Factors
affecting the timing of these reviews include other time-sensitive
posts coming up, newer toys that might be more exciting or relevant,
or just the subject toy being something a little bigger and more
complex so I know the review is going to be more of an effort than
usual.
While
I was – and am still – totally stoked about today’s toy, it was
one of those that qualified as a bigger subject and
I wanted to wait until I played the related video game before I
reviewed it so that I could relate the toy to the Batmobile in the
game. But now the game isn’t coming out until June (if then) and I
want to clear out this mass of months-old toy pictures.
Of course, the best thing to do would be to go ahead with the big Planet of the Apes and RoboCop vs. Terminator reviews that I have planned. Each would cover the entire lines rather than just a single figure. I love both of those NECA lines, but the year has already been massively busy so far and I just haven’t had the time to commit to such large projects.
This
Batmobile is an odd thing. Mattel made it as a San Diego Comic Con
Exclusive. This is weird because you’d think if they were going to
put all of the money and effort into creating an item this complex
and large they’d want to maximize their sales by offering it
through regular retail. As we all know, the big expense of toys is in
the development. Once the thing is designed and tooled, the
production is a small portion of the cost. So it’s surprising that
Mattel would limit their potential sales in that way.
Of
course, that might not be the case. I recently learned that there are
two different Limited Editions of the game being offered – one with
a statue of Batman like the other Arkham
games, and one with a “transforming statue of the Batmobile”.
That’s very odd terminology and I suspect that it might just be
this Batmobile. Either way I reserved the regular Batman Limited
Edition because the Batmobile version costs a
lot
more.
It’s
also possible that Mattel will
release this to retail when the game comes out or after. They could
do any number of things to preserve the “Exclusivity” of this one
– minor paint variations, include a different Batman figure, or
simply removing the electronic features. I think the last two are
likely. Including a Batman that was actually from the related game
would be a good idea (more on that later) and eliminating the
electronic features would reduce the cost, allowing for a higher
profit margin. I mean, this is Mattel. They’ll probably keep the
eighty-five dollar price tag.
I
kid.
Maybe.
This is a huge, beautiful toy. It feels like a throwback to the glorious vehicles of the 80s with tons of detail, features, and moving parts. It was actually hard for me to take my time with pictures and then to open the packaging properly because I was so excited to get my hands on this thing.
It’s
sad to me that modern vehicles just aren’t as good as what I had
thirty years ago. So sad that I might a whole other post about it.
The box for this Batmobile really sells the fact that you’ve gotten something special. There is an outer shell with a handle on top. This shell is made out of a thick, sturdy cardboard. Each side features graphics depicting a side of the vehicle. Two cardboard flaps secure the shell to the inner container.
The
inner container is a wonderfully designed box that shows off the
contents in all of their Bat-glory. There’s a sort of blueprint
design to the whole thing that’s very cool and in keeping with the
style of the Arkham
games.
There are graphics printed on the clear shell on top and they look
great. The bats are familiar to anybody that’s played the games and
add another layer of specialness to this thing. Additionally, the
tabs holding the front of the shell closed are Bat-shaped!:
The
back of the box lists the features and functions of the toy. It’s a
mix of actual pictures and awesome x-ray-looking graphics that are
reminiscent of Detective Mode from the games.
This
is an amazing box. You guys know that I open pretty much everything
and rarely have qualms about tossing packaging. But I really
considered finding a way to keep this one intact. You can’t,
really. The whole thing has to come apart to get the Batmobile off of
it, so I finally gave up and just tore it open. If it weren’t so
expensive it would be worth having two just to display one in this
beautifully engineered package that borders on being a display case.
Thanks
to the Arkham
Knight
Instagram account and a steady diet of teaser videos from Rocksteady,
I have a pretty good idea of how this Batmobile should look and
function.
I
suppose I could write a whole post about the various Batmobiles and
come up with different favorites depending on my mood and which
Batmobile I had seen or read about in action most recently, but I
have to say that right now I think this is the best Batmobile design.
It’s part of the reason I had to have this expensive toy that’s
part of a line that I do not actually collect.
This
model incorporates all of the most successful aspects of many
Batmobile designs – the bulk and sturdiness of the Tumbler, the
armaments and armor of the tank from Dark
Knight Returns,
and various Bat-inspired shapes throughout the design like the
Batmobiles that have appeared in the comics throughout the years.
Mattel
has perfectly captured this new Batmobile design. I’m not going to
go into the specifics of the sculpt because there’s just too much,
but you can see from the pictures that this armored beast is full of
details. While the windows of the cockpit are not, unfortunately,
translucent, they do have a glossy paint job that creates the
illusion of tinted glass.
This
thing feels sturdy, like it could survive a drop. I’m certainly not
going to try it, but I’m impressed with the thickness of the
plastic and how durable the moving parts seem. It’s just put
together quite well.
The
wheels alone are wild, and very much in keeping with the Arkham
aesthetics we’ve grown to know and love over the last six years.
It’s a hyper-industrial look that is evocative of the lived-in
futuristic style of the great Ridley Scott sci-fi flicks. But with
more branding.
The
cockpit is probably the toy’s weakest point. It’s pretty light on
detail.
Finer sculpting and stickers or paint would have made a huge difference here. What looks like a high-end collectible toy on the outside falls apart a little bit when you open it and find this decidedly sub-par interior.
Finer sculpting and stickers or paint would have made a huge difference here. What looks like a high-end collectible toy on the outside falls apart a little bit when you open it and find this decidedly sub-par interior.
The
front end features clear plastic headlights with a detailed grill and
a bat-head-shaped cattle chaser sort of thing. There’s also a
(non-functional) grappling hook planted in the middle of all of that.
The
rear has a turbine and two pieces that look like low to the ground
spoilers. I don’t know what these are supposed to be, but they look
cool and oddly vicious.
The
pop-up turret features three different cannons. These feature just
enough color detail to look like pieces that are separate from the
vehicle. When the turret is retracted it looks like an incorporated
part of the Batmobile. There is a large seam running around it, but
it looks more like a portion of the engine or an access hatch than a
powerful instrument of crowd suppression and long-range destruction.
When
the Batmobile is in Battle Mode, the wheel housings extend from the
chassis at roughly forty-five degree angles. While I imagine the
in-game model will feature a little more detail, the sculpt on the
toy still holds up. The only problem is this:
There’s
just no excuse for any sort of manufacturing information to be
visible on any main display portion of a toy. Mattel lets this happen
all the
time
and I find it immensely frustrating. This one isn’t as bad as some
others since it is, at least, concealed in Pursuit Mode, but it still
sucks and is an eyesore.
Overall,
though, this is a fantastic-looking machine. The flat black of the
plastic is preferable to a gloss and the paint that is used sparingly
is used well. I love the portions near the wheel sand on the front
and back with the wear painted on. The major success is in creating a
vehicle that seems massive in scale. I have a feeling the in-game
model is larger, but this toy still looks and feels like a monster.
The Arkham Knight Batmobile comes with a not-Arkham Knight Batman action figure.
On
the one hand I don’t care because I’ll be displaying this
Batmobile on shelves with a bunch of other Batmobiles of varying
scales. There won’t be any figures around, so it really didn’t
matter which Batman this came with.
On
the other hand, this is just kind of crappy of Mattel. Especially
considering the fact that they have an Arkham
Knight
Batman.
Nonetheless,
this is a good little Batman figure. It’s 3.75” scale. It has a
great sculpt and pretty good paint. It’s all in the right places
and his eyes are nicely detailed. His utility belt is a dark metallic
gold and I like that.
His
cape is fabric to allow him to sit in the cockpit, but I’m not
digging that big rubber piece. It extends down way too far.
He’s
got plenty of joints for this scale and they’re all solid. Most
importantly, I suppose, he fits in the cockpit just fine:
TONS
OF FUN.
This
Batmobile has two modes – Pursuit and Battle.
Pursuit
Mode is where it looks more like a standard Batmobile. A giant
Batmobile, but the same general shape as all of the others. Nothing
too wacky.
Battle
Mode is where the wheel housings spring out about forty-five degrees
from the chassis and the wheels are released to rotate independently
of one another, allowing the vehicle to perform controlled turns and
move in any direction. Unfortunately there is no mechanism to make
this happen automatically – you have to manually pull the housings
out.
The
functionality of the wheels is great on a flat surface. They move
freely and turn whichever way you move the vehicle.
The
cannon turret is spring-loaded and deploys with a push. The side
mounted guns flip out and the main barrel extends. Like the wheel
housings, this is a manual action and you have to fold everything up
and jam it back down to put the cannon back into Pursuit Mode.
And
then there are the lights and sounds:
Everything
sounds great and the lights are very bright, particularly the
headlights:
I
love the gradient effects used for the turbine and the guns mounted
on the sides of the pop-up cannon. Those guns each have a button on
the back that activates lights and sounds. The one on the Batmobile’s
left lights up, but the one on the right lights up and
changes color the longer you hold it down to simulate the gun
overheating, which I’m sure will be a gameplay component.
This
is awesome.
This
Batmobile is one of those toys that you have to pick up and play with
every time you walk by. It demands to be handled and transformed and
activated.
The price is high, but this is a must-have Batmobile. It is, beyond a shadow of a Bat, the best Batmobile toy I have ever owned. It isn’t as good as it could be – the boring cockpit and manufacturing stamp bring it down – but it’s a fantastic toy the likes of which we don’t often see nowadays. If you have the means, I highly recommend you track one of these down.
4
out of 5
Maybe it’s on Amazon? But probably for an insane price:
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