I
have always thought it was odd that Man-Bat was the first villain
used in Batman:
The Animated Series.
He and his alter-ego Kirk Langstrom appeared in the first episode,
causing the GCPD to go after Batman. The admirable thing here is that
they avoided an origin story. The approach was, “We all know who
Batman is. Let’s get to the action.”
Langstrom
was used somewhat sparingly in the DC Animated Universe, making only
a few appearances. The character had the honor of being voiced by two
powerhouses – Marc Singer provided Langstrom’s voice and the
legendary Frank Welker performed Man-Bat’s vocals.
Kenner’s
original Man-Bat figures is one of my favorites from their Animated
Series
line. It’s a large figure and functionally does everything that a
Man-Bat figure should do. Kenner added to and enhanced the standard
articulation for the line in order to produce a figure that could
both stand and fly. It’s aesthetically nice and has great play
value – something that can’t be said for many toys of the early
90s.
DC
Collectibles had a tall order in updating this particular character.
Given what they’ve accomplished so far with their Animated line, I
had no doubts they would succeed.
FIRST
GLANCE
This
is a huge figure, and it’s amazing that it retains the same price
point as the other single-carded figures in the line. As big as that
Kenner Man-Bat was compared to the rest of the line, this one is
monstrous. The scale is much more properly represented. To me all of
this just shows that DCC loves this line and wants to provide the
best figures they can for collectors.
At
least, that’s what I thought until I opened the box…
PACKAGING
Man-Bat
comes in a window box custom designed to house his large, winged
form. The color scheme matches the rest of the line and fits right in
with the other figures despite its different shape. The figure and
all of the accessories are nicely visible in the window.
The
back has the generic Batman design printed on it, but the important
part is the sculptor credit on the side.
The
box is easy to open, but for reasons I still don’t understand I had
a heck of a time getting the plastic tray out. This was the case with
both Man-Bats I ended up getting.
Yes,
both.
DCC hasn’t yet gotten ahold of their quality control problems, and
Man-Bat might be the worst of the bunch. Hang in there, I’ll tell
you all about it.
LOOKS
The
scale of Man-Bat versus the other figures in the line is spot-on. It
stands tall and has a massive wingspan. I like how much menace his
sheer size imparts.
Sculpt-wise
he looks great. This character involves a good bit more detail than
most of the other figures released so far and certainly has the most
distinctive profile. All of the shapes are so cool to look at – the
long torso, the distinctive bat wings with the fingers at the ends,
the angular head, the bent legs and feet. It all looks so good and so
true to the cartoon. Slightly more true, even, than Kenner’s
figure.
The
head sculpt is packed with detail. The large ears have sculpted,
painted ridges inside that add a nice visual touch. The open mouth is
red inside with a painted tongue and white fangs. Above that are two
yellow eyes that I absolutely love because of their mismatched
shapes. This is one of those little touches that DCC has been adding
that makes these fgures so much more evocative of the cartoon. You
can just see the animation within the plastic form.
The
elongated torso features angular musculature and a thick, powerful
neck.
The
shoulder joints are just a little bit ugly on the “flying” arms.
The discs of the joint stick out beyond the shoulder sculpt a bit and
it isn’t great. Otherwise these look fantastic. The hands and
fingers at the ends of the arms are creepy and well-defined. The skin
of the wings has a great classic horror shape – if that makes sense
– and is a softer plastic with a cool texture that is slightly
different from the rest of the figure.
The
trousers have an awkward look that suggests they don’t fit right.
The legs and feet are angled just right and are sized better than the
stumpy ones on Kenner’s figure.
I
realize I am comparing this figure to Kenner’s more than I have in
any of the other reviews for this line. There’s a reason for that.
ACCESSORIES
Man-Bat
comes with a stand, three pill bottles, a cassette recorder (a
what?), and two extra arms.
The
stand is adjustable in three ways and has a nice turnaround of
Man-Bat printed on the base. I still wish the bases were black with
blue or red print. This white is only going to get ugly over time.
Otherwise the stand is good, though I don’t think you should
necessarily use it like this:
The
bottles and recorder look nice and have solid paint jobs. Man-Bat
can’t interact with these, but other figures – hopefully
including a future release of Kirk Langstrom – can.
The
extra arms are sculpted with folded up wings. I can’t help but be
disappointed in these (and this is just the start). The Kenner figure
had elbows with swivels and pivots, allowing standing and flying
poses:
At the very least I feel like these should have pivots. As it
is you can’t even pose the figure the same as the turnaround
drawing. I’m definitely disappointed at how limited the arms are.
FUN
Well,
here we go.
Man-Bat’s
arms fall right out of the arm holes. The right one is worse than the
left, but neither stays put. At all:
This
has been the case with both
Man-Bats that I have purchased. It’s pretty ridiculous and an
inexcusable lack of quality control. Especially with the problems
that this line has had and DCC’s assurances that they were
tightening things up. They literally did not tighten these up.
This
time around the problems aren’t just QC-related, though. I feel
like there are big design problems with this figure, as well. I’ll
skip over the ugly hip joints that were chosen as the standard for
the line and go straight to one of my biggest action figure pet
peeves – figures of characters that can fly should always
be able to be made to look like they’re flying. Man-Bat’s head
can rotate, but has very little up-and-down movement. Even with the
generous range of movement provided by the admittedly excellent torso
articulation, Man-Bat cannot look straight ahead while in a
horizontal position. Even the Kenner figure was capable of this:
If
the joint would have had a negative impact on the figure’s profile
then they should have engineered a second head. This is not something
I consider optional, especially when “flying” arms were included.
Sadly,
all of those things combine to make a figure that is not very fun.
You can’t touch it without the arms falling off (both sets suffer
from the problem) and it can’t look right while flying. What we’re
left with is a figure that can stand on the shelf and look nice, but
that’s all. And don’t jostle the shelf.
OVERALL
I
am so
damned disappointed to be giving this figure a poor review. It’s
one of the ones I was the most excited for from this line and I am
honestly baffled as to how it turned out so poorly. QC aside, DC
Collectibles has been on fire for over a year now. Heck, I’ve got a
batch of brand-new Arkham
Knight
figures that are incredible.
Side
Note: I really
hope we can somehow get an Arkham-style
Man-Bat. I don’t know if he’s in the new game, but that would be
rad.
The
aesthetics are beautiful, but this figure utterly failed in the
functionality department.
2
out of 5
If
you want to try your luck, go to Amazon and buy a Man-Bat so you can
help out Needless Things!:
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