If you are like me, you currently cannot get enough of The Bad Batch on Disney+. If you are like me some more, you also currently cannot get enough of the Black Series figures supporting The Bad Batch on Disney+. Well, lucky for us, Hasbro has a big chunk of the team currently releasing in the form of a deluxe figure: the heart and muscle of the team – Wrecker! Or Wree-kah if you cannot help but get your Omega (Omee-ga) on.
I love the dynamics of The Bad Batch. It is already becoming a great story about an unlikely family with high stakes and heart. So, when I loving refer to it as “The Dad Batch,” I mean nothing but good by it, and while she is in constant danger, young Omega is getting diverse parenting with a lot of care, and even some combat tactics thrown in for good measure. Eat your heart out, My Two Dads. Oh, and did I mention Rea Pearlman, too? The show gets top-dollar style points based on her casting alone. So, when I say I want just about everyone from this show in plastic form, you can be sure that I am serious.
Fortunately, of all of the figures announced thus far, I have been looking forward to Wrecker the most, so big time kudos to Dorkside Toys for getting him over to me at .5 past light speed. Don’t get me wrong, I love Hunter, Tech, and Echo, too – but Wrecker is like the Ben Grimm of the team, so I think that naturally appeals to me. I can also say that, even with the previous BB figures being as strong as they are, Wrecker is the best release yet, so it’s an embarrassment of riches as far as I am concerned. I know Hasbro teased Omega awhile back as a pipeline release (no actual figure photography has been shown yet), but it is going to be TORTURE waiting for her, because I need these two together ASAP.
Wrecker is a big dude, so it makes sense that he would be released as a deluxe figure (in the same way as Jar Jar and RotJ Boba Fett), so he comes on the wider card you would expect. I am going to say it again: I REALLY love this new SWB packaging with the dynamic mural artwork and saga/show specific coloring, Hasbro and the artists really handle it well. The Wrecker figure itself is appropriately big, especially when scaled against his teammates, but he also comes with his backpack, blaster, knife, and helmet, so he fills out the wider packaging well. I get that the insert backdrops in the boxes are likely purposely kept plain so the figure and accessories stand out, but I kind of wish there was some detail to it so it wasn’t so sparse where the tray isn’t occupied. Oh well.
Moving on to the important part is the figure itself, and Wrecker is a beauty in his large and scarred form. It is hard to hide your team identity when you are the muscle of the group, but he definitely puts most of the other Black Series figures on notice with his shelf presence alone. His armor and backpack match the show’s source material well, and it meshes with Hunter and Crosshair seamlessly. Wrecker’s armor also matches appropriately, and while it is subdued, there are some nice weathering details and the “Clone Force 99” motif runs throughout.
Wrecker definitely has the coolest helmet of the bunch, too, and it is rendered wonderfully here with clean masks and paint lines to bring the skull motif and Clone Force 99 logo forward. Because the portraits on this whole series are so good, it is really hard to display this group with the helmets on, but the decision for Wrecker is tougher still due to the awesomeness of that lid. I find that if you squeeze the front and back of the helmet just a bit as you put it on the figure, it helps it come down over the ears a little easier. Just something to keep in mind.
Speaking of the portrait, holy moly – you know those pictures that you can “hear” just by looking at them? Wrecker’s head sculpt is the same way, and boy is it cool. Like all of the strictly-animated characters, Wrecker has been brought forth in a “realistic” likeness. Now, this is particularly interesting for the Bad Batch as Wrecker is a riff on the animated likeness of Temuera Morrison which has been brought back to this line as a realistic take on Temuera Morrison’s likeness, so I guess he looks like, Temuera Morrison. But in a Wrecker kind of way, you know? Most of the hero clones have their own distinct traits, but the Batch deviate the most, but it is really cool to see that commonality amongst all of the clones.
Wrecker has a fuller face than his teammates and he sports the bald dome well. He certainly carries more literal scars than the others and the spiderweb shape on the left side of his head is carried over here. It is not quite as apparent as it is in the show, so I wish some paint was applied here to bring it out more. Just standing about 3 feet away looking at the shelf, it is hard to see when it should be very noticeable. His left eye is also appropriately whited out, and it is part of an expression that is completely on-point for the character. It is confident, mischievous, and just a little bit angry, so you can tell he is about to, well, wreck stuff. Hat tip to Hasbro for this, I find it to be one of the best portraits of the line thus far, despite the minimizing of the scars.
Finally, in addition to the helmet, Wrecker also includes his blaster, knife, and backpack. All of these accessories are serviceable and I like that there is some uniqueness to the blaster and backpack. In a Clone army full of the same two blasters, it is good to get something different, and the logo masking on the backpack is very crisp so it adds a nice spot of detail. The long knife is probably my favorite of the weapons, tough, Wrecker is a tank and he is not afraid to go hands on with clankers or anyone else, so having a weapon he can use in hand-to-hand combat fits him well. Or, if you are not into it, it fits perfectly into the leg sheath.
If you cannot tell, I love this figure. The Bad Batch makes for a cool group on the shelf as it is, but Wrecker as the massive centerpiece really seals the deal. Hasbro did a very nice job with this figure and even if I would like the scar to be highlighted a bit more, that is more of a nitpick rather than a weakness. The good guys at Dorkside Toys got this figure over to me double quick, so go order yours there now, you will not regret it!
