RED STRIPE CYLON

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (DST)

“After siding with the Cylon Rebels and joining the Colonial Fleet, these newly-liberated and independent Cylon Centurions were a crucial weapon against Cavil’s retro-era forces.  Their distinct markings earned them the nickname ‘Red Stripes.'”

Battlestar Galactica…now that’s a name I haven’t heard in quite some time…or written about, at least.  While I was pretty into the rebooted BSG when it was airing (or at the very least for the back half of its airing), I’ve written a grand total of six BSG-related reviews for this site, the last of which was almost two years ago.  My first two BSG reviews, way back in my first month running this here site, dealt with Diamond Select Toys’ line of 7-inch figures based on the property.  While two of the three figures I reviewed were Cylons, there were no proper Cyclon Centurions to be had.  I intend to fix that today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Red Stripe Cylon was released as a Toys R Us-exclusive figure in 2009.  As his bio touches on, this particular Centurion hails from the series finale “Daybreak,” where the “heroic” Cyclon rebels bring with them what remain of the liberated modern-style Centurions.  In order to avoid any potential confusion from Colonial forces in the heat of battle, these guys get marked with their distinct red stripes.  Which really begs the question of just where did the Colonial fleet found so much red paint?  And who took the time to paint the stripes on these guys?  Did they use their new-found independence to paint themselves, thereby showing a capacity to learn and be creative, and by extension making the whole fleet flying into the sun at the end of the show even more depressing and oh gosh I gotta get off this train of thought.  Maybe they found a special happy farm on the other side of the sun.  Yeah, that’s it.  Or perhaps someone in the fleet was just a really big fan of Jamaican beer.  Hooray beer.  But what of the figure of which this is ostensibly a review?  He stands just shy of 8 inches tall and has 27 points of articulation.  His sculpt was shared with the several other variants of this particular design, and it’s a pretty good one.  Honestly, the Cylon Centurion sculpt is really the crown jewel of this entire line.  Without a questionably-implemented likeness to hold it back, the Centurion is free to just be pretty darn accurate recreation of the design from the show.  The details are crisp and clean, and even the articulation’s not bad, and that was something DST was still struggling with at this point.  There’s still something of a learning curve to getting decent poses out of him, and he’s not the sturdiest figure I’ve ever owned, but I can definitely dig the sculpt DST turned in here.  In terms of paint, the Centurion is a slightly cleaner model than we tended to see on the show, but virtue of the Red Stripes having spent a lot of their time on the base ships prior to “Daybreak” pulling them into battle.  It further highlights the cleanness of the sculpt, and really looks sleek.  The stripe is just a solid stripe of red, but I appreciate that it actually looks like someone quickly painted it on, as it did in the show.  The Centurion is packed with two different sets of hands: one set open, one set in fists.  There aren’t as frightening to swap back and forth as I was expecting, which I count as a definite plus.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was a slow burn on getting into the modern BSG and an even slower burn on warming up to the modern version of the Cylons.  In my defense, they actively improved how the design was implemented as the show progressed, meaning that they were at the top of their game when it came time for “Daybreak.”  Additionally, I’m a sucker for the “formerly evil robot minion works with the good guys” idea, so the Red Stripe Cylons have long been one of my favorite parts of the finale.  That said, I never had much luck with the TRU-exclusive figures from this line, so I never saw this guy new.  Fortunately for me, I work at a toy store, and that nets you all sorts of things that you don’t see otherwise.  All Time got in a collection a few months ago that included every variant of the Cylon from the line, Red Stripe included, thus allowing me to finally add this guy to my collection!

As touched on above, I got this guy from my friends All Time Toys.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay Store.