"I need a new suit"

In The Dark Knight movie, Bruce Wayne needed to upgrade his Batman suit for better protection & mobility. "$Cha-ching$!" With that, Toy companies with the TDK license could already hear the cash registers ringing. Hot Toys being one of those companies, released their 12" version of the new suit as part of their TDK line. Early reports & comments were that the HT TDK Bats looked slighty chubby, so it went through quite a few modifications prior to release. After getting mine, it looked perfectly ok to me. Due to the design of the TDK suit, it allows for better posing, especially the neck. It does come with a shorter cape (I'm guessing so that it'll look better when riding the Batpod) than the Begins' version. The cape is removable & tends to fall off easily, that's my only complaint with this figure. The Bruce Wayne head included also looks better than the one included with Begins, this is due to a less "orange peel" texturing effect on the face & a lighter skin tone. The figure comes with his grapple gun, 2 bat-a-rangs & a mini bomb/ mine.

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."

"Why So Serious?"

As the anticipation for The Dark Knight movie continues to escalate, we've learned that the focus of this movie will be on the confrontation between Batman & The Joker. How fitting that DC Direct has just released a Batman Vs. The Joker Statue! Sculpted by Johnathan Matthews, based on Jim Lee's art & limited to 1600. I can't begin to describe the level of detail on the sculpt. There's not a point on The Joker that's not loaded with details! From Joker's face, to the buckles on his straitjacket, right down to his skin texture! Only slight disappointment for me is the sloppiness of the paint (one of my usual complaints about DC Direct products). However, kudos be given to the changes done to the base. It now looks better than what was previewed on DC Direct's website. Another thing to note is the lightness in weight of the statue, but I was already prepared for that after my experience with the Wonder Woman Vs. Superman piece.





















I'm considering selling my Kotobukiya Batman vinyl statue now that I have this. Don't need 2 Jim Lee Bats in my collection & was never a fan of vinyl statues anyway.

Clash of the DC Titans

My first statue from DC Direct, Wonder Woman vs. Superman!
I had a few worries when I was deciding whether to pre-order this piece. One was the face sculpt of Superman reminded me of the dreadful Superman vinyl statue by Kotobukiya. The second worry was DC Direct's poor paint QC on their statues. But in the end, I thought... Heck! Two of DC's most well known Heroes going against each other? No way can I pass up on this! Beautifully sculpted by Ray Villafane (BD Sabertooth statue, SS Wolverine comiquette), based on art by Terry Dodson. My worries were unwarranted when I finally received the actual statue. Superman turned out much better than I expected, Diana was simply gorgeous & the paint was decent all round. The first thing that hit me when I picked up the statue (literally) was the weight, or lack of it to be precise. It's quite light for a statue that size, I guess it could be to prevent breakages due to its design. One of the highlights is the glossy red paint used very appropriately on WW & Supe's boots, also on Supe's chest insignia.




















I was gonna display this with my Sideshow versus dioramas, but too bad the scale is smaller. Size comparison with the awesome Sideshow X-Men vs. Sentinel diorama:






& here's one for fans of Transformers: