Here we have Alfred Pennyworth in-hand, and while he may appear to be a newly made sculpt from the ground up, he is in fact reusing parts from Three Jokers. This is mostly noticeable in the arms, which have a specific texture to them that doesn't seem to match what the shirt looked like in the movie. It also makes the shoulders appear a little more disjointed from the rest of the figure, though it could be due to how they're positioned. The rest of the outfit looks fine, and I appreciate the paintwork applied onto it to make it look less plasticky. Also in spite of the arms being reused from a fairly specific figure, at least one of them being rolled up gives a bit of personality to this Alfred's role in BvS with his work on some of the Batcave tech. Gone are the days when this Alfred used to a normal butler, as he now has to aid Batman a little more directly than prior versions.
His head sculpt mostly looks good, and I appreciate the grey wash on his hair as well as some subtle stubble to give him an aged look, though the glasses on figures of this scale will always be hard to nail. They usually lack the lenses to make the eyes look better, and while his frames thankfully don't appear clunky on his face, it's not always easy to nail. His articulation is the same as with all McFarlane figures, though the vest over his shirt hides the diaphragm joint.
In addition to the more open hands with the pointing fingers and fists, Alfred comes with flat hands and proper accessory holding hands. Those accessories include pliers, a screwdriver, a tong, a chisel, and a wrench. He also.comes with a cloth goods apron, which looks pretty solid and can hold most of the tools. It looks more like a kitchen apron than one used for craftsmanship, but it's still a unique accessory that turned out better than expected.
Here he is sandwiched in-between two versions of Batfleck. On the left is McFalrnae (with his unmodded neck due to the pictures being taken prior to the neck joint swap with Eradicator) and on the right is FondJoy. Either option works depending on your budget, but the FondJoy version has better coloring and is more in scale with Alfred than the domestic option. Both actors are tall men, yet Ben was slightly taller than Jeremy.
He looks even better with the FondJoy version due to the unmasked Bruce Wayne head included, allowing fans to display both figures where Alfred runs diagnostics on the cowl after Bruce returns from his nightly shift as the thug-branding Caped Crusader.
And here we have Lucius Fox, who used the more generic suited body buck associated with some versions of the Joker (whichever one it is can be hard to determine). Unlike Alfred, who had a rubber overlay with his best, you can see the torso crevice where the diaphragm moves. If his jacket was buttoned up more, then it could help conceal that joint better. As for the suit he comes with, given the change in clothing he usually goes through in the movies, this is just one of the few attire options he is usually associated with. That being said, I can't help but wonder if this is 100% accurate to what he wore at times. One scene has an outfit similar to this but the shirt is blue and the jacket may have a bluish tint as well. Another scene has him with a suit like this, but the shirt has a pattern applied. This may as well be an amalgamation of his entire closet. I guess it's not the end of the world for a more civilian character of sorts, but I have a theory that while McFarlane Toys and crew had a general idea of what Alfred looked like generally in BvS and ZSJL, they went with a more general appearance for Lucius Fox.
His head sculpt looks fairly close to actor Morgan Freeman, but the expression makes him look like he has a bit of reluctance in him after having to use the surveillance sonar used at the end of the while hunting down the Joker. He thankfully didn't resign thanks to Bruce allowing him to destroy said technology once they find the villain. Also, I love that his haircut has a better paint job than Alfred's. His articulation being the same as the butler let's us go straight to the alternate hands he comes with: two accessory holding hands meant for his tiny communications device
The other way to get a version of Lucius Fox is from the Tumblr, and in addition to a different outfit he wore at times throughout the trilogy, he also comes with a detailed equipment cache, which adds to the way he works with Batman's gadgets and perfecting them throughout his new superhero career.
Here he is alongside Batman Begins and Year One Commissioner Gordon. Though the latter isn't part of the Nolanverse, I still thought about including him just for the sake of making Baleman feel less lonely. And now with Fox tagging along, I just need Selina Kyle for the good guys and find versions of the four villains not tied to the Bane BAF wave.
Overall, these two make for good ally figures with their respective Batman universes. While Alfred comes packed with more accessories than Lucius, they're thankfully still given a good amount of respect in action figure form that most companies normally wouldn't deliver on. I mean, I know Lego would do minifigs on either character if they wanted to, but it'll only be part of a specific set that's more expensive than the rest. Meanwhile, there'd be disposable Funko Pops and blind bags that would have a much smaller impact on a full scale figure collection than anything, so kudos to McFarlane for making figures of characters that Hot Toys would probably only do. We still need BvS Lex Luthor and Nolanverse Alfred, though.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ for both
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