A Dark and Stormy Knight

Over the weekend I picked up the Dark Knight Batman from Mattel’s “Movie Masters” line. For those who don’t know, Mattel has two action figure lines for the movie: a five-inch scale, kid-oriented line and the MM figures, which were sculpted by the Four Horsemen, are about six inches (roughly–see below) tall and feature DCUC-style articulation. I paid $11.97 for the figure at Wal-Mart, which seems overpriced, especially when you consider the lack of any real accessories. But this may just be the new reality.

While the lack of accessories is disappointing, the figure is not. This is one of those figures, like the DC Superheroes Superman or Batman, that I can’t put down. I keep picking it up off the shelf and fiddling with it.

A quick anecdote. Back in 1989, the night Batman opened, my father took me to see the movie at the Hanover Mall theater. Of course, this was long before the days that paper-bag puppets shilled for movie ticket websites, so when we got there the movie was sold out. To console me, my father did what my parents always did–got me a toy (and boy, did that work like a charm every time). We went to my favorite store at the mall, Child World, where I found Toy Biz’s earliest attempt at superhero toys. Unfortunately, there was no Batman, so I had to get the Joker instead.

But not this time around, boyos! In fact, there was no Joker to be seen at the Wal-Mart. I’ve got him coming in a case from CornerStoreComics, so I’m not worried; but I just wasn’t patient enough to resist picking up the Batman, even at the $12 price point.

While there may be those who would disagree, I think Toy Biz’s Batman figures were pretty good, for the time. Yes, they mostly just re-used Super Powers sculpts, but I really liked the Batmobile (partly because that remains my favorite Batmobile ever, though).

It amuses me that the Movie Masters line mimics the line-up of that original Batman wave–Batman, Joker, and a goon, albeit a nameless one. The only difference is a variant Batman with a mask-less Christian Bale.

Early comments from Mattel and the Four Horsemen gave collectors the impression these figures would be in the same exact scale as DC Universe Classics. As it turns out, that’s not quite true. Bale Bats is a bit shorter, standing almost exactly six inches from sole to the top of his head.

This has upset a lot of collectors. Some have said the MM figures are 1/4 smaller than the DCUC figures, but I don’t see that; yes, MM Bats is unquestionably shorter than DCSH or DCUC Batman, but not by a quarter size. If anything, he just looks realistic and human next to the idealized superheroic musculature of the other two.

I’ll admit that I had hoped the MM figures would be perfectly in scale with DCUC, but now that I’ve got one, I don’t really know why that mattered to me. I’ll display them on their own, separately–with their level of detail, the figures wouldn’t look right next to the DCUC figures anyway.

I know some collectors hoped to buy a bunch of Gotham Thugs and use them as generic thugs for the DCUC line; but they can still do that, provided they’re willing to accept the idea of men who aren’t at least six feet tall existing in a comic book universe (paging Wolverine!). And one more thing–the slightly smaller size of these figures may be partly due to plans to provide us with in-scale vehicles, such as the Batpod.

But let’s forget the scale issues for a second–which is easy to do, given the amazing sculpt. Again, this is one of those action figures I just can’t stop fiddling with. The Horsemen’s skills at sculpting realistic likenesses clearly haven’t atrophied in all their years of sculpting comic and cartoon characters, and I’m impressed by how well the Horsemen’s sculpting survived the production process, given how intricate a lot of the work on the armor is. This Batman is much more detailed than any Batman figure we’ve seen before.

The articulation is identical to DCUC, which is fine with me.

The only real problem I have with the figure is the lack of useful accessories. For some reason, Batman comes with a plastic “evidence bag” (really just a plastic baggie with a sticker) and a small replica Batman mask. I would easily have given up both for a couple DK-style batarangs and a grappling gun. I’m puzzled by the inclusion of these items, particularly given the higher price point; I would imagine a couple batarangs in lieu of the mask and baggie might have lowered the price to a more palatable $10.

On a final note, I saw Iron Man over the weekend. I’ll post my thoughts this week, but in the meantime, feel free to discuss it in our forum.