Plastic capes suck.
McFarlane plastic capes are just awful. Bulky and almost always posed in a non-neutral way.
I do wish they’d stick to using the material from Catman, Earth 2 Superman, etc. for the cloth capes though. Other than Adam West I just don’t think that shiny material works with the matte colored figures.
That neca Batman is in no way indicitave of a Kelley Jones Batman. It’s supposed to be based on Bernie Wrightson's art but it looks more like Dermont Power's art style.
I’ve always thought of NECA Batman as being “close enough”. It’s clear what 7-8 year window he’s from but he doesn’t really properly represent anyone’s art IMO…just the closest thing we’ve gotten to a few. I guess he really has Powers’ face but the musculature more resembles Jones.
Plastic capes don't work. Never have. Capes, especially in comics and with superheroes, have nearly their own personality and a whole life of their own. Especially for characters like Ragman, Spawn, etc who have capes that are literally living beings. My only complaint with those characters is cloth capes are almost always too small.
- cloth capes are superior
- plastic capes are better!
- no, only cloth with wires look good
- plastic is life
Man, I love this discussion so much! No middle ground whatsoever.
i'm getting use to the wire capes then plastic ones, the only plastic cape i like was the one from the tactical suit batman. that one was very pliable compared to the harder capes we have now. like i said i'm liking the wire cloth cape just need to be wider for gliding and use soft cloth not the stiff cloth we got with bale and grayson. the cassandra batgirl has the proper cloth cape material.
so far my target has not put any of the suprman PP nor the plastic man wave on clearance yet. i'll check bat next week, must be each store are still cleaning out stuff.
mcfarlane batman arkham city batman ad grundy 2-pack up on amazon
An odd choice for an already odd execution. I don't mind detective mode figures- it's a cool enough gimmick/variant, but Grundy? While also only fixing the scale issue a hair (if that)? I get that Todd wants to reuse his sculpts to get a bit more money, but it's an odd choice; some sort of electric variant would be much more appropriate. I'd love an at least semi-accurate sized Grundy down the line, but I can't remember- has Todd ever done a large figure as a small one first, then fixed the scale issue later with a Mega Fig?
but I can't remember- has Todd ever done a large figure as a small one first, then fixed the scale issue later with a Mega Fig?
Bane-ish, but doesn't really count because BAF and megafig based on different looks.
I tend towards preferring cloth for weight distribution and my own preferences for what I enjoy playing with. But - some (not all) of the McFarlane plastic capes blew my mind with how light and flexible they were. Night and day compared to, say, dcuc batman capes. Things like the gi for Jada ryu/ken are super impressive too I think. Though for that extra little bit of articulation range, I did still pick up a cloth replacement for mine.
So, I guess, execution obvs can vary, and I’ll probably tend towards something light and flexible, but am excited to see what future materials developments bring! Along those lines, I’d love to see some more flexible materials/approaches for long haired characters in the future.
All I know is, as soon as get that new Darkseid figure (if it ever ships) the first thing I'm going to do is get rid of that trash cloth cape he has. Even if I have to leave the "D" medallion on his chest, it will still look better.
I've seen about a half a dozen reviews of that figure so far, and in every single one the cape looks like a crumpled up rag jutting out from his back. I haven't seen one reviewer even able to get the cape into any kind of a neutral hanging position.
That is definitely not a cape befitting the dark lord of Apokolips.
I think a large part of the plastic vs cloth debate for capes comes down to how the person displays them. We all mess around with our figures, we pose them, we take pictures, and some continue to 'play' with them longer than others, but we don't all display them the same way.
I personally prefer to display everyone in an articulated way, whether that be a fighting pose with another figure, or posing "on a rooftop", or hunched down, etc. There are others who display everything in museum poses, hands at their sides, with hundreds of figures standing in neat rows on a shelf like its class picture day (nothing wrong with it, I just don't know how else to describe it to get my point across). For people like me, the cloth capes (wired) are much better...I can have Superman floating in the air with his cape blowing in the breeze, and a month later I can have him in a battle with Doomsday; in both cases, a cloth cape gives me flexibility in posing that a plastic one just can't. However, a cloth cape is much, much less important for museum poses where you just need the character to stand there and look cool. I don't believe either side falls into these categories 100%, but just in general I think.
I'm a wired cloth cape guy all the way, but I 100% understand the appeal of plastic capes (and I used to fall on that side, myself). There's the middle ground someone was asking for lol
I think a large part of the plastic vs cloth debate for capes comes down to how the person displays them. We all mess around with our figures, we pose them, we take pictures, and some continue to 'play' with them longer than others, but we don't all display them the same way.
I personally prefer to display everyone in an articulated way, whether that be a fighting pose with another figure, or posing "on a rooftop", or hunched down, etc. There are others who display everything in museum poses, hands at their sides, with hundreds of figures standing in neat rows on a shelf like its class picture day
This is an excellent point and good for discussion. I understand the people who prefer dynamic displays. But that type of display, by necessity, reduces the number of figures that can be on display unless your display spaces is vast, bordering on limitless. With finite shelf space and thousands of figures I love I don't really have the space to do a bunch of dynamic displays without putting a ton of other figures in boxes. And I don't have the time to be swapping out displays with any regular cadence. So the more static museum displays end up being much more practical for me while still letting me visually connect with most of the figures I love.
I use my figures to make full on comic books, and I find the cloth capes to be a pain. If they don't have wires then they just hang there in every photo and don't do anything. And if they are wired, I can never seem to get them in a pose that doesn't look a little janky. Plus it sucks to always have to be fiddling with the cape to make it look halfway decent. Maybe it's just me, but that's been my experience.
At least with the plastic capes they look good most of the time without having to do anything to them. I actually like them a little windswept because it adds some motion to a stagnate photo. In fact, I think my favorite cape of any McFarlane figure is the Hush Batman cape. It has a lot of movement to it, and you can put it completely behind him, or have it wrap around the front of his left leg a little. Plus it's pretty soft and flexible.
Ironically superhero movies that want to make the capes of these characters like "dynamic characters unto themselves" like in the comics have to do so with all kinds of CGI and other special effects because cloth doesn't behave like that in the real world .... and that's at 1:1 scale.
Cyborg Superman EQL
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