By
Phantom Troublemaker
Note:
This review was dictated into my phone live as I opened the figure.
That’s why it reads so weird. As I was editing it I realized that
this might be why certain toy reviewers come off as weirdo idiots.
You can’t just dictate speech into a written review because we
don’t speak the same way we write. Or at least, we shouldn’t.
I
cleaned up some word errors and the worst grammar offenses, but
otherwise left it intact because, quite frankly, if I wanted it to
sound normal I would have had to re-write the whole thing and that
would have defeated the purpose of the review. So sit back and enjoy
the weirdness of my spoken words transposed into internet print.
Welcome
to a very special Hampton Inn hotel room toy review!
This
Batman was at Barnes & Noble on clearance for fifty percent off -
otherwise I never would have bought it. Also I wanted to
do something kind of
different and keep myself occupied. Thanks to the nature of my job
I'm sequestered during non-Snowpocalypse and I need to keep myself
occupied. Sitting in front of me is a toy from a line that I have
never purchased from before, but it is a Batman. So it will be a fine
addition to my Batman shelf. I'm actually pretty excited because I’ve
had an eye on the Figuarts line for a long time – mostly due to the
Godzilla stuff - and I just think it's going to be really interesting
to open up one of these figures that I've never even touched before.
PACKAGING
The
box is small. It's a fancy box with a nice flat finish. The graphics
look really nice. On the back it has the figure in a bunch of
different poses. The front is a nice window with some graphics on it
- there's a smoke effect on the bottom that’s pretty cool. You can
see most of the figure, but I will say it's kind of behind the busy
box front. It's a really good-looking, but I feel like you need to be
able to see everything and appreciate the figure to be ready to spend
the original fifty-eight dollar asking price.
Inside
the box there are a bunch of plastic pieces holding the figure and
all of the accessories. It looks like there's a ton of stuff in here
that you can't really see from outside the box, which is one of the
reasons I wasn't crazy about it. If I was selling premium action
figures I’d make sure potential customers could see all of the
goodies.
I
do like that there aren't any twist ties or anything in here. There's
some kind of film stuck to his butt, presumably to preserve the paint
job there. Just by pulling this guy out of the box I can tell there
are a ton of joints.
Everything
is packed very securely and everything pops right out of the plastic
interior trays. I really like this setup.
FIRST GLANCE
I
honestly didn't realize these figures were this small.
My
son got the Mattel version of this figure a few years ago for
Christmas and I thought the design of this Batman was great. The
armor looks cool and has some nice coloring and it's just a solid
Batman design for a video game. I'm going to have to give Bandai a
lot of credit because the figure doesn't look as flimsy and janky as
I kind of expected it to. Historically I haven't been a huge fan of
Japanese action figures because so often even though they have
fantastic articulation they don't look great aesthetically. I can
already tell the articulation is insane, but just standing here as an
action figure it looks really good - it is not betrayed by all of the
joints that it has. It looks like a solid action figure.
LOOKS
The
head sculpt is solid. The eyes are painted accurately. The cowl has
super sharp, dangerously pointy ears that you could probably kill
somebody with if you needed to and he's got a big Batman jaw. It
looks good. I'm not usually a fan of a cowl that goes all the way to
the chin, but it works for this particular design.
The
Batsuit is plated armor on top of a bodysuit and the plates have
amazing detail. I love the metallic hue of each of the armor plated
pieces and the sculpted detail on them is really nice - particularly
the battle damage on the chest plate. You guys know I'm not a huge
fan of battle damage but in this instance this is a Batman from a
really messed-up world where Superman is going crazy and killed - I
don't know if it's a bunch of people or just Joker. But this poor guy
has been through some tough stuff so I’m good with some dents and
whatnot. This Batman has that kind of damage on his armor. There are
scrapes, nicks, and cuts on the chest plate, the shoulder plates, the
gauntlets and the biceps. Actually, all of the armor pieces have some
form of damage on them. It’s consistently random
throughout the figure, if
that makes sense. It looks like real damage, not like planned
sculpts.
This is the first Japanese figure of this style that I've
owned and I'm really, really impressed so far with the detail and the
general construction and design. And it's sturdier than I thought it
would be. I say that as I'm actually sitting here handling the figure
as I'm talking about it to you guys.
The
arms have shoulder plates that are a separate little piece so that they
don't interfere with articulation movement. The biceps are armored
and the gauntlets have Batman's trademark fins on them. The fins are
very sharp just like the ears. I would never ever
give this to a kid. I don't even think I'd let my son hold this thing
it's so dangerous.
The
chest piece is actually two different pieces with an upper body plate
and then kind of a midriff armor piece that looks really good. All of
the colors are slightly different, which I like because it actually
makes the chest stand out more.
The
cape is interesting because it comes in three pieces and is not
attached to the figure. There are two side pieces and one main piece.
The two side pieces plug into the main piece would you then attach to
Batman's back. The cape is articulated at the connection points so
you can get some poses, but in a neutral pose it's a little more
dynamic than what I generally like. That's okay, though, because this
is a completely different kind of action figure from what I normally
collect and I'm happy to have some diversity in my collection.
The
cape has a cool look with some different colors painted on and it all
matches what's on the rest of the figure. Other than the points of
articulation on the cape there's no posing it because it's made of
very hard plastic and like the rest of the figure has some points
that seem extremely dangerous.
The
utility belt has pouches and capsules on it and is pretty cool and
futuristic. It's actually very similar to the belt on the Dawn of
Justice Batman. This is a separate soft plastic piece that moves a
little bit on the figure so as not to interfere with the
articulation.
There
are a lot of distinct colors here but this is generally a very
monochromatic Batman. They’re all dark and subdued. It's fitting
due to the nature of the story in the world that he comes from.
Batman's
boots have big plates of armor on the front and I wonder if these
might even be die-cast. It seems odd to me that there would be any
die-cast in this figure, especially just in that one spot, but for
some reason his boots and calves are colder than the rest of the
figure. It's a little cold in the hotel room is the reason that I'm
noticing this. I wonder if maybe they're that way to give the figure
better balance.
ACCESSORIES
This
Batman comes with five extra hands, an extra head, a grapple gun, two
grappling hooks, and two Batarangs. I'm a little surprised it didn't
come with a stand.
The
extra head has some kind of gas mask or something on it. It's a fully
masked head. The eyes are covered as well. It almost looks like a
Transformer but it's also reminiscent of Batman Beyond or maybe
Batwing from the current comics. You have to be extremely careful
switching the heads out because those pointy bat ears will stab right
through your thumb. You have to take the head off by putting your
thumb under the chin and your finger behind the head and pulling
directly up until it pops off. There's a peg with a ball on the end
underneath that the head pops onto. To put the head on you have to
hold the neck up straight because it moves and push back and down on
Batman's forehead with a finger behind his head until you hear it pop
into place. Once you get the hang of it it's not a big deal, but it's
tricky to figure out initially.
The
hands are a little easier to switch out because they're rubber. But
you still have to be careful about the pointy arm fins. There are
hands posed to hold the Batarangs, a hand for the grapple gun, and
“I'm going to mess you up” hands.
The
grapple gun is oddly huge, almost like it's for a different scale of
figure. I like the look of it a lot. The sculpt is well defined and
the two different colors of paint look really nice and match Batman,
but the thing is just so huge. I also find it weird that it's just
straight and that the handle isn’t angled at all.
Both
of the grapples plug into the barrel. One is just the grapple and the
other has a wire on it that can be posed. It's kind of a weird thing,
but I guess the point is that the figure can look like it's firing
it. It's not really long enough to be a good grappling line and I'm
not sure that you need to pose a grappling line. Still, this is a
neat piece and I dig it. And again - it's something else that's
different from the rest of my collection.
The
Batarangs are also unusually large. It's almost like this Batman is
compensating for something, what with all of these oversized gadgets.
They fit nicely into his Batarang hands and he can look like he's
throwing them better than any other Batman figure I have
thanks to his
articulation.
FUN
This
figure is tons of fun despite how dangerous it is. The articulation
is off the chart. There are two joints under the head. The neck bands
deeply downwards and side-to-side and the head swivels on top of
that. Almost every joint on this figure is a double joint, which is
incredible. The shoulders, elbows, hips, knees, and abdomen all
feature two joints. There's bicep swivels, the wrists swivel and
pivot, the feet turn and pivot at the ankles and have a toe joint.
I'm not normally a fan of the toe joint but this one is so tight that
it is actually functional.
I
don't even know how to describe the hip joints they actually swing
down and out and to the side so you could potentially have this guy
ride a horse if you need him to. There seems to be no limit to this
figure’s posability and I am amazed that they were able to achieve
the aesthetic look that they were and still have this range of
articulation.
Of
course the accessories add a ton of fun as well. The multiple
weapons, heads, and hands create a lot of options for playing around
with this figure and make him something that's going to linger on my
desktop for quite some time.
OVERALL
I'm
a little torn about this Batman. I honestly don't know if he's a $58
figure, but at 50% off he is definitely worth $29. I'm amazed at how
well engineered he is and how good he looks. While I still prefer the
Mezco One:12 figures this is almost like a different category of
collectible. If you've never bought an SH Figuarts figure I recommend
you look for a character that you think you might like on clearance
and buy one. I'm actually tempted now to go back and buy the
Injustice Superman.
5
out of 5
Or,
if you like my review enough, go buy one from Amazon and help support
Needless Things!:
is the little cape thingie under his neck removable? Also is his belt attached to the front or just the back?
ReplyDeleteThe cape attachment piece is not removable. The belt is attached at the front and back.
Delete