McFarlane Toys/DC Direct The Riddler Puzzle Box by Edward Nygma Review and Images

It's Wednesday and you know what that means: ToyFarce review!

This week, we're having a look at the Riddler Puzzle Box by Edward Nygma from McFarlane Toys/DC Direct. Something different this week! When this was announced, I thought "Cool, props!", thinking it would look a bit like something out of the Arkham video game series. Unfortunately, it wasn't like that...but it's still a Riddler themed puzzle box!


The box arrived a bit smashed, but there was enough protection inside for the box to be fine.

The Riddler Puzzle Box by Edward Nygma is a big cube, with puzzles on 4 of its sides (bottom and 'back' of the box don't have much). It's pretty sturdy, made of plastic and metal, and looks fun on a shelf, especially open or with a McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse Arkham City The Riddler action figure next to it (available now!). Now, I'm gonna try to solve it, but if you do not want to be spoiled about the content of the box, you'll have to skip the next few parts!




Top part


Sides


Sides

First, I turned the dial on the little door and the door opened (it has a flat side, so it opens when you get it on the right position). Inside, there was a piece of Batarang (1 out of 3), 2 plastic cards and a note. The 2 cards have parts of a question mark drawn on them, and if you align them in the right position, you can fit them in the card slot next to the little door. I did that, and am not sure if it did anything! Yay!





On the side with the 4 buttons, the button that has the highlighted question mark can be pushed, and it pushes out the first button. I have yet to figure out what that button/key that came out can be used for, but at least, I got a button/key!



The top part has one of the squares (the middle one) that can be removed, and if you push the remaining squares up, you unveil a button! Push it and the top part opens: 2 notes and another part of the Batarang are inside!




"How did you do?!"

For the last part, with the key pad, I first tried to enter the 'year when the bat got his start', as mentioned in the notes found in the top part, and it did nothing (the date was given on the newspaper clipping). The other card said 'To continue, you'll need to phone some friends. Forget the bats, call the birds and a cat and start with your oldest friend first. Success is just a few clicks away!'... It didn't help much, but that last sentence kinda gave a clue, since I noticed when I pushed 4, there is a click sound. I pushed it a few more times, and a drawer opened at the back of the box, with the third and final part of the Batarang, and a note saying congratulations and to place everything back where you found them for others to try to solve it (I forgot to take a picture of that. My bad!).



You can now assemble your Batarang, which is kinda nice, made of metal, with a bit of weight to it.




"Noooo! You solved it!"

In the end, I am not entirely sure that I did everything the way it was intended (like the key pad part, where I just pressed the same button until it opened... there might be a more 'clever' way to solve that). It's fun for 5-10 minutes, but once you've solved it once, it kind of loses its novelty. At least, it looks good on a shelf. If you're planning to get it, I would wait to get it on sale, because $99.99 is a bit much for what it is.

More news at 11:00... Riddle me this, riddle me that. Who is afraid of the big black bat?