1986 Bat

In the spring of 1986, I was looking at new figures in the toy aisle at a local Target store.  There were two other kids there.  One of them mentioned how cool the BAT was.  The other kid was in awe as he had never seen one aside from the cardback and marveled that the first kid had one.  I simply couldn't fathom this conversation.  1986 was full of awesome figures.  And, the BAT was not one of them.  In fact, I had relegated the BAT to my younger brother as I thought it was a terrible figure and awful character.  But, here were these kids, my contemporaries, loving the BAT and thunderstruck at how cool the design was.  Fast forward 13 years and I was again flabbergasted to find the huge amount of collectors who simply loved the BAT.  It was something I could not comprehend...especially as these same people wrote angry rants about "brightly colored" figures and Eco Warriors as a concept.  It made me realize that many Joe collectors can't see beyond their childhood conceptions.  (Star Wars fans proved this in 1999, too.)  And, it also showed that maybe I was a vast minority in thinking the BAT was just terrible.

Bats are a cop-out.  There is no other reason for them to exist besides being cheap, exploitative fare that the Joes could wantonly destroy in the original cartoon.  There was no death in the cartoon and BATS made for a convenient way in which war could be sanitized.  No messy human trauma needed to be dealt with.  Instead, a bunch of lame looking robots could be blown up with laser guns while a bunch of colorfully dressed super hero tropes ran around screaming a pathetic catch phrase.  As you might be able to tell, I'm not a big fan of Bats.  I was not a fan of them in 1986.  And, I remain cool to the original figure's intentions and design.  I am more accepting of the sleeker 1991 BAT sculpt.  But, I still struggle with a character who was designed simply to be cheap cannon fodder.

It is the Bat design, though, that features the most intricate look at what the figure should have been.  Originally, the Bats were designed as cyborgs.  You can see this in their humanoid form, the fact they wear clothes and, if you look closely at the card artwork, it appears their flesh elbows were among the last elements to be edited out of their final design.  Cyborgs have issues, too.  But, at least you are still fighting something that's partially human.  Mindless automatons aren't all that much fun because they do one thing.  Once you figure out their programming, they are easily defeated.  People are much more complex and act unpredictably under stress.  As such, you can develop far more complex stories around human interactions than you can around a bunch of robots walking on a battlefield.

I also struggle with collector love of the Bats while they also dismiss bright colors from the 1990's.  The Bats are bright yellow.  For some reason, though, this is forgivable.  To me, this figure's coloring is equally ostentatious to that of the 1991 Bat.  But, few will agree with that assessment.  The Bat gets a pass.  And, that freedom is entirely derived from the Bat's early release year.  Had this character debuted in 1991, no one would care about him.  And, I find it difficult to simply let blind nostalgia dictate my tastes.  You can like something because you loved it as a kid.  But, you also need to be honest in your adult assessment of that release and realize that the 1986 Bat is closer to Star Brigade than it is the Original 13.

For me, the entirety of the Bat's usefulness was summed up in one throw away sentence on their filecard.  Bats tend to burst into flames when hit from behind.  So, Bats were quickly beaten by one person getting behind them and then just shooting them in the back.  As a kid, I'd even have Sgt. Slaughter get behind them and turn them into fireballs by hitting them with his "swagger stick".  They were laughable and useless enemies.  Their inability to think made them more of a liability than an asset and their most valuable usage was to cover a Cobra retreat and slow down the Joes in their pursuit back to Cobra's hideout.

As a kid, my entire play pattern was designed around interpersonal interactions.  The Joes had to outsmart the Cobras and vice-versa.  Battles had objectives and fighting did not occur without a purpose and an end game.  Wanton destruction was rarely useful.  A bunch of unthinking robots could cause carnage.  But, that carnage was boring unless the Joes were overwhelmed and had to devise a complex solution to escape.  But, that didn't often play out.  Bats were useless in small, commando type engagements.  And, in a base attack setting, Bats just got in the way of more capable Cobra Troopers and Vipers who were better trained and more focused on the results of the battle.  A robot didn't care if it destroyed the computer banks full of the Joes' secrets.  Vipers did and realized they would pay a worse price for demolishing an objective than if they just failed to achieve it.  

Between 1983 and 1985, the Joe line took massive leaps forward in terms of design and execution each year.  Aside from swivel arm battle grip in 1983, the individual figures introduced new colors and more complex accessories to the line.  1984 went further.  The figures were bulkier, featured even more enhanced sculpting and introduced vibrant colors that surpassed even the 1983 releases.  The 1984 accessories were taken to another level as now had air masks, swords, walkie talkies, binoculars and complex builds like both Scrap Iron's table and Stormshadow's backpack.  Animal companions joined the line.  The Baroness and Spirit brought hair that was a separate piece from the head.  And, Zartan with his color changing skin gave a new feature to action figures.  1985 went further, again.  Hasbro introduced a new, balled head that allowed for greater range of movement.  The static wires and hoses that were easily broken parts of earlier weapons were replaced with generic rubber hose.  Alpine, Shipwreck and the Crimson Twins included ropes.  And, Hasbro introduced the first cloth piece attached to Dusty's head.

All of this is important because, in 1986, that innovation really stopped.  The newest offering in 1986 was that Serpentor and Dr. Mindbender included cloth capes...something Kenner had done since 1983.  While the 1986 line is strong, it didn't feature that leap forward like the prior three years had seen.  You can make a case that the BAT is the most innovative figure of the year.  While his backpack is intricate, it's a relative of what was done with Stormshadow and Snake Eyes from prior years.  The lenticular sticker was also new.  But, it wasn't something we saw often, again.  A couple of accessories featured it in 1988 and then the 1991 BAT had one.  That's about it.  The removable lower arm with interchangeable pieces is probably the most innovative change for the entire year.  It was neat and worked for a robot.  But, again, we only saw this on robot figures going forward.  (Can you imagine the frustration if every Joe released from 1986 onward had removable hands?  There'd be no complete figures in the wild today and replacement hands would be big business.)  Nothing else from 1986 really stood out, though, as something new.    

After 1986, the Joe line was stagnant for a long time.  There were individual innovations in figure and accessory design.  And, we did see changes in the amounts and quality of gear included with each figure.  But, it wasn't until spring loaded accessories debuted in 1991 that there was another fundamental shift in the line.  I'd argue that the spring loaded gear was the last innovation that moved the line forward.  As, things like weapon trees and repaints were heavily cost saving measures instead of ways to make better toys.  One key element of the Joe line is that a figure from 1985 is pretty much indistinguishable from one made in 1994.  The construction and parts were the same.  There was some improvements in individual sculpting.  But, starting in 1986, the Joe line didn't push itself to introduce anything really new.  You can effectively argue that the line was, pretty much, perfect and didn't need improvement.  And, the fact it lasted 8 more years is testament to that.

The BAT saw three uses, all of which are pretty similar.  The Hasbro release has two distinctive colors of yellow for the figure's highlights.  One is more yellow.  The other is more orange.  They seem to exist in about similar quantities.  Once Hasbro was done with the mold, it went to Brazil where Estrela released the Roboid figure.  Again, this paint job is similar to the Hasbro release.  The final use of the mold was in India where Funskool released a Bat for a short time in the mid 1990's.  This figure features very bright yellow as well as a different sticker.  Hasbro got the mold back when they recalled key pieces for the 1997 Joe releases.  However, the Bat mold had some damage and only the legs appeared again when they became the de facto parts used for 1997 and later Vipers.  The head was resculpted in 2008 and released in a Convention set.  Collectors lamented the lack of 1986 Bat repaints for many years.  Black Major released some Bats in the 2010's.  They don't exist in the same numbers as his early Cobra Troopers.  But, he did hit some of the key colors.  Red Laser released repainted 1986 Bats until 2018.  Black Major created a new Bat mold in 2022 and will be releasing a panoply of colors that are sure to sate some Bat demand.

So, BAT pricing is dumb.  It's not as dumb as it was in middle 2021 when mint and complete BATs were routinely selling for $110 or more each.  But, you'll pay $70 to $80 for a mint and complete BAT these days.  Fortunately, Black Major is revisiting the BAT in 2022 and there will be many flavors of BATs available for cheaper prices.  And, you can be sure that Hasbro isn't going to miss a chance to get a vintage style BAT out in whatever ARAH anniversary line they put together.  I hated Bats when they were $15 each.  And, I don't really care for them at 5 times that price, either.  But, I know that I am about the only collector who doesn't like them.  So, I accept that and realize that others will enjoy the character greatly.  And, despite my personal desires, I could only encourage Hasbro to release more and more BATs as the demand for well done originals will likely never be sated.