“… my turn!”
Ahh Justice League. A great superhero popcorn-flick that didn’t break any boundaries, but didn’t do anything terribly wrong, either. Finally, we can just enjoy the superhero movie renaissance and stop bickering about DC vs Marv —
— oh,G*d dammit, internet.
Anyway, let’s talk toys. Where the multiverse Batmobile absolutely cuts a mean, collector-savvy profile (even if I accidentally threw away the “wing” parts), Mattel has also cranked out some more standard market Bat-vehicles. But this one definitely evokes the more fun movie toys of years past.
The Knightcrawler makes it’s movie debut (MINOR SPOILERS) as a tunnel-climbing “Batmobile alternative” that Batman calls on in the new League’s first confrontation with Steppenwolf. It racked up a decent score against the Parademons, if not the tide-turning war machine it appeared to be. But the appearance was still pretty cool.
This vehicle is designed to interact with the “voice action” figures that accompanied the basic figure line, which I don’t have any of, but you can probably imagine how that feature works, especially if you’ve ever played with any of the WWE figures that used a similar one — basically the toys “recognize” each other, and have different responses depending which ones are together. But even if you don’t have any, five AA batteries still affords you some lights, sounds, and with the help of some rollers, a “crawling” action feature. There is significant sculpting and detail work in the body as well, with nice paneling, and particularly nice front windows. There’s even some warning labels and indicators printed on from the factory. And while there’s not a lot of paint work, and there are some hollow areas inside the legs, it’s not too shabby for retail.
As it is intended for those figures, the Knightcrawler might be a little small in scale for 6-inch figures, but it’s surprisingly workable. The cockpit is deeper and wider than it looks from the outside, with a small opening panel and a full hinged section. The notorious Multiverse articulation won’t help you here, but a more poseable figure like Mezco movie Batman or the MAFEX version will fit just fine with some tuning.
There are also two launchers with molded gatling guns that port into the top, and while pretty standard for these types of toys, I’m tempted to try and source some closer to the Multiverse Batmobile’s.
Now, back to that “crawling” feature. Actually, yeah, it does kinda crawl! It does need those guide wheels to move forward, though. Without, it just sort of shuffles backward a little.
So, for the really nice $30 price tag this thing has, this is a surprisingly good mass-market vehicle. It reminded me a little of the Metal Gear Solid walker tanks from the outset, so I might grab another and see what else I can do with it. As an addition to the movie Bat-fleet, I think it’s a solid base to do some customizing with, like filling in the inner parts of the legs and adding some paint. So I do recommend it, especially at cost.