Here we have Batman in-hand, and he is almost an entirely new sculpt. Only the waist down is generally reused, and while the belt and thighs make sense, the boots were actually different from what he wore in the 1989 movie. While some could argue it's not the end of the world given the Batsuit's in solid black, I know more dedicated fans will point out the lower half deserves as much new tooling as the upper half. Thankfully, the reused legs don't clash with the upper body, as we still retain the physique these rigid suits had, especially with a seemingly broader torso that fits the superhero physique despite Michael Keaton not exactly being as built as Bale or Affleck. Other positives include the black being matte on him instead of shiny plastic without any finish to make it less toyish, as well as adding a black outline on the logo (though it seems to be slightly crooked). Batman's cape is made of cloth goods and is wired, but the length appears to be inaccurate for him and are almost more appropriate for an Adam West Batman. I might try swapping capes with the Platinum version of the character but that's assuming I'd even get him easily since I don't have the Hugo Strange Batman whose cape should be swapped with Regular West. So as far as looks are concerned, this is mostly good but the cape length and the reused legs will take some points away.
His head sculpt is much better than the original McFarlane Keaton Batman, both in terms of having a thicker neck for the cowl and a stronger likeness to the actor. Granted, he has a hint of a Val Kilmer look to the mouth, which sort of makes sense given they're supposed to be the same character if we ignore the recast and Kilmer looking younger than Keaton, but it has me worried that this will be an excuse for Todd to either not make a Panther Suit Batman or use the head for a hypothetical one. However, while the rest of the articulation is the same across the McFarlane DC Multiverse line, Batman's neck articulation only allows for side to side rotation, meaning he can neither tilt nor look up and down. While this is odd at first, the lack of head movement is accurate to the action figure. At least the neck rotation is a good balance, though I know some will wish the head was static so he could have swappable faces with eyes looking in either direction. What h does have are alternate hands meant to hold his grapnel gun and Batarang, though he could use a few more accessories related to the movie since the last 1989 Batman we got had a shitton of accessories at $10 less. Granted, that is an entirely reused figure, but the point still stands.
Here he is with the previous Keaton Batman I'm talking about. He previously came either in a Batmobile set or the 6-pack featuring other portrayals of the character in live action. This is the one that came with all those accessories as well as a cape that looks uneven of all over the place because it lacks a wire; instead, Batman has two poles he can hold that go inside the pockets to simulate him spreading the cape like bat wings. The older buck felt more like the Arkham Knight DLC skin rather than truly capturing the way the costume truly moved around. In spite of any issues I have with the concept of the new toy being a Theatrical Deluxe, it's still better than the previous Keaton attempt. In fact, he looks even better next to Christopher Reeve Superman, who still has better value for money with his accessory count than Keaton as a regular Collector Edition. Ignoring that, it's cool to have both of them together line this since we already got Cavill and Affleck's Superman and Batman as early as when they made the Snyder Cut figures. Now we just need a Brandon South Superman to go with Christian Bale Batman; for anyone wondering, absolutely no plans for Robert Pattinson nor David Corenswet.
As for Catwoman, she is thankfully an entirely new sculpt, which is only fitting if we were going to get her silver stitching in the tight leather costume. It's so tight you could see the pronounced cup size and butt crack for that sex appeal Catwoman's known for. The glossy black at least makes sense for her given it's suppose to look like latex in-universe. However, while most of the costume details look nice, I have to question why the stomach region had to be an overlay like on any McFarlane figure wearing a suit or jacket instead of making a middle torso piece that is tucked into the crotch piece. I guess McFarlane didn't want to disrupt the sculpt of the stitching down the middle of her stomach, but as it stands, she looks like she's wearing the top as a shirt rather than have the entire thing look like it's all one rubber suit. I guess it looks slightly tolerable in black, but that hasn't stopped people from either pointing it out in reviews, either with genuine critique or going full Redditor by reeing "THIS ONE FLAW RUINS THE ENTIRE FIGURE!!!"
Her head sculpt is undeniably Michelle Pfeiffer, from the facial structure to the makeup applied onto her. Given the size of the eye and mouth holes, it's easier to nail her likeness better than with Keaton, but the design overall makes her seemingly into BDSM. That's short for Batman's Ding-a-ling Squeezing Misfortune if you remember she squeezed his balls while making out with him. Parents complained about their little Timmy seeing that, meanwhile we have the stupid genius of the DCU talking about how important Pissmaker Season 2 being set between Supermid and Flop of Tomorrow truly is without mentioning the orgy scene kids should NOT watch. As for her accessories, she comes with a whip that not only has a thicker handle than the radius for the grip of her hand, but it could really go for a bendy wire built in to make it articulated. She also comes with the stun gun that she used to kill Max Shreck while kissing him at the end of the movie, and since she can only use one accessory at a time, I left it resting on the left hand. Swappable hands would have went a long way for having her with clawing hands and anything else to justify the price somewhat.
Here we have them along with fellow poster face, The Penguin. I'll cover him before he shows you all his flipper trick, but regarding my thoughts on the Bat and the Cat: Batman is easily the best of the set so far, but even he could use some improvements, mainly the longer cape and additional accessories that would make his price bump justifiable given how much less he has than the regular release version of the 1989 suit. Catwoman, meanwhile, should have had alternate hands, at least an unmasked head that would be easier to swap than Keaton's, and better execution of sculpt and articulation in the stomach region. There is very little "Deluxe" going on with these figures, other than maybe the better likenesses and McFarlane using the price tag to stop scalpers from going overboard with preorders selling out. Spoiler alert, that still didn't deter them. If you want to get at least one figure from the wave, just get Batman. Waiting for a sale on these would be hard to do given how likely these are to disappear again.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Batman)
⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Catwoman)
No comments:
Post a Comment