B.A.T.- Articulation Enhancement

[fierce krypton]

(I wasn't sure if this belonged in the customs section or not, I decided not since its very simple and anybody can do it but feel free to move it if you want admins.) Well the general public asked for it now I am delivering it! According to the poll I set up just about everyone wants more articulation. Here are the simple adjustments you can make to your B.A.T. to get better articulation!

Tools: BAT figure, X-Acto knife.

I am keeping it very simple so that anyone can do these adjustments.
Also the adjustments were already made before I started taking pics so I couldnt exactly do before and after shots but if you have the figure you will see the difference.

tools:
http://img37.picoodle.com/img/img37/3/8/15/t_GIJoeBAT001m_2fc2741.jpg (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/3/8/15/f_GIJoeBAT001m_2fc2741.jpg&srv=img37)

First step, Arms. I didnt do as much to the arms as I could because I didnt have the time but once you start you will feel the difference and see exactly what is limiting the movement, choose how much you want to do.

I drew out the shape you want the arm to take, instead of just a big square coming off of a ballpoint.
http://img27.picoodle.com/img/img27/3/8/15/t_GIJoeBAT002m_7b2eb34.jpg (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/3/8/15/f_GIJoeBAT002m_7b2eb34.jpg&srv=img27)
Link to full size: Picoodle / gijoe bat Image (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/3/8/15/f_GIJoeBAT002m_7b2eb34.jpg&srv=img27)

Here is the adjustment to the right chest near the shoulder joint. I bore it out so that the arm can go nearly 90 degrees forward. I amped up the brightness in the area so you can see and made a mark as a guide for where you want to cut to get the best results.
http://img34.picoodle.com/img/img34/3/8/15/t_GIJoeBAT003m_ae961f0.jpg (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/3/8/15/f_GIJoeBAT003m_ae961f0.jpg&srv=img34)
Full Size: Picoodle / gijoe bat Image (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/3/8/15/f_GIJoeBAT003m_ae961f0.jpg&srv=img34)

Do the same basic steps to the left arm and chest.

Next up, the Neck, this will make a huge difference to the toy! First pop the head off by pushing up on the chin.
Use your Xacto to cut a sharp angle towards the bottom of the ball joint for his head. This is easy and makes a big difference. The cutting motions for this step are highlighted in red in the picture.

Now you will prob find after this that the only limiting factor to his head movement is his neck. I went ahead and shaved down the front part of his neck, this does remove most of the painted are on the front of the neck, to me this is well worth it, you decide.
http://img33.picoodle.com/img/img33/3/8/15/t_GIJoeBAT005m_e8d603a.jpg (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/3/8/15/f_GIJoeBAT005m_e8d603a.jpg&srv=img33)
Full size: Picoodle / gijoe bat Image (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/3/8/15/f_GIJoeBAT005m_e8d603a.jpg&srv=img33)

[fierce krypton]

Here is the front of the neck, the highlighted area is the part that has beencut and is missing paint, you can do more or less, just depends on how important articulation is to you and how unimportant paint is to you.
http://img32.picoodle.com/img/img32/3/8/15/t_GIJoeBAT006m_753d50b.jpg (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/3/8/15/f_GIJoeBAT006m_753d50b.jpg&srv=img32)
Full size: Picoodle / gijoe bat Image (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/3/8/15/f_GIJoeBAT006m_753d50b.jpg&srv=img32)

Last step the chest. You may have realized that his chest joint is different than most, he has a side to side slider slit in the upper part off his body that goes left to right. cool joint! i dig it! anyways for the bottom normal joint... make it so you can see the slider slit(I think you have to start with the front and push his chest up and to one side). push your xacto in and bore the slit out downward. If you are working the front part of the slider, cut straight down towards his belt if you are working on his back slider cut down towards the middle of his butt. This makes it so his chest joint can bend further forward and further back. this is a big deal to me and is why I love the o ring! As always this is a battle between cosmetics and articulation you can take this as far as you want(i dont think there is any point where it becomes impossible to bore further down)

Chest joint mod pics:
Front: http://img26.picoodle.com/img/img26/3/8/15/t_GIJoeBAT014m_8a9d0c3.jpg (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/3/8/15/f_GIJoeBAT014m_8a9d0c3.jpg&srv=img26)

Full size of front: Picoodle / gijoe bat Image (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/3/8/15/f_GIJoeBAT014m_8a9d0c3.jpg&srv=img26)

Picoodle / gijoe bat Image (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/3/8/15/f_GIJoeBAT009m_80acffc.jpg&srv=img33)

Back:
Here is the back slider joint:http://img32.picoodle.com/img/img32/3/8/15/t_GIJoeBAT013m_83a9a6d.jpg (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/3/8/15/f_GIJoeBAT013m_83a9a6d.jpg&srv=img32)

http://img28.picoodle.com/img/img28/3/8/15/t_GIJoeBAT007m_47a9e96.jpg (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/3/8/15/f_GIJoeBAT007m_47a9e96.jpg&srv=img28)

Full size:Picoodle / gijoe bat Image (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/3/8/15/f_GIJoeBAT013m_83a9a6d.jpg&srv=img32)

Picoodle / gijoe bat Image (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/3/8/15/f_GIJoeBAT007m_47a9e96.jpg&srv=img28)

[fierce krypton]

Now for the end result pictures!
http://img29.picoodle.com/img/img29/3/8/15/f_GIJoeBAT010m_bd73882.jpg (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/3/8/15/f_GIJoeBAT010m_bd73882.jpg&srv=img29)

http://img34.picoodle.com/img/img34/3/8/15/f_GIJoeBAT011m_0d69b5d.jpg (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/3/8/15/f_GIJoeBAT011m_0d69b5d.jpg&srv=img34)


Hope this helped yall out some! If you have done similar basic articulation adjustments I encourage you to do something similar to what I have done so people can benefit from it! I hope you all enjoyed this walk through, please comment. I would love to know what you all thought of this post.

[spacemonkeymafia]

Good job but to be honest Im still lost on what you did......what was wrong with him in the first place....

[fierce krypton]

haha this is for the articulation buffs, the people who want more neck movement, to be able to shoot straight in front of him, and get kicked in the chest.

[spacemonkeymafia]

Ahhhhh I got you.........cool I might try this on another fig so thanks....

[sgt.bludhound]

hope i could get one soon...............

I see what your saying...thanks for the tutorial

[gen1fan]

I have about 10 bats, all loose now, NOT one has the same paint detail on them. hasbro was in rush to get them out that they have bad detail paint jobs on the attechments pieces or were robot parts show on the firgure. I got a few that never got any silver paint on the boats at all. I bought some silver paint and a very fine paint brush to give my bats a better detail job, and I have made a custom backpack for my BAT that have 3 pegs so I can Have all 3 attachments in the backpack. Pic to be up soon. But I have some other project going on as well.

[fierce krypton]

Nice work gen1fan, like I said this wasnt intended to be some hardcore mod instructions, I am just hoping to help people make some quick easy adjustments that make the toy better.... I am also hoping people will start releasing stuff like this for other joes because I think it will let hasbro know what we expect.

[Hannibal]

I keep eyeballing those chinese B.A.T.s wondering how I can make a load of belts, :)

but the head articulation, I like that.

[olocden]

Man very cool of ya to share this, makes the figure 100% better.

[Gung.Heaux]

dance you disco duck, dance!

[fierce krypton]

thank you very much olocden I appreciate that comment very much and I totally agree! I just cant deal with toys that cant bend exactly how I want. I really need to get around to my serpent modifications but I havent had time.