This week, I’m going to do my best to avoid a lot of tangents about the Watchmen movie (and don’t even get me started on my love-hate relationship with Zack Snyder) but since these figures are based off of the movie and not the comic, I’ll have to touch on it now and then. Suffice it to say, I did more than my share of harrumphing about it when it was in production. Like a good stubborn little fanboy, I refused to see it in the theaters, but when I finally sat down with it on Blu-Ray I found myself enjoying it a lot, and my affection for the movie has grown a little more with each subsequent viewing. A big part of my fondness for the film comes from the casting and Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach is a fine example of that. He helped to portray a marvelously ambiguous character that evoked love, hate, sympathy and revulsion all in one complex package. DC Direct put out two versions of Rorschach, so let’s check them out, starting with the regular edition.
Rorschach comes in a gorgeous, peg-friendly window box, which DC Direct was once rather fond of employing and truth be told, I’m pretty fond of these as well. The deco is wonderfully designed from all angles and there’s a synopsis on the back as well as shots of the other figures in Series 1 and 2. While I’m not sure that space considerations will allow me to keep all these packages, they are 100 percent collector friendly and with the printed insert, providing a graffiti-stricken wall as a backdrop, they certainly make for a great way to display the figures.
When the sculptors at DC Direct are on their game, they do a fantastic job and that’s mostly the case here. It’s only Rorschach’s mask that feels a little subpar. The paintwork on the mask is fine, but some texturing on the hood would have been nice. As it stands, it looks too smooth, especially when compared to the beautiful texturing and detail on the trench coat.
Yes, the trench coat is downright awesome. The sculptors infused it with every possible little wrinkle and rumple, button and stitche. The flaps of the belt are sculpted in soft, pliable plastic and hang free of the rest of the belt. His collar is worn up and one of his epaulettes is buffed up too! The beautiful sculpt on the trench coat is punctuated by an outstanding paint job and wash that makes it look authentic. You can practically smell the old leather off of it. Even the pin striping on his trousers is immaculate.
As far as articulation goes, well you can never be sure what you’re going to get with DC Direct. In this case we got a semi-articulated statue. The torso and legs are totally static, with one foot placed slightly in front of the other, which makes him almost impossible to stand on his own. Rorschach’s head rotates left and right, but it’s slightly cocked to the side. A ball joint in the neck would have gone a long way. Finally, his arms rotate at the shoulders, swivel at the wrists and have hinges in the elbows. You can get a number of variable poses out of Rorschach, but he’s certainly more statue than action figure.
Rorschach comes with a swappable right hand and his trademark grapple gun. DCD might as well have just cast the gun and hand as one piece, but either way this is definitely my preferred way to display the figure. It still leaves his left hand balled in a fist for punching lowlifes. You also get a gantry-style figure stand with two loose pegs that you can position in three different holes. It’s not so much for customization but to allow DC Direct to use the same stand for all the figures. As indicated above, the stand is pretty essential if you want to keep Rorschach vertical.
Rorschach certainly is a great looking piece. DC Direct delivered a great sculpt and managed to capture the character wonderfully. Of course, a little more articulation would have gone a long way. He’s not only totally static outside his arms and neck; he can’t even stand without being plugged into his base. It makes Rorschach a great looking little statue to display, but he’s hardly an action figure, even by DCD’s limited standards.
But wait… there’s more! Rorschach was available in an exclusive variant edition as well. The variant is the same figure with a unique unmasked head, so everything I’ve been gassing on about holds true from the neck down. I have no plans on opening the variant anytime soon, but you can get a good idea what he’s all about from the in-package shots. He comes with the same stand and the same extra hand and grapple gun as the regular release. The head sculpt, sans mask and hat, is a solid enough likeness, but the paint work is rather bright and cartoonish, which doesn’t sit right on the portrait. I don’t think it’s quite on par with the likeness of Haley that NECA did for their pre-torched Freddy Krueger figure. The unmasked noggin looks a little bigger than the masked and hatted version, and in a perfect world, this head would have been swappable and included as an extra in the regular edition box.
Tomorrow, we’ll press on with the two versions of Dr. Manhattan…
FigureFan Zero 