I’ve
always thought that Anarky was kind of stupid. Of course, I’ve also
long held the belief that anarchy is kind of stupid. Once you get
past the cool looking “A”, the core belief system leaves a lot of
room for poop in places where poop does not belong. And I can’t get
behind that.
Recently
– due to the popularity of political awareness and activism that I
really hope goes away soon because your average Facebook participant
is not smart enough to know anything about politics; myself included
– Anarky has been brought to the forefront of Batman-related
non-comics media. He was set to be the Big Bad on the innovative and
interesting Beware
the Batman
cartoon and joined the Riddler as one of the side missions in the
not-so-great Arkham
Origins.
I
didn’t get to see enough of Anarky on Beware
to form much of an opinion, but judging from the way other characters
were handled on the show I bet he’s going to be interesting.
I
liked the Arkham
Origins
depiction of Anarky quite a bit, as he felt important to the game
without taking away from the main plotline. His character design was
also pretty good, at least until you realize that everybody
in Origins
has those stupid puffy winter coats. I understand that it’s Winter
in Gotham, but for fuck’s sake – did they just cut and paste all
of the bad guys?
FIRST
GLANCE
Puffy
coat or not, this is a cool interpretation of Anarky. His signature
red and gold color scheme is intact, as is the creepy, expressionless
mask. Like all of DC Collectibles’ figures this figure is covered
in detail and totally faithful to its video game counterpart.
PACKAGING
This is
as good as clamshells can get. The shape is cool and eye-catching.
You might not ever see these in Target or Toys R Us, but if they were
going to be on pegs they’d stand out.
The back
features the new, nifty perforation that makes these so much easier
to open than other clamshells. They’re still dangerous and the
edges will still cut the shit out of your fingers if you’re not
careful, but at least you don’t need scissors.
LOOKS
I
love Anarky’s profile. From the hood to the collar and jacket to
the boots, this is a unique entry into the Arkham figure universe.
He’s really going to stand out on the shelf.
The
hood is attached to the jacket and the head moves independently
within the hood. This is probably the best way to have done this.
Anarky is wearing his stupid bubble jacket on top of a hooded
sweatshirt, which is what the hood is actually supposed to be part
of. The mask is just an angular, blank face. It has glossy white
paint and looks like ti should. Not that you can tell from my lousy
pictures. DCC actually went to the trouble of making it look like a
mask rather than just giving Anarky a white head:
I’m
not a fan of bubble jackets, but this is a darned nice bubble jacket;
partially because of the innovative articulation on the arms. Each
arm is actually a poseable armature underneath a rubber sleeve:
It
works really well. The rubber matches the harder plastic portion of
the jacket that is on the torso almost perfectly. Before I laid hands
on the figure I wasn’t even aware of how the articulation was done.
I thought the arms just didn’t have joints, which didn’t surprise
me given the articulation on Joker
and Black Mask.
The
torso is the hoodie, the jacket, and the backpack; which looks great.
The buttons on Anarky’s lapel (do bubble jackets have lapels?) are
sculpted and have nice little paint jobs. The backpack is probably my
favorite part of the figure.
While it would be cool if it opened, it
looks great and has a nice thickness to it. It and its straps are
separately sculpted pieces, so it has a presence that one sculpted on
would not.
Anarky’s
right hand is big and goofy. It’s made that way so that he can hold
the oversized Molotov cocktail that comes with the figure, but he
kind of can’t anyway and the hand is just huge. I think a better
option would have been to have sculpted a hand onto the bottle and
made it interchangeable with a regular hand.
The
lower portion of the figure is just as full of detail. Everything has
this thickness to it that makes Anarky more lifelike. From the pouch
hanging off of his belt to the cargo pockets to the cord hanging from
his belt loop. That cord is a separate piece that hangs somewhat
freely. It is stupid and superfluous, but looks cool and adds another
dimension to the figure. The kneepads conceal the double jointed
knees and also have that thickness to them. Anarky’s boots have
laces, soles, and a great texture; as well as that yellow trim that
is present throughout the figure. It’s painted better in some
places than others, but you can just tell yourself that he painted it
on himself. I feel like his huge feet are there to match his giant
hands.
ACCESSORIES
Anarky
comes with a pretty amazing Molotov cocktail. The bottle is a
separate piece from the rest. “The rest” consists of a
translucent piece that is the fuel, the wick, and the flame. Each
portion is painted. The fuel is a swirly black and brown, the wick is
white, and the flame is a wonderful red and orange. Toy flames don’t
often look very good, but this one does. The only problem here is how
large this thing is. It’s a little silly. But maybe not given the
slight exaggeration of things in the Arkham world.
FUN
Anarky
has lots of articulation, but it isn’t all necessarily useful. His
head is on a ball joint, but it doesn’t move much and is super hard
to move because of the hood. The arms are pretty great. The rubber
sleeves over armatures works very well, but I do have to wonder about
the integrity of the rubber. It is pretty thick and seems sturdy, but
I wonder how it’s going to hold up over the years.
Anarky’s
big issue is the same as most other figures – from the waist down
he just isn’t that effective. Very few companies have figured out
that there’s really not much point in giving a figure double
jointed knees if their hips and ankles don’t bend well enough to
facilitate use of said knees. And while Anarky’s hips aren’t all
that great, his ankles don’t even have joints. I’m honestly not
even sure what you’re supposed to do with the knees, which is a
shame because they are very well done and have deep bends.
This
is still a fun figure to look at and pose.
OVERALL
Ankles
and huge hands aside, this is a very good figure of Anarky. And you
know what? I think this is the only
figure of Anarky. Like, ever.
That seems kind of weird to me. I’m sure we would have gotten one
from Beware the Batman
if Mattel weren’t incompetent boobs, but given that they are I
think this might be the only Anarky we see for a long time. I’m
glad it’s a solid one.
4
out of 5
Try
your local comic book shop first. He might even be in stock.
Otherwise, go to Amazon right now and order it so I can get a little
something:
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