Review – Tyco Battletech Infiltrator

I’ve written about the 1994 Tyco BattleTech action figure series twice before (back in 2009, earlier this year), but this marks the first time that one of the toys has made its way to battlegrip.com as the focus of a review. I have two of the old BattleTech toys to review and thought it best to start with the smaller of the two toys; the Hunchback review will come later.

Packaging

One of the smaller toys in the series, the Infiltrator comes on a standard blister card that shows off the mech, the Adam Steiner action figure, plus Steiner’s helmet and rifle and the Infiltrator’s missile. The packaging design mimics the computer graphics of the BattleTech animated series the line supported while the back shows other toys in the line. I should track down that Thor both because it’s a great design and because Tyco used some really nasty color combos to make the toy really stand out. The packaging design is decent, earning any real interest from me at all only because it’s almost twenty years old.

Infiltrator Battle Armor

The star of the package, the Infiltrator mini mech is described as “battle armor” at the BattleTech Toy Archive. The mech stands roughly 4.5-inches tall and features swivel hips, swivel shoulders, a spring-loaded missile, and an opening cockpit. The plastic feels a little cheap and toylike, but as a toy I’ve got no complaints at all with either the articulation or the quality of the gray plastic.

For decoration the Infiltrator relies on stickers, all of which were pre-applied and ready to go when I opened the package. Due to the age of the toy the stickers are a bit worn — surprising, since the package has been sealed nearly twenty years — and the only coloring beyond the gray plastic and the applied stickers is the red of the blunt missile and the trigger. Tyco didn’t waste any cash at all on paint applications for this toy.

Overall the squat, simple design of the Infiltrator looks okay, but this is definitely one of the weaker of the Tyco BattleTech toy designs. But that isn’t too surprising since this small item was one of the lower price points in the line and when it comes to mechs everyone knows that bigger is clearly better. I had better get that Hunchback open soon so we can see if I’m right; is bigger really better?

Adam Steiner

Below you can see the Infiltrator open and Adam Steiner “seated” inside. What’s actually going on is that the mech has an open cavity where the 2.5-inch tall action figure can ride inside the larger toy. It’s a very simple cockpit design, but it’s effective and works just fine when it comes time to start playing with the toys. Tyco clearly had kids in mind when they designed this line.

Steiner has a removable helmet and gun, swivels at the neck and shoulders, and the classic t-crotch that so many toys of the eighties and early nineties were expected to have. There’s no real detail in the sculpt, paint, or overall design, but since the BattleTech toy line was all about the mechs it’s easy to forgive the company for such a simplistic action figure design.

Closing Thoughts

This isn’t a strong first look at the BattleTech line in the almost two decades since the toys were first released, but I remain optimistic that the larger — and pricier — Hunchback mech waiting to be opened will be a far superior toy. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the Infiltrator, but if this were the only one of Tyco’s BattleTech toys you were to ever see you would wonder why anyone would bother trying to collect this series.

The focus on mechs over men in the line makes the little action figure simple while the low price point of the Infiltrator makes the mech itself feel a bit cheap. But it’s a fun design, speaks to my sense of nostalgia when it comes to the entire BattleTech series, and I can admit that it’s not great but I’m glad to have it. This guy’s going right on the shelf with some other robots and mechs . . . and the Hunchback is getting opened right away.