McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse Flashpoint Batman figure review

It’s weird how few McFarlane Toys figures I’ve actually picked up in 2020. The sculpts have been amazing, but the wacky scale and Batman focus has often left me a spectator. So naturally of course this latest review is about a Batman figure — Flashpoint Batman.

During the Flashpoint event, DC revealed in an alternate reality, Thomas Wayne watched his son get killed and became a vengeful Batman — one who didn’t mind using guns to deal with his enemies. The good thing is that even if McFarlane Toys doesn’t do anymore figures from Flashpoint, although they should as the event featured some cool takes on familiar characters like Cyborg, Wonder Woman and Aquaman, Flashpoint Batman made his way over to regular continuity in The Button (yay) and in City of Bane (booo).

Let’s see if this Flashpoint Batman’s got a brand new bag.

Packaging: Nothing worth getting excited about with the packaging. McFarlane Toys is nearly at the year mark with this line, but I wouldn’t be against them switching up the packaging as it already looks somewhat dated and bland.

If nothing else a bit more personalization on the package, specifically the sides to differentiate the characters would be helpful. There’s no bio as usual and just a wide image on the back featuring Jason Fabok’s artwork and a mini-checklist of other available figures.

Likeness:  This is where McFarlane Toys getting the DC license has been such a big deal. I’m sure parts detectives could decipher any reuse, but it’s not the obvious four available bodies and just using the best fit we see in most other lines.

 

Nope, McFarlane impressively keeps cranking out original sculpts for each figure. His sculpts are taking some liberties with the design although not to the extent of Mezco. The biggest changes from the source material is the kneepads, paneling throughout the costume and more plating/texturing with the gauntlet style gloves and boots.

Those aren’t major changes and the major aspects of the outfit — the corner creases of the cape around the shoulders and the layout of the utility belt with extra straps for the holsters — is intact. I love the headsculpt, which conveys more of the anger Thomas Wayne has than Bruce.

Scale: Thomas should be a bit taller than Batman although this scaling is not always accurately portrayed in the comics.

He’s a bit shorter than Batman, but with basically every other release this Batman seems in need of a comprehensive upgrade. In less than a year, McFarlane’s sculptors have made the Detective Comics Batman look like he came out five years ago.

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Paint:  For the most part the paint job is solid. I wish the stubble were a bit tighter and this varies from figure to figure as I saw one without much at all.

The linework around the cowl with the black bleeding over to the skin tone is another prevalent issue. And if possible, check the Flashpoint Batman logo as it’s the only other area that has two different paints for sculpted areas.

 

Articulation: The figure boasts 22 moving parts according to the package. I was able to get most of the ideal poses out of him.

The arms have good range and the holster wasn’t too restrictive although they limit keeping a kick pose that looks convincing. I appreciate how tight the joints are and there’s little danger of these guys not keeping their poses.

The neck has a great amount of range allowing for some more character to come through when Thomas is feeling especially annoyed.

Flashpoint Batman has:

• neck
• ball-jointed shoulders
• elbow
• wrist
• wrist hinge
• torso
• waist
• hip
• thigh
• knee (double-jointed)
• ankle
• foot

Accessories: Flashpoint Batman comes with his two guns. They’re a good size and have some metallic paint to convey their base element and to give them more than the standard toy appearance.

Ideally, we’d get the alternate head sculpt, but McFarlane Toys opted to make that the variant. Gotta get that use out of that buck one way or the other I suppose.

He also comes with a stand that does help achieve some more dynamic poses. I wish more came with the stand from the Action Comics Superman though.

Worth it? Easily the most impressive aspect of the line is that McFarlane Toys is keeping the price point for all new original sculpting at $20. That’s cheaper than DC Collectibles DC Icons and DC Essentials lines. This is already a good value even though I wish there were another accessory tossed in.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

A slightly cleaner paint job and a tad more range in the hips would push him over the top, but this is a very good Flashpoint Batman making me curious if McFarlane Toys would dip in that pool again.

Where to get it?  Flashpoint Batman is a Target exclusive so that’s the only option until resellers bring them over to Amazon. He is in stock now at Target.