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Packaging - **
Once again, we get the usual box, no window, no COA (but the edition
size and number is on the bottom of the box and base), and sturdy,
dense foam trays. Mine
came in two pieces though...and it's not supposed to. It looks like the
head and cape are a separately sculpted piece, and there's a polystone
neck post that slides down into the upper body to give it further
strength. On mine, this post was snapped cleanly in half, allowing the
head and cape to slip smoothly off the back. There was a little glue
too, but not enough to keep him together in transit.
Since the
break is clean and hidden inside the statue, I simply glued the pieces
back together and you'd never know the difference. But if I had to
guess, I'd say this issue is the fault of tray designs, and too much
pressure was applied to the cape while the statue was getting jostled
around in the mail, hence the lower than usual score.There's no
Certificate of Authenticity, and this series is one of those rare cases
where I actually think it would have been cool, what with the designs
generally based on actual artwork. There's some very cool things they
could have incorporated into a grayscale COA.
Sculpting - ***1/2
Dave Cortes does a terrific job bringing the two dimensional game art
to its full potential in three dimensions. He's captured the pose and
appearance, and gives it the right amount of texturing and detail to
fit the overall style. Most
of the cuts on this figure are sharply defined, with strong musculature
and clear definition. This fits the art work, and while the pose is
relatively static, he uses the cape to add some life and movement to
the piece. While this statue is still in the rough ball park of
the 6 - 7" scale of the rest of the series, he is a bit bigger than
some. Part of that is the bulky nature of the suit, part is the
bulky nature of the man inside, and part of that is due to the style of
the art. This statue is one piece, or at least it was supposed to
be. Batman does not come off the trademark base, so no assembly is
required.
Paint - **1/2
While I really like the sculpt, the paint is not quite up to its full potential. The
body and costume work is good, and the bat symbol is very clean and
sharp. There's a good use of a variety of blacks and grays throughout,
and some of the pieces have a different finish to imply different
materials. The overall look works well. Most of my issues arise
from the neck up. The eyes are sloppy, and there's a real lack of life
in the skin and expression. He's got that mannequin look, and it's
largely due to the paint operations. They even included catch lights on
the eyes, which simply doesn't work well in this scale. There's also a
bit too much slop between the face and the cowl, and a poor cut line
here is fairly obvious. Value - **1/2
Several
places have this guy for $60, and that's what I paid. At that price
point, you're getting a solid, average value. But if you pay $70 or
more, you can drop another half star off this score.
Things to Watch Out For -
As I mentioned, mine showed up in two pieces. That may indicate an
weaker than usually connection between the head/cape and body, so pay
particular attention to this when handling him.
Overall - ***
DC Direct has got to make their production paint work a priority,
especially when it comes to their Batman Black and White and Cover
Girls of the DC Universe statue series. These are not cheap
collectibles, and for both to continue their successful runs, they'll
need to match the paint quality with the customer expectation at this
price point. Take
away the paint issues, and this is a terrific version of Bats from a
very popular game. It's nice to see them step away from the usual
inspirations for this series, and I hope we get more of these types of
selections in the future.
Score Recap:
Packaging - **
Sculpting - ***1/2
Paint - **1/2
Value - **1/2
Overall - ***
Where to Buy -
Online options include these site sponsors: - Fanboy Collectibles has him still on pre-order at $60.
- Big Bad Toy Store has him at $70.
- Capstone Comics has him at $72. - or you can search
ebay for a deal.
- for the UK buyers, Forbidden
Planet has him for 65 GBPs.
- Entertainment
Earth has him listed at $73.
Related
Links -
Other Batman Black and White reviews include: - back before the holidays, I looked at the cool Man-bat.
- before that, we had the Quitely version of Batman, the Bermejo, the McGuinness
version, the Dave Mazzucchelli
version, the Penguin, Gotham Knight 2 version, the Bruce Timm version, the Ethan Van Sciver version, the Aparo, the Neal Adams and George Perez versions, the Gotham Knight, Bob
Kane, Frank Miller, Jim Lee, Matt
Wagner, Mike Mignola, and Kelley Jones. *whew*
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