Battle Trolls Month: Series 3 Quick Draw Troll review (1993)

I was never much into role-playing with guns or gun-related games like Cowboys & Indians, or Army  Men, anything like that was not my bag really. Once I hit 12-13 though I guess my testosterone started to flow and when Nerf blasters began to hit retail, I was all ready to load up. That being said, Westerns and cowboys were never things I recall being 'into', my Dad loves them and I've watched and appreciate the genre more in the last 10 years then I have my entire life. So when I saw there was a Cowboy Battle Troll on eBay, I reckoned I done had to pick 'em up. Pilgrim. *cough* Okay, anyways...

Quick Draw Troll here is apart of the rarer (but not so rare they should cost you upwards of $25 a piece, some people just get high-price happy) Battle Trolls Series 3 and Hasbro definitely saved a lot of the better sculpts and concepts for last.

Contents! What do you get??
The standard fare with all Battle Trolls is 2 weapons: 1 is typically an 'action weapon' with a finger-flick operated projectile launcher of some kind, usually one that fits the theme of the troll in question. The second one is a solid PVC accessory either in the form of a melee or ranged weapon.

"So what'll it be? Death by rattle snake...or death by bullet?"

There are a few exceptions to this rule, but today's review sample is not one of them. Quick Draw comes with a solid orange 6-shooter that fits in his right hand and a big ol' honkin' shot-gun that shoots....two rattle snakes tied together with rope.

I'm not kidding.

Bright orange so people know when to duck!

Talk about shooting with live ammunition...

Top view of 'Side-Winders'

Bottom View of 'Side-Winders'

He has got some great accessories, and a double-barreled rattle-snake shotgun has got to be by far the coolest weapon a cow boy could own. It's crazy how you can't even tell that's what this weapon shoots from seeing MOC pictures of it. I easily thought it just fired 2 yellow projectiles, but rattle snakes??? I'm sorry, that's just epicness right there...

Okay cool, tell us about 'em!

Quick Draw Troll (Front)

Quick Draw Troll hits all the stereotypical cow-boy bench marks: the boots, the chaps, 6-shooter strapped to his hip, bandolier of bullets, cow-boy hat, etc... He has brown gloves and his right hand is sculpted with his trigger finger out so he can ease it on the trigger of his 6-shooter and holds it pretty well. It has a tendency to pop out if you bump it into anything, but that's a flaw in the sculpting of the handle as it's flat instead of rounded. His 'Side-Winder Shotgun' (and this is how I will refer to it from now on) is big, imposing and fits well in his left hand, although due to the size he has a hard time aiming it....and this brings us to the bad points about this figure.

Quick Draw Troll (Rear View)

Quick Draw Troll (Left Side)

By this point you will all know that Battle Trolls feature only one point of articulation: their waist. Most times the positioning of their arms and the angle of the waist cut complement one another allowing you to turn the waist and this angles the arm up just enough so your figure can actually aim it's weapon at a target. Unfortunately that is not the case on Quick Draw Troll. Either by accident or design, his arms are sculpted downwards in a sort of 'getting ready to draw his 6-shooter' stance, and that's fine...if you could move his arms up and down. Clever camera angles make it seem like he can hold it well, but if you see how he moves in the video below, you'll see what I mean.

It's such a shame as this is really a fun, nicely sculpted figure with a ton of detail in it; he has a scorpion on his left foot, a rattle snake wrapped around his hat and a cow skull on his belt. Not to mention a scar and a stitched up scar on his right and left cheeks. His white hair compliments his color pallet better then the prototype yellow we saw on his card back and in the Battle Trolls Series 3 commercial, so his look is fine it's just those damn arms....arghhh so annoying.

Quick Draw Troll (Waist Turned to the Left...and it still doesn't help..*sigh*)

Like all Battle Trolls, Quick Draw Troll also has a bio card on the back of his packaging so you his new owner can learn everything about him...or everything the writer could fit within the yellow box he was given to use. No pressure there, just surmise everything about this character to within the confines of a stick of gum.

I made sure to take a very clear shot of the card back so incase any of you at home are missing his bio card, you can save this for your own use.

(Clip & Collect!)

Should I try to get this brand new?:
As most Series 3 Battle Trolls are tricky to get ahold of complete unless they are MOC (Mint on Card) I would advise getting him carded. Granted his weapons are not very tiny, but the dual rattle-snake ammo for his Side-Winder Shotgun could easily get lost by a 5 year old kid back in 1993, and if you want a complete figure you may need to pony up the dough for a sealed sample. I paid $12.99 for mine and as they originally retailed for about $5.99 23 years ago, that is not a bad mark-up.

Remember: a toy is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it. I see sellers all the time list items for exorbitantly high prices, prices no one would ever pay and as there simply are no collectors of that particular item or line who would or could afford those prices, the sellers rarely sell the items. There were a total of 3 mainstream Troll-themed toy lines in the 1990's, and as Battle Trolls is more widely known due to being produced by Hasbro, I think they garner more attention. A carded Battle Troll should run you between $15-and-$25 depending on rarity and the seller, any more then that is a little ludicrous.

So what do you really think about it?:
I am very conflicted on this figure. It comes with great accessories, an amazingly fun, detailed sculpt and it really fits the bill of a Cow boy themed Battle Troll.....it's just it's blasted limited articulation that gets to me. Were this figure made out of soft PVC plastic you could heat the arms up in boiling water, bend them into a new position and then chill them in the freezer until the new position took hold...but this figure is made of some sort of soft hollow vinyl eliminating any attempts of doing this trick. It might still work, but the arm would look a little flat at the bending point which could look a little weird. Or maybe get him a toy horse of appropriate size for him to ride, then he'd be aiming down at people not on horse back and that could fix the issue too.

If that doesn't bother you go for it. Quick Draw Troll is a great addition to the Battle Troll collection and will look great on your shelf or in your toy box.

"Surf and Turf anyone??"

Check out the video below for some in-hand visuals of how Quick Draw Troll moves and feels, pictures can only tell so much so video really helps give you the full experience.

Battle Troll Month has 2 more reviews left so be sure to come back here next Wednesday for a new review AND a new video over on the YouTube channel.