With the majority of the figure being a reuse of the 2pk, the figure relies heavily on paint to sell the 1970s look. It completely works for me. While my favorite Batsuit will forever be the all-black with the yellow oval, the blue/oval is a close second. For the record, I’m so pro-oval, it hurts. Alfred carrying guns in a cartoon? Who cares! Batman sleeping with tons of women to keep up the Wayne farce? Whatev. But oval vs. no oval? There should never not be oval… I know some of you may vehemently disagree, but luckily for me, this figure serves up that oval in spades. Really, it’s ridiculously large and it may just be my favorite part of the figure.
The large, clean symbol aside, the rest of the figure is well painted. My bud said there were some QC issues among the pile here at our trusty TRU, but he picked out a great one for me. Granted, a lot of the parts are molded in the appropriate colors, but the places that needed paint like the belt and face received sharp work. I love the face on my figure as a matter of fact. He’s grumpy. And hey, it’s too bad Mattel didn’t try to talk up the paint in the ad copy, isn’t it?
Next up is articulation, or what’d Mattel call it? Deluxe Articulation? Um, no. Two words: rocker ankles. As long as Mattel is being cheap and avoiding the insert molding to give us proper ankles, they don’t get to say anything has deluxe articulation. Yes, the legs have the DCUC hips, thigh swivels, hinged knees, and hinged ankles. And, yes, some decent poses are possible out of that combo, but rocker ankles make deep poses much better, increase stability, and well, rock. I normally wouldn’t be so adamant, but “deluxe articulation”? Indeed…
The rest of the figure is pretty solid though. Ball-jointed head and shoulders, hinged elbows, swivels at the biceps, forearms, wrists, and waist, and an ab-crunch for good measure. And nearly all the joints, the whole figure in fact, feels pretty sturdy. I appreciate that quite a bit.
While we’re on the subject of articulation, I just gotta pick on that ad copy one more time. There’s a lot of articulation on the figure, but some it is blocked by the so-called “meticulous design”. The figure can’t put his arms down at his side, the hip articulation is partially blocked by the lower torso, and, if I want to get real nitpicky, the elbow hinge is lacking in range because the bicep gets in teh way. That said, I do appreciate that some of the articulation blends in the paneling an I really enjoy the cape and how it tapers back forward towards the bottom. It’s a bit heavy (and can be cumbersome in some poses, including standing), but it does provide some extra stability in deeper poses all the same.
Overall, I do have my share of nitpicks for this figure: blocked articulation, lack of rocker ankles, the scale differences with most anything else I have, but I have to be honest here. I got this as a display piece. It’s an oddity – the modern, armored Batman in the classic spandex colors. Heck, if there’s ever a Bruce Wayne head in the Mattel Arkham line, I could see picking him up and swapping heads with this figure on occasion. There’s just something cool about Batman with his cowl off when he’s in his blues & grays. Anyway, the figure moves enough that I’m happy with it as a display piece and it looks pretty cool on the shelf. And I even find myself kinda wanting Mattel to do an Keaton/all-black repaint of it. That’d be sweet…
That said, I keep going back to that packaging. It kinda sums up what’s wrong with Mattel to an extent, doesn’t it? Here’s one of their toys, clearly visible in the bubble and on the back of the box it touts its own “meticulous design”, “deluxe articulation”, and “supreme quality sculpt”. Well, there’s an old term in writing about that: show, don’t tell. Mattel needs to focus on that a bit. Don’t tell me he has a fantastic sculpt or great articulation, make me notice that on my own by making better figures.
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Forgive me for being a bit dense, but where is “grumpy” bats from?
I can see the head is a repaint of the Sinestro Corps head, but I didn’t realise they’d used that head on a more standard paint job as well.
Jo
It’s the Batman Legacy Single Carded Wave 1 Batman. I don’t like that head sculpt, so it’s the only Batman I don’t have a problem avoiding.
Thank you.
I’ve mostly avoided Batman Legacy (aside from Catman, obviously) as I’m not a big Batman fan.
That, having to buy them online and no CnC to influence me towards buying figures I’m not bothered about has made them a pretty easy pass.
I like the plain silhouette and the pouches though.
Jo
If you like the body of that grumpy bats, it’s from the old DCSH line. That blue Batman in the very middle of the last pic sports it and Mattel also released it in black (that black one is one of the few DCSH I didn’t ever see).
Damn it Noisy, Ive been trying to skate past the Arkham Asylum Figures. Like you I haven’t played the games and don’t have the connection to it. But after the review I had to grab one from ebay. If my wife kills me, I’m so putting this all on you. 🙂
We can go on the run together! I’m going to have to leave for Mexico when my wife sees the Mattycollector bill for Monday. Hopefully, Cornerstone Logistics can get it here before I die!
if that’s the nail you’re hanging your hat on, she’ll have dissolved your corpse in a tub full of sulfuric acid by the time that box arrives.
Yeah… probably not a good idea to put that up on a board she mods on. ;P
Jo
that last pic is really freaky..a complete mattel bat-fest!
The sad thing is that picture is missing the four I don’t have (the icky first DCSH Batman, the Black DCSH Repaint, the GA Bats with Bat-Mite, & the regular Arkham City Bats.
Not counting all the other pre-DCSH and DC Direct Batmen… I think I have a problem. 🙂
I guess the Goddamn Batman saw that there were too many Hal Jordans in the DCUniverse Classics and decided to do something about it… He created Goddamn Batman Inc!
LMAO! That’s awesome.
LOL The sad thing is that it took Batman getting a whole subline to catch up to Hal Jordan…
That’s just wrong.
I’m eager to pick up the game, just not eager to spend the $60 right now. But seeing the free figure offer at TRU, I may give-in. I saw the figure up close on Monday and thought it was cool. Plus I don’t have ANY “Arkham” game figures, yet.
I don’t have any either… and I’m not likely to get too many more. I liked the look of Two-Face in the 2pk, but Poe’s fantastic review showcased the swivel shoulders and lack of any ankles and I found that pretty disappointing. You know, technically, the back of package is saying that Two-Face has deluxe articulation too. Ha.
Some of the new upcoming offerings are looking cooler though. We’ll have to see…
i think your line got cut off there, about articulation just above the bane fight pics. “also, a lot of the articulation” and then it stops.
yeah, i have to say, for deluxe articulation, as you say, it lacks range of motion and in particular, rocker ankles, help for deep poses… you know, the kind you might find batman in. i strongly content that, like spidey, we’ve yet to engineer the definitive batman figure, because no fig, from any line, can take the iconic deep crouching stances that the character is known for. spider-man also has never yet given us a figure than can put his knees up around his ears, and until one can, they have no business calling it a macfarlane spider-man.
now, i would ask, how does his neck work? can he look up at all?
you know, the AA/AC figs are tearing me up. mattel’s are definitely articulated than DCDs, but DCDs are much more on model, sculptwise. and i love the game, intend to snag AC hopefully later today, and would love to have proper figures made… but having seen what PAK is cranking out, i can’t in good conscience buy these other figs. the kai stuff is much more expensive, but it moves correctly, and it looks precise… well, isn’t that the point of licensed stuff?
Thanks for the catch. I think that was a remnant of the first draft that got missed. All fixed now!
Strangely, I would almost think that Batman getting the articulation of a Spider-Man figure would be sufficient, but Spider-Man might be impossible.
His neck articulation is like a lot of DCUCs, he can look down pretty well (which works great with how the eyes are painted), while he can only look up slightly. The ab crunch helps with that though and there is a bit of side-to-side tilt, so I’d say it’s better than average for Mattel.
The Arkham stuff… it doesn’t have a lot of appeal to me. Obviously, the first one I have is one cloaked in classic colors, but I am amazed at how pervasive it is. I remember years of no DC toys, so Arkham product is almost gluttonous.
We still have that usual tradeoff between Mattel/DCD. More detailed sculpts from DCD (that DCD Freeze is a thing of beauty), but they don’t move as well as the Mattel offerings. The Play Arts stuff is really nice, high end, and it does combine the better parts of DCD with those of Mattel. It’ll be cool to see the comparison reviews (even though the Play Arts still will be giants).
Here’s some bonus pics. Neither of my third shots in this particular set (of Batman being well received in Eternia) came out, so I scrapped the plans, but I figure these are still useful as comparison shots for scale:
… Robocop stole Indy’s hat? 🙂
That would be an illegal act, citizen!
I’m sure it’s just borrowed. 🙂
*splorf*
Robocop in a fedora.
DON’T DO THAT TO ME I HAVE HYPERTENSION YOU CAN MAKE ME HAVE A STROKE!!!! 🙂
I stand with you, Oval Brother.
yup, murphy in the fedora is fantastic. well done sir.
I have the black/grey Mattel Arkham Batman, and my feeling is that the figure could have been so much better. Like Shadow_Contact, I find myself willingly buying multiple Batmen, and the flaws Noisy points out just make this mold lackluster.
The hindered articulation is what bothers me most. I was able to give the elbows a little more flex range by cutting a larger gap and was able to let his arms rest down more naturally by sanding his inner triceps a bit, but he’s still way behind the other Mattel Batmen sculpts in the range-of-motion category.
Some of these figures also ended up with oddly longer necks, and I had to exchange my first set to remedy this. Check the review on Poe’s site for this phenomena, from what I’ve seen they don’t all end up with “giraffe” necks.
ugly figure.
I’d be surprised If they didn’t just take the in-game model, add articulation and used a 3-D scanner to create the template.
I like the figure but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was disappointed by the limited articulation. I’m only a few hours in but I’m having a blast playing the game.
tell me about it dude. best superhero game ever made, as far as i’m concerned.
It might be one of the best games ever, superhero or not! I played GTA 4 and had almost no desire to complete any of the side missions (barely wanted to finish the main game as well) and I am about 2% into Batman and almost don’t even want tp do the main story! EPIC game! And the ability to replay without the “Spider-Sense” on will be a great reason to try it a second time. And lets not forget all the DLC!!!!!!!
“Great games rarely get great figures.”
Case in point, Mass Effect.
I just picked up this figure today. I’ve been playing Arkham Asylum and Arkham City (walmart had a “buy the new game, get the old one free” offer I couldn’t resist) and that made me want to get a figure based on them. I’ve been looking at the Batman/Two-face pack, but Two-Face just seems too disappointing, and I don’t want to spend $30 just for Batman.
Also, although I am more of a “Batman doesn’t need a yellow oval” guy, something about that gigantic symbol, mixed with the classic colors, really made this the more desirable of the two Arkham Batman figures.
Anyway, I really like the sculpt, it seems spot on with the game, and the main thing that bothers me is not being able to put the arms down by his sides.
excellent put up, very informative. I’m wondering why the opposite experts of this sector don’t understand this. You should proceed your writing. I am sure, you’ve a huge readers’ base already!