I love
Tim Burton’s Batman
and no amount of internet snark or intolerance will ever change that.
It was one of the most formative and influential movies of my youth
and I’m honestly not sure there has been a movie since where I felt
the hype and anticipation so keenly. More than that, the movie
actually delivered.
As I’ve
gotten older I have learned to embrace most of the vastly different
depictions of Batman and his gallery of villains. I have my
preferences, but I can appreciate the idea of different creative
approaches and tonal shifts. My son is fortunate in that he lives in
an age where the Batmans of Adam West, Kevin Conroy, Rino Romano,
Michael Keaton, and Diedrich Bader are all as instantly accessible as
Christian Bale’s. And before too much longer Ben Affleck’s. Lil’
Troublemaker gets all of the different Batmans at once and is able to
pick his favorite (Kevin Conroy is his Batman).
I have
been waiting since 1989 for a good figure of Michael Keaton (who I
still feel is the best live action Batman/Bruce Wayne) as Batman.
Toy Biz
and Kenner both produced smaller figures based on the movies, but I
was never really satisfied with those. None of them were very well
articulated and while they did actually have pretty decent likenesses
of Michael Keaton (particularly one Bruce Wayne figure that changed
into Batman), they just didn’t scratch my itch. And don’t even
get me started on the repainted Super Powers Penguin. That’s one of
the most insulting toys ever made.
I’ve
longed for a well-sculpted, well-articulated Batman with a decent
Keaton likeness. When Mattel launched their Movie Masters line I was
full of hope that it would happen. When they launched the Batman ’66
line I was even more hopeful. If they were revisiting other eras of
Batman, surely they would want to produce one of the most iconic
versions in the character’s history. And while that hasn’t been
ruled out entirely, it looks doubtful given Mattel’s seeming
abandonment of 6” collector lines and announcement of 4” scale
figures from the Burton films.
Then
there’s the Hot Toys sixth scale Batman. I wanted that and the
accompanying Joker figure so
bad. I actually had them
preordered from BigBad at one point. But I finally decided that I
simply could not spend $500 on a couple of toys and cancelled. It was
one of the most difficult toy decisions I have ever made. I don’t
regret it, but I sure do wish I could have afforded them.
But along came NECA and the blockbuster announcement that they were
adding the Batman license to their growing stable of large-scale
figures. The first figures out of the gate were Adam West and Michael
Keaton. I didn’t have any experience with NECA’s quarter-scale
figures (other than regretting not buying their Iron Man), but the
dozens of excellent smaller figures made me confident enough to order
Keaton from my local comic book shop when it was offered.
I
finally have my rubber-suited Dark Knight. Was he worth the wait?
FIRST
GLANCE
This
thing is huge. And I didn’t realize it came with so many
accessories. Seeing this box with that
Batman inside is somewhat breathtaking.
PACKAGING
Sorry
the box pictures are so lousy. The cardboard and window are super
shiny and tough to photograph. And also I am a bad photographer with
a cheap camera.
This box
is fucking weird. I mean, it’s just a window box, but the graphics
look like Batman’s torso, except with the Bat symbol under his pecs
and a window between his pecs with a whole
other Batman peeking out.
It’s just damned strange.
There
are a bunch of pictures of the figure all over it and not one of
Michael Keaton, which is kind of weird, but I don’t really care
that much. I always think it’s strange when toy packaging is just a
picture of the toy.
The
graphics match the gold trimmed lettering of the movie logo.
Side
Note: I still find it odd that all of the promotion for this movie
used the standard Bat symbol that we all know and love:
But
that the one on Keaton’s chest was this weird thing:
It
bugged the shit out of me at the time. Now I don’t care; for a
couple of reasons – 1) He had a proper Bat symbol in Batman
Returns,
2) The costume problems became so much more egregious in Batman
Forever
and Batman
& Robin.
As
always, NECA credits the artists that made this figure happen.
LOOKS
Okay,
right off the Bat I am not thrilled with this figure. I don’t know
the source of the problem, but his torso joint is off-kilter:
The
resulting look is of a Batman just finishing up a saucy dance move.
And not even the Batusi.
There
are a few odd problems with several of the joints on this figure, but
this is the only one that actually creates a visual problem. I don’t
know what to call this joint. It’s one of those that swivels and
also moves side-to-side but isn’t a ball joint. I have had problems
with these sorts of joints on other figures. If they aren’t seated
properly this is what happens. On smaller figures it isn’t as
noticeable, but on the larger ones it is. Obviously. I will say this,
though – I messed with that joint quite forcefully in an attempt to
get it straightened out. I put stresses on it that would have most
certainly broken other figures. It never quite moved into the correct
position, but it didn’t snap like I expected it to.
Okay,
now that the bad is out of the way, let’s talk about the good.
This
figure is not an idealized representation of the Batman from the
movie. It’s a reproduction of Michael Keaton in his Batman suit.
Granted, they didn’t include all of the seams and openings on the
body, but the irregularities in the cowl and the different textures
of the suit are here. I guess it’s actually sort of a halfway
compromise. And I have to say – it looks pretty amazing.
The head
and cowl are two separate pieces. The face sculpt is spot-on. The
lips, the cheekbones, the frown lines, the very texture of the skin –
it all activates that part of my brain that starts playing scenes
from Batman
and goes, “Damn – that’s exactly
what he looked like.” The eyes are positioned correctly within the
cowl and painted beautifully. They even blacked out the exposed skin
around the eyes, just like in the movie. Not that I think that’s a
detail NECA could have overlooked; it’s just impressive. The little
nose holes crack me up.
The cowl
is a slightly flexible plastic that has the rubbery texture that was
so easily noticeable in the movie. It even has the slight variances
and uneven bits. Michael Keaton was literally sewn into this piece
before every scene and those stitches are visible in the back:
I’m
not so sure about this choice, as those stitches were not visible in
the movie when Keaton was being shot from behind (a different,
open-faced cowl was used), but I suppose it is true to the movie
suit. The lower portion of the cowl that comes down to cover the top
of the cape is thin enough that you can adjust the pointed portions
to facilitate moving the cape around. I still think these things make
the Batsuit look a little Kermit-y. The attached Bat symbol is
cleanly sculpted and has a precise paint job. This, like the torso,
seemed a little off-center at first, but some adjustment of the head
fixed that.
The cape
is magnificent. The lining is satiny and the exterior is a very thin
pleather-like material. The stitching on this thing is immaculate.
The edges are folded over and even all the way around. Each point of
the subtly scalloped edge has a stitch running up to the
corresponding point on the bottom of the cowl. The lines are straight
and even. The cape is designed to fold exactly as it did in the
movie, even though the movie suit actually had several different
capes.
The edges can be folded back under the points on the cowl and
over the shoulders, pulled forward over the front of the figure’s
body, or extended all the way out to form the dramatic Bat shape from
the rooftop scene near the beginning of the movie:
This pose requires the
assistance of some included rods. I’ll get to those later.
I need a bigger photo background. And a better camera. |
The
upper torso is two separate pieces and a couple of textures as well.
The upper torso piece gives the appearance of the muscled body armor
on top of the black bodysuit. The armor portion is the chest and
abdomen that hangs down over the bottom piece, as well as a sculpted
piece in the back. The bottom piece is a much simpler round abdomen.
The joint between these two pieces is the source of the problem. The
sculpt itself is solid though, representing the look of the layered
pieces of the movie Batsuit. The armor has a bit more of a gloss than
the bodysuit, defining the intentional difference between the pieces.
The
lower abdomen’s texture and gloss match the bodysuit portion of the
upper abdomen. The sculpt is… detailed. All portions of Michael
Keaton’s anatomy are represented. There is another joint between
the waist and lower abdomen, but it seems to do what it is supposed
to.
The
utility belt is beautiful. While I am not a fan of the capsule-style
belt, this is pretty much a perfect representation of the one in the
movie. The buckle is immaculately detailed and the yellow of the belt
is perfect. There’s a dark wash on the buckle to bring out the
details there. The belt is a separate piece from the figure and can
be moved around on the torso, but sits where it should on the
figure’s waist when put there.
The arms
are designed in the same manner as the torso – with sculpted armor
on top of a bodysuit. The armor isn’t separate, but it is defined.
There are pieces on the outside of the arms. The gauntlets and gloves
look amazing. There is a base glove that is very similar to Darth
Vader’s – it is glossy black and has seams running up the inside.
The front of the forearm features an armor plate with the trademark
pointy things attached. It’s a clever design and even with all of
the magazines and books that I have read about this movie I never
noticed they were constructed that way.
The gloves themselves have
seams and padding sculpted on the outside and nubby grips sculpted on
the palms. This looks particularly impressive, as the palms are a
flat black and the nubs are silver. As ludicrous as it sounds, I
think the hands are my favorite part of the figure. A total of five
interchangeable hands are included, and I’ll get to those later.
The legs
feature the same armor design, with large plates on the thighs and
outsides of the calves, as well as kneepads.
Batman’s
boots are just as detailed as his gloves. The base boots are glossy
black with detailed, flat black soles. There is a flat black armor
plate on the front of the upper portion of the boot. The foot portion
has another armor plate that sits on top of the upper plate. And it
all looks so awesome.
ACCESSORIES
This
Batman comes with a huge number of accessories; a fact I was not
aware of until I opened the box.
In
addition to the three extra hands and cape baton things I mentioned
above there’s a Batarang, a grappling hook, the grapple gun, a
clear plastic line, and piece to connect the grapple gun to Batman’s
utility belt.
The
extra hands are right and left fists posed to hold
the Batarang and a right hand posed to hold
the grapple gun. The hands that come on the figure are fists. These extras look as good as the attached hands and are
very easy to switch out while staying securely in place once
attached.
The cape
baton things look like a pair of tonfa, which is what I thought they
were at first. Some kind of super-long, wacky Bat-tonfa. The handles
are hard plastic and the extended portions are metal so that they can
support the weight of the cape, which is fairly heavy thanks to the
quality construction (good planning, NECA!). Since the figure doesn’t
come with any instructions I had to figure out how these were
supposed to work on my own. It doesn’t look quite right to me, but
I’m not sure what else I could do.
The
Batarang is an absolute delight of toymaking cleverness. It folds in
three places:
To, in
theory, become compact enough to be stored somewhere on the utility
belt:
Granted,
this figure doesn’t allow for that, but whatever. I stick to my
assertion that all Batmans have a small backpack on the back of their
utility belts that we just never see. Even without the folding action
this would be a tremendous Batarang. It’s covered in detail and has
silver paint accenting the pointed barbs on the ends.
The
grapple gun comes in two pieces that combine to form the full gun.
The front piece houses the folded up grappling hook and the back is
the piece that Batman clips onto his belt before grabbing Vicky Vale
and ascending (almost) to the rooftops. They fit together snugly and
there is a piece that folds down to create a handle so the figure can
hold it. This thing is very detailed and has a bit of paint on it, as
well. The tines of the grappling hook are gold and the rivets and
plate on the back of the handle are silver. The paint on the rivets
is a bit sloppy, but the grapple gun still looks great.
The
grappling hook is much sturdier than it looks (though I doubt it
would support this figure’s weight, much less quarter-scale Batman
+ 27 pounds [Bonus Needless Points if you get that]). It’s a very
solid, rigid plastic. The detailing is ridiculous. Every rivet and
seam is defined. I can’t quite reconcile this thing with the front
portion of the grapple gun, but whatever.
The
clear plastic line has a black plug on the end and is clearly meant
to interact with the grappling hook or grapple gun (or both?) in some
way, but I sure can’t figure out how. The black plug doesn’t fit
into anything. And while you can run the line through the tiny hole
on the grappling hook, it doesn’t look right to have the black plug
just sitting there. I have no clue what’s up with this thing.
The belt
clip has a spot for each piece of the grapple gun and is meant to fit
onto the utility belt. Within seconds of trying to figure out how to
attach this piece, the slender support snapped right off:
The belt
is not a soft rubber, so the clip is what had to give. If this had
all been one piece it wouldn’t have been an issue, but since it was
two pieces glued together I’m not at all surprised this happened.
This
figure should have come with instructions. The problem isn’t that I
can’t figure out what all of the pieces are for, it’s that I’m
not positive I am using them correctly. And I am the kind of guy that
needs that assurance. And a little helpful instruction as to how to
attach the grapple clip to the belt might have kept me from breaking
it, though I’m not sure about that because the thing is so fragile.
Plus, it’s really frustrating to have an item like this clear
plastic line and have no idea what to do with it.
FUN
Since
this is a format I have never reviewed before, I’m going to run
down the articulation.
The head
is on a ball joint, but obviously that is restricted by the cowl. You
can turn it just a bit left and right (mostly to adjust the position
of the Bat symbol at the bottom of the cowl). While this replicates
the design of the movie costume (Keaton had to turn his whole body to
look to the side), is it better than if NECA had deviated and put a
jointed head on top of the lower cowl piece? I don’t know. I don’t
have a great need to move this figure’s head around – though
being able to look up while aiming his grapple gun would be nice –
but I can’t imagine I would have complained if this had been a more
standard action figure design with a mobile, jointed head.
The
shoulders are ball joints with slightly limited movement. This is
mostly due to the size of the figure and the desire to not have the
joints interfere with the sculpt too much. They do have a good range;
better than some smaller scale figures I own.
The
elbows are pivots with swivels at the top. They can’t bend very
deeply, but again – this is due to the size and aesthetics of the
figure.
There
are swivels at the tops of the gauntlets and the wrists are natural
swivels due to the interchangeability, but also pivot up and down.
The joints are a bit tight, so be sure to loosen them up very
carefully. Actually, that could be said of most of the joints on the
figure. Spend a few minutes carefully testing and utilizing the
joints to loosen them up a bit.
The
torso joints are a problem, and considering what they’ve done to my
figure I’d prefer they weren’t even present.
The hips
are ball joints and have a much wider range of motion than I was
expecting. Same with the knees – they are pivots with swivels at
the top and bend much more deeply than I thought they would for a
figure of this size and weight.
The
ankles are swivels with just a bit of movement left-to-right and
back-and-forth. Which is a problem, as I found out after leaving the
figure downstairs for two days. I stood him on the coffee table that
is currently home to Castle Grayskull (review coming soon – be
patient; this one is intimidating) because I just didn’t have
anywhere else to put a gigantic Batman at the time. When I went back
down, ol’ Bruce was face down on the floor.
The
figure feels quite sturdy and secure. I hadn’t spent a lot of time
posing him carefully to make sure he was balanced to stand because it
seemed like it wouldn’t be a problem. So I picked it up and messed
with the pose a little bit to try and balance it better. An hour or
so later he was on his face on the floor again. This would be fine
for an Andy Capp figure, not so much for the World’s Greatest
Detective. Looks like Bruce is gonna need a stand.
Having
said that, this figure is a ton of fun. It’s amazingly poseable for
such a huge figure and has all kinds of accessories to swap out and
pose with. Even the cape provides a lot of options.
OVERALL
This
Batman is extremely tough to score. As you can tell from my intro,
this is something I have been waiting a long time for and very much
wanted to love. But there are some flaws that I simply can’t
excuse. The torso joints, the fragile belt clip, and the figure’s
inability to stand are the big ones. I’m bothered by the
inexplicable grapple line, but I’ll be generous and chalk that up
to me being a dum-dum.
Then
there are all of the wonderful things about the figure – the cape,
the sculpt and paint, the better than expected articulation (which
unfortunately contributes to some of the above problems), and the
surplus of accessories. Batman is fun to play with and the figure
itself is quite sturdy and looks great.
There
were a few mis-steps, but I’m still glad to have the figure. Unless
you want Mattel’s 4” scale figure (which I will buy and review
because I am a sucker), this is the cheapest way you’re going to
get a Michael Keaton Batman. By far. It’s not a bad figure by any
means. It is a great figure with some bad flaws. I wanted so much to
give it a higher score, but the issues add up to an average.
3
out of 5
Despite
the problems, I still want NECA to produce a Joker to go with this
Batman. And they have not ruled out that possibility.
Wow! Thanks for the detail review.
ReplyDeleteNo problem! Thanks for reading.
DeleteIn many ways, I actually prefer this figure to the Hot Toys one. I think that it looks a lot more like Keaton: especially around the mouth & jaw. The Hot Toys effort looks a bit too youthful in my opinion. Hot Toys have the edge when it comes to the eyes & paint job.
ReplyDeleteA very good review, but I don't think that your pictures do this figure justice: it makes the figure look too shiny.
I have 4 Hot Toys figures. Even though they are amazing, I think that pound for pound, this figure represents a much better deal. It really does look terrific in person.
I look forward to seeing Neca's Heath Ledger Joker, & hold out hope that they produce a Jack Nicholson Joker to complement this one.
I would definitely buy a Jack Nicholson Joker, but I think it would look odd all in plastic as opposed to fabrics. And I'd love to invest in a better camera, but I keep buying all of these toys...
Delete