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Hot Toys Harvey Dent/Two Face - The Dark Knight

Dark Knight Two Face/Harvey Dent action figure from Hot Toys

   "The following is a guest review.  The review and photos do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Michael Crawford or Michael's Review of the Week, and are the opinion and work of the guest author."

Jeff checks in tonight another Dark Knight Hot Toys figure - Harvey Dent/Two Face!  I haven't gotten mine yet, but after seeing these photos, the wait is killing me...tell us all about him, Jeff!

Thanks to Michael, now hot on the heels of both the Bat Pod and Bank Robber Joker (BRJ) comes everybody’s favourite DA, Mr Harvey Dent, the good man turned bad, but not just your average fall from grace, Oh no!

The Joker organised something far more spectacular for Gotham’s whitest of knights, first he murders all the ‘essential’ people he needs in his case against the mob, then he engineers a situation that kills the woman he loves, and leaves him hideously disfigured and in constant pain. He even manages to convince Dent that ultimately the situation he now finds him self in is by the hands of police corruption and the Dark Knight himself, and so in a quest for vengeance Harvey assumes the name the police had christened him with when he was an investigator at internal affairs, and Two Face is born!

Dents character is central to the plot of TDK, it’s a movie about decisions and manipulation, but ultimately it’s a film about faith, faith in what a person will do when their back is against the wall. Judge a man by what he does.
Dark Knight Two Face/Harvey Dent action figure from Hot Toys
Dark Knight Two Face/Harvey Dent action figure from Hot Toys
Dark Knight Two Face/Harvey Dent action figure from Hot Toys
Dark Knight Two Face/Harvey Dent action figure from Hot Toys
Dark Knight Two Face/Harvey Dent action figure from Hot Toys
Dark Knight Two Face/Harvey Dent action figure from Hot Toys
Dark Knight Two Face/Harvey Dent action figure from Hot Toys
Dark Knight Two Face/Harvey Dent action figure from Hot Toys
Dark Knight Two Face/Harvey Dent action figure from Hot Toys
Dark Knight Two Face/Harvey Dent action figure from Hot Toys
Dark Knight Two Face/Harvey Dent action figure from Hot Toys
Dark Knight Two Face/Harvey Dent action figure from Hot Toys

Packaging: ***1/2
Hot Toys are on quite a roll for me at the moment, I loved the BRJ packaging and Dixon Chan and Monster Jr have done another top job here. I especially like the outer-sleeve.

One side is a light in tone, hi-gloss finish for Harvey, with some nice embossed ‘federal’ typography while the other side is dark and matt with a rough finish, only the type and small areas of Two Faces scarred face are spot laminated, very classy.

This sleeve slides off to reveal a silk finished 5 panel flap fronted box, the front has a large image of Dents damaged coin and the back has pictures of his ‘split’ face on each side of the box with production credits written down the middle.

The alternate ‘undamaged’ jacket is attached in a small tray to the inside flap above a brief bio, and on the other side is the window showing Two Face held in place by five twisties along side his spare hands, coins, badge and alternate Dent head. A very nice box from a designer’s perspective, I’m loving the spot laminate!

Sculpt: ****
Poor old Harvey, he just doesn’t have the allure of the Joker, Ledger kind of stole the show with his larger than life portrayal of the ‘agent of chaos’, he already has a ‘Golden Globe’ posthumously awarded for his work in bringing the character to such vivid life. There’s no denying that both Eckhart and Bale did sterling work in TDK, but for many, many reasons Ledgers swan song performance will be the over riding memory people take away from this movie. And for that reason I see this figure being the hardest sell of the bunch so far, but that’s a shame because this is one very cool figure, and Yulli’s work once again shines. She is credited on the back of the box as prototype sculptor, but when this figure was first announced it was said that the scarred side was by an ‘un-named’ sculptor, I’m sure some contractual legality has lead to this statement, or perhaps Yulli didn’t want to take the heat of a fan-boy backlash (those fan boys can be quite the pedants don’t you know). But whoever did it I’m impressed by every sculpted element of this figure.

The Dent head is almost as masterful as the BRJ, I can find very little to fault it on, if I had to be harsh I’d say Eckhart is ever so slightly fuller and broader in the lower half of his face, but cheez I’m knit picking, this is most definitely Aaron Eckhart, along with cannibal Jack it’s one of the few sculpts to have got a reaction from my ‘doll’ weary wife, her reaction was ‘that’s just amazing’, the last time she was this enthusiastic was as I said on Mr Sparrow, he’s been on her bookshelf ever since. This time I put my foot down,’ No, he’s mine!’ I heard myself say, and felt like a petulant ten-year-old, ahhh, toys; they bring out the very best in us. 

The Two face head seems to utilise half of the previous sculpt, I’ve scrutinised it pretty closely and every aspect from his dimpled chin to the fall of his hair is exactly the same. The hair parting is moved over slightly to make way for the scarred scalp which blends down into his disfigured face This shows some great anatomical work on the eyeball and especially on the exposed muscles and sinews around his teeth and gums. Apparently Nolan was originally going to go for a far more clinical and scientific look to Harvey’s scarring, but it was decided his ‘real world’ ethos would be too disturbing for audiences, and so a mid ground was found. Not as ‘comic book’ as the Tommy Lee Jones version but neither was it too Greys anatomy, I love it and as far fetched and ghoulish as the floating eyeball is, along with the exposed teeth and flashes of bone it just give the right look to this character, and shows enough hard core damage for you to empathise with Harvey’s tragic plight.

He also comes with 4 different hands, two in a relaxed position and one newly sculpted gun grip for his revolver and a specially designed hand for holding the iddy biddy badge and coins he comes with, and as tiny as they are the coins are all sculpted and the button badge even has a pin sculpted on the back, so all in all the addition of the extra head gives you so much more opportunity for swapping characters this just has to be full marks.

Paint: ****
I’ve praised JC Hong on many occasions, hell I think he gets a mention in just about every HT review I do, and for good reason, the guy has single handedly dragged mass produced paint apps into an arena previously only occupied by customisers. But the nameless artists who carry out his work deserve a big pat on the back too. This is another breakout job, if you’re lucky enough to get this in hand just check out the mouth area, the crispness of the lines between the teeth and gums, the variation in tone on the muscles, bone and burnt tissue. The eyes yet again have that JC Hong life like glisten, the subtlety of the airbrushed 5 o’clock shadow and the blonde hair… OK, blonde hair doesn’t sound like it should be that big a challenge, but anyone out their who has the various Luke Skywalker's that have been given to us by everyone from Hasbro to Sideshow right through to Gentle Giant will tell you what a challenge a mass produced blonde barnet can be!  

It all looks just perfect to me, and though I have seen the movie three times I haven’t scrutinised any still imaged with a linen tester to check just how ‘crispy’ each millimetre of his face should be, but its still like a master-class in how it should be done!

Articualtion - ****
Once again Harvey uses the True-Type, we’ve been over this base body loads of times, my basic description can be read here. It’s the best base generic body out there right now, it stands like a dream and showcases Hot Toys masterful tailoring perfectly, as my wife once said ‘it just looks like a little man’, well that’s the idea!

You might find that when wearing his ‘damaged’ jacket it restricts his arm mobility a little and the material used to mimic the burnt and scorched fabric is quite thick, but Harvey was never that much of an action-man, and most will just want to find a general pensive looking stance, and for that this figure is more than capable!

Accessories - ***3/4
Mr Dent comes with some of the tiniest accessories to date, but all very specific to his character… sorry, characters. We get two tiny double-sided coins, expertly sculpted at this scale (handy as you’re bound to lose one!), a tiny campaign badge emblazoned with ‘I BELIEVE IN HARVEY DENT’, and they even modelled a miniscule pin on the reverse. He also comes with a revolver, the chamber can flip out and the hammer cocked (it’s the same one that came with the Michael Scofield ‘spec-ed’ Prison Break figure), then there’s the stand, which is nice as it has the TDK logo and character name, but I never use them. 

And lastly there’s the extra un-burnt Harvey Dent head and jacket, these are the key items keeping the score so high. As nice as the coins, badge and gun are, it’s the ability to swap this figure between his two alter egos’ that deserve all the praise. I’ve gone over the sculpts above, but onto his clothes now…

Outfit: ****
Another great 1/6 business suit from HT, The first I got was on the Prison Break figures a couple of years ago, then last year the Supes 2 in 1 had another great 2 piece, and now this. I don’t think anyone else is making 1/6 clothes as finely tailored as HT at this time.
They go out of their way to source scaled ‘thin’ material with super fine weaves, scaled buttons, lining and working pockets finished off with a working belt and tie, the material used on the shirt, and the tiny buttons and stitching is amazing, I hope my photos do it justice. And of course for Harvey Dent DA mode you get the extra ‘undamaged’ jacket, it wasn’t until I was unpacking this that I noticed they even have working inside chest pockets on both sides, pure quality.

He also comes with some super shiny patent shoes, but like the BRJ he has no socks, not as big a problem as with the Joker, as you are far less likely to pose him in a position that causes a flash of ankle, but everything else is so perfect a pair of socks would have finished it off nicely.

I think the burnt half of the jacket deserves special mention, it has a rubberised effect that seems to have been impregnated into the cloth, or perhaps welded/ironed on, it’s pretty convincing, but at this scale it obviously bulks the material up a bit. Not hugely so, you can still get plenty of good posing, but if the left arm is lifted too high the collar can start moving away from the neck, however as I also mentioned above Dent was never the most ‘dynamic’ of super-villains, so it’s as much of a problem as you want to make of it.

Ultimately I can’t imagine any other manufacturer doing the damaged jacket this well, so considering we get two jackets it’s got to be full marks again.

Fun factor: ***1/2
Well, as I said above to the more ‘casual’ collector this guy just doesn’t have the allure of Bats or the Joker. No, this figure is more for your hardcore 1/6 collector or serious Batman fan, and as such HT have rewarded us with a figure that doesn’t skimp on quality, and whilst not as laden with accessories as the recent BR Joker, that extra head goes a long way in clawing back a few extra Brownie points.  

Value: ***1/2
If you can wait till June… JUNE…freakin hell JUNE!...  then you can get this for $175 from DC Direct, alternatively you can use one of Michaels sponsors below or go to eBay where he’s going in the $140 to $185 bracket. I figure most will be paying in the $150 to $160’ish area, so I based my score on that, but if you go up to the full RRP of $175 I’d perhaps knock another quarter of a star off.

Overall: ***3/4
I wrestled with giving this ***1/2, but the two cool head sculpts and the two jackets made me reconsider, it would have been even cooler with a damaged shirt and trousers, I never noticed if he had one damaged shoe (and sock for that matter), but a figure this outstanding is certainly deserving of more than three and a half stars, it’s ‘almost’ perfect. And which ever way you look at it this is another benchmark from Hot Toys.

SCORE RECAP:
Packaging - ***1/2
Sculpt - ****
Paint - ****
Articulation - ****
Accessories - ***3/4
Outfit - ****
Fun Factor - ***1/2
Value - ***1/2
Overall - ***3/4

Where to Buy -
As stated above, DC Direct will have it in June…JUNE! For $175, or you can try some of Michaels sponsors below-

Urban Collector $138.99 Pre-Order

Alter Ego Comics $148.75 Pre-Order

Showpiece Collectibles $149.99 Pre-Order

CornerStoreComics $149.99 Pre Order

Dark Shadow $155.00 Pre Order

Entertainment Earth $ 160.73 Pre Order

Forbidden Planet £ 99.99 Pre Order

Or it’s time to hit eBay with the sponsor MyAuctionLinks.com.

Dark Knight Two Face/Harvey Dent action figure from Hot Toys


Dark Knight Two Face/Harvey Dent action figure from Hot Toys
Dark Knight Two Face/Harvey Dent action figure from Hot Toys


Figure from the collection of Jeff Parker.

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