Sunday, June 29, 2014
Review: MAFEX Batman
| Figure Information | |
| Manufacturer: | Medicom Toy |
| Figure Number: | 2 |
| Origin Series: | The Dark Knight Rises |
| Scale: | Non-scale |
| Height: | Approximately 16cm tall |
| Original Price: | 3,990 Yen |
| Packaging: |
MAFEX Batman is my first try into the line, I skipped the 1st MAFEX (Spider-man) because the figma one got my attention first when MAFEX was announced. Box wise, I believe both him and Spidey have the same box design and really not much of a wow factor going on there. So you can just view the pictures below as my comments on the packaging of articulated figures are pretty much very repetitive anyway, haha.
And with that, let's open the figure and see how good or bad this figure is!
| Details: |
MAFEX definitely did justice to Batman's suit in the film and I believe that this is the same suit he used in The Dark Knight as well? (correct me if I'm wrong lol) The scale-y features of the suit are all there and the bat logo is molded in kinda nice and the utility belt is painted in a very neat gold-like color. And if you actually look at the shots in zoom, you'll find that there's a lot more details present in Batman so it's pretty neat if you ask me.
While I think the head was sculpted pretty nicely, MAFEX Batman doesn't have any extra heads/expressions so they way that they made him looking upwards is kinda weird, I wish they made him look straight ahead instead. Nonetheless, he still looks very TDKR Batman despite my minor complaint.
Now a big chunk of Batman's suit is made of soft plastic so even those spikes on his gauntlets are made of it, less breakage I guess, so yay!
Lastly, Batman's cape is made of cloth, which is a neat feature but I seriously wish they put in some wires inside so that you can make the cape go with the flow of the pose ala figma Sayaka.
Lastly, Batman stands ridiculously tall as here's a size comparison between him and figma Spider-man.
| Accessories: |
Accessory wise is where MAFEX Batman gives the major disappointment for me. Stated earlier, he doesn't come with any extra heads or extra expressions which could've been nice to make his rage moments and seriously, the eyes. Now for the hand sets, aside from the fists, you get a pair of open hands and a right gripping hand for the batclaw and emp gun that he comes with. Now this is my major concern, while I do know that he barely even used batarangs in the trilog, it's pretty much one of his most iconic weapons, so I'm very disappointed that there was no batarang anywhere in the set. Lastly, he comes with a stand which functions exactly like figma stands and yes, it's pretty sturdy if you ask me, it even comes with a clamp option!
| Articulation Points: |
Like most articulated figures, Batman's neck contains two joints, one at the top and one at the bottom, combining the use of these two joints really gives Bats a ridiculous range of looking upwards and a good enough range of looking downwards. At the same time, the upper joint does allow you to rotate Batman's head ala exorcist style.
Going to the arms, you can fully rotate the arms via the shoulders and slightly even tilt it because it attaches via a ball joint to the body though a big caution as I think all produced MAFEX Batman have arms that easily detach especially the right arm; additionally, due to a hinge in the shoulders you can also raise the arms sidewards but only to around somewhere better than 45 degrees since the shoulder pads limit it. He also has a full rotation on his biceps and a very good bend on the elbows thanks to double jointed hinges.
Torso joint allows a good sideways movement along with a very neat outwards bend and good enough inward bend, combine it with the waist joint and you will get an even better range!
Going to the hips, Bats can definitely split sideways while also receiving good forward raise; the joints also allow some minor thigh swivel. Now, I don't know if it's because Bandai and Medicom collaborates on their Project BM! line but the MAFEX frame also has that "pull the leg to get a higher kick" thing going on. Knees are also double jointed but the bend isn't that great since the mold does bump into each other easily. And last but not the least, the ankles which are basically best described as Figuarts ankles hahaha, the titlt, the range and even the toe joint is there; one thing to point out though, even on flat footing, the toes are never gonna touch the ground so it's a bit weird if you ask me.
| Poseability: |
I think given the accessories, I believe the batclaw is the definitely the one I enjoyed the most since you can totally pose him around with it; the EMP gun is just bonus since it's a rifle and you can't get a lot of poses from it. The cape actually plays nicely in all this one you get the pose on.
The frame does allow you to pull on several Batman moves which actually wins it for me and so when I pulled those poses off, I made him face with a Shocker Combatman since you know, Batman eats these criminals for breakfast, hahaha!
And lastly, he can also pull off some silent takedowns which he was doing in some parts of the 3rd movie; this time taking down an AIM Soldier.
| Final Thoughts: |
MAFEX Batman is easily one of the best articulated figure renditions of TDKR suit; though he has a big flaw of easily detaching arms and likewise a sad accessory count, the overall sculpting and look of this figure is definitely good and accurate. If you ever liked the Nolan Trilogy and want the latest suit iteration, MAFEX is definitely a good choice so I'll recommend it especially now that they've recently announced Joker and also remembered to show Catwoman as well, along with an in-scale Bat Pod coming next year. Though as of this writing, Hot Toys is also gonna release their 1/12 scaled figures and Batman is the first one but he comes with a 1/12 The Bat though, so, really, the choice is yours!
And for the source of this figure, I got this from CWToys during its pre-order.
I give the Dark Knight a 4 out of 5.
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