Package Description
After witnessing the murder of his parents as a child, Bruce Wayne dedicated his life and fortune to protecting the lives of the innocent while striking fear into the hearts of criminals. Armed with an arsenal of gadgets, Batman patrols the shadows of Gotham City keeping the streets safe from crime.
Appearance
Batman has a new sculpt (that he shares with Red Tornado and Orion). I like that the upper body doesn’t seem as exaggerated as the DCSH Batman, but it still is very large. Considering the style of drawing this costume is from, Batman is overly muscular, which was one of my first thoughts when I saw this figure. However the proportions fit with the figures already out from the DCSH line and with what looks to be a continuing style in the line. In addition, the new Batman sculpts can be lined up together to show the evolution of the Batman costume if desired. Future Batmans will probably have a similar sculpt, and so the prospect of being able to line up the costume changes of Batman justify the large body sculpt in my opinion.
I love the color choices on this figure. The blue is vibrant, punctuating the flat grey along with the yellows on the belt and chest. It’s a much more vibrant color scheme than on the pages of old comics, and I like it. There’s a lack of texture in some areas like the chest, and the blue areas can look like plastic. However the grey areas, because the dark color hides details, doesn’t look like plastic. Thus the figure is an interesting combination of the blue areas making the figure more vibrant visually and the grey areas keeping it from looking very plasticy.
In general the sculpt looks good. There seems to be little paint problems on this figure, and the bat symbol on his chest is very defined. The face looks a little cartoonish because the facial features are so shallow, but the skin tone and black forehead help alleviate the problem. The hands usually look fine, because they look close enough to fists while being able to hold his accessories. In style he doesn’t go very well with the DC Direct figures I tried to place next to him because of his large muscles and frame. Batman’s stance is a little wide too, which is odd since the latest DCSH grey and black Batman had improved the width of his stance considerably. His arms can hang down at his side though, which is a major plus. Overall, my appreciation for this figure has grown with the time. As I’ve grown to accept that I’m going to be getting overly muscular Batmans, I’ve come to like the color scheme and the details that are sculpted in, even though I think there could be more texture to this figure. Even though I’ve always thought the black forehead was silly, this figure wears his black cowl naturally. In general, he looks more natural looking than previous Batman figures, and captures my impression of the character excellently. Although this figure may not be exactly what some people wanted in a Bronze Age Batman, I think given a chance he can fulfill all visual expectations of the character.
Articulation
Batman has articulation that was standard on DCSH figures. What’s worth mentioning is that his stance is too wide, but there is a much improved range of motion in the head allowing him to look up and down. The cape limits some movement in the arms and the ab crunch does not move much at all. Other than that, joints get the range of motion they were designed to.
Poseability
Batman’s biggest problem is balance. I’ve had a lot of problems when trying to pose him to stand straight up. It doesn’t look like it, but the cape can throw him off balance when trying to stand him straight up. There’s a sweet spot where he can do it, but a lot of the time he’s leaning forward and bent over a little bit for balance. It’s still an issue but not as bad in dynamic poses because he can spread his legs out and change his center of balance, but it can be an annoying issue.
Batman goes well by himself or with an existing DCSH collection. He doesn’t look great with DCD figures, but he may go well with a Batman collection where there are a variety of styles anyway. As a figure though he’s got plenty of good poses, although a Batman figure that could crouch would be nice. The accessories definitely help, and he looks good with them. Overall, the only problem I have with him is his balance, other than that he does what any DCSH figure could do and more.
Final Judgment: 7
Judging this figure is fairly difficult. He’s got a quality sculpt and good paint job. But compared to the new sculpts that came out in DCSH and now DCU Classics I think Batman is average. Batman is definitely at least a good figure, but is he an exceptional action figure? I think that this figure’s representation of the character is excellent and the body sculpt is excellent, while the articulation for me is good. While on my own personal scale he may not be quite an exceptional, I can easily see how to others this figure would get a higher score. So I’m going to give Batman a score of “7” but instead of standing for “exceptional”, 7 is going to stand for “excellent”. Furthermore, from now on, I’m going to change “exceptional” to “excellent” to accommodate figures like this.
SCALE
10. My favorite possession.
9. My favorite action figure.
8. One of my favorite action figures.
7. An exceptional action figure.
6. A good, but not exceptional action figure.
5. An adequate action figure.
4. Not worth the money I spent.
3. I'll give it to somebody's kid.
2. I'll give it to somebody's dog.
1. It's going to lose a fight with my car.
