companies like Sideshow, Medicom, and of course Hot Toys, have done just about every version you can imagine - and then some - of the various Star Wars Trooper armor. So much so, that they've been running out of options...

And then Disney came to the rescue, releasing the cartoon The Bad Batch. It's the story of an elite group of clone troopers, called Clone Force 99, who each have various genetic mutations. They were able to resist Order 66, and are now fugitives who take on various mercenary gigs. It helps that the cartoon is well done, and the designs for the trooper armor - and likenesses - were a no-brainer for Hot Toys to produce.

The first to ship was Echo, who made it out by the end of 2022. The next has just started hitting - Hunter! We'll be looking at him tonight, and you can expect to pay around $250 for him, depending on the retailer.

Hot Toys already has Crosshair up for pre-order, and we can assume Tech and Wrecker aren't far behind.

Packaging - ***
The usual shoe box style design, with a nice shot of Hunter on the cover. It's all collector friendly of course, and there's plenty of plastic wrap on the figure to protect the paint work. Still, it's a pretty standard box for Hot Toys, right down to the cigar band wrapped around the cover.

Sculpting - ****
The figure comes with his helmet head on, but also includes the sculpted head of Hunter. If it didn't, it wouldn't make a lot of sense.

All the cartoon characters are loosely based on the look of Temuera Morrison, the actor who portrayed Jango Fett and was the basis for all the clones. Hunter has longer hair, particular face paint, and a head band to set him apart.

The trick for Hot Toys is to bring their very life-like style to a cartoon character. It's tricky to do, but of course the fact these are CGI animated characters, making them a bit more realistic to begin with, helps them out.

I can tell you this head sculpt is 90% of the reason why he's getting four stars here. It's fantastic, a perfect mix of the CGI of the show and the realistic style of Hot Toys. The skin texture, hair stranding, and material texture on the head band come together to create a terrific portrait. I'm really impressed with the work, much more so than I expected.

The sculpting on the armor is nice, but very standard. We've seen this sort of work for several years now, and there's nothing new or innovative with this release.  I almost deducted half a star due to the smaller helmet - it looks a bit pinheaded from certain angles - but the work on the portrait is so good, it cancelled out my concerns.  It helps that nobody is ever going to display this guy with the helmet head on.

Paint - ****
The paint work on both the portrait and the armor is simply fantastic.

Again, they had to find a way to capture the animation style, but also exhibit their production paint talent. The skin tone is great, the face paint looks fantastic, and the lips, eyebrows, and eyes are clean and perfect.

The work on the armor is excellent as well, with plenty of weathering and wear. The colors help set these apart from the very white versions, and the patterns give them a unique appearance. It's impressive, even after all these years of plenty of other Trooper variations.

Articulation - ***1/2
It's the usual underlying body, with plenty of joints and a good range of movement through most of them. The armor can be a little restrictive, particularly in the arms, but most of the joints have enough space to move.

The neck allows for good lean and tilt, but it's better with the portrait than the helmet. The shoulders, elbows, and wrists can manage most arm poses, including good two handed gun poses. The armor allows for space at the elbows and wrists, but the shoulder armor is a bit more restrictive. The torso can lean and turn a little, but not much. It's harder to break up the straight lines in the upper body because of this.

The hips, knees, and ankles can manage short to deep stances, and allow for natural, flowing poses. The stretchy body suit doesn't restrict these joints, and when you adjust the various pieces you can get deeper bends.

Accessories - ***
The big extra here is the portrait. In fact, it's really the helmet that's the extra - everyone is going to display this guy with the portrait, and perhaps have him holding the helmet. I've already talked about how great the head is in the earlier categories.

He comes wearing a set of relaxed hands, with four additional you can swap in. These are various grips, including a set of gun grips. There's also a couple extra wrist pegs, just in case, but I had no trouble swapping hands.

There's several weapons - a knife that fits in a sheath on his arm, a blaster pistol that fits in the holster on his hip, and a blaster rifle. He can use these with the various hands, but the gun grip hands were tighter than I expected, making it tricky to get the guns in place and remain there. He also has two thermal detonators, which I somehow forgot to include in the photo.

He also has a backpack, which attaches to his back tightly thanks to a magnet. This works far better than any of the early strap systems we saw with the very first troopers. It's also a hollow plastic, making it very light weight.

Finally, there's a basic display base with a crotch support rod.

Outfit - ***
The outfit looks great, and fits the underlying body perfectly. You can adjust the various pieces, and the body suit keeps everything tight. I've already complimented the excellent paint job, and pointed out the undersized nature of the helmet.

I also mentioned my only real complaint with the armor - it's nothing new. While the paint application is great and sets it apart, the sculpt and materials aren't any different in quality than what we have had for years now. One can argue they simply can't get better, but if that's the case, it makes it harder to swallow a $250 price tag.

My other complaint with the costume is the simple strap they use to hold the holster to the armor. This is glued in place, and tends to come apart over time.

Fun Factor - ***
He's poseable, and has a reasonable number of extras - you won't have any trouble finding a good pose for the display. Once you get all five of the characters, this score will actually go up, thanks to the various arrangements you'll be able to produce with the team.

Value - **
Hot Toys has raised their prices back up to the $250 - $300 range, but we aren't seeing anything new with the figures. Sadly, this particular release is an excellent example. At $250, you're getting pretty much the same quality armor that you got eight years ago for $50 less.

The saving grace here is the paint work, which does elevate this figure above the average and will make him stand out among the many others.

Things to Watch Out For -
I'm not loving the cheesy strap they use to hold the holster to the armor. These tend to come unglued over time, and are not the highest quality. Don't put a lot of pressure on it when inserting or removing the gun.

Overall - ***1/2
I thought I was all done with Troopers - then Bad Batch came out. While I'm not a huge fan of the show, I do love these designs and the characters make for excellent additions to the display. The portraits are what really set them apart too, especially with so few of the Hot Toys releases having human heads.

If you missed out on Echo, you should still be able to find him near cost, and Crosshair is currently up for pre-order. This Hunter is nice, but he's really going to shine as part of that larger group.

Score Recap (out of ****):
Packaging - ***
Sculpting - ****
Paint - ****
Articulation - ***1/2
Accessories - ***
Outfit - ***
Fun Factor - ***
Value - **
Overall - ***1/2

Where to Buy 
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Related Links -
Between Hot Toys and Sideshow, we've gotten just about every trooper you can imagine. Here's a reviews of the First Order Squad Leader, Luke in his Stormtrooper disguise, the Jedha Patrol Troopers, standard classic Stormtroopers, the Shadowtrooper, and First Order Snowtroopers.

You should also hit the Search Reviews page, in case any other applicable reviews were done after this one was published.

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