Star Wars Trade Federation Armored Assault Tank - AAT

Presenting a Trade Federation Amoured Assault Tank or AAT. You may remember these from the Battle of Naboo, but hopefully not with the image of Jar-Jar Binks hanging from one (shudder). 

To the uninitiated, this is the Trade Federation Armored Assault Tank 1 or AAT-1 or simpl AAT was the main battle tank of the Separatist Confederacy (Confederacy of Independent Systems). It was developed by Wat Tambor's Baktoid Armor Workshop - the same people that built Battle Droids, Super Battle Droids, MMTs, STAPs, and your average Spider-droid. 

The Trade Federation Armored Assault Tank was designed to crash through whatever its formidable weaponry cannot demolish. It come armed with:

• A turret mounted laser cannon
• Two hull mounted light laser cannons
• Two antipersonnel blasters
• Six chain-fed energized shell projectile launchers with a payload of 57 shells with three possible ammunition types: High-explosive (Bunker busters); High-Energy (Anti-personnel), and; High Energy-Plasma (High Explosive, Armor piercing). 

Attacking a Trade Federation Armored Assault Tank up-front is not the wisest of moves given the amount of armor and firepower it could throw and hide behind. 

There is some vulnerability presented by the AAT given that it stores its reactor and other key-power elements in the rear. 

But then you have to get behind it.

The AAT was crewed by four battle droids: One commander, two gunners and one driver. And it could carry an additional six battle droids standing on the forward hull. 

Note the little button on the back of the lower left hull. There's another button just like that on the other side. Pressing them launches the missiles (cannon shells) on the other side of the hull. The AAT fires four such missiles, two on each side. 

WHAT'S TO LIKE ABOUT THE STAR WARS ARMORED ASSAULT TANK?

FIRST: Other than the high-profile, the concept is intimidating. It presents a solid wall of firepower and a forward marching armored resolve that is the hall-mark of the Separatist movement. 

We should also note that the tan and brown color scheme used and seen during the movie is more of the default color scheme of the Trade Federation. When they became official members of the Separatist movement, most of these AATs were repainted with the blue and gray paint-scheme. A version of the Armored Assault Tank is available in the market bearing this paint scheme.

This is the second AAT to released by Hasbro in 2012. The original one released in 2010 featured a flip action inside so that when you open the cockpit you could switch out a pristine tank-driver with a battle-damaged one. So the SECOND:  thing we love about the Trade Federation Armored Assault Tank is the cockpit which now fits a separate gunner and one pilot. 

This gives you an idea as to the scale equivalent of the Trade Federation Armored Assault Tank. An actual sized AAT should be able to accommodate two gunners, the toy version can only accomodate one. We should also probably note that there are only four mounting pegs on the exterior hull, providing for four droids riding on the outside of the toy AAT. An actual Trade Federation Armored Assault Tank can accommodate six droids.

This is also a great place to deploy a Droid Commander if you have one:

 

WHAT'S NOT TO LIKE ABOUT THE STAR WARS ARMORED ASSAULT TANK?

FIRST: Well.... we couldn't really think of anything other than the image of Jar-Jar Binks hanging onto the laser turret and managing to disrupt the weight of an AAT enough to drive one into the ground, that has been permanently scarred into our minds thanks to Star Wars Episode 1. 

It's a simple, solid tank with easy assembly and practical use. The only thing we really did not like about it was that it did not come with any Battle Droids to pilot it, but then again by now any semi-serious collector would have a bunch of droids lying around that they can't display because they are sooo hard to mount, so you can place them in here with a thankful sigh.

The Star Wars Trade Federations Armored Assault Tank is available on Amazon for PhP 34.99 (Roughy PhP 1,574.55 plus shipping) - without any Battle Droids. 

Roger! Roger!