Let's put a smile on that face!

For my 12" figure collection, I'm focusing on building a gallery of my favourite Heroes with cool costumes. So when Hot Toys announced their line-up for The Dark Knight 12" figures, the 2 Batmans were definite additions to my want list but I passed on the Joker... Or so I thought. After catching The Dark Knight movie, the first thing I did when I left the cinema was call my trusty Toy Shop to place an order for the Joker! I was totally blown away by how brilliantly written & played The Joker was in the movie! The late Heath Ledger totally stole the show with his performance. Hot Toys had a lot to live up to in order to recreate the scary Joker in 12" form. They did manage to capture the menacing look in the face sculpt and did a satisfactory job on the costume as well. There are however complaints by collectors on the "cheapo" looking tie & the velcro used on the clothes instead of working buttons. I can overlook these flaws as long as the overall movie Joker look is achieved, and as you can see from my following photos, it managed just that in my opinion.
























As Joker said to Batman in The Dark Knight, "You complete me!" My TDK 12" Collection is definitely more COMPLETE, now that I have the clown prince of crime in it.

THE Dark Knight

My 12" figure collection started off with Takara's Batman Begins Batman. I was totally in awe at how cool that figure was when I first saw photos. 2 other companies (Medicom & Hot Toys) released their 12" version of Batman at the time, but none was on par with Takara's. Here's a nice comparison review of those 3 versions: MWCTOYS

For the sequel to Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Hot Toys have upped the ante with the announcement of three 12" figures & 2 vehicles (!) from the movie. One of the 12" figures announced is Batman in Original (Batman Begins) Costume. Rather than just a simple reissue of their previous figure, Hot Toys went & corrected almost everything that was imperfect about that figure. Better suit, better inner body & most importantly a more accurate head sculpt. Beside those, HT also threw a couple of new stuff in for good measure. Stuff like a interchangeable Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) head & his Pneumatic Mangler (a new weapon Batman used in TDK).

























The Batsuit is quite flexible & allows quite a range of movement for the body underneath. I was expecting solid moulded plastic boots which will restrict movement, but was pleasantly surprised at how flexible the boots turned out to be. Well done, Hot Toys! With this new Hot Toys Batman, I can now safely say "Bye bye, Takara."