When the standard One:12 Collective Ascending Knight Batman went up for pre-order I was excited. I didn’t have a Mezco Batman at that point so I thought it was a perfect opportunity. When I was handed a bag at their Toy Fair booth I didn’t even realize what was in it until an hour later when I was offered cash for it’s contents. Turns out it was an awesome variant of that same Batman.
So what do I do? Watch the eBay prices climb and fluctuate for a couple of weeks before finally just ripping into it. I realized that my first thought when realizing what I had was “Holy shit, I just got a kickass Batman.” I was in it for the toy, why was I waiting? So here we are, with a bow and the plastic prison strewn out on a desk and a nice Dark Knight on the shelf.
Totally worth it.
In fact, I think this may be my favoritist One:12 Collective figure so far. I’m not hardcore like others, picking up a few here and there. Hell, I haven’t even opened my Punisher and tiger stripe Wolverine, along with the BvS Batman I managed to acquire recently. I’ve had hands-on time with Frank and Batfleck so I know those are amazing. This Ascending Knight sings to me though.
I guess I dig the early career theme of it, even with Mezco’s twist on it. The cloth goods barely hinder the movement at all and look amazing even up close. My usual problem of the mask material not matching the body material doesn’t apply here because the rubber parts on the suit blend perfectly with the cowl, while the pattern in the cloth parts offsets the rubber plainness nicely while providing something interesting to the overall look. Plus, he seems to have the best ankle articulation out of the few on my shelf.
I dig seeing a line improve as they go. That’s the way to keep me buying.
If I had any nits it would be the tranqdart crossbow and the bat brick, whatever the hell that is. The crossbow is neat, I guess, but it’s awkward to place correctly and make it look like he’s actually shooting it. And the brick…..I feel like it’s just kind of an extra piece of plastic that will sit in the bottom of my accessory bin from here to the end of time. Either my time or the Earth’s time, whichever. But those are both minor problems. I just won’t use them, problem solved. The grappling gun is amazing with it’s hook options and I won’t ever run out of Batarangs.
Being lucky enough to have gotten this has not taken the edge off wanting the standard version. In fact, it makes me even more giddy because of how amazing I now know it will be. Hell, I’m considering the blue version now too and it wasn’t on my radar before. The black here is nice but it’s a bit of a “lose detail in the blackhole of color” situation, whereas I like the contrast on the standard. But I kind of wish the grey and black had an extra set of hands in a purple hue.
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