If you have not yet noticed, we are in the midst of a deluge of brand new post-Comic Con toys. Leading that charge with new in-store displays and exclusives in Mattel’s DC Universe product offering featuring DCUC, Young Justice and the new Batman Legacy line. The latter incorporates toy translation of the Bat, his buds and his bads from all kinds of media – from comics to movies to video games. We have brought you previous looks at Series 1 and 2 from the line, featuring comic interpretations; now we bring you a Look at one of the first two-packs in the featuring Batman and Two Face from the up-coming Arkham City video game. From pixels to plastic, we gotcha covered!
I have to admit, I don’t own a Playstation or an X-Box. I have a Wii but I don’t really play video games that often and when I do, I usually play old NES games. However, I am breaking the seal soon and I am going to pick up a PS3, mostly for the Blu Ray player, but also for Arkham City. I got to briefly play the Arkham Asylum game and it was a lot of fun, and if the previews hold up, Arkham City is going to be huge. I am quite excited.
These Legacy two-packs are Mattel’s first real foray into the world of DC video games and they certainly did go to make a splash with this game. As you know, Mattel DC comic figures and Movie Masters each have their own scale, and the video game figures do too. While the MM figures are a little smaller than the DCUC line, these video game figures are slightly bigger. However, I think they actually fit in much better with DCUC than the MM figures do so if you want an armored up Batman, he will look okay with your comic Superman.
I really like the sculpts on both of these figures, they capture the look of the game quite well but also blend the style so that it is very similar to DCUC. I dig that aesthetic a lot so it goes well for me. Batman has a ton of detail and I never knew that he wore an armored suit in the game-verse, but this figure has shown me the light. All of the plating is textured so that you actually get the feel for it, and it is very effective. I guess I am used to expecting details like this to be painted on or left off entirely, so bully for Bats. His boots and gloves have all of their appropriate detailing too. I know there has been some dispute about whether or not Batman actually wears a blue or a black cape in the game (the cowl is definitely black) but I am so glad that they did not go with blue in this instance. I for one don’t believe that the cape is blue in the game either, but I think the two colors together in a figure would look absolutely terrible.
If you are a DCUC collector, Bats has pretty much the same articulation set-up as what you are used to and he gets pretty good movement out of all of the joints. His arms feel a little restricted when you try to put them to his sides, but it is not bad at all.
Two Face is the villain in the pack and he really is a great-looking figure. The sculpt enhances the two-dimensional effect of his scarring and burned suit with a great sculpt and a detailed paint job. That is something I really like to see in any portray of Two Face; he is after all a (chemical) burn victim so to me, the red scars and “melted” look is the most convincing. I have never liked when he is portrayed with green or symmetrical scarring, it just doesn’t seem to be as convincing. I also like how he is broad of shoulders so he can stand up to Batman, usually Two Face gets shoehorned into a “suit” body so he is usually pretty scrawny, but here he has some mass. He comes with his signature coin, but as you can see it is attached to his hand. Like Batman, he has similar articulation to his DCUC counterpart, but he has cut, not ball jointed shoulders. We got an explanation for this at Comic Con in that the different materials used to make the body and suit jacket did not come together in a natural way with ball jointed shoulders (think of a “vest” look) so aesthetically, they made the joint choice. For someone like Two Face, this doesn’t really bug me, but you tolerance for such a thing will vary. Obviously.
We are entering a new age in Mattel DC product and the Batman Legacy line is leading the pack. It appears that we can now expect to see figures from all different media mixed into one big banner execution. I am very interested to see where this line goes, but we know we have another Arkham City two-pack coming featuring the Joker and the newly-unveiled Robin. Can’t wait to see the latter!
*A big thanks again to Derick at Mattel for making this happen, we can’t wait to see what in-store for this line’s future!
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im wanting to see a Riddler figure from arkham city so if any one has some pictures of him tell me the Riddler is my favorite batman villain right in front of the mad hatter