A Comprehensive Look at Star Wars Battle Rollers

Some time ago I bought an unstocked case of these things. It led me to another case for sale, and it wasn’t long before I bought those, too. From there it just took a little searching on Google, eBay, and Amazon to see just what Battle Rollers were in existence.

Let’s back up – with a little bit of work, this could be the end-all / be-all piece on Battle Rollers – maybe you can help me out!

The Battle Rollers, another product of Hot Wheels, were another offshoot of the the popular Character Cars, a line that was arguably peaking around that time. They came out in probably late 2017 or early 2018 – it was sometime amid all the Last Jedi toys but I don’t remember them being rolled out during the initial stuff on Force Friday II. These were relatively easy to find and you can still find them lurking around the corners of GameStops and surviving K-marts. They came in a couple of different case configurations but to the best of my knowledge they were all released at the same time.

Now we can be honest here – these weren’t the biggest hit. They were obviously aimed at younger children yet they were sort of tacked onto the stuff that straddled the casual-collectible line, such as the Character Cars and the Starships. You were supposed to “race ’em!” and “crash ’em!” but to a small child, how was that any different than just playing with the regular Hot Wheels? Even if all this had gone off without a hitch, what were these things…? We already had Character Cars, we already had Starships, and hell, we even had Carships at this point…what was a Battle Roller if not a bizarre amalgamation of Character Car, Starship, and Carship? Almost anything, no matter how functionally inept or thematically insipid, can be of interest to a collector, as long as its presented right. And that’s why Battle Rollers never clicked with the collector community. They were too pre-school-y in appearance. They were little cartoon versions of Star Wars characters in ridiculously proportioned vehicles in a setup more reminiscent of bumper cars than something that fights or races.

The Official Storage Box for the Battle Rollers!

I will give it up for the packaging though, what a great idea. In fact, I almost wonder if someone came up with this idea for packaging and then built a toy around it. However, not even cool-ass packaging was enough to keep these things afloat. The huge ball-bearing is cool, and I like that they’re nice and heavy for their size. It was also cool of Hot Wheels to bang out a specialty storage case for them. It’s easy to take a quick glance at them and dismiss them for being silly, or to roll one’s eyes whilst groaning, “oh another doodad to collect…” when speculating about why the Battle Rollers didn’t fully succeed. But really it was a combination of factors that led to their quiet demise. Oversaturation had been keenly felt by this point, and even the most bright-eyed were wrestling with the pangs of Star Wars fatigue. Perhaps the most decisive blow was dealt by the dark cloud cast by Solo: A Star Wars Story.

Ironically enough the series got another jolt in mid-2018 surrounding the release of Solo but unfortunately Solo’s disappointing box office performance brought the Star Wars merchandising machine to a screeching halt. You can tell the “Episode VIII”-era Battle Rollers from the “Solo”-era ones by the packaging: the former have the “Star Wars” text printed in a dark red, while those released during the “Solo”-era featured the text in yellow. There are at least 3 “assortments” associated with this and it seems like they were distributed fairly sporadically. And before we knew it, the toy machine quietly went dormant for approximately 18 months until 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker.

There are a few exclusives worth mentioning. Various 2-packs of Battle Rollers were released but not all of them contained an exclusive piece. Those that did included a Vader/Luke package with an exclusive lightsaber-wielding Luke, and a Rey/TIE Pilot with an exclusive First Order TIE Fighter Pilot. There was also a carrying case released early on with an exclusive lightsaber-wielding Vader. (I actually ordered this near the beginning of the whole thing and then like a year (more?) later they popped up in Walmarts for a few months.) Then there was the Star Destroyer Slam & Race Launcher that included Han in his speeder from Solo and an exclusive Moloch (also in his speeder as seen in Solo). Despite the yellow lettering, this set seems to have been released well in advance of the regular “Solo-wave.” I ordered it way back as well and seeing stuff like the Range Trooper on the back was a fair indication that more were coming. This was probably around $20 or so, but the only time I saw it in stores was during Toys R Us big liquidation days; these sets didn’t even seem to be part of the regular stock. It looked more like they were shipped in from other stores or possibly warehouses and I last remember seeing them go for like $4.

And finally we have the SDCC 2018 exclusive, the Porg/Millennium Falcon Battle Roller. It comes in a box and the packaging is meant to be more of a display piece. They put a little more work into this one as well; you can tell by the level of detail and the more intricate paint job. In a weird way this was actually the Battle Roller done right. It was a trinket in nice but not pretentious packaging. It combined something as iconic as the Millennium Falcon with something as absurd as the Porg to create a truly memorable snapshot of the series at that very second. It’s kitschy without being gaudy; fun but not ridiculous. Of course the fact that Battle Rollers already existed when this came out helped improve recognition, I’ll bet this would’ve been much more of a “thing” if it were the only Battle Roller.

So without further delay, I give you the 30 extant Battle Rollers:

• Luke Skywalker / X-Wing Fighter
• Rey / Millennium Falcon
• Darth Vader / TIE Advanced
• Emperor Palpatine / Imperial Shuttle
• Boba Fett / Slave I
• TIE Fighter Pilot / First Order TIE Fighter (exclusive)
• Luke Skywalker (w/ Lightsaber) / X-Wing Fighter (exclusive)
• Darth Vader (w/ Lightsaber) / TIE Advanced (exclusive)
• Han Solo / Han’s Speeder
• Moloch / Moloch’s Speeder (exclusive)
• Han Solo / Millennium Falcon
• Lando Calrissian / Millennium Falcon
• Chewbacca / Millennium Falcon
• Kylo Ren / TIE Silencer
• C-3PO / Landspeeder
• Rio Durant / Imperial AT Hauler
• Range Trooper / Imperial Conveyex Transport
• TIE Fighter Pilot / TIE Fighter
• Imperial Officer / Imperial Arrestor Cruiser
• Poe Dameron / X-Wing Fighter
• R2-D2 / Escape Pod
• Princess Leia / Tantive IV
• Darth Maul / Sith Infiltrator
• Yoda / Jedi Starfighter
• General Hux / Star Destroyer
• TIE Pilot / First Order Special Forces TIE Fighter
• Tallie / Resistance A-Wing Fighter
• Anakin Skywalker / Pod Racer
• Jawa / Sandcrawler
• Porg / Millennium Falcon

Every single existing Battle Roller!

And nearly 2 full years have passed without hearing an official breath about the series. However, back in the day, it looks like a few more releases were planned throughout 2018 if not into 2019. We have pictures of 2 of them: K-2S0 / U-Wing and Sebulba / Pod Racer. Furthermore, judging from retail manifestos, it looks like we might’ve also seen a 2-pack with Anakin and Sebulba, both in their respective Pod Racers, as well as the existing C-3P0 / Landspeeder with a Tusken Raider / Bantha.

The U-Wing that Never Was

Sebulba and the Pod Racer – Never Saw the Light of Day…

Also listed is Luke Skywalker / Snowspeeder, Hera Syndulla / The Ghost, & Combat Assault Tank Driver / Imperial Combat Assault Tank (what a mouthful).

I wish these had seen the light of day but I also understand why Mattel probably didn’t see much point in manufacturing them. I do like the fact that they didn’t seem to be stuck on Last Jedi and Solo; we had the Pod Racers from Episode I, K2 and U-Wing (and the CAT) from Rogue One, the Snowspeeder from Episode V, etc. I think that Jabba “behind the wheel” of his Sail Barge would’ve been a great choice as would someone like Grand Moff Tarkin piloting the Death Star. I’m actually a little surprised they didn’t do something with Snoke and his Supremacy; still itchin’ to see some kinda toy based off Snoke’s massive flagship. Obviously there’s still a great deal of characters and vehicles to mine from had the series continued.

So that’s that I guess, possibly everything you ever wanted to know about Battle Rollers and maybe a little more!

Star Wars: Battle Rollers – Remember Them?

I won’t say that Battle Rollers were the most unique thing to be spun off of the success of the CHaracter Cars, but they were kind neat in their own cartoonish, disproportionate way. If I recall correctly, they made their debut in the later days of Episode VIII toys and really hit their peak availability between Return of the Jedi and Solo. The first wave came out – which had relatively little to do with Ep. 8 specifically, and then the second wave dropped around the time of Solo with appropriately themed pieces and updated packaging, and then we had another drop sometime after Solo’s release but still in Solo-era packaging. (I actually wrote about that second Solo wave right here.)

Does all that sound confusing? Yeah…it’s possible I don’t remember each and every detail to a tee but I do remember finding those ol’ 2 packs (which usually included 1 exclusive) back in the days of Toys R Us, and when Toys R Us was closing, they were selling the little track set with the Moloch exclusive that I’d long since ordered online, and then there was the Darth Vader carrying case (also included an exclusive version of Vader) that I ordered around the same time, and that thing finally made its way to Walmart where I remember it being clearanced for like $4 on or around last Christmas (2018).

Anyway, we can at least agree that this little Battle Roller phenomenon lasted little more than the better part of a year. The only reason I even stayed aware of the line was because I would constantly see new ones pop up on eBay while I simultaneously watched them completely disappear from store after store. Few stores got that third wave (or second Solo wave, however you want to think of it) and plenty of others never got any beyond the initial offering that was first packaged in Ep. 8 packaging. So what happened?

Well I don’t have any answers but I did make a discovery that complicates things maybe a little. (Or maybe it just proves I’m like a year+ off with my dates…) I won’t say I completely lost interest in them, but considering how many I was missing, I just didn’t feel like rushing over to eBay and paying 1.5 – 2.5 times the retail price plus shipping. However I was over on Amazon and noticed that lots of 10 were being sold, though it was weird because it wasn’t like 10 unique ones. There’s be 2 of one, 2 of another, 1 of yet another…the numbers just seemed strangely arbitrary. It piqued my interest so for something like $22 plus free shipping plus guaranteed next day delivery, I ordered one of the 3 lots available, specifically the one that was all like, “only 3 left!”

When I got the box I quickly realized why it was being sold the way it was…

This was the actual case from Hot Wheels.

Now this wasn’t tampered with or reused or even opened. It’s the same damn box that goes into retail store-rooms until it’s hung on shelves. The crazy part is that big angry red and white sticker. This stuff had a street date of April 13th, 2018 meaning, much like the label says, this stuff cannot, under any circumstances, be put on shelves before that date and in fact, the box should remain unopened until that date. You see this a lot on high-demand collectibles and toys (amiibo, anyone?) as well as highly anticipated movies, CDs, and electronics like gaming consoles and new phones. I’ve actually run into this situation 4 separate times in stores where the product was on shelves but when I took it up to the register the POS would not physically let me buy the item. One time a manager tried to be nice and override it all but it was all above and beyond his control.

(You wanna know what I was getting, don’t you!? Well first it was the action figure line accompanying the second TMNT movie a few years back. My son and I spotted them on shelves like a full 5 weeks before the street date, it was crazy. Then it happened with an amiibo wave at Walmart one night…granted they were only put on shelves a few hours early. I was able to get them held for a few hours (it was like 8:30pm) behind the counter until I could come back sometime after midnight and grab ’em. And then earlier this year it happened with the release of the action figures coinciding with Avengers: End Game which sat there on the shelf a whole week. I tried to buy ’em every few days with the same bullshit until they were finally pulled…they didn’t properly appear until about 2 weeks after that. The latest incident happened just a couple of months ago. I was ready to fork over the cash for a new Joy-Con, so I went to Walmart and immediately noticed the new orange and purple Joy-Con obviously made for Halloween. It had a street date of like October 4th or something, which turned out to be only 5 or 6 days out, so the wait wasn’t a huge deal.)

So I don’t know that the Battle Rollers ever made enough of a splash to warrant such a warning, but I guess someone, somewhere, thought so. What flips me out is that it was dated April of 2018 (like a year and a half ago as of writing this) when it seems like the line had almost dried up just 6(ish) months later.

I opened the box when I first got it just to make sure everything was all there and seemingly intact, but until now I haven’t really taken stock of what I’ve got – not that I doubt Amazon, I just forgot exactly what was in this lot, especially after I made the decision to buy it based on availability instead of purely what it contained.

For the record, this is Assortment E.

• 2x Darth Maul – Sith Infiltrator
• 2x Yoda – Jedi Starfighter
• 1x Darth Vader – TIE Advanced
• 1x Luke Skywalker – X-wing Fighter
• 1x General Hux – Star Destroyer
• 1x Tallie – Resistance A-wing Fighter
• 1x Range Trooper – Imperial Conveyex Transport
• 1x Anakin Skywalker – Pod Racer

At just over $2 a piece, that’s not bad. As far as what’s new, I got 4 that I didn’t already have, but to be fair, I had scooped up that Range Trooper back when I thought I was only missing 2 or 3, and then for some reason I ordered Darth Maul but it’s just as well that I got 2 of ’em because I can’t find the one I already have. So really I would’ve only ever seen 2 of these in stores, Vader and Luke, so it would make total sense to stick these 2 older models with a swath of new ones.

Darth Maul – Sith Infiltrator

Range Trooper – Imperial Conveyex Transport

I don’t want to spend too much time going on about each and every one of ’em because then I’d just be describing what they are. If you know the character and you know she ship, you can pretty well construct your own bumper-car version of what these guys look like. I also don’t want to dig into things like “detail” too much because they are in fact meant to be caricatures and not replicas. Battle Rollers simply are what they are.

Yoda – Jedi Starfighter

General Hux – Imperial Star Destroyer

I will probably complete my collection of these guys at some point in the near-ish future just because the price is relatively cheap, it gives me something to resale at a profit, and they are a bit of an obscurity. That being said, I’m not completely dumbfounded as to why they were never much of hit – they weren’t marketed right and hardly advertised at all. The only people, or should I say the majority of people, who are interested in these odd little gimmicks come from the Character Car fandom and I can see where not all of them would latch on to these overtly toyetic creations.

Tallie – Resistance A-wing Fighter

Anakin Skywalker – Pod Racer

(I know, I usually bust these thins outta the package at some point but I’m holding off right now in the hopes of getting more pertinent stuff cranked out as soon as I can. If nothing else, when/if I get another box full I’ll get some pics of everyone all loose and happy and free!)

Moreover, the point of these things is to roll ’em and yet as far as I know only the Vader Case and the little playset with Moloch were all that existed to really give these guys time to shine. Anyway, feel free to share any weird stories you have about the Battle Rollers and let me know what info you might have on their slow discontinuation.

New Star Wars Battle Rollers Spotted

I was checking around eBay earlier today – mostly in search of those damned Infinity War 3-packs – and I stumbled across 2 new Star Wars Battle Rollers: Princess Leia in the Tantive IV (or if you’re my age, we knew it as the “Rebel Blockade Runner”) and R2-D2 in the Escape Pod (from the Tantive IV).

These are the only new ones I’ve spotted so far, though it’s still worth mentioning that the Range Trooper in the Conveyex Transport is still pretty much M.I.A. The only evidence that I can find are what I believe to be some promo/toy fair shots and then a single listing on eBay several months back. Making the situation even more confusing is that there are pictures with the Trooper packaged singly and others of him in 2-pack with the existing Rio Durant.

I am almost positive we’re at least on the cusp of another wave here…whether it’ll see the light of day is another story, but I seem to remember seeing some pics of a few other Battle Rollers some time ago and I found ’em! We’ve got an Imperial Officer in a Star Destroyer (yes, this is different from the Arrestor Cruiser), EV-9D9 K-2SO (yeah I screwed that up) in a U-Wing, Sebulba in his pod racer, Tallie (who?) in a Resistance A-Wing, and last but not least Darth Maul in the Sith Infiltrator.

Imperial Officer – Star Destroyer

EV – 9D9 K-2SO (yeah yeah, dumb mistake!) – U-Wing

Sebulba – Pod Racer

Tallie – A-Wing Starfighter

Darth Maul – Sith Infiltrator

So, what the hell is going on with these things? Your guess is as good as mine. With the Star Wars merchandising machine winding down for the time being it’s hard to imagine these flooding the shelves, not to mention the relative scarcity (around here at least) of that 2nd wave of Solo related Battle Rollers.

Let me know if you happen to spot any of these and what sort of configuration they’re released in. Sometimes when it comes to the stuff shown at toy fairs its hard to pinpoint when some of the stuff is slated for release. I’ve seen some that were no more than a few weeks around the corner and then others that didn’t manifest until more than 6 months later so…who the hell knows…

New Star Wars Battle Rollers (2nd SOLO Wave)

I’m actually way way way behind on this…I think I found these new Battle Rollers 4 or so weeks ago…? However, they don’t seem to be all that widespread yet so I guess they’re still sort of “new.” In all the time since I first grabbed these I haven’t seen them anywhere else, nor did the Walmart I get them from restock. Anyway, all this talk of what’s new and not and on the way might get just a tad confusing, so stick with me.

* There is a bit of additional info I will address at the end.

Technically there are 4 new Battle Rollers to be excited about:

• Imperial Officer – Imperial Arrestor Cruiser
• Lando Calrissian – Millennium Falcon
• Chewbacca – Millennium Falcon
• C-3PO – Landspeeder

If you look at the backs of the cards, you’ll see the other 3 new ones plus one more:

• Han Solo – Han’s Speeder

“So Cubes, that’s 5 new Battle Rollers….”

Well yes and no.

It is true that this second wave is the first to feature Han as a standalone release, but way back – I’m not sure if it was exactly concurrent with the initial wave or just shortly thereafter – a playset came out called the Star Destroyer Slam & Race Launcher made specifically for the Battle Rollers. Included in the set are Han and his Speeder as well as the playset exclusive, Moloch – Moloch’s Speeder. It was in fact the back of the playset box that alluded to the eventual existence of Chewy and another one I’ll talk about specifically in a moment.
This playset doesn’t seem to be all that prolific; I know I ordered mine quite a while ago on Amazon. I do remember seeing it at my local Toys R Us during its final weeks though, which I thought was pretty cool. I also remember ordering this right around the same time I ordered the Darth Vader carrying case / “track” for the Battle Rollers (came with an exclusive Vader Roller) and this case just started popping up in stores maybe 1 – 2 months ago.

The Battle Rollers are…what they are. I’m not gonna harp on and on about detail or functionality or whatever. They’re just simple little toys that manage to hang on to the fringe of this whole Character Car phenomenon. This doesn’t look like the end though; in fact far from it. At some point we should be seeing Princess Leia and Darth Maul and possibly some other exclusives as part of 2-packs. This worries me a little because back when that first wave came out I only ever found the 2-packs at Toys R Us. So we’ll see.

* When I first started writing this I realized there was a bit of a glaring issue with what might be considered “new.” It’s actually been bugging me for a while, and it’s the Range Trooper – Imperial Conveyex Transport Battle Roller. Like others it was advertised on the back of the Slam & Race playset, though it doesn’t appear to have been released with the 4 (5 counting Han) that came out somewhat recently. Now normally I wouldn’t think much of it and I’d just file it away in my brain as “yet-to-be-released,” but a quick search through the SOLD items on eBay reveals that a single Range Trooper Battle Roller (along with a Kylo Ren Roller) was sold back on July 30th. July 30th! Seems strange to me….but then again I’m getting used to the tail ends of these lines falling into obscurity the further and further we get from a film.

I also found a pic of the Range Trooper on Google Images as part of a 2-pack with Rio Durant. Not sure if anything about that 2-pack was supposed to be exclusive (usually one of them is) but at a glance it just seems like they were thrown together for thematic effect. Obviously more are coming – or are at least slated to come – and I’d be fine with waiting for the Trooper to drop with that group but it would appear that at least someone already has a hold of it. Of course it would (could?) make sense to simply say it was part of that 2nd wave and the store was sold out or I missed it or whatever, but I find that dubious because a) of the 5 released, the remaining 4 are listed on each one’s back, and b) the other 2nd wave Rollers are available on eBay in reasonable quantity.

And let’s not forget about the Porg – Millennium Falcon Battle Roller that was an SDCC 2018 exclusive! Man, they really love stickin’ everyone in the Falcon, don’t they? I snagged one off eBay not so long ago and I’ll be sure to put up a couple of pics before too long.

In the meantime, if you have any info about the new or upcoming Battle Rollers I’d love to hear it! Especially if you know what’s going on with any of the ones outside of the first and second waves.