Once again, the packaging is awesome. It oozes the presentation direction of the movie, the deco looks amazing and the window displays the figure very well, while also concealing all the extra stuff (i.e. creepy extra set of blue dismembered legs) down at the bottom and out of sight. The downside of Manhattan’s package is that his figure stand is actually secured to the back insert with its own bubble, so you can’t get it off without destroying the cool backdrop. That’s ok, though, figures like Comedian and Rorschach are much more suited to display against the graffiti wall backdrop than Manhattan is, so I don’t count it as a big loss. Remove the tray from the box and you’ll see that you get a second lower half of the figure to provide two different display options. Let’s start with the version of Dr. Manhattan that you get right out of the box…

Yep, he’s a blue guy in his underwear. And the addition of the underwear was a mercy, DCD, because without his modesty garment, this figure would have blinded me for life. But saying he’s just a guy in his underwear really sells the detail in this figure short. He’s incredibly well sculpted right down to all his muscle tone, tendons and veins. Manhattan’s head sculpt is particularly excellent, with the detached, solemn expression that Crudup, or rather the CG model of Crudup, wore most of the time in the film. Granted, there isn’t a ton of paint work on the figure, as he’s molded in his intended blue flesh tone plastic. Still, the pupil-less eyes look great and the emblem on his forehead is crisp and precise.

Rorschach may have been a somewhat articulated statue, but Dr. Manhattan strides the line closer to being a bona fide action figure. He has ball joints in his neck and shoulders, swivel cuts in his hips, and hinges in his elbows and knees. He’s by no means super articulated, but he sports a lot more poseability than poor Rorschach. I’m not one to complain about good articulation, but what’s up with that, DC Direct? It seems like most collectors would have rather articulation cuts be taken in Manhattan rather than Rorschach, but I’m guessing it has a lot to do with the nature of the figure’s design.

Besides better articulation, another nice surprise with Dr. Manhattan is the inclusion of a separate set of legs so you can put him in a levitating pose. To perform the transformation, you simply pull the bottom half of the figure off at the waist and pop in the second set. The replacement legs are completely static, with his toes pointing down. The soles of his feet have slots that work with a clear piece that pegs into the figure stand. He’s a tad wobbly when displayed like this, but otherwise it works well and he looks very cool.

I wasn’t terribly excited about getting Dr. Manhattan, but truth be told, DC Direct went above and beyond on this guy. The sculpt and coloring are great, the articulation is right about what the character needs and the extra set of legs to offer two display options is really cool. With the extra half a figure included, he really feels like he’s in a different assortment from Comedian and Rorschach, but maybe DCD was able to cost it out because Manhattan uses so few paint apps. Either way, he’s a fantastic figure.

Dr. Manhattan was also available as an exclusive variant and once again, I’m going to let the in-package shots suffice because I’m not planning on opening him. There’s no new sculpting here, it’s just the same figure molded in a slightly translucent blue plastic. I know a lot of collectors go nuts over translucent figures, but I’m just not one of them. I see what DC Direct was going for here, and I applaud it, but if this figure hadn’t come to me as part of the collection, I would have been fine without owning it.

I’ll be back tomorrow to check out two generations of Silk Spectres.