DC Collectibles has made some impressive strides, as well as the occasional back step, in their current artist-inspired lines. The Batman line, based on the work of action-art veteran Greg Capullo, has been, on its best day, some of the finest work by the company, and, even on its worst, it’s still something worth looking at.
DCC has also been upping the ante with some regularity as far as “deluxe-size” figures go, working through the Arkham games as well as mainline DC title events. Here as well, there’s been good and bad, and the bad mostly on the quality side, not so much on the design or the looks. I had every intention of picking up their recent Armored Lex Luthor, and truly it came down to just price and color choice that kept him from coming home. And while the Arkham City Killer Croc was an amazing sight that failed in QC, the Arkham Origins one was a great value and a robust figure. So, at best, I try to take these big figures on a case-by-case basis.
But I had no such illusion of discretion after seeing the Thrasher Armor at the store. Easily the biggest non-monster figure to date, his shelf presence is truly intimidating, and the heft you greet lifting him off the rack makes you feel pretty good about his $40 price tag.
Honestly, I half expected some remorse to creep in out of the box. So far, though, I think he’s worth every penny.
He starts earning his keep in the sculpting. There is hammered and pitted steel all along the armor plating, and you get the impression of miles of wiring and cables running beneath them keeping this machine going. The segmented plates for movement hide virtually every part of his articulation, and the level of detail and personality in the suit have won me over on the design, which I wasn’t super fond of in the comic. The weakest point might very well be the unmasked Bruce head beneath the helmet — It looks the part of Capullo’s art, and he wasn’t in the best of condition during this chapter of Court of Owls, but Bruce looks a little more sickly and washed-out than I was expecting. Not really a problem here, though, considering how excellent the helmet looks — again, not a design I liked that much on paper, but it translates really well to plastic.
The paint work is equally worth the money, with the overall weathered metallic paint bringing out the best in the details. Oddly enough, I don’t know for absolute sure if he’s supposed to have that silver scrape across the bat-symbol, but it looks right at home, paint error or not. The red on the visor is especially striking.
The articulation reminds me of a well-made Marvel Select figure. There’s big and heavy ball-socket joints on his shoulders and ankles, nicely integrated bicep and thigh cuts, and even double knees, though the calves restrict these to some degree. The hips are hinged and pegged at a 45-degree angle, usually a deal breaker for me, but the swiveling of the top and bottom of the thigh, combined with the ambiguous nature of their sculpt, don’t “take me out of the game” when posing them. The individually articulated fingers are fantastic. The upper body joints, including a torso joint with a crunch-like range, are my favorites. They are completely covered in the sculpt, but offer great range.
This is absolutely a massive chunk of figure, and well worth the reasonable retail price. I’d recommend getting a hold of one soon, before it starts commanding a mean secondary price.
