By
Phantom Troublemaker
And
here I thought that I was done with Mattel’s DC Comics toys.
When
Mattel resumed production on 6” scale DC action figures at the end
of 2015 I wasn’t too
interested. I bought a couple of the Dawn
of Justice
figures just because there was a new Batman and I thought the Wonder
Woman looked cool, but they weren’t good enough for me to want to
start collecting. The Suicide
Squad
line didn’t change my mind on that, though I was impressed with the
assortment they offered. Just not the quality.
Jim
Gordon as Batman, for example.
I
didn’t love the story – as a matter of fact I dropped the Batman
comic because I felt it got tedious. But I still like the idea of an
organization seeing the need to maintain the presence of a Batman in
Gotham and of Gordon being the best choice for that role.
Well,
Gordon in a giant robot rabbit suit. But whatever.
In
classic toy chump form, I also wanted this figure because of the King
Shark build-a-figure. It’s huge, it looks great, and even though
it’s based on the model from The
Flash
TV show, it works for the comics. Because they went all-out on the
show and just made King Shark look like King Shark instead of doing
some goofy bullshit like this:
FIRST
GLANCE
Yeah,
this figure is pretty plain, which was one of my complaints about the
old DCUC line. But this version of Batman is
plain. Very cool, but plain.
The
big sell here is that the disappointment of the last few waves of
DCUC is still fresh enough to me that I feel like the gun, head, and
King Shark piece represent a veritable cornucopia of accessories.
PACKAGING
The
now-standard DC Multiverse box looks nice. Apparently window boxes
are the new norm for 6”(ish) action figure lines, and I’m okay
with that because they look good. I do wonder about cost
effectiveness, but in a post from long ago our pal Toy Guru assured
us that ultimately the packaging didn’t have anything to do with
the amount of money that went into the toys. I’m not sure I buy
that, but he said it, so I can sleep at night.
I
still dislike the fact that everything has twenty different languages
all over it now. No matter how fancy the aesthetics are, toy
packaging just looks junky and cluttered because of this.
The
back features a list of the figures in the wave – something of a
novelty now – and a nice picture of the assembled King Shark
figure. It was a smart move to make that the centerpiece of the
cardback because it truly is an impressive figure.
LOOKS
The
default head looks like a standard Batman head, but Mattel did a
great job of making it stand out. The shape of the ears and cowl are
different and we’ve never seen a Batman with this particular
expression before. The sculpt is solid and the painted eyes, face,
and teeth look great.
The
Jim Gordon Batman is much skinnier than this figure suggests. While
this isn’t the bulkiest of Mattel’s bucks, it’s just a tad too
thick. But for a standard retail release action figure, it’s okay.
For DC Collectibles prices I’d expect more accuracy.
The
torso is a plain black buck, which is fine. The comic design features
some seams that aren’t here, but that doesn’t present a problem
for me (yet). The Bat symbol looks fantastic. The yellow paint is
precisely applied and thick enough that no black shows through. We
know from past experience that Mattel has had problems with yellow
paint on black plastic, so it’s great to see that they’ve
mastered that. With this figure, at least.
Gordon’s
rank insignia is as bright and clean as the Bat Symbol. It’s funny
how these two lines do so much to differentiate this design. The arms
and hands are straight black with no other sculpt or paint, which is
why I didn’t even bother with pictures.
The
belt and holster are kind of a mess. While I’m happy that Mattel
painted it and didn’t just make it solid yellow or solid silver, it
doesn’t sit right at all. It’s supposed to hang like Han Solo’s
holster and that leg strap is supposed to be attached to the holster
itself. That’s the whole point of it. The way it has been designed
on the figure it just looks Liefeldian in its lack of functionality,
which is not the case in the comics. The holster itself is huge and
clunky, but it had to be to hold the huge and clunky gun. More on
that in a bit.
This
area is the source of the other problem with the figure – for some
reason Mattel decided to sculpt seams on the legs. They look great,
but unfortunately draw attention to the fact that there are no
sculpted seams anywhere else. And there should
be. If
they had just used standard blank legs this would have been fine. If
they’d just used a clean buck and presented a look that was more
like Batman Beyond the whole thing would have worked better. I would
have never had a reason to look up the design and wonder about the
seams. This may seem nitpicky, but it’s another example of classic
Mattel decision making.
The
boots are also sculpted, but this presents less of an issue to the
overall profile.
ACCESSORIES
Batman
comes with an extra head, a pistol, and King Shark’s leg.
The
unmasked head looks great. It features an expression of very
Gordon-ish concern or effort. The sculpt captures Greg Capullo’s
art nicely and all the details of Bat-Gordon are present, including
the military haircut. All of the paint is precise, but the eyes in
particular look nice. There’s a ton of detail there and they are
centered well. The heads take a little effort to swap out and once I
saw the tiny plastic barbell connecting them to the neck I was a
little concerned. Be careful with this.
The
pistol is, unfortunately, rubber or an equally soft material. Also
classic Mattel. As a result the sculpt is soft and it looks more like
an accessory for an Imaginext figure. It’s also proportioned that
way, as it is far larger and thicker than it should be. The metallic
silver plastic looks good, but there’s no painted detail. This
thing gets a D-.
This
pistol fits nicely into either of the figure’s hands or the
holster. The holster doesn’t look like it’s going to provide a
secure fit, but it does.
The
King Shark leg is huge, which makes me excited for the rest of the
figure. Unfortunately, four of the six figures in this wave hold no
interest for me, so I’m going to have to keep an eye out and hope
they get the Captain Boomerang treatment (the Multiverse Suicide
Squad Boomerang figure is currently $3.88 on Amazon).
FUN
Batman
has the standard DCUC articulation.
The
head swivels, but has very little range otherwise. If the neck had
been sculpted differently to accommodate some up and down or
side-to-side movement, that would have been great.
The
shoulders are standard, but thanks to the sculpt of the chest the
arms have a nice range going across.
I
feel like Mattel tightened the hips up a bit. This style of hip joint
is my least favorite ever, but for some reason these don’t seem
like as much of an eyesore. I think the crotch portion might have a
lower profile and as a result the hinged hips are less noticeable.
This
isn’t by any means the most usefully articulated figure ever, but
for a mass market retail release it can pose as much as I want it to.
Jim Gordon isn’t Peter Parker and this suit is meant to operate
from inside a robot anyway, so it’s not like we’ve seen this
character do a whole lot of squatting or complicated yoga poses.
With
a satisfying amount of joints and the extra head and pistol, this
figure does a fine job of being fun.
OVERALL
I’ll
probably never get past thinking that twenty bucks is too much for a
figure like this, but given that it’s today’s standard, this is a
solid Jim Gordon Batman. DCC’s was packaged with the rabbit armor
and, as a result, is very expensive. So if you want Gordon in this
suit, this is your affordable option.
Some
poor decisions and Mattel SOP kept it from being perfect or even
great, but this is still a good figure. Especially if you can find
one for fifteen bucks or less (right now you can’t).
3
out of 5
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