Review – World War Robot Bertie 7 Pack
It is time! After snapping hundreds of photos, spending several hours playing with the Berties, and generally finding myself extremely happy with these robot toys, I’m ready to dive into the World War Robot Bertie 7 Pack (mentioned here) master review.
Ashley Wood’s World War Robot book* is packed with gorgeous paintings of soldiers and robots and with these new Berties I feel like the toy line has finally achieved a level of durability that I’m not afraid to drag the toys out and actually play with them. While these robots are nowhere near as durable as Combat-R Zero (review here) they are a massive leap forward from the fragile art toy Membership Bramble (review here). In fact, these Berties are so superior to my Bramble that I’m now planning to sell my Membership Bramble; pulling the Bramble down to snap pics with these Berties reminded me of just how fragile and unplayable that toy is.
But we’ve been all over that before, so let’s focus our attention on these new World War Robot Bertie toys.
A Beautiful Box!
With an original painting created just for the Bertie 7 Pack, this box continues the (mostly) fantastic design we’ve come to expect from the team at 3A Toys. A massive box — about 2-feet long by 8.5-inches deep and 9.5-inches tall — this slipcased package gets even bigger when you pull the outer sleeve off and reveal the hinge; the box opens up to display the seven Berties (and seven Squares, but we’ll get to them) as you see in the above photo. It’s a professional, gorgeous box and one that any packaging fanatic (like me) will love.
And the robots are even better than the box.
A Team of Badass Bertie Bots
As I’ve mentioned already, inside the box we get seven Berties — Deep Powder, Desert Combat, Dirty Deeds Bloody Edition, Dutch Merc, Marine, Medic, and Warbot. The robots themselves are almost all identical in terms of sculpt, but there are a few accessory variations and the weather-beaten paint jobs help give each bot its own personality. In this master review we’ll look at the basics; check each Bertie’s individual review for more photos and a few specific words about each design.
6-Inch Weapons of Warfare
Each Bertie stands about 6-inches tall, which makes these robots much smaller than I ever expected. Not the toys, but in terms of scale (these are 6-inch scale robot action figures, so the human characters in the World War Robot universe are the same height as Berties if the toy line is accurate.
That feels wrong to me; I always thought the Berties were more like 10-feet or 12-feet tall so maybe I’m missing some clues in the artwork or the scale of this toy line isn’t what I thought it was.
I guess I’ll have a much clearer idea of scale when my Membership Nom de Plume (mentioned here) arrives; he’s supposed to be in the same scale as these Berties.
Articulation and Sculpt
For 6-inch tall robot toys these Berties have some ridiculously insane articulation. The hips and shoulders are simple ball-joints, the elbows and knees and hinged, there’s a swivel joint just above the elbow and at the head and waist, and the feet and hands are on ball-joints. All fairly basic and not exciting, but it’s the hands where these robots start to shine. Just like the Membership Bramble toy, every single joint of each finger and thumb is articulated . . . making the fingers the single-most fragile piece on the toys. If your Bertie is going to break it’s most likely going to be at the finger (which happened to one of my Berties in shipping) but the fingers actually feel more durable and stable than on the Bramble so the design of the hands was either improved or the factory is getting better at constructing and assembling these tiny fingers.
And while the articulation is a blend of expected and over-the-top, the sculpt is nothing but pure artistic genius. Every single detail of the robot is perfectly designed, with no flaws or blemishes in the sculpted bits and no parts that make me unhappy. From the domed, almost R2-D2-like head of the Bertie to the backpack (two different designs included, depending on each robot’s weapons) to the tiny feet I love the toy’s design. I don’t know if these are sculpted by hand or created by a CAD system but whatever tools are being used over at 3A need to stay in effect.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a blank DIY Bertie so it’s tough to see all of the sculpted details without focusing on the spectacular paint applications, but I think the photos here show just how tight and gorgeous the sculpting work actually is. I’m confident that if you didn’t know this is a 6-inch tall robot you would automatically assume it was in the 12-inch scale if all you saw were photos online. Part of that’s because there are some great shots online, but a lot of it is definitely because of the perfection wrapped inside the toy’s design.
Squares!
You may remember my Squares review from last year (review here). Well, every Bertie in this pack came with a companion Square in scale . . . the Squares included in the box are each 2-inches tall. And they have the exact same articulation and design as their big brothers! They’re so small that they are almost accessories to the Berties, but they’re so neat that they are as playable as the Berties. And the basic design of the Square almost makes these pocket toys; I drug all of mine outside and dropped them a few times without any damage. These are some durable little bots!
Are Berties Worth $45 Each?
That’s a tough value judgment. I got a deal on the Bertie 7 Pack (3A Membership discount) so I ended up paying about $25/Bertie. The retail versions — not yet available, but sites like Sideshow Collectibles** will be carrying Berties — are priced at $45 which, now that I’ve played with these, feels like a great deal. But only if you regularly collect higher-end toys and action figures; anyone who sticks to mass-market action figures will think these are too expensive. Well, at least until they get a Bertie in-hand and realize just how awesome the robots are. There’s nothing from Mattel or Hasbro that even comes close to the detail and feel of one of these Bertie toys.
But even then there are going to be people out there who think these are twice as much as they should be. But when you keep in mind the articulation in the hands, the fantastic paint, and the fact that these toys have much lower production numbers than lines like Masters of the Universe Classics then I think the Berties and their $45 retail price holds up.
I like these so much that I’m finding myself giving one away, sold three of them to Alex (at work) for roughly my cost, and am going to keep three for myself. Not a single one of these are making their way onto eBay because I wanted to keep some for myself and make sure friends got to enjoy the toys. These are great robots.
And I really want to track down a DIY.
Closing Thoughts
I’ve got a major love-hate relationship going with 3A Toys and the World War Robot series. The toys are growing more durable and are amazingly produced, but I still do not care for 3A’s business practices or near-random decisions and the release procedure makes me want to scream in disgust. But as long as I can get my hands on cool robot toys a few times a year, and as long as the quality and durability continues to improve, I’ll keep supporting 3A Toys be renewing my membership each year and buying robot toys every few months.
This Bertie 7 Pack took almost four months to reach me after I placed my order, but if the next delivery is packed with as much durable and playable awesome as this box was I’ll grow to understand that the long delivery time is what it takes to make sure I get fun, fantastic toys.
*Affiliate link: Orders using this link earn battlegrip.com cash, which is applied to buying toys.
**Affiliate link: Orders using this link earn battlegrip.com cash, which is applied to buying toys.
Philip Reed is going to be in the corner playing with robot toys if you need him.
I was really hoping since you got yours a while back I’d have mine by now. Waiting is the worst part!
I got a single Bertie on the way, can’t wait! I haven’t had any problems with 3A yet, although due to limited funds my purchases have been quite far and few between. Maybe if I miss out on a toy I really want I’ll think differently!
I’ve gotta say, since getting these ‘bots, they’ve really grown on me, despite some fears about stability and overall design. Even the gattling gun handle has been improved, with the little connection point on the handle a little bit thicker and a lot more durable than the Membership model. These really are some of the best toys I’ve ever encountered, hands down.
Seriously, I’d already agreed to part with three of them when I placed my order, but the rest are going to stick around or be given as gifts. And the poses these guys can hold…the photos are just the tip of the iceberg.
I’ve been very interested in 3a toys, but I find their website incredibly annoying to maneuver, and I have never been able to find out how to purchase them. Do you have to have a subscription? Can you purchase them in an online store?
@clark – The 3A website isn’t all that useful; it’s an art piece and not a functional, informative website unless you want to wade through a lot of Flash.
These toys release and are gone in seconds or hours. The only way to get them is to order at the time of release or, now, order from a retailer. Some of the toys are starting to hit retail distribution but most are only available direct.
eBay is where you find the OOP stuff, but the prices are ridiculous.
I’m really glad to see you are still getting 3A products and reading your review it looks like you love the berties as well. I noticed you mentioned the membership bramble many times but am wondering if you ever bought or reviewed the retail brambles. Most of the problems you noted in the membership bramble are not seen in the final bramble design that went to retail. Also for those people interested in 3A toys it should be noted that you want to look at 3A toys store found at bambaland, there’s usually toy drops there every month, but be warned toys sell out quickly. Often in minutes sometimes hours. Bambaland only sells a predetermined amount that the factory can make. If you can’t find a item there, many retail stores sell 3A products, though they too tend to sell out in a few months. The thing to remember is these toys are hand made and hand painted. As such they are already limited in number. 3A is still a relatively young company this being it’s 2nd year, so as it grows so too will it’s production line and hopefully it’s availability.
@anubis2night – I never bought one of the retail Brambles. By the time I found out they were improved it was hitting the point where aftermarket prices were kicking in.
And yeah, these Berties are fantastic. Durable, fun, and awesome color schemes.