DC Collectibles: Batman the Animated Series Man-Bat

“SKREEEEEEEEEEE” – Man-Bat

DC Collectibles has been steadily pumping out characters from both Batman the Animated Series and The New Adventures of Batman. Today we’ll be checking out one of their more recent releases — the always terrifying Man-Bat.

 

In an attempt to stave off his impending deafness, Dr. Kirk Langstrom developed a formula that ended up turning him into a giant monstrous man-sized bat. More animalistic than pure villain, Man-Bat has always been a fun Batman rogue as he lets Bats take a break from his usual psychopaths and venture into the world of fantasy and horror. And Batman the Animated Series sure got it right.

Packaging

DCC has given us some very nice minimalistic boxes for this line. Due to the size of the figure, Man-Bat comes in an oversized box that maintains the same design elements as the previous releases. Non-openers should also be happy as the figure is packaged with his impressive wingspan on full display.

 

Sculpt

This line has become the crown jewel for many collectors, and that’s due in large part to the amazing sculpts that we’ve seen. Man-Bat, without question, is my absolute favorite so far. I’ve come to expect near-perfect matches to the show’s style, and this figure is no exception. What I didn’t expect was just how incredible this design would look in 3D. From the simple, yet menacing, head sculpt to the sweeping lines of the wings, this thing actually looks better on the shelf than it does onscreen. While you generally have to be careful with textures on animation-based figures, they’ve added just slight texturing to the wings to give it a more leathery feel. That decision really paid off as it breaks up the smoothness of the rest of the figure and looks fantastic.

 

 

 

Accessories

Man-Bat comes with an extra pair of relaxed wings, a cassette player, three serum bottles, and a display stand. The wings are of the same high quality as the arms and are a welcome inclusion as you’d never be able to get that look and feel of the relaxed pose if you were to rely on articulation alone. It’s always nice to not have to struggle with swapping accessories, and this is one of those times. They pop on and off without any problems. The smaller episode-specific accessories are nice to have, but, in all honestly, they usually end up getting tossed in the closet. In this case, they were lost before I even had a chance to photograph them.  In general, I’m not much for action figure stands, but this one is actually needed as the wing weight coupled with the design of the legs tend to make him topple over.

 

 

Paint

The paintwork is just about flawless. Close enough, anyway. It’s a simple color scheme by design, but they match the source material well and are evenly applied to the figure. Where they were able to get a little creative is with the wings, which have just the slightest amount of shading to give the sculpt some added depth. There’s virtually no slop, but on close inspection it does seem that they missed completely filling in his left eye. It’s not that big of deal considering the placement of the head and how it tilts downward.

 

 

Articulation

With a figure this size and the accessories that we’ve been given, I was pretty much expecting a reduction in articulation. Unfortunately, some key points were cut, which greatly limits the posing capabilities. I count 13 points with a ball-and-post head (I think), pin-and-disc shoulders, ab crunch and swivel, DCUC-style hips, single-pinned knees, and calf cuts. All of the joints started out nice and tight, but as the photo shoot went on, the figure got more and more wobbly — which is a bit disappointing. The biggest plus for me is the range of motion you get with the ab crunch. This allows for both soaring in-flight posing as well as for the more hunched-over and sinister looks. The biggest downside of this articulation setup is the limited function of the head and the omission of any type of arm articulation. I would have preferred some sort of disc in the neck that allows him to look all the way up when hitting those flying poses. The lack of any sort of arm articulation is due to the fact that the wings are a solid sculpt that spans practically the entire length of the arm.

 

 

All in all, Man-Bat is a beautifully done figure and one of the highlights of the series so far. The articulation and tightness of the joints could be better, but this is no doubt a figure that does the character justice and will stand out on the shelf.

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