McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse Batman figure review – Detective Comics #1000
I was pretty happy with my first McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse Superman figure. For some reason the Batman figure wasn’t as easy a sell for me, but after hearing nothing but rave reviews, I decided to give the guy a shot. Let’s see if I’m glad I did.
Packaging: McFarlane Toys isn’t going to get any packaging of the year award. It’s very basic.
On the plus side the character name is on the right side. The kinda tricky part with that is the first wave features multiples of a few characters so it’s not as helpful as I’d like.
Likeness: What initially held me off on Batman was the attempt to capture the specific look from the Jim Lee Detective Comics #1000 cover. Lee has drawn Batman hundreds of times by this point and I don’t know if this was the ideal version to try and capture in figure form. The head was a little smaller and the cowl tips were shorter. Overall it was one of the less heroic versions of Batman that Lee has done.
This is a pretty faithful version of that look wih a few exceptions. There’s the slightly oversized bat logo, the wider draping of the cape and the additional textures along the ribs and legs. The latter isn’t especially distracting, but it’s a weird inclusion. But the most glaring problem when paired with other figures is the small size of the head, which looks like Batman had a run in with Beetlejuice from certain perspectives. Granted, that would be a meta encounter (think about it…), but you get my point.
Batman’s cape flares out in dramatic fashion on both sides. MT used a pretty flexible material so it isn’t aggressively restrictive. That will come to be important later. It does make him a bit of a space hog on a display however.
As an added bonus, the McFarlane Batman still is appropriately smaller than the DC Multiverse Killer Croc and Clayface Collect and Connect figures.
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Paint: Although it looks black on first glance, the cowl, cape and boots are actually a dark blue. The utility belt is a bright strong yellow. Maybe Batman’s skin tone is a bit too toy flesh peach, but it’s a very minor issue.
Articulation: The figure boasts 22 moving parts according to the package. I was impressed that Batman’s cape didn’t too much of his movement. The bottom of the cape limits doesn’t even limit effective crouching poses.
You can hit some really deep splits however meaning you can get some great side kicks.
What’s really cool about this figure is the more you try out various poses I kept finding he could pull them off. Again, it helps that the cape doesn’t mess with the ability to pose the figure. That’s the secret of this guy that you can’t appreciate until you open him up and start fiddling around with him. I’ll probably end up using him a lot as I get more MT figures.
Unlike the DC Essentials Batman, which is challenging to find that ideal lock in the joints to consistently stand, the McF Batman has a firm center of balance and isn’t a domino risk.
DC McFarlane Batman has:
- neck
- ball-jointed shoulders
- elbow
- wrist
- wrist hinge
- torso
- waist
- hip
- thigh
- knee (double-jointed)
- ankle
- feet
Accessories: This is the category where McFarlane is going to need to keep improving.
Batman is light on quality accessories compared to the Superman figure. Batman comes with a grappling gun with harpoon in mid-release, a Batarang and a small stand.
The stand isn’t all that useful as it can’t adequately support his weight in dynamic posing. I’m definitely not a fan of the Batarang as it’s way too chunky and lacks any kind of aerodynamics that would allow it to go anywhere. Fortunately Mattel released a ton of them so finding adequate replacements aren’t a problem.
I do like the grapple gun as it fits easily in Batman’s hand and is scaled properly. It would have been nice to have gotten an alternate head sculpt, hands and some more Bat gadgets.
There is the Detective Comics #1000 cover card, but it’s not the most exciting accessory.
Worth it? I’m impressed that even with the larger scale, McFarlane Toys kept the line at the $20 price point so it won’t break your bank from your normal spending habits.
Rating: 9.5 out of 10
With a slightly larger headsculpt, it’s hard to find many more faults with this figure, which really has to be opened to be fully appreciated.
Where to get it? Everyone has this line in from Target, Wal-Mart, GameStop, Amazon and Entertain