DSC_9756
I was recently able to complete a trade that netted me the Arkham Knight Batman figure by Hot Toys, released last fall. The announcement of this figure was somewhat of a shock to us all - at a time when Hot Toys was being bitched at for only pursuing repaints of Iron Man figures (not that I blame them), out of the blue came an addition to their pretty sparsely populated Videogame Masterpiece Series.
Arkham Knight is of course, the final entry into this particular Batman video game trilogy (officially), and these spiffy new duds he is wearing is the latest Batsuit, which Bruce Wayne gets access to pretty early in the game. Even if you haven't played the game, it's prevalent in every piece of advertisement for this game, so not much spoiler material here. In general terms, this suit is more armour than the previous ones, hence the metallic finish and plating.
Up until this figure announced, I thought that the NECA 1/4 scale version was the bomb. The paint work was excellent, the sculpt was pretty good, and the articulation blew the Origins version out of the water.
Then, as Hot Toys always does, a few prototype pictures were released and my heart went a flutter.
The set comes with the figure, several accessories and hands for gripping them, a stand, a backdrop, and two expressions, surly and angry, the only two modes he has. The cape the figure comes has some wiring inside for posing (which I suck at and made no attempt).
Having played around with the figure for a while now, I would summarize my thoughts as follows:
The suit on the the Arkham City Batman figure was vastly improved over the prototype, which showed Batman to be having some massive muscle deterioration, particularly in the core area. I don't know what kind of voodoo Hot Toys employed, but the suit on this figure is flawlessly tailored - no sagging bits to be found, excellent paint apps and detailing all over. Unfortunately, while the figure looks excellent in museum poses (static), the articulation on this beast is pretty bad, and even if you could move the figure, you wouldn't want to leave it in any extreme positions as this will probably damage the rubber body suit.
Further adding to the negative is because of the restrictive articulation, it's really hard to display the figure with any of the included accessories. I'm sure some people can find ways to make it work, but I'm on the sleep deprivation program, dammit (parent of young children) and I need all the brain cells I got. Head articulation is average - can swivel side to side, but limited tilting abilities.
The sculpting is phenomenal, further emphasized by the excellent paint work. Seeing this figure is like seeing first hand what Play Arts Kai is supposed to be able to deliver, having access to the computer models used in games and all that. Yes, I realize they are in a different price range, but if you're in Hong Kong the price difference between a PAK and Hot Toys figure is not as material as here in North America. Figures like PAK clearly have the advantage when it comes to articulation, but for the price that is asked, NECA stuff is often a better choice, and has better shelf presence.
The one negative thing about the sculpting is that Batman can look kind of goofy if you photograph his face from the wrong angle, but I think that's probably true about anything.
In summary, I feel that if you're into museum poses, this is a pretty good figure, though even by museum pose standards its somewhat restrictive. But if you find the right lighting, this figure really shines, aided by the exceptional finishes, paintwork, and detailing. It honestly looks like something right out of the game.
DSC_9756
I was recently able to complete a trade that netted me the Arkham Knight Batman figure by Hot Toys, released last fall. The announcement of this figure was somewhat of a shock to us all - at a time when Hot Toys was being bitched at for only pursuing repaints of Iron Man figures (not that I blame them), out of the blue came an addition to their pretty sparsely populated Videogame Masterpiece Series.
Arkham Knight is of course, the final entry into this particular Batman video game trilogy (officially), and these spiffy new duds he is wearing is the latest Batsuit, which Bruce Wayne gets access to pretty early in the game. Even if you haven't played the game, it's prevalent in every piece of advertisement for this game, so not much spoiler material here. In general terms, this suit is more armour than the previous ones, hence the metallic finish and plating.
Up until this figure announced, I thought that the NECA 1/4 scale version was the bomb. The paint work was excellent, the sculpt was pretty good, and the articulation blew the Origins version out of the water.
Then, as Hot Toys always does, a few prototype pictures were released and my heart went a flutter.
The set comes with the figure, several accessories and hands for gripping them, a stand, a backdrop, and two expressions, surly and angry, the only two modes he has. The cape the figure comes has some wiring inside for posing (which I suck at and made no attempt).
Having played around with the figure for a while now, I would summarize my thoughts as follows:
The suit on the the Arkham City Batman figure was vastly improved over the prototype, which showed Batman to be having some massive muscle deterioration, particularly in the core area. I don't know what kind of voodoo Hot Toys employed, but the suit on this figure is flawlessly tailored - no sagging bits to be found, excellent paint apps and detailing all over. Unfortunately, while the figure looks excellent in museum poses (static), the articulation on this beast is pretty bad, and even if you could move the figure, you wouldn't want to leave it in any extreme positions as this will probably damage the rubber body suit.
Further adding to the negative is because of the restrictive articulation, it's really hard to display the figure with any of the included accessories. I'm sure some people can find ways to make it work, but I'm on the sleep deprivation program, dammit (parent of young children) and I need all the brain cells I got. Head articulation is average - can swivel side to side, but limited tilting abilities.
The sculpting is phenomenal, further emphasized by the excellent paint work. Seeing this figure is like seeing first hand what Play Arts Kai is supposed to be able to deliver, having access to the computer models used in games and all that. Yes, I realize they are in a different price range, but if you're in Hong Kong the price difference between a PAK and Hot Toys figure is not as material as here in North America. Figures like PAK clearly have the advantage when it comes to articulation, but for the price that is asked, NECA stuff is often a better choice, and has better shelf presence.
The one negative thing about the sculpting is that Batman can look kind of goofy if you photograph his face from the wrong angle, but I think that's probably true about anything.
In summary, I feel that if you're into museum poses, this is a pretty good figure, though even by museum pose standards its somewhat restrictive. But if you find the right lighting, this figure really shines, aided by the exceptional finishes, paintwork, and detailing. It honestly looks like something right out of the game.