The Batman Returns wave continues with the villains of the film, with grotesque monstrosity Oswald Cobblepot as The Penguin with corrupt businessman morgul Max Shreck. Unlike the more straightforward evil nature of The Joker, especially given he was responsible for killing Bruce Wayne's parents at a younger age, The Penguin was somewhat sympathetic of a character given his origins were less of gentlemanly wealth and more rejection for his birth defects that we could only find when Tim Burton goes beyond what he was allowed to do for the first movie. Raised by some penguins and later a circus freak, he would rise in power and plan his revenge at first as mayor of Gotham before aiming to drown the many babies of the city. Max Shreck, on the other hand, was responsible for the downfall of Selina Kyle in addition to being one of the most selfish businessmen across Gotham; the dude even had the audacity to claim he was both a beacon of light and a twisted soul! Let's review these two Burtonverse Bad Guy Bastards and see if the Deluxe Theatrical price tag makes them still worth getting or not.
Here we have The Penguin in-hand and jacketless. What I like about the figure, other than having a more hunchback look to him than the traditional Oswald physique, is how disheveled he comes across with that wrinkly vest trying so hard to carry his big gut. It's as wrinkly as his sleeves, and the beige color combined with the shading makes him look uglier than he already is. The tie on his neck also looks as if it has been worn with as little consideration on someone like him, with the color and size being more of a priority than making it appear neat and tidy. It almost makes him more fitting for a George Orwell-style representation of a war pig trying to get power in a vacuum of some sorts than the traditional Penguin would normally try to be. And if you look closely, he has one of his hands with the deformed flipper look that fits only his version of the character.
His head sculpt is appropriately terrifying, with a maniacal grin that could almost give Rape Face Woody a run for his money, and the balding scalp with what remains of his mullet really adds to this unnatural depiction of the character that loosely inspired other versions of Oswald Cobblepot (though not as grotesque as DeVito's version). His articulation consists of limited neck movement due to the head shape and his hair, shoulder rotation, outward arm movement, bicep rotation, double jointed elbows, double wrist pegs for rotation at the two bases and a hinge in the middle, a diaphragm joint in the torso, hips that move front and back, in and out, slight rotation at the legs, hinged knees, and ankles that are limited in their rotation, hinges, and pivots due to the bottoms of his pants. His accessories include the top hat and a fleece jacket to further add to his Victorian-style clothing, which I greatly appreciate for an attempt at justifying thr price, but we once again have no alternate hands, and while an umbrella is crucial flr the Penguin, would it have hurt Todd to add an open umbrella, too? Obviously, not a good idea to make one that opens and closes at this scale, but what is stopping us from getting a second umbrella? And while I like the regular face he comes with, I'd love to get a version with a monocle added and perhaps a different expression to better justify the so-called Deluxe price.
With his jacket removed again, here he is with his comic counterpart so you can get an idea of how distinct one is over the other when it comes to how they dress themselves up or who manages to look either professional or in shape. While the comic version did have that stumpy build, he was far more of a gentleman and far less hideous than the Batman Returns version; it's not slander, it's just how they intentionally designed the movie version with the Tim Burton influence. Thankfully, part reuse is minimally for the legs, which I wouldn't mind if McFarlane gave us more accessories to make up for that. For anyone wondering, I don't have the mobile duck version of the character, but I'd argue this should have come with the penguin commandos instead of having a hard-to-find set that makes me question the handling of the Red Platinum label.
As for Max Shreck, this figure reuses the first version of Heath Ledger Joker back in the Bane BAF wave, and while there isn't much to do with suited figures, we can at least appreciate that it does at least match the outfit he wore in the movie. The grey used for the shirt and pants thankfully doesn't leave the black stripes transparent, plus having them look generally crisp and straightly applied as one would hope. Even the bow tie is painted without issues. So the looks department wins in his favor.
His head sculpt is also a good likeness to the actor who played him, Christopher Walkins. Ee have come a long way from the so-so actor likenesses used in what few figures represented some of the nu-DCEU figures from Birds of Prey and WW84. This even beats some of the Snyder Cut likenesses, I mean the Henry Cavill likeness on Superman has nothing to this. Sadly, I bet the actor likeness to Christopher Walkins ate up the budget for this figure, because if we exclude the collector card and stand that almost every McFarlane DC Multiverse figure comes with, then all he has is the scorched head sculpt to represent his death in the movie at the hands of Catwoman. No alternate hands, not even a gun! Maybe he should have come with the Penguin commandos, because how the fuck is this worth $35?! I mean, with how basic most Superman figures are, a handful of alternate hands would do wonders!
The funniest part is that with how Wojak-esque this is, you can make him do the pointing meme so we can have Shreck meet Shrek. However, the money I spent on the MOSC Shrek is worth it compared to the price I spent on this.
Here we have the entire wave together at last minus the penguins and the ducky ride Penguin. Honestly, this wave feels me leaving colder than Mr. Freeze; I really want to love it because of how much Batman Returns is my favorite of the old quadrilogy, but between the price being comparable to $35 of the McFarlane Collector Editions, and the fact we almost reusing either parts or entire bucks with a few changes yet not hsing the money saved for any further accessories, it just feels comparable to when Hasbro puts out their older Marvel Legends in new boxes (not regular reissues) and either does nothing to spice them up (looking at you, Mark II Iron Man), or taking accessories out (looking at you, TASM2 Spider-Man 3.0). Honestly, these would have been better off sold in the regular boxes like with some ot the earlier movie tie-ins, because there is hardly anything that fits the term "Deluxe". While I did like Batman enough, Penguin gets a slightly higher recommendation than Catwoman, and Max Shreck is more Min Shrink than anything. Oh and him being a Red Platinum does him no favors.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (The Penguin)
⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Max Shreck)
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