McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse The Riddler review
The Riddler was due for a classic comic book figure from McFarlane Toys’ DC Multiverse line. The featured villain in The Batman got some renewed mainstream attention, marking the perfect opportunity for an old school villain. That’s more of what I want to see from McFarlane Toys.
And it’s weird that this is the first legitimate villain from the Legion of Doom from McFarlane Toys. Hopefully not the last one.
Let’s see if The Riddler has all the right answers or proves McF Toys clueless in making a quality figure.
Packaging: McFarlane Toys doesn’t believe in exciting packaging. It’s the same old, same old — open window showing off the figure with the blue and white accents and comic book artwork on the back.
I love the comic art though a nice touch would be to include the comic book title.
Likeness: This is The Riddler’s classic Silver Age costume. There’s a reason this is his signature outfit. It looks goofy, plays into the character’s shtick and isn’t overly busy just for the sake of fooling readers into thinking it’s a good design.
McFarlane Toys uses the Blue Beetle mold for Riddler. It’s the best McF blank base body though it needs some tinkering particularly with new boots to remove the Beetle boot lines.
It’s frustrating McFarlane keeps going with this mold as he’s done far more figures that benefit from smooth boots than the one instance of a character with lines at the top.
Beyond that, the figure is really well done with the semi-flared gloves, the belt and a great overconfident smiling head sculpt. I do wish his hairline was receding a bit with a pronounced widow’s peak like the card art.
Scale: My biggest gripe with this mold is it’s too tall for smaller characters. At 6’1″, The Riddler really shouldn’t be eye to eye with the 6’2″ Batman.
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Paint: McFarlane’s DC figures are usually very solid with the paintwork. I wasn’t expecting any problems with The Riddler and they didn’t disappoint.
The question mark tampos are very clean and applied in a random manner so they’re not perfectly symmetrical across the body.
In a nice touch harkening to the era The Riddler rocked this outfit, his hair has some blue tints like how it would be colored in the comics.
Articulation: In this attire, I always think of Riddler being more physical than when he’s in his suit. While he might punch and kick more, he’s not doing backflips to fight off Batman and Robin.
The McFarlane DC Multiverse articulation scheme is solid enough to handle any reasonable poses you’d need to hit for him.
The Riddler has:
- neck
- ball-jointed shoulders [with pop up/down point]
- elbow
- wrist
- wrist hinge
- torso
- waist
- hip
- thigh
- knee
- ankle
- toe
Accessories: McFarlane Toys are very inconsistent with the accessory count with figures. Some have nothing while others have a bountiful haul. The Riddler definitely skews more to the latter.
He’s got his signature question mark cane. The stem has plenty of grooves making it very easy for the figure to grip onto the cane.
Additionally, he’s got plenty of swappable hand options.
First, he’s got the matching right gripping and left splayed hand for the default set. Then he’s got a thumbs up right hand and a shoot gesturing left hand. Next up, he’s got a set of fists. These certainly aid with poses in giving The Riddler a lot more personality than the usual figure.
Finally, he’s got the trademark black stand. It’s simple, but very effective in helping the figures hit more dynamic poses with a stable foundation.
Worth it? McFarlane Toys is trying to keep the figures in that $20 to $22 range for the base offerings. The Riddler was $19.99 and with the GameStop Pro Member Price of $18.99 and $5 monthly coupon, I got him for just over $15. That’s a very fair price for a McF DC figure.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
The Riddler didn’t need to be some crazy game-changing figure. It’s very solidly done and with the exception of the boot cuffs is well executed with a nice array of accessories.
Where to get it? I got The Riddler from GameStop, but you can also go online and grab him from Amazon.
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