Review of Tony Daniel Designed Batman Black and White Statue

Introduction

The Batman Black and White series of statues has been going on for so many years, I'm starting to run out of things to say. And that's not a common occurrence.

The latest release in this tremendously successful series is based on the design and artwork of Tony Daniel. Mr. Daniel did some terrific work on the main Batman titled comic series for a little while, and even did a bit of writing on the same issues. His design is sculpted by James Shoop, who's work we've seen many times before.

This is a limited edition in the usual DC Direct definition, with 4000 being produced. There's no Certificate of Authenticity, however. The prices on this guy are really varied, with anything from $60 - $80 possible depending on the retailer.

Packaging - ***
The box does it's most important job well - the dense foam trays keep the statue safe and sound. There's no window, and there's no COA, but the edition size and number are printed on the bottom of the box and bottom of the stand as well.

Sculpting - **
This is a very low sculpting score from me for any statue in this series, and there's one reason and one reason only for it.

It's not the overall work by Shoop. He's captured the look of Daniel's work in three dimensions, and done it with strong lines and appropriate proportions. Some of the sculpt has a slightly rough appearance to it, but that's Shoop's style.

It's also not the pose, though I have to admit that it's not my favorite. The 'landing from a jump' pose is starting to get a bit played in the Black and White series. It's alright here though, and the swooping C shape of the overall body is visually pleasing.

Nope, the reason I'm scoring this guy so low is a manufacturing and/or design issue. There are two metal pegs, one on the front foot, and one on the bottom of the longest, thickest piece of cape. 

These two posts should fit into the two holes on the base. But they do not line up properly, and to get him in place you'll have to put pressure on the resin. That's not good - it's very easy to break the foot or the cape when forcing the metal posts. Or you could do what I did - I scratched the paint on the base trying to get the posts to fit.

That's unacceptable with a collectible like this, and is a critical quality issue. I bet there's a lot of returns and breakage on this statue due to this problem.

These statues are in that 6 - 7" scale, and this guy tends toward the larger end of that range, with an overall height of 9".

Paint - ***
There's a few sloppy edges, especially around the boots and gloves. There's also a little clumpiness to some of the coverage, which pulls the score down slightly.

It's worth noting that this is an unusual color for a black and white statue. You expect gray scale of course, but generally there's been a lot of true black as well. Here, there's very little, and the darker gray is not quite gray. I'm not sure what it is, but my eyes are telling me there's some purple in the gray...your eyes might tell you different, but it's not a pure gray scale.

They did use some different finishes from matte to gloss to set various parts of the uniform apart.

Value - **1/2
I ranking this guy at about $70, which is about average considering other statues and busts in this scale on the market. If you manage to grab him for around $60, you can add another half star here.

Things to Watch Out For -
I'm assuming everyone will have the issue with the pegs not quite lining up with the holes. Since the pegs are steel, and the foot and cape are resin, forcing them can easily break the statue. Be VERY VERY careful attaching the statue to the base.

Overall - **1/2
If this statue had not had the issue with the steel posts and their misalignment, this statue would have scored much better overall. But there's really no excuse for such a critical quality flaw to make it through production, and this is the sort of issue that's likely to be consistent across the run.

Score Recap (out of ****):
Packaging - ***
Sculpting - **
Paint - ***
Value - **1/2
Overall - **1/2

Where to Buy 
Online options include these site sponsors:

- Entertainment Earth has him at $73.

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
Lots of Batman Black and white reviews:

- the last was Arkham Asylum.

- 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*

You should also hit the Search Reviews page, in case any other applicable reviews were done after this one was published.

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