I love
typing silly titles that use the same word too many times, so today’s
review is a treat for me!
Read it
again if you need to. It makes sense.
This
review is a little late. This figure came out sometime last year and
I got it around December. Amazon put a ton of the final DC Universe
Classics-style releases on sale for five bucks or less and I ordered
a bunch. Mostly they ended up as gifts, but I kept a couple for
myself. This was one of those.
I also
didn’t care for the way the characters were portrayed. It’s been
a while so I can’t remember any specific examples, but I know I was
irritated by the actions or decisions that characters made on several
occasions.
But
because it was Batman we stuck with the show. And over the course of
a few episodes the uniqueness of the tone and the smartness of the
ongoing stories outweighed the negatives. I think it’s also
possible that the negatives diminished somewhat as the creators
figured out what they were doing. But whatever the case was, we all
started to like the show. A lot.
So of
course Cartoon Network or Warner Bros. or whoever yanked it just as
we were really getting into it.
Now, the
last time this happened – with Green
Lantern and Young
Justice (both good shows,
though YJ
bordered on genius at times) – many important folks in the know
laid the blame squarely at the feet of DC licensee Mattel, who seem
incapable of launching a successful DC media tie-in line. According
to insiders such as Bruce Timm, a licensed animated show cannot be
sustained without a corresponding toy line. Mattel’s Young Justice
line consisted of two different scales and styles that were both
overpriced compared to other offerings on the market. The line tanked
at retail and didn’t even get around to producing all of the main
cast members of the show.
A line
supporting Green Lantern:
The Animated Series was
apparently out of the question given the failure of Mattel’s line
supporting the Green Lantern
feature film. Which was also a failure, so the toy line issue wasn’t
entirely
Mattel’s fault. The Green Lantern movie toys were actually pretty
neat.
So both
Young Justice
and Green Lantern
were put on hiatus at one point and then cancelled once the completed
seasons were aired.
While
Beware the Batman
was actually the recipient of one action figure, it looks like the
show won’t even get as far as the unsupported GL
series. So not only will this Batman stick out of your collection
like a sore thumb, he’s never even going to have anybody to hang
out with. He should make friends with ROM.
FIRST
GLANCE
The
only thing that this Batman has in common with the rest of Mattel’s
6” scale DC offerings is its size. Not only is it vastly different
aesthetically, it has completely different types of articulation.
It’s a striking, sleek figure and as soon as I pulled it out of the
shipping box I knew I was going to have to keep one.
I
collect Batmans. Not every
Batman, but I like to buy new and different styles of Batman figures
if they appeal to me. This one appealed to me.
PACKAGING
The
last iteration of Mattel’s DCUC blister card, which was a bit
overdone but was nice looking on the pegs. I still don’t understand
the choice of orange as the base color, but otherwise this thing is
appealing in all the right ways. It has a nice shape, the figure sits
well in the blister, and the graphics are dynamic without looking too
busy.
The
back is crammed full of info. There’s a full bio as well as a list
of abilities and facts. I like this kind of stuff and wish it wasn’t
being neglected by so many toy companies now.
LOOKS
The
first thing I thought upon seeing this was how much I would like to
have a set of all of the animated Batmans throughout the years in the
same scale. From Super
Friends
to The
Animated Series
to The
Batman
to Brave
and the Bold.
ALL of them.
This
figure perfectly captures the stylized look of Batman from the most
recent cartoon. This is a younger, leaner Dark Knight. It’s very
different from any other Batman figure I own.
The
head is a wedge shape with two long ears on top. It’s made of
rubber so that those ears can be as long as they’re supposed to be.
The face does have detail, unfortunately my flash has rendered the
mouth invisible.
The
cape is a separate rubber piece. I still don’t know what the answer
is regarding capes. I’ve never liked rubber, but it seems that it’s
too expensive to use the right kind of soft goods. If this were a
regular Batman figure I wouldn’t even care for the shape of the
cape (The
Shape of the Cape
is the name of Batman’s one-off prog rock album from 1982), but
it’s perfect for the way it looks and works in the cartoon. This
version of the Bat-cape is not one that engulfs Batman or serves as a
dramatic shroud or whatever. It’s purely functional and stays back
and out of the way unless he’s using it in combat or for defense.
This
Batman has a sleek, clean profile and the figure has captured that
perfectly. He has a thick, powerful upper body with lean and
agile-looking limbs. The sculpt is clean and even on these and
there’s no trace of the asymmetry that was so common on the DCUC
figures – things like torso sculpts being lopsided and making the
arms hang funny. The joints on this figure aren’t undetectable, but
they do blend into the profile quite nicely.
The
gloves feature more prominent fins than a lot of Batman designs and a
well-defined, sculpted line to mark where they begin. The right hand
is sculpted open to hold an item and the left is in sort of a
sneaking or balance pose. Both have distinctive hand sculpts with
tapered, well-formed fingers as opposed to the blobby sausages we see
on some figures.
The
lower abdomen is a new design for this scale of Mattel figure. It has
rounded openings that the hip joint is recessed into. It looks so
much better than the big, ugly hinges we usually see on Mattel’s
superheroes. The utility belt on this Batman looks cool, but seems
incredibly impractical for squatting. That pointy part on the belt
would dig right into the top of Bruce’s junk. And I am always
opposed to utility belts with no pouches.
The
boots have the same sculpted definition as the gloves; in the pointed
shape of Batman’s traditional boot.
Most
of this figure is flat black because that’s what the cartoon
character looks like. The Bat symbol is a slightly glossier, darker
black. The paint is applied accurately where it is used. This is
especially impressive on the yellow utility belt – yellow has been
a tough color for Mattel to figure out on several occasions. Here it
is applied evenly and thickly so that no black is showing through.
ACCESSORIES
This
is where Mattel completely and utterly failed. This Batman does not
include one, single accessory and that is unacceptable. For a
character that is known
for his ingenious gimmicks – especially this version – to not
even include a Batarang is ridiculous. Especially when you consider
this:
“VAST
ARSENAL OF WEAPONS AND GADGETS”
Oh
really, idiots? Then where are they?
Even
if Mattel had pieced together various Bat accessories from other toys
throughout the years, this guy should have come with a few things. It
thoroughly irritates me when an otherwise great figure is marred by
one glaring omission.
FUN
Any
figure with new articulation is by default a bit more fun to play
with. Many of the joints come just shy of having the range I would
like, but it’s nice to see Mattel trying something different. Or it
would be if this line weren’t dead.
They
finally implemented the hinged ball joint neck that the Marvel
Legends line has been using forever. The shoulders are huge ball
joints with a great range. The elbows have swivels on top of pivots,
but the pivots don’t bend nearly as much as I’d like, mostly due
to the design of the arm above the joint.
The
waist swivels. A large ball joint here would have improved the figure
a huge amount. It could have been incorporated into the belt sculpt
rather than leaving an ugly line. Then again, that line probably
could have been eliminated as well.
The
hips have a pretty great range. The knees do about as much as could
be expected. Double joints wouldn’t have worked well with this
sculpt, but I do think they could have gotten a bit more out of the
ankles.
All
in all this Batman has about the same range as any of its DCUC
relatives, but with much cleaner lines and a nicer profile. I would
love to see a whole line of DC animated universe figures in this
style. Good thing DC Collectibles is doing exactly that.
OVERALL
I
really like this figure. Taking into account the design that it
needed to stick to, it is superior to a great number of the DCUC
releases. It looks cool, it has a ton of personality, and it’s a
great - and in my case necessary – addition to the Batman shelf.
It’s different enough that I couldn’t skip it and good enough
that I didn’t want to.
The
only mark against it is the lack of accessories, which is a problem
that Mattel will continue to get away with as long as they maintain
their grip on the DC license.
4
out of 5
By
one now for super cheap on Amazon and help Needless Things pay the
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