“Punch Packing” Joker is a much simpler sculpt than Batman and the main thing you should know about this figure is it doesn’t even attempt to look like Heath Ledger’s Joker from the film. I’m not sure what happened here. Its possible Mattel thought that the film Joker was too creepy for kids, or maybe there was a problem securing Ledger’s likeness after his untimely demise, either way, this is more a standard animated style Joker design and it looks a very cartoony when compared to the hyper-realism of the Batman figures in the same line.

Now, that’s not to say I don’t like him. His face sculpt is indeed creepy and features wild green hair, dark shaded eyes and a huge red-lipped grin, minus the disfiguring scars that might make some kids cry and piss themselves. It sort of looks more like a mask rather than makeup. He’s got a purple suit with a green shirt and shoes, which fits the classic Joker motif, and is definitely the better paint scheme out of the other Joker repaints in this line. His coat extends down past his waist in soft rubbery plastic down to about his knees. There are a few sculpted wrinkles to his clothes, but for the most part, this figure doesn’t have a lot of detail, thus the more animated look to its design. I think the simpler sculpt would have worked much better with more paint apps on the figure. Its definitely the Joker, just not the one we were probably hoping to get.

Articulation on the Joker is identical to Batman and Two Face. He has rotating shoulders, hinged elbows, legs that rotate at the groin, hinged knees and he swivels at the waist. His head turns, although his head is a bit hunched over so when you turn it side to side it sort of sort of tilts, which I actually like a lot because it gives him an even more demented look. Its basic articulation, to be sure, but somehow it seems more acceptable on this figure then it did on the more hyper-realistic sculpt of Batman.

Joker comes with one weapon and its a doozey. Its basically a giant green bazooka with what looks like a huge rocket at the end. When you fire it, the rocket splits open and it actually shoots out a missile with a huge boxing glove fist on the end. Now, this weapon I actually like. Its huge and ridiculous and just the sort of thing any Joker figure shouldn’t be without. It is a little tough getting him to hold it as the handle is pretty big for his little hand. I wouldn’t snap it into his hand too many times as it may eventually snap his fingers off.

Next up is “Coin Blast” Two Face and this figure is awesome. The sculpt may not be as detailed as Batman, but that’s because, like the Joker, its just a guy in a suit, but Mattel put a lot more effort into him than the Joker. This figure also shoots down my theory that Mattel toned down the Joker’s design for kids, because Two Face here is really creepy. The suit is excellent as half is horribly burned and the other half is pristine. There’s a bit more sculpting to the pristine half of the suit than the Joker’s suit and the added paint apps on his tie and belt make him stand out more than Joker. The burned half of the suit is completely textured over to simulate the charred fabric. The head sculpt is fantastic with the undamaged half bearing a very good resemblance to actor Aaron Eckhart, but the burned half is the real draw here. There’s all kinds of detail work in the exposed muscles and even some strands of flesh covering his exposed teeth. Marvelous!

Two Face comes with the lamest weapon of all. Its a coin the size of a manhole cover with retractable blades around the edges. Its lame because a) he can’t hold it at all, and b) the whole point of his coin was that it was double headed and this one has heads and tails. Fortunately, as with Batman, this doesn’t detract from the figure at all, I only wish they had given him a handgun. Two Face does come with a Harvey Dent campaign trading card, which is a nice bonus. I guess Mattel started bundling all the figures with collector cards, but my Batman and Joker must have been from before they started this. The campaign card is really nicely done, with a picture of the character straight from the film and it even has the tiny disclaimer on the bottom that reads “paid for by friends of Harvey Dent.”

I really like both of these figures, although Two Face certainly has the better sculpt and he looks more natural standing next to Batman then the more cartoony Joker. They really manage to achieve a fine balance between toys and collectibles on this line, so much so that had I been a big collector of the Dark Knight toys, I think this Batman and Two Face would have satisfied me over the slightly more expensive Movie Masters versions. Either way, I was really thrilled to find them at such a great price.

 

Clearance hasn’t been all that great to me this year. I can usually snag some good finds after Christmas, but I think a lot of retailers cut way back this year and so there just isn’t as much to find, at least not in the area of action figures. I did see some interesting things in Walmart’s post-holiday clearance run, including the Rise of Cobra Pitt for $65 and the Night Raven for $20. Of course, the Pitt is way too big for me to justify buying unless it really does drop down to next to nothing, and the Night Raven, well, it doesn’t really live up to the awesomeness of its vintage predecessor. I did, however, pick up a couple of GI JOE 25th Anniversary Comic 2-packs (The Crimson Twins and the Dreadnoks) for $1.00 each. Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about! Sure I already own them, but these display real well on the wall. I also picked up the figure that we are going to talk about today. It’s Batman!

The unfortunate thing about finding a figure line on clearance is that you can usually only find the figures that were overpacked. With a license like Batman, you can expect to find 1,000 of the various repaint and gimmick-heavy versions of Batman, but usually nothing else. When I saw a bunch of these Batman figures on the pegs today for three bucks each, I was content to go home with the one that looked the most like the movie version, and that was “Grapnel Launcher Batman” but I was pretty surprised as I shuffled through the pegs to find a single Joker and a single Two Face figure as well. In one pass, I was able to pick up the three principle figures in the line for under ten bucks. Considering the overwhelming bulk of this line was just repaints of Batman with different gear, the selection I got was none too shabby. We’ll save Joker and Two Face for another entry, so today let’s look at Bats himself.
The packaging on these is pretty standard fare for what feels like a throwaway movie line. The front is a generic card, but the back is character specific, showing a detail shot of the figure and a little blurb. The bubble does a nice job showing off the figure, although he looks like he doesn’t have a cape. When you open it you find that the cloth cape is neatly folded behind him and in a plastic sleeve. 

“Grapnel Launcher” Batman is very film accurate, which is important to note since every other Batman except for “Sonic Spy” feature some decidedly wild paint jobs. If you’re looking for a straight out of the movie Bats, this is the one to get, so long as you aren’t expecting anything all that great. I should also note that while these figures are obviously intended primarily for kids as toys and not as adult collectible display pieces, the scupt is remarkable.

The attention to detail on Batman’s combat suit is fantastic as the individual pieces of armor are all clearly shown as is the webbing between the plates. Obviously not much of the face is showing, but the lower half and the eyes are a pretty good likeness for actor Christian Bale. There aren’t a whole lot of paint apps here, but the suit itself is done in both matte and gloss black, which makes for a more dynamic appearance of what is otherwise an all black suit. Apart from that there’s just the skin tone on his face and the gold on the molded utility belt. The cape is actual cloth and it has a small slit in the center, which appears to be designed to give access to the peg hole on his back, although this figure doesn’t come with anything that makes use of it.

Articulation on this figure isn’t exactly up to par for this day and age, but it has just enough to make it passable. The head turns, the arms have rotating shoulders and hinged elbows, the legs move up and down at the groin and have hinged knees. He also swivels at the waist. That’s it. Honetly, I would have been perfectly fine if they had just tossed in ball jointed shoulders. Again, not terrible, but could have been better.

So, what is terrible? The accessories! Batman comes with two accessories, both molded in the same gold color used for the paint apps on his utility belt: A missile firing gun and a batarang. If you’re like me you don’t expect much from these types of accessories as they are mainly added for “play value.” The gun is huge and Batman can only hold it using a little peg on the bottom of the handle, so it looks ridiculous in his hand. I will say that with a name like “grapnel launcher” I expected there to be some kind of cord attached between the missile and the gun, but no dice. The Batarang is slightly better, but its still ludicrously huge. I suppose it would be tough to give a 5″ Batman a lot of accessories, as they would be tiny, so I’m not going to come down hard on this figure for his goofy weapons. At least you can cast them aside and they don’t detract from the figure one bit.

Overall, I’m really happy with this figure, but keep in mind it was only three bucks. At about 5-inches, he doesn’t really fit with many other action figures I own. The quality and detail of the sculpt really goes a long way to make up for the basic articulation and goofy weapons. Sure, he’s obviously targeted to the kid market rather than for collectors, but he still looks great on display on my shelf. And in this case, you just couldn’t go wrong for the price.