It’s
not often that an entirely new style of action figure is released.
Granted,
there’s nothing new under the sun, but every once in a while
something is created that is distinctive enough and combines enough
disparate elements to stand as a new and unique item amongst the
hordes of 3.75”, 6”, 12”, and whatever other sizes and styles
that are available in the toy market. I can really only think of a
few times in my nearly four decades of toy collecting that a line or
figure has struck me as truly being something different and special.
Todd
Toys’ (now McFarlane Toys) Spawn
line changed the market forever. The initial releases featured
sculpts the likes of which we had never seen before. But there was so
much more to the line than just the style. As a matter of fact, the
impact was so huge that it warrants a whole article.
Memo
to Myself – write McFarlane Toys article.
Some
releases were more singular and didn’t exactly change the world,
but to me were still impactful and innovative. Flatt World’s
Dracula figure was one of these. Inspired by Mego but featuring
dramatic improvements in sculpting, detail, and quality, this figure
stands as one of the finest pieces in my collection and something
that to this day hasn’t been matched. In a way, it’s the closest
thing to the Batman I’m reviewing today.
Finally
there was Toy Biz’s Spider-Man Classics line, which led to Marvel
Legends. These sparked the twelfth scale revolution that is still
going on a decade and a half later. This remains my favorite scale
and style of toy. That first Spider-Man has been improved upon since,
but to me is one of the most significant action figures ever
released.
Today
I am reviewing a figure that I have been equal parts excited and
doubtful about. As I’ve followed its development online it has
seemed like a new paradigm in toys - potentially a significant leap
ahead in design and technology. A combination of superior sculpting,
super articulation, and state-of-the-art soft goods that might yield
a new high-water mark of twelfth scale action figures.
It
was also fraught with potential (likely, even) disappointments. There
are so
many
problems that can occur with figures of this nature. Joints can
function poorly or break.
Interchangeable parts can be difficult to
switch, to the point of not being worthwhile. Plastics can be too
brittle or too soft. Accessories can be soft, brittle, or simply not
interact with the figure in the way they were meant. Paint can be
inconsistent. The figure might be difficult to stand up. And we all
know what kinds of disasters soft goods can be at this scale.
And
then there was the price tag – seventy bucks for a twelfth scale
(six inch) action figure. Even if all of the elements came together
successfully, could such a figure really
be worth that much?
I
doubted it. But I was so excited about the potential
of the figure and about reviewing something that felt so new that I
went ahead and ordered this version from my Local Comic Book Shop.
Side
Note: If you don’t have a subscription service set up at your Local
Comic Book Shop, you should. Most stores will give you a discount -
possibly up to 20% off – on your merchandise if you have a sub in
place. That made this figure – and many others I buy – more
affordable.
I
was going to write a little something about The
Dark Knight Returns
here, but I’m pretty sure you guys are ready to read about this
figure by now. Also, that can probably be its own article.
Memo
to Myself – write The
Dark Knight Returns
article.
FIRST
GLANCE
I
was determined to be hard on this figure. I knew that I was excited
about a new style and also that it was Batman. I neglected to mention
it in the intro, but obviously the fact that this first One:12
Collective figure is the Dark Knight made a huge difference in my
purchasing decision. If this had been just about any other character
I wouldn’t have been nearly
as likely to make the investment.
So
knowing that not only was it Batman but that I wanted
to like this figure and for it to be a success, I did my best to put
on my most critical mindset for the review.
I
mean, as soon as I opened the box I was in love with it, but I tried
to tell myself, “Yeah, it’s going to break as soon as you touch
it”. Just looking at it, though – beautiful. Visually it’s a
true work of art – both the style and the proportions of Frank
Miller’s older Batman are captured.
I’ll
go ahead and say this now – the camera picks up details of the
fabric that are not as apparent in person. I don’t feel that these
pictures are properly representative of the figure, as it looks much
better in person.
PACKAGING
If
you’re charging seventy bucks for an action figure it’s fairly
important that you sell it in a fancy-pants box. Mezco has definitely
done that. This thing is gorgeous.
The
exterior shell is a plastic slipcover with various elements printed
on it such as the title logo, Batman’s silhouette, and all of the
images of the figure on the back. The graphics are beautiful and
eye-catching and it’s clear that a lot of thought went into putting
over the fact that this is a deluxe toy. This piece slides off
easily.
The
box itself has the background elements printed on it and aside from
the distinctive lightning bolt on the front consists of the subdued
blue colors associated with DKR.
It’s all done in a lovely flat finish that looks so much classier
than glossier print. The box is made of a thick, sturdy cardboard.
The
front panel opens to reveal the figure and accessories and an
embossed silver Bat-symbol. I dare anyone to not say “Holy shit”
the first time they see this figure in person.
The
box opens easily. Inside there are two plastic trays, each with their
own cover. These separate easily and are not taped together, which I
liked. The bottom tray holds the arm and armature for the display
stand. Everything else in is in the top tray.
This
is a fantastic box. It’s a perfect combination of everything that
collector packaging should be – it has a beautiful design, it’s
easy to open and remove the figure, and it’s also completely
resealable with no sign of damage; not even tape marks. Mezco put
together a box that is utilitarian and
attractive
and it might well be the best I’ve ever owned. I didn’t have even
a second of difficulty removing any piece of the toy from the box,
and that’s significant.
LOOKS
The
suit is sewn onto the figure. It’s not meant to be removable and
that was the right decision because that would have totally ruined
the aesthetics of the fabric. The elimination of closures and points
of egress keep the fabric snug and form-fitting. It’s actually a
loose weave, which allows it to stretch and move as the figure is
posed. The plastic underneath is the same grey as the figure, so the
illusion of solid fabric is maintained. This was the first extremely
clever thing I noticed about the figure, but far from the last.
I
don’t know how the suit is attached to the body underneath the
boots and gloves, but it is secure. I’d love to see a video or
series of pictures of how these are assembled, because things that
shouldn’t work, do. As the figure is posed the suit has no problems
shifting and accommodating the poses. The genius of this design is
that the fabric suit covers the joints, creating a clean profile the
likes of which I’ve never seen on a figure in this scale.
The
Bat symbol is also ingenious. A sticker wouldn’t work, obviously.
And the loose weave of the suit wouldn’t have allowed for screen
printing. Instead, Mezco essentially grafted a rubber symbol onto the
chest of the suit and it looks great. It has a thickness to it that
is much nicer than screen printing would have been. It flexes a bit,
but is solid enough that it won’t crack or tear.
The
head sculpt the same quality you might expect to see on a statue. The
lines and thickness of the detail capture Miller’s design. The
paint application is a step above anything else at this scale and
absolutely nails the color palette of the comics – the faded blue
and skin tones contrast with the stark white eyes and teeth and the
black in the mouth.
The
boots are plastic pieces that rotate independently of the legs
without pulling on the suit. There are sculpted folds, seams, and
treads. There is a thickness and a level of detail that makes them
really impressive.
The
utility belt and trunks are separate pieces from the figure. The
trunks are the main thing that looks much better in person. They are
cut and sewn in a way that works with the shape of the figure and
they stay in place well. The utility belt is my favorite that I’ve
seen on a Batman figure. As I’ve said many times before, I am a
pouch guy. I think it’s only practical for Batman to have pouches
rather than cylinders or little rectangles that are barely big enough
to fit packs of gum. This thing is sculpted and painted at an amazing
level. The dark wash brings out the details of the seams and each
buckle and closure has a perfectly applied bit of silver paint.
Moreover, it is designed so that the belt rests on top of the trunks
with the pouches hanging over. This keeps the utility belt in place
and covers the top of the trunks, maintaining the proper look.
The
cape is another marvel of design. There is a plastic collar around
the neck of the figure that is meant to be the bottom portion of the
cowl. The fabric cape is attached to this to keep it in place. One of
the things that makes the combination of mediums work on this figure
is how perfectly the designers matched the colors – the plastics
and fabrics are almost identical in hue and are even remarkably
similar in gloss. The texture is really the only major difference.
The
fabric of the cape is light enough for the scale but hangs
beautifully on the figure. This is due to rubber panels grafted onto
the points at the edges that weight it down and keep it folded in a
natural way. And there’s a
lot of
cape. It’s pretty amazing that it works while the figure is
standing but also unfurls enough to recreate pretty much any of the
iconic scenes from the source comic. The fabric is sturdy enough for
normal handling, but you do not want to expose it to anything that
could potentially snag it – whether that be a concrete floor or
very dry skin. Also, I don’t know how they sealed the edges without
a seam, but they seem solid enough. I’m hoping they won’t fray
over time.
The
tops of the gloves rotate around the forearms independent of the arms
or the hands. Like the boots, the gloves have detailed seams and
folds.
This
figure is exactly as it was designed to be. There are no errors –
no paint blotches, no stuck joints, no misplaced parts. I seems to me
that there is virtually no difference between what was designed and
what the factory produced. And that’s nigh unto a miracle.
ACCESSORIES
Old
Man Batman comes with:
A
base with a stand and an armature
A
grappling hook and line
A
rifle
A
leg belt of pouches
An
extra head
Three
extra sets of hands
A
bag to store the accessories
The
extra hands are full of detail. You get “I’m Wolverine, but with
Batarangs” hands, “I’m about to break some of your bones”
hands, and “I am Batman but I still might use a rifle (but only to
shoot a grappling hook” hands.
The
wrist pegs that the hands attach to have subtle ridges that hold the
hands in place but keep changing hands easy – it’s not a struggle
to get the hands on and off.
The
extra head features a more neutral expression. The stick head looks
great, but I prefer this one. It’s attached to the neck by a large
ball joint. Like the hands, it stays on but is easy to take off.
The
stand features a clear base with the Bat symbol. I wish they had
painted the symbol on the bottom, because I slipped and scratched
mine while putting the armature on it and now I have two scratches on
mine forever.
The
peg on the base is for simply standing Batman on it. If you want to
get fancier, you can use the bottom of the stand to pop the peg out
from the bottom. The stand plugs into that hole. There are four
joints on the stand that can be tightened using the screws at each
joint so that you can have Batman “jumping” or “dropping” or
whatever in many different ways.
The
final piece is an armature that clips onto the stand. There are four
sturdy wires with clips at the end. These clips attach to Batman’s
cape so that it can be posed in various ways. It takes a little
practice to get the hang of this, and I can’t honestly say that I
had it by the time I stopped taking reference pictures. It’s a bit
tricky, but very cool – far superior to wires being built into the
cape.
The
thigh belt looks every bit as good as the waist utility belt. It’s
made out of soft rubber and has a hard peg fastener, so it is very
easy to snap shut. Yet another clever feature is that there are
little nubbies lining the belt so that it stays in place on the
fabric.
The
grappling hook is unreasonably awesome. The sculpt shows the hinges
where it would open up and the silver paint with the wash looks good.
The attached line is strong and exactly long enough to be useful if
you want to do something like have Batman climb a wall:
Batman
climbing a wall.
The
rifle is easily the most boring thing about this figure, and yet it’s
awesome. The sculpt is great and I love the wash on the gunmetal
portions. The rifle itself is firm plastic while the strap is rubber.
It fits nicely over the figure’s shoulder (though not across his
chest as it was in the comics) and also perfectly into the
appropriate hands.
The
bag doesn’t get its own picture. It’s great that Mezco included
something to store the accessories in, but it is
just a bag.
FUN
I
spent about two hours messing around with this figure after I got it.
Then we had to go and run some errands, Lil’ Troublemaker got home
from school, we did homework, had dinner, etc. Later that night I
spent at least another hour posing the figure and taking pictures.
Sitting here writing this review makes me want to play with it some
more. This thing is loaded with brilliant articulation and features.
It might not ever leave my desk.
I
don’t know that I can properly run down the articulation, but I’ll
start with the parts I took pictures of in action:
The
shoulders are double jointed. I can’t quite explain this, but
Batman can shrug and move his shoulders back and forth. There are
swivels at the biceps and the elbows are either double jointed or
very deeply single jointed. I can’t tell because of the gloves, but
they bend as much as they need to. The glove tops are soft enough to
give a bit and allow a bit deeper bend on the elbow than is apparent.
The wrists swivel on the pegs and at the point of attachment to the
glove tops. There is a pivot at the base of the peg.
The
hips are ball jointed with thigh swivels. The knees are double
jointed. The boots swivel and the ankles have deep pivots with rocker
joints at the foot connection:
Those
are the specific joints I wanted to spotlight. You can see the rest
of the articulation throughout the pictures in the article, but I’ll
describe some more here – the neck joint has a deep pivot and, when
used in conjunction with the abdominal joint, creates the
all-important “looking straight up” or “flying” pose. That
abdominal joint functions like a ball joint and allows movement in
any direction. The waist features a similar joint, so that between
the two of them you can have a sufficiently hunched-over Old Man
Batman.
Fantastic
articulation and tons of accessories make this figure more fun than
most that I buy. I was fascinated just by bending it and posing it
and watching how the suit and all of the parts interacted. Everything
is extraordinarily well thought out and engineered. It’s all just
so functional.
At no point did I think, “Oh, well – I can see how this was
supposed to work”. It all works.
OVERALL
This
is a magnificent action figure and easily the best I own. To compare
it to same-sized figure, it has much more practically functional
articulation that is almost completely concealed by the suit, as well
as a fabric cape that does what capes are supposed to do.
Additionally, it has tons of accessories and a stand that is more
than just a piece of plastic.
To
compare it to aesthetically similar figures (by which I mean sixth
scale figures), this Batman is far more poseable than any I have
owned. While sixth scale figures tend to look magnificent with their
larger scale and more intricate costumes, those same costumes often
get in the way of utilizing the great articulation on those figures.
Whether the fabric is too stiff or thick or the layers become
unsorted and disheveled from posing, I’ve found that sixth scale
figures usually aren’t great for playing with.
That
leaves Mego reproductions and NECA’s cloth retro figures. I have a
nostalgic love for the Mego repros, but they don’t hold a candle to
this figure. The rubber band articulation is sub-par and while the
sculpts are fun, they simply do not compete. I have a number of
NECA’s retro figures, but I haven’t opened any because I don’t
really have a good shelf for them. Right now they’re all hanging on
a wall. And I have to admit – they look fantastic, cost less than
half as much as this guy, and are actually larger figures. The only
question is how functional their articulation is. I suppose I’m
going to have to open one and find out.
Having
said all of that, this figure surpassed the almost ridiculously high
standards I had set for it. Prior to opening the figure I had trouble
imagining how it could have articulation that was on par with other
twelfth scale releases, let alone that was better and more
functional. Visually this Batman appeared to be great, but the final
product often differs significantly from the production versions. Not
so here. The creators clearly intended for this to e a work of art –
a new level of action figure. And they succeeded in every way.
5
out of 5
Is
it worth seventy bucks? That’s a tough call. I feel like I got my
money’s worth because I experienced an exciting new format of
action figure. As far as I’m concerned the figure delivered beyond
my wildest expectations. I cannot overemphasize the fact that there
was not one disappointing thing about this Batman. While I love
action figures and enjoy reviewing and collecting them, every
figure ever
has something disappointing about it.
Typically if I’m awarding
something a five it’s because there was only a minor flaw or there
was something I didn’t like but understand is a production
necessity.
This
Dark Knight offered no such compromises. It’s truly awesome.
Now
I’m fascinated by the promise of this One:12 Collective line. Judge
Dredd has been solicited in Previews and we saw the head mutant from
Dark
Knight Returns
at Toy Fair, where Mezco also teased a Lawmaster for Dredd (similar
to what Matty did with the Battle Ram years ago). I didn’t order
Dredd because he’s not a character that I wanted to invest this
kind of money in, but now I’m curious. How did they handle his
leather-like uniform? It can’t be the same loose weave as Batman’s.
Will all of the articulation be as functional? I really want to know.
Mezco
also displayed a ton
of licenses for this line, so I’m trying to imagine what could be
next. This is a high price point for twelfth scale figures, so they
have to be extremely careful with what they offer and when. I’ll
be following this line closely and certainly rooting for its success.
I don’t have the money or the discipline to stick to just one line
that it would take to collect these, but I sure am impressed with
what Mezco has done.
Oh,
and three different versions of this Batman were offered at retail.
This light blue costume is a Previews Exclusive. There’s a dark
blue version that was a Mezco online store Exclusive, and the regular
retail version is black. If you’re a toy collector that has an
interest in the history of toys and a desire for new and innovative
stuff, I recommend you track one down.
Perhaps
from Amazon, and help out Needless Things!:
No comments:
Post a Comment