Let's first cover the Knightmare version. At first glance, the figure appears to be newly made from the ground up, and it succeeds in that for the most part. The coat, while appreciative in having a wash at the bottom, could be a darker shade of brown than it currently is. Granted, the Knightmare segments in BvS and ZSJL were set in post-apocalyptic and sandy locations, but it would have at least been easier to see the prop and determine what its proper shade is. A bigger issue, however, would be the arms being recolored from the regular suit rather than have properly sculpted sleeves and modified gauntlets or gloves. I get that he has the same costume underneath his pants and coat, but that doesn't mean "recolor them and nobody will notice".
His head sculpt is the same as before, though it may be more or less closer to the actor's likeness underneath the mask. He has the neck issue from the vanilla Batfleck, though the trenchcoat makes it less noticeable. His articulation is the same as Batfleck's, consisting of double-ball jointed neck, shoulder rotation, outward arm movement, washer joints that work similarly to a ball joint for further movement, bicep rotation, double-jointed elbows, a double-wrist joint that allows either laterally or vertically joints for both the upper and lower torso regions, somewhat limited hips because of the cargo pants, slight thigh rotation that is somewhat hindered by the tightness of the joints and the PVC waist, double-jointed knees, vertical ankle movement, ankle pivots, and toe joints. Idk if it's the coat or the indents of the leg joints, but he has a bit of a hard time standing straight, and posing him ism't too easy because of the trenchcoat being somewhat stiff. Wouldn't it be nice if he had a wired version since it would make up for his lack of accessories? He has nothing but his binoculars. Not even alternate hands!
Here he is next to his Mattel counterpart; there are aspects of the figure that are better on the McFarlane figure overall, but to give credit to the Mattel version, his arms are more accurate, the brown on the coat is more accurate, and he at least has the painted straps on his right leg.
Up next, it's Armored Batman. Now this is where the Batfleck truly won me over when it came to the teasers and the movie proper. Not only does he have an impressive bulk that captures the suit design perfectly, but the paint combined with the dry-brushing results in an almost statue-like quality to the overall figure. The suit design also manages to separate the cloth suit underneath the armor with some clever differences between the shade of grey in said suit and the metallic look to the exoskeleton. I also love that the strap and the belt/scallops are all picked out separately. The cape may come off as ragged and out of place, but it is meant to be like that. It could be a darker shade, though the rest of the figure still succeeds in the looks department.
His head sculpt is spot on to the movie, down to the scratches and the high beam eyes that manage to pop in spite of not being light up. Also, the mouth matches Ben's face the most compared to the regular masked heads somehow, stubble and all. His articulation is smoother than Knightmare, but Armored suffers from single-jointed elbows. I guess McFarlane wanted to keep the sculpt from being broken up even more, but I'm sure there could have been a way to make them bend better. To make up for it, he has a wired cape, and I'm so happy that he has one since his Tactical had a sculpted rubber cape while vanilla Batfleck's was regular cloth without any wiring implemented. Posing has never been better with McFarlane's more mainline cape treatment, and I wish we see this in other lines.
Of note, my copy's left hand joint popped off while swapping the arms. Nothing severe unlike the process of fixing the wrist joints on TDKR Bane, but still worth mentioning. It looks like the typical alternate hand with the peg attached, NGL.
Here he is with the Mattel version. Safe to say that he clears that version overall in terms of aesthetics, details, and overall quality. Even the articulation is better, though they have one thing in common: single-jointed elbows. Sadly, Batfleck still has no Kryptonite Grenade Launcher to use against Superman or Doomsday, so he will have to improvise. The scale is decent, and at least he can hold it with relative ease unlike the Mattel version.
Apparently, McFarlane thought it would be wise to make a variant with the green spray painted on the left side to simulate the Kryptonite glowing on the spear, but it's about as effective as making the thing light up with photography. Ironically, he used the spear more when he had half of his face exposed from the fight with Superman, and both he and Knightmare Batfleck (who has his scarf up) come with range weapons a plenty, from rifles to the Kryptonite grenade launcher and even a pistol to piss off comic purists unaware of the context going on with the post-apocalyptic Knightmare. A bowcaster is included, as well as an alternate grapnel launcher used to throw Superman around and even a smoke bomb that one would assume the regular version would have included. They also come with a display base and the stock photos has a look at their collector cards. I have issues with how McFarlane handles variants, but I wish McFarlane wasn't held back by the WB firearm restrictions. You know something is wrong when Disney, a company said to be woke by many, at least doesn't stop Hasbro from including guns in their Marvel Legends and Star Wars figures.
For some Batfleck comparisons, I have to go back and clarify that the forearms are the actual reused parts from BvS regarding Knightmare. At least there was some retooling and recoloring to add the scarf as well as grime to the Knightmare suit. Armored Batfleck is taller than both of them (BvS is on his stand just a heads up), but that makes sense given how tall he would normally be in the suit itself. Makes me curious on how he would look next to Fondjoy Batman...stay tuned.
And here we have Superman sandwiched in-between them. The height difference with Armored makes more sense in terms of movie accuracy than with Knightmare, and it makes me wonder why Batfleck was made shorter than Superman in terms of height by McFarlane. Overall, both figures share a common issue with their forearms and lack of accessories, but Armored is the better figure overall. He's so good with the details and articulation that I want to almost forgive his lack of weapons now that I gave him the Mattel gun. I'll have to look for one meant for Knightmare, though. Unless you have that 2-pack, get Armored over Knightmare and regular Batfleck.
Final ranking (for Knightmare): ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Final ranking (for Armored): ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
No comments:
Post a Comment