Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Review: ARTFX+ Batman -New 52 version-

Figure Information
Manufacturer: Kotobukiya
Origin Series: Justice League The New 52
Scale: 1/10
Height: Approximately 20 cm tall
Original Price: 5040 Yen



Packaging:


The first waves of the Justice League ARTFX+'s boxes are all in clear windows by the front and top (similar to how they have made the Tales series from years ago) and do note, Kotobukiya's Facebook page has announced that these New 52 Justice League statues have been having some bootleg releases; I'm not sure if Batman already has one but still, do be careful and you can read more info here. Anyway, you can pretty much see the figure clearly on how they packaged these heroes which is a big plus as you can easily inspect which piece to get (in case there are some minor nitpicks you want to do).

The sides contain the heroes' symbol (Batman's logo in this case) and the original art they're based on while the back is pretty much just shaded on the heroes' color with a "Justice League" text in there. Also note Kotobukiya's label is at the bottom of every side of the box. XD But anyway, no Hachune with the package shots here since... well, he's Batman! But enough of that and let's get on to the actual figure.



Details:


Now I'll start off with the head sculpt; overall, I love how the head was sculpted here, the lips, the facial muscles and even the nose have been sculpted to a very fine extent, almost realistic really; though sadly, my piece came with a minor excess tiny bit of plastic near the left cheek but it's not noticeable at a glance thankfully XD Anyway, the cowl looks superb with all the linings and facial muscles intact along with Batman's whited out eyes, though I really wish he could've looked a bit more angry or had that bat glare with him; then again, they made it accurate to the art as he does not look angry enough in the said art as well.


Going on the rest of the body, his entire paint job is done in a very rich metallic gray as well as metallic dark orange(?) for his utility belt and believe me, it looks so nice. All the linings in the new 52 suit are also kept intact as well as the scales near her shoulders; I also love how his muscular structure is captured very well. 

Overall a well sculpted and detailed work although still not fully qc free as the spikes on his forearms on mine have been bent towards the insides of cape which looks like it can break if not handled properly (luckily I got it out safely XD). But aside from that, I'm very very contented with the details of my New 52 Batman.


Moving on the next part of the details would be his cape, it's quite a major bulk piece of the overall figure and I certainly the flow of the cape as it doesn't look weird since it's just right his pose though I think more sharpness on the spiky tips could've made it a lot better (wishful thinking :p)


Now pretty much all the members of the League have this generic black rectangular base with the "Justice League" label on it; it's quite heavy too since it has a magnet inside of it.


Batman's feet have magnets under them and honestly, it doesn't really attract that well, the figure easily detaches from it if you pull it up so I do wish they could've used a stronger magnet for this; but the good thing is Batman can stand on his own just fine.


Pose/Appeal:


Pose-wise, I can't blame them for giving Batman such a pose since it is based on the artwork of the JL standing in line, though if I must nitpick; from how I view it, Batman's head is a little tilted to his right on the original art and here in the figure, it does give the feeling that he's just looking straight, a little tilt could've given him a much better character/pose I think.

That said, it doesn't mean that Batman is a bland subject for shooting, I still enjoyed the shoot on the Dark Knight as he does have a lot of good angles and I actually quite find it a challenging subject to shoot due to his colors as well (since my camera's having a hard time with focuses and light exposures at times XD). 


Side profiles are this statue's specialty, he just totally look in character in these views! What's even better is that his back shot looks cool, something a number of scaled figures aren't really well accounted for. XD


Lastly, what's the Dark Knight without Darkness, it is his ally after all as Bane said, screening his face/body in darkness makes totally imposing shots, just the way the Batman should be.


Final Thoughts:

Though his very simplistic pose could have been better, when displayed with some (if not all) of the other JL members, Batman can look totally great as a display piece! The sculpting, again, is superb along with the paint on this fine statue, and for it's price, he's pretty much worth the buck. I do recommend this to Batman collectors out there especially if you already got some of the other releases from the Justice League ARTFX+ line. 

I got this from amiami via my friend as proxy for ordering.  

I do rate the Caped Crusader a 3.5 out of 5.

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