Star Wars The Black Series BT-1 (BEETEE) review
BT-1 was part of Doctor Aphra’s squad assigned by Darth Vader to track down Luke Skywalker. Unlike his chatty malevolent partner 000, BT-1 typically stayed quiet until it was time to start murdering folks.
I was just starting to consider getting back into the Black Series line when the Aphra wave of figures was leaving stores. While I was able to get Aphra, I missed out on 0-0-0 and BT-1 until now. Hasbro has been doing solid work getting old figures back into rotation and I definitely appreciate getting another crack at them.
Let’s start off with BT-1 to see if he’s ready for a killer mission or if he needs to end up in the scrap heap.
Packaging: The Aphra wave was near the end of the traditional black and red packaging. It’s definitely my least favorite though it’s kinda cool to have the numbers of each figure in the series lined up in a row.
We get the greyscale image of BT-1 along with a pretty decent bio that does a great job of conveying his personality. I do wish it mentioned that he’s posing as a basic astromech but is instead an assassin droid.
Likeness: As an ‘astromech droid’ there’s not a ton to make BT-1 stand out from a sculpt-perspective. BT-1 has the bottom of other Black Series astromech droids, namely R2-D2.
The unique aspect comes from his ‘head’ section. His center eye is really cool as it’s framed by this interesting semi-hexagon with detailed wiring that gives the eye a cool sense of depth. Like it’s about to fire a pulse ray.
In addition to the usual paneling, BT-1 has a mounted cannon on his right side and mini-rocket launcher on his left side very similar to War Machine’s set up.
Paint: BT-1 is painted in a very sharp dark gun metal with some very nice metallic silver in some of the panels.
The eye has a tremendous gradient where most of it is a darker orange than narrows into a lighter orange in the center. This droid is up to no good. There are also some red hits along the base and in the center of his cannon.
MORE:
- G.I. Joe Classified Series Retro Recondo review
- McFarlane Toys Digital DC Direct Aquaman review
- Greedy People review
- Jackpot! review
Scale: BT-1 should come up to Aphra’s waist based on comic art, so he looks fine.
Articulation: BT-1 doesn’t need to be this super articulated figure. It’s basically all about rotating the head section and pivoting back and forth on the legs.
He does have the third leg that pops out for greater stability/posing. And he has panels that open up to reveal more instruments of destruction.
BT-1 has:
- head
- panels
- legs
Accessories: Droids don’t typically have a lot of accessory options, but Hasbro included some useful ones with more weapon attachments for his legs.
He’s got one side with either rockets/blasters and another panel with pinchers, which I imagine are for grabbing/shocking victims.
BT-1 won’t be lacking for firepower if he’s outnumbered.
Worth it? It’s always going to be hard for the astromech droids to justify a $25 price point. BT-1 does have some stellar paint apps and some extras to help offset the cost.
Rating: 10 out of 10
BT-1 has a nice sharp paint job, great detailing and brings a fun fan favorite comic book character into the Black Series. Hopefully Hasbro will do more figures of this quality in the future.
Where to Get It? The droids look to be limited to Hasbro’s online retail partners like Amazon and Entertainment Earth.
As an Amazon and Entertainment Earth affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.