Batman: Ultimate movie collection - 6 pack

I've been raking my brain over this set all summer.  At first glance this thing is incredible, but I have my pros and cons:

PROS:
All the movie Batmen together in one shot including the "black sheep" Kilmer and Clooney.
Soft goods capes (I'm a soft goods guy).
Bat signal with interchangeable lens (an extra bonus that I really appreciate).

CONS:
We have 4/6 of these figures already if you count Keaton coming with the Batmobile.
The ones we don't have are coming individually eventually (Clooney is confirmed in the Batman and Robin wave, don't think for a second Kilmer won't be in a Forever wave).
MOST of these guys are only coming with fist hands ruling out holding any accessories or gripping any Batcycle handles.  This, for me, might be the biggest draw back.

I don't know.  I have this preordered, but if I skip it, I miss the Bat signal.  Is it really worth that price?  I have 3 of the figures, Keaton is on the way with the Batmobile, and I WILL pick up the B&R wave and the inevitable Forever wave.....at face value, not taking into account anything that we have already or WILL get, this set is a slam dunk.

I preordered this but I don't know if I'll keep it. I think for the most part it's pretty cool, but do I need it? Do I want 6 more Batmen? 

I'm in the same boat. It's a really cool set, and the Bat Signal is probably the main draw for me, but it still feels a bit same-y. Like others have said, Clooney is coming on his own in the B&R wave coming soon, and I'd bet good money on a Forever wave in the future. An 89/Returns wave would be amazing too, but probably a bit less likely logistically, but we already have Keaton Bats from Flash and the Batmobile. Would be nice to get Batfleck in either of his BvS suits, since we don't have those; same with Bale in the Begins suit. Battinson at least has the corrected side-eye.

But is all that enough? Especially with the lack of accessories. I know I'm gonna regret not getting the signal (though could it potentially get a re-release down the line? Todd has been doing a lot of re-releases lately, and it's something that'll always be in demand.)

I really don't need this, I've got too many Battinsons already and am getting the Keaton with the Batmobile set. But I do like the other figures and I sold my JL Batfleck a while back and regretted it so this would be an easy way to re-aquire one without dealing with the inflated aftermarket.

Posted by: @joshsquash729

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 I'd bet good money on a Forever wave in the future.

My crystal ball says you'll see a preview of Batman Forever figures before the end of the year!  Batman, Robin, Riddler, and Two-Face.  Who the BAF will be and whether we'll just get the sonar suit again or get a Kilmer head on the Clooney nipple suit body are both still hazy.

Posted by: @chaosmonkeytwo

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I really don't need this, I've got too many Battinsons already and am getting the Keaton with the Batmobile set. But I do like the other figures and I sold my JL Batfleck a while back and regretted it so this would be an easy way to re-aquire one without dealing with the inflated aftermarket.

See, I like the Bale and Battinson I already have because they can hold weapons and grip Bat Cycle handle bars.  The two pack versions would be a downgrade in that regard.

I am lucky enough to have the goggles-up Batfleck so I'm inclined to hold on to that one, plus he has a batarang.  While the 6 pack Batfleck is, for some reason, the only figure with grip hands......he has nothing to grip.

I'm inclined to keep all of the above figures and I know I do NOT need doubles of any of them.  And I know the other three are coming as singles eventually.  So I'm back to my main question:  Is that bat signal worth it?

If he didn’t reuse the signal, that would be a big waste IMO. Will we get all the different interchangeable symbols on a reissue? Probably not, but that’s probably what will make the 6 pack exclusive at least. I’m hopefully we get more movie waves, with ‘89, returns, and forever. I really want the regular batfleck suit too, and maybe the battle version from BVS.

I ordered it through Amazon.

I don't have ANY of the previously released figures, so they'll all be new to me. I was never fond of the sculpted capes, so even a slightly cheap soft goods option is better, and easier for me to replace if I feel I need to.

I just got a call from EB Games that my Batman set is waiting for me. I'll likely be picking it up on my way home from work tomorrow. I'm still pretty excited for this, even if it's mostly for Kilmer. I know they'll almost certainly make him again but... it's such an important version of Batman for me that I just had to have him right away. I'm less enthused by seeing the Batman and Robin version of Batman seems to have a pretty drastic color difference between his diaper and the rest of the body, in the early in-hand shorts I've seen. His crotch almost looks dark grey against the rest of the costume's actual black. But we'll see if that's something I notice in person.

It's worth noting that I do see tonal and very mild color value differences differently than regular color-sighted people, or whatever the term would be for those with not-fucked eyes. So sometimes things are WAY more obvious to me, and sometimes I don't notice things that others say are very obvious. We shall see.

Posted by: @jawajim

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If he didn’t reuse the signal, that would be a big waste IMO. Will we get all the different interchangeable symbols on a reissue? Probably not, but that’s probably what will make the 6 pack exclusive at least. I’m hopefully we get more movie waves, with ‘89, returns, and forever. I really want the regular batfleck suit too, and maybe the battle version from BVS.

Well, the LED isn't that powerful from what I can tell and it's not dramatically different from the black light lamp pack-ins with the SDCC figures.

I honestly think the best reuse might be with a Batman '66 playset and the 1966 Bat-Signal emblem. It's pretty iconic to that show. Toss it in with a fold out rooftop with a Batarang and rope so figures can scale the side, maybe with foot peg supports.

My set came in at EB yesterday, so I grabbed it today and I've got THOUGHTS, fellow humans. But I'll preface these thoughts by saying I haven't purchased any McFarlane products in a good long while. On the DC side I basically gave up after the first few waves. I've got the KS Spawn and I had he re-issue of the first MK Spawn for my son, as well as a few other MK and Fortnite figures for him. And that's about it.

Overall thoughts are kind of where I expected for the general form of McDaddy's Figuroonies; the articulation can be a bit wonky, and generally I still think the wrists look bad on most figures. Ankles are less bad compared to how they used to look. The likenesses across the board are also pretty soft. Like, from certain angles I can see the actor, and from others I can see what they were trying to do, but it rarely -truly- looks like the actor.

The cloth capes are fine and I generally prefer this to sculpted capes, but I mean.. it's 2023 and I feel like McFarlane is still behind everyone else. At this price, in a big deluxe set, either do a few wired capes or more accessories. Having neither really hurts the feel of the set. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he at least went with fists instead of a bunch of empty gripping hands and no accessories. But if we're not getting wired capes, we should have gotten a few extra hands and accessories. Especially since some of them are almost certainly at least tooled already, right?

SPECIFICALLY, the specifics:

Let's start with Batfleck. I dunno, man. You tell me. Is this a good figure? He's the only one that has gripping hands, but he has no accessories. His lower legs feel weirdly skinny compared to the rest of the body and it really draws the eye in an unpleasant way. I actually like, a lot, all of Batfleck's costumes, so the costume is cool. But I feel like all of Batfleck's appearances are in DC's worst movies ever made, so.... I don't care about this figure. He's just sort've there.

Pattinman is really nice. This is one of my favorite Batman films ever made, it's one of my favorite movie costumes for Batman so far, and the figure is pretty good. The hands seem a touch small. I've skipped previous versions of this Batman for a variety of reasons, but one of which is just that he didn't have two fists. So boom... I'm a big winner today. The grey bits of the costume feel too light, but maybe that's to differentiate from previous figures? I don't know. I would prefer if the colors were darker. But over on the shelf he actually looks darker than up close, so maybe this is more accurate to the film and he was just in the dark a lot. He's cool. I dig it.

Baleman is a mixed bag. His head seems overly small, even for this line and this costume. He's another one where the greys feel too light, but that might just be me (and bad memory since I haven't watched the Nolan films in a long time), and he has little tiny baby hands. Like, I'm really struggling to pose him in a way where his dainty mittens aren't drawing my eye. Looks cool, otherwise. Again, I'm sure this guy has been released before. I just never cared enough to get him on his own, and I'm sure I also passed on him because McFarlane hates extra hands and I preferred a Batman ready for punching.
Like Batfleck, Baleman is not a figure I would want on his own, but I'm happy with him as part of this set and I just think having them all together is really cool and fun so I'm glad the set was made.

I rather like Keatman. I'm colorblind and I haven't watched the films in a looong time, so I don't actually remember, and don't care to check, if his chest oval was more yellow or more gold. Or his belt for that matter. I seem to remember them being the -same- color, and on this figure they definitely aren't. But maybe I'm misremembering. I don't even care. I got rid of my NECA Keaton Batman a long time ago and always kind of waffled on whether that was a good idea. He's iconic, right? You've gotta have him. Looks good enough for what I want and he's definitely more fun to pose than the NECA one was.

Batman without Robin has the issue I was a bit concerned about from watching reviews, but it's a lot less pronounced in person; his diaper is a different color than the rest of him. Or a different sheen. Sometimes the colorblindness makes it hard to differentiate between the two. Either way, it -looks- different, especially in more direct lighting. The suit comes off mostly true black, while the diaper can look dark gray. It's not SUPER noticeable though, especially in normal lighting and from further away when he's up on the shelf.
I really like how this costume was translated into a figure. It looks great and super fun and nostalgic for me. I did have an issue with posing him because his ankle detents are just WAY too fucking far apart. To be fair, that might be true of all the figures, because I really only went crazing trying to pose the older guys -- the newer Batman got pretty generic poses and just went up on the shelf. This one, of all six, I just found to be kind of a pain in the ass to pose the way I wanted. Like I said.. McFarlane never seems to have conquered that 'wonkiness' to their artic. OR the WOKENESS. Stupid WOKE Batman. What's next? A BatWOMAN?! World's upside down, I tell you.

FOREEEEEEEEEEEEEEVER!  This is the entire reason I bought the set. This is the first Batman I ever saw in theaters. This is still my favorite Batman movie. Kilmer is one of my favorite actors. It's just a big pile of 'the stuff I like' rolled into an action figure. So much nostalgia that it would be really hard to dislike the figure. So I won't. Or can't. Take your pick.
The likeness to Kilmer is there, like with others, and not there. The costume details are fantastic. From reviews the figure looked really... blue? And I was afraid the color would be too off that it would bother me. But it actually, like I've said a few times, just looks way better in person and even better from a little ways away in regular lighting. This figure isn't special. It doesn't have better articulation than the others or better paint or a better likeness. But it makes me unreasonably happy and you'll never take that away from me.

Also, there's like.. a Bat Signal and trading cards. I don't know why McFarlane is obsessed with trading cards but sure.. I'll toss them somewhere and forget they exist and be really surprised when I find them six years from now. Why not.
The Bat Signal is... cool. I mean, having one in hand really shows you a bat signal would never really work because from more than about a foot away you just have a muddled slight shadow in an otherwise dim light on the wall. But up close it looks cool. And just lit up on the shelf with the figures it looks really cool. I love that they did the interchangeable clear plates with the different logos. It's nothing special, but it does the job and is nice to have. Adds a little pizzazz to the display.

Would I buy a Forever Batmobile? Don't tell Todd, but yes. Yes I would. Also don't tell my wife.
Or do. She's an enabler if I've ever met one.

Did anyone care about any of this? I don't know. Is there a FRAT button somewhere so I can hide all this nonsense so you don't have to scroll all the way past it ever time? I don't know that either! It's a MYSTERY.

@theknightdamien i appreciate the review. Im back and forth on this set like a lot of us. i have 3 of the figures (keaton, pattinson, and bale) already and I want the baf freeze so it means i would have to get another clooney batman which id rather not. I really want the kilmer but do i just wait it out for a forever wave? tough choices 

does the bale still have the issue with the right arm i think where if you slightly move it, it will pop out of the bicep socket?

@legendkiller533 I haven't gone to town on Baleman, but in what little posing and moving around I did with him trying to find an acceptable pose with his wittle bitty handsies I did not notice any issues where it seemed like I was stressing a connection point. I can definitely say I moved the right and left arms around a bit, and nothing fell off. But I can't say if whatever issue he had before is definitely fixed or if I'm just lucky, or didn't do specifically what causes the issue.

I'm actually kind of surprised McFarlane would put this set out at all. I can't imagine there's too many people like me that would want a few of these Batmans, but would also currently not own any McFarlane Batmans. It's a weird one. If you've got or will have 5/6 of this set... I dunno. I'd still probably end up getting it because them NOT announcing Forever Bats would make me nervous he just won't get made on his own and I just have to have him. So I guess it comes down to how badly you want Val. There's really not much reason beyond that to buy the set.

I'm waffling on whether I'm interested in getting more figures from their respective movies, myself. But having another Bats from And Robin might give me an excuse to try changing this one's cape out for a wired cape. We'll see.

I never had any interest in this 6-pack but I'm very hopeful that we'll get another opportunity at a BatSignal.