The Square Enix Variant Play Arts Kai series is a nightmare of a line. And I don’t mean that in a bad way, for the most part anyway. I just look at the designs sometimes and think “What. The. Hell.” And this new Joker is no different.
By the way, sometimes when I say “What. The. Hell.” it can also be uttered in a “Wow, that’s cool, but something I would have never imagined” kind of way. So don’t take that as I have some kind of hatred for VPAK. I find it super interesting. In the same way I find wild animals interesting. Nice to gander upon, not really needing them in my toy room, but visually stimulating.
Basically, I have no clue what is going on here. My eye is dragged all over the place. Is it a face or a mask? Is that a walker or some kind of Doc Ock mech? I think what throws me the most is how the body itself it relatively tame compared to the rest of the piece, and especially to the rest of the line. Suit. Shoes. Hat. CRAZY MECH ARMS AND A CHOMP CHOMP BANDANA!
But it gets weirder with all of the alternate heads…
A little Red Hood flavor:
Perhaps a bit of emo:
The harlequin head is pretty sweet though:
A kind of Arkham game inspired head:
The freaky elongated demonic head:
And then finally, the walker converts to a wheelchair and there is head with breathing mask and neck brace:
I have no idea.
But I will say that it’s cool to try to figure everything out. It’s kind of a puzzle.
Then there is the price. $200. The PAK line keeps getting more and more expensive. I admit there is a lot of accessories here, and the heads with all of that paint can’t be cheap, but $200? Maybe that’s to pay for the design work from “Kingdom Hearts” character designer Tetsuya Nomura.
Variant Play Arts Kai Joker is set to release in September.
