Batman: The Dark Knight Returns... in Plastic

From the "it's about time" department, comes one of the latest from the Batman Unlimited line by Mattel: Batman from Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns.


I'm pretty sure that we've had figurines and a few statues in the past, but never an actual decently articulated figure of Miller's Batman before.

My biggest concern was how well they'd capture the overall look of Frank Miller's heavily stylized Batman. Ultimately I think that Mattel did an excellent job.


The extra-stocky Dark Knight has all of the articulation and play value that we've come to expect from a 7-inch Mattel figure, plus he's built and painted nicely as well.



I'd genuinely love to see more figures from The Dark Knight Returns, perhaps Robin or maybe a one armed Oliver Queen, though what I'd really like is a two-pack with Superman and Batman in his battle suit. That would be cool, but even if all we get is this one Batman figure, then I'm happy as well because it's pretty great.

Arkham City (Series 4) Batman from DC Collectibles

I've owned the game Arkham City for over a year now, but for one reason or another I haven't had the time to sit and play it. That's actually pretty amazing, and a little sad, given that I loved Arkham Asylum, and managed to play through that game once or twice.

What I have had the time to fiddle around with though, is the new Arkham City Batman figure from DC Collectibles.

DC Direct has re-branded themselves as DC Collectibles with this new wave of Batman figures, and with that change has come a new focus on articulation, and ultimately playability.

The over all sculpt and paint job are on par with everything else that I've ever bought from DC (Direct) Collectibles over the years. Things like sculpt and design are excellent, but the various figures that I looked over all suffered from some sort of minor paint issues. That's not a new thing, and isn't particularly unique to just this company, but given the relatively steep twenty-ish dollar price that these retail for, it's something to be concerned about.


The thing that's really awesome about this particular figure, is the new and improved articulation... which also happens to be something that I'd like to see them improve just a little more.

The new joints don't affect the look of the figures static pose in any kind of negative way. The overall look of how they've been integrated is actually quite nice, but what needs improving, is the fact that they do negatively effect the stability of the figure.


Generally speaking the joints are somewhat loose, which causes the figure to lean or even fall in most poses. It'd be nice if DC Collectibles integrated some simple click-stops into elbows and knees--I'd still be using Photoshop for flying poses like the one below, but wouldn't need to for everything else.

The other minor, and some what reoccurring problem that the figure has, is that he can't hold his accessory very well. All of the other DC Direct Batman figures that I own share this problem, and though I love the fact that they stay away from soft, weak plastics for the most part, the hands should really be able to grip a batarang without constantly dropping it.


So, generally speaking this is a very good Batman figure that could have in fact been excellent with a little redesign. It does make me look forward to whatever DC Collectibles has in the works for future waves of Batman Arkham figures, and ultimately I'm pretty excited to see whatever else they've got coming.