B.A.T. (1986)
What could be better for an aspiring world dominator than to literally build his own army? Almost as ubiquitous a front line Cobra trooper as the famous Viper (especially in the second season Sunbow cartoon) the Battle Android Trooper still resonates with collectors. Creating an easily disposable enemy combatant, not only was a step toward answering the concerns of TV violence crusaders in the 1980s, but also gave future Joe creators a whole new direction for the expansion of Cobra’s forces.
I remember the introduction of the BAT figure as well as its cartoon beginnings. This new Android trooper was a very cool concept at the time, and part of the 1986 series of toys that really struck a chord with me. I was heavily into both the comic and cartoon and the introduction of the BAT along with my first encounter with Airtight and others in comic issue #44, was a great memory. I think I wanted every figure featured in that issue, including Dr. Brainwave–er, Mindbender. Even the first appearance of them in the Sunbow ‘toon made me sit up and take notice.
One thing I’ve always wondered is why an attempt was made to give the BAT a uniform. After all, robots don’t really need clothes, right? Well, there’s something that just feels right about putting these guys in a shirt and pants, however unnecessary they may be. It makes them more relatable. Maybe that’s what Cobra was going for as well. I imagine the rank and file might be a little spooked by hundreds of gleaming naked metal humanoids in their midst.
The figure is pure sci-fi GI Joe bliss. What could be more 80s than a lenticular chest sticker? Maybe a hologram? But i digress. The BAT combines the fanciful with the mundane, maintaining at least a bit of grounding in reality. Again, the uniform bears this out. If they had been naked silver all over, the toy wouldn’t be nearly as compelling. For an example, look at the Headhunter BAT in the 2008 convention set. All silver, very robotic, and not very exciting. I want my Battle Android Troopers to wear clothes, darnit. Give me a BAT with rolled up sleeves (or even bike shorts) any day.
Great choice there Rob. Another firm favourite of mine. I sometimes miss my ARAH collection when I see these sorts of photos and blurb but then again I’m happy I have the modern and 25th era version which returned the B.A.T.S back to their former glory after all the new sculpt experimental revisionism…If you look closely at the original card art, take a second look at the forearms on the artwork – flesh tone three quarters of the way up the forearm ending at the rolled up sleeve…Perhaps the original idea was a cyborg trooper? I wonder. For the 25th new sculpt classic style update the card art was redrawn and this feature was changed to complete ‘steel’ forearms…
I have mused recently that perhaps they should have called these troopers ‘C.A.T.S’ as in ‘COBRA ANDROID TROOPERS’…I like to think of them as highly programmed units, not the fire and forget dummies the dossier proclaimed them to be…dangerous, deadly and only to be crossed from a great, great distance…I still recall my first introduction to them in ‘Pit Fall’ in the US comic storyline which was reprinted in the pages of my weekly UK Transformers comic as a back up strip (we were WAAAAY behind the US in terms of the toys and the line).
I also liked the Brazilian name for these guys: ‘Roboid’…
As a kid, we were very poor and I used to starve myself for the lunch money for weeks. WEEKS. Just so I can save up some cash and buy GI Joes. And because of the hardship I went through, I couldn’t bring myself to thrash my figures and I would only play with my Joes on the bed or on the sofa to sort of preserve them.
And that’s where the BAT comes in. I bought mine loose from a classmate for what would be half a dollar now and he’s the one I would play on dirt, mud, sand and anywhere I couldn’t take my other Joes. I would toss him on the river and would dive in and search for it. I have such fond memories of the 86 BAT.
I ultimately lost him on one of my river tosses.
The B.A.T.S. filled a great void in the cartoon by getting blown up or dismembered in ways that would have driven the censors crazy had they been human Cobra troopers. The figure itself featured cool innovations such as removable arm attachments and the lenticular chest sticker which nowadays falls off even carded vintage figures. That particular concept probably inspired Hasbro’s later Visionaries line of futuristic armored knights.
But the great thing about these guys was how they made the Joes seem more hardcore. In addition, the first Terminator movie had been a hit a couple of years earlier, so there was that influence as well. We’ve seen the concept revisited many times since then, but the original B.A.T.S. still remain unique in their own right to this very day.
I hope to army build these guys….one day.
As much as i like the second season of the sunbow cartoon, Arise Serpentor suffers badly from the “To sell toys syndrome”. When the BATS show up they are instoppable until Sergenat Slaughter comes along.
Sometimes they werent just cannon fodder thoug. In Last hour til doomsday and Sink the Montana [one of my top 3], the BATS can function perfectly whislt either torn in half or wrent asunder.
@Scruffyronin
My parents were pretty poor. My Dad worked in a boot factory which only payed minimum and my Mother was a cleaner. Ocassionaly i would get Joes though. It always irritated me that i had richer freinds who could easily afford them but got great joy out of breaking mine. I got the V2 BAT for my 7th birthday and one of my freinds smashed him to see if he had any circutry inside.
The B.A.T. is definitely among my top ten GI.Joes. I always imagined that one of the reasons why these guys wore uniforms were because they had some flaws when it came to dirt, water or moist on the battlefield which would clog up their mechanics and make them malfunction.
Rob is spot on, as usual, when it comes to the designs and the uniform just makes sense.
Loved this guy as a kid and still love ´em. Even today among hundreds of GI.Joes the B.A.T stands out and thats pretty damn good for a figure belonging to such a huge like as GI.Joe.
The best version of BAT.
Why did they have a side-arm? Expendable trooper with a back-up weapon?
Never figured out what the other attachment was, one was a flamethrower as shown on the artwork. The other is said to be a grenade launcher, but the 25th Anni. figure has it as a laser.
It never occurred to me that the BATS wore uniforms, but for stealth operations covering up that gleaming steel would be a tactical imperative, robots or not.I wondered if their clothes were put on an assembly line, or was that some low-level M.A.R.S. employees job responsibility ? The mind boggles…A classic mold, and a terrific toy.
I loved these! Being a robot, the lenticular chest, the changeable hands (I know Trapjaw had that in the He-Man cartoon but did he have that in the toy too?), it was awesome. I loved how they were depicted on the filecard/cartoon. They had to have an obvious weakness to limit their use compared to Vipers and generic Cobra Troopers.
The B.A.T.s in my area were fairly available initially in 1986, but at some point, they started disappearing and came hard to find. Vipers disappeared far earlier though. I found the Viper contradiction interesting then- a generic that is supposed to be common is actually quite hard to find. Serpentor was like B.A.T. too, you see it, then it disappears (I think that happened sometime in the summer or late spring, before they started appearing in the cartoon). They seemed to be among the more popular 1986 figures. Trying to think if there were any others that were kinda hard to find…
If Cobra was really smart, they would’ve had some Vipers disguised as BATs (the uniforms help), act like the BATs initially, but break ranks and attack or do things BATs can’t. At a high enough ratio (more than one or two off), Joes and others wouldn’t know what to expect (because from enough encounters with the BATs, you can learn their AI and limits and how to exploit them).
Yeah, use of non-humans or robots was a means to circumvent concerns of violence, just like with lasers over bullets and the parachuting enemies from aircraft. She-Ra made use of the robotic Horde Troopers (who like to loaf around, shirky duties, and drink at bars despite having no mouth. Truly Bender before his time), Conan the Adventurer used Serpent Men who at the touch of starmetal disintegrated into green energy flowing up into a portal. Beast Machines used hordes of Vehicon drones.
@Little Boa
For what its worth, Serpentor was hard to find in my area too as kids confused him with snake eyes
And on the subject of robots, dont forget both versions of Voltron which had the Zarkon and Drool foot soldiers be refered to as “Robots”
“Our” Terminator!
My favorite feature of the BAT? The claw choke-hold!
Scroll down and you’ll see Roadblock jacked up:
http://www.3djoes.com/bats.html
Definitely one of my top 10 figures of all time. Love the colors, the arm attachments, the head mold, the hologram…. all of it!
I’m glad I got this version at a flea market for $1. I only wish it didn’t take me that long to complete him (though I also wish that the backpack I got had an intact peg for the third arm attachment).
@Little Boa: Trap Jaw’s action figure came with three different arm attachments (claw, hook, and laser gun) but no actual hand.
I never had a B.A.T. or Viper as a kid and don’t remember spotting any at the time. Beach Head was also scarce: I don’t believe ever seeing him at retail. I only found Wet-Suit and Sci-Fi once they were being discontinued in early to mid ’88. Same deal with Low-Light and Mainframe, but I think they were easier to find in general during their two-year run.
Very sci-fi, but the BAT is nostalgic for me. I remember seeing this figure in the pegs and flipping out. All the accessories, the”hologram”… it was awesome! The uniform played into the whole android angle better when you look at the flesh (?) on its elbows in the cardart. Creepy!
The card art made me and a bud wonder why there was human looking elbows.