It honestly makes it all the more ironic, somehow, that these last, late set of figures are pretty much the best ones made. In the end, they’re not bad, and actually pretty good, but they’re still the ultimate “Coulda been”, both as individual figures, and as the start to a new direction in Mattel’s comic Batman line. In the end though, it’s really a matter of personal opinion or preference, so read on, and see if these’ll work for you.

Packaging - ***
These come in the same packaging that you’ve gotten used to seeing from most of the Deluxe figures in the Mattel Batman line: Multilingual, with pictures of the figures and brief descriptions (of the figures and their accessories, not the characters themselves) on the back, and inserts with a picture of the character on the front. Strangely, though, these already have their own little issues. The pictures on the back seem to be pictures of the figure prototypes, and not of the final versions of the figures themselves. Most may not really have any issues with this, but some may be left with some false expectations from looking at the card back. The front insert is a little weirder. The featured picture of Bats on each insert looks quite blurry, and, stranger still, the pictures look sort of reused between the packaging for Attack Armor Bats and Bat Signal Bats. The only real difference is in the two pictures is an arm moved to the side, and a couple of swapped weapons. Of course, this is all just nitpicking, but MOCers might notice that when the two packaged figures are displayed together, their insert art looks sort of like a strange “spot-the-difference” puzzle, or something. The figures themselves are displayed and protected well enough with this packaging, though, and the capes are kept held away from the figure’s body, in a separate plastic bag thing behind the main tray that hold the figure. This is a nice touch, I guess, as it prevents the cape from being creased from being pressed up against the figure for so long.

Sculpting - Bat Signal Bats *** Attack Armor Bats ***1/2
Both of these are sculpted pretty well, especially for mass-market figures. Compared to some of the more “specialty store” style figures, though, these lack a sense of difference in texture. Of course, you can’t really give too much texture to a comic-style figure of a guy in a relatively simple superhero outfit. Muscle definition looks mostly solid across the board for both figures, and they’re pretty much “Batman” through and through, though done in different styles.

Bat Signal Batman is, essentially, a nice remake of the original Zipline Batman, which was impressive enough in itself. It’s done in your basic, mostly neutral comic-book style, with look that’s just between lean and bulky. His facial expression is, as with Zip Bat, stern, but a bit blank. The execution of the part soft plastic, half cloth cape work well, with some good sculpting on the folds of the upper cape. It’s still not as wide as I’d want it to be, though, but it’s large enough to cover all of Bat’s back. The soft material of the upper cape is slightly raised from the body itself, so it doesn’t interfere too much with the shoulder articulation. It looks a little strange, but it’s quite forgivable. The upper body looks to have been redone to look a bit more muscular, probably to fit the added articulation. It does make the lower body (which is essentially the same as Zips) look a little scrawny, but it’s not all that bad. The much-loved Bat-logo boot treads are still intact, too. The gloves on the figure have some crease lines, which are nice. The hands themselves are sculpted into specific poses, unlike the generic half-grips of the original Zipline Batman. While these may add a bit of character to the figure, they’re also hard to work with, as the poses chosen are an open hand (for the right), and a semi-pistol-grip of some sort (for the left). This is annoying, as it makes it impossible to put this Bats into a punching pose, and almost demands that his left arm be displayed holding a weapon or accessory. Unfortunately, the accessory included doesn’t even need the pistol grip (it clips on to the arm). This forces this Batman to resort to strange looking, quasi-kung fu stances, which look honestly a bit forced. The pistol grip would, however, look perfect for holding a Batarang, but it doesn’t come with one. If you have the Kia Asamiya style Batman from Yamato/ DC Direct, the Batarang on that figure works perfectly with this figure. The Batarang from the original Zips Bat, however, does not.

Attack Armor Batman serves as a bit of a welcome departure from the normal Mattel line figures. Instead of going with neon colors and needless armor bits to make this figure “unique”, Mattel decided to go the DC Direct way and feature Batman, as done in a different drawing style, resembling that of Simon Bisley. This Batman boasts a decidedly brawnier look, with heavily emphasized muscles and a build that’s almost like a wrestler. The sculpting on the muscles, especially in the limbs, is very impressive. They give the figure a feeling of intensity. The proportions on this figure are less realistic than Bat Signal Batman, but this serves the look of the figure quite well. The altered proportions are most prominent on the head, which is pretty small compared to the bulk of the rest of the figure. This serves to make the figure look even more muscular. The head sculpt is also interesting, with a fiercer, more exaggerated facial expression, and much longer horns/ bat-ears. The cape on this Batman is done in a similar style to the rest of the line, but the cloth material is slightly different. The cloth cape is also much longer, and a bit wider. The plastic upper area of the cape is also well done. It’s only wide enough to reach mid-shoulder, allowing it to stay closer to the actual body without having to interfere with the shoulder articulation. The boots/ feet on this figure are quite large, contributing more to the overall look of the figure. They also feature treads, but they’re just your ordinary ones, without the bat-logo. The hands here are also pre-posed, but in a far better way. They’re large and expressive, with the right hand in another trigger pose (with a proper accessory to go with it, the “Mega Batarang”), and the left hand in a fist.  

Paint - Bat Signal Batman **1/2 Attack Armor Batman ***
Technically, you can’t really go too wrong with paint on these figures, as Batman has never really been a character with any intricate color patterns. No washes, or anything here, though, just some basic, solid coloring. There are still, however, some issues here, especially on the Bat Signal Batman.

Most of the paint on Bat Signal Bats is solid enough with the facial paint job nice and clean, with a very minimal bit of paint straying from where it should be. The colors are solid, but the differences in the matte black of the “underwear” and boots and the glossier black on the gloves and mask may be a bit annoying. The belt is also done with more detail, and with a less obvious, neon-ish yellow than the original Zipline Batman. The color on the buckle itself is a bit iffy, but it’s near-impossible to notice, anyway. The real problem with the paint on this is the bat-symbol on the chest. Sure, it’s a pretty clean application, and it looks nice… But on mine, it was crooked. Yes, strangely, the symbol leans downwards on the right side. From an angle, it doesn’t really look that obvious, but from the front, it looks almost goofy. It’s a waste, as the symbol is such an essential part of the look of the character, and it takes up a pretty large chunk of space on his chest. Most likely, the reason for this paint mishap is the figure’s midtorso articulation. It was probably tilted slightly when the symbol was spraypainted on. Hopefully, this doesn’t happen with the other figures, but it happened here, and it’s a letdown, really.

The paintjob on Attack Armor Batman is also similar with solid applications all around. The utility belt is cast in its yellow color, but it has some gold detailing. Gold doesn’t really seem like a very fitting color, but I suppose it gives the belt a bit of a “retro/techno”-ish look, if that makes any sense. There is a minimal bit of flesh-color paint missing from the area where his mouth area meets the bottom of his mask, but it’s only noticeable up close. Same thing with the eyes, but it’s also not very obvious.

Articulation - Bat Signal Batman *** Attack Armor Batman ***1/2
Ah, yes. Articulation. This is probably what got people so excited about these figures in the first place. Ironically, this is where the figures both impress and disappoint the most. Individually, they’d actually look better, but when compared, it’s all too easy to notice that one of the figures is missing a joint or two… or three that the other has, and it feels like a letdown, at times. Still, this doesn’t remove the fact that these are Batman figures with some solid, acceptable articulation, and that in itself is already reason enough to like these.

The articulation you get on Bat Signal Batman is almost… bittersweet. The upper body has a great amount of articulation, with a ball-jointed neck, ball-jointed shoulders, pin joints at the elbows, cut joints where the gloves meet the arm, hinge joints on the wrists, a mid-torso joint (which can move backward, forward, side to side, AND twist) and articulation at the waist, where it meets the belt. The range on these joints are pretty good, and you can get a heck of a lot of great poses out of them. Of course, the aforementioned strange hand poses may be a bit of a problem, but it’s still great despite that. Most of the joints are nice and tight, except for the waist joint, which tends to move forward and backward a bit, too, though it’s probably not supposed to. Still, it adds some small dimension of extra, albeit unintended articulation, and that’s alright.

Now, the lower body is where people start feeling a bit sad. It pretty much similar, articulation-wise, to the original Zipline Batman, with your basic joint at the hip, a pin joint at the knees and an additional pin joint at the ankles. This allows for a pretty limited number of poses, most of which are basic standing and semi-stepping. There isn’t really enough articulation to mimic a fighting stance, but a combination of the waist swivel and a stepping pose may serve well enough. Still, it looks a bit forced, and it all leaves you wishing he could have an additional hip joint, to allow his legs move sideward and assume more combat-ready poses. The great amount of articulation on the upper body makes the lower body seem even more sparse, even though it’s already more than what you get on most Batman figures.

Attack Armor Batman fares a bit better, but he still has his flaws. He lacks Bat Signal Batman’s expressive ball-jointed neck, having only a cut joint. This isn’t really all that bad, but it’s still disappointing if you consider how well they were able to pull off the neck joint on the other figure. The rest of the upper body articulation is similar to Bat Signal Batman, except for the lack of hinge joints on the wrists, and the more limited range of movement on the torso joint. The lower body articulation here, though, is the real winner, and probably a first for 6-inch-scale Batman figures. Attack Armor Batman has dual hip joints (allow for forward, backward and side to side movements), mid-thigh cut joints, pin knees and dual ankle joints, allowing for forward, backward and side to side movements as well. Unfortunately, both of these ankle joints are extremely loose, and don’t hold their positions, even when there’s not weight at all on them. The good thing is that the figure can still stand up on its own, despite the weak ankle joints.

Accessories - Bat Signal Batman-*** Attack Armor Batman **
For the first time in what’s… probably a long time, for this line, we get one or two accessories that are actually pretty interesting. We also happen to get some of the usual, semi-unwanted projectile weaponry, but I guess I shouldn’t be complaining too much about that. I must note, though, that since these are “Deluxe” figures, they seem to come with either more accessories, or larger accessories than we’re used to on most of the other figures, so I suppose that’s welcome.

Bat Signal Bats comes with his Bat Signal, a grappling hook launcher and some sort of armor breastplate. The Bat Signal (batteries included) looks quite nice, with some solid sculpting detail and painting. The techno-ish look isn’t exactly comic book canon, but it looks solid enough. On top of all that, of course, it also lights up, and projects a bat symbol when you press a button on the back. The light is strong enough, and works pretty well, especially in low-light situations. You’ll also be able to replace the batteries on this accessory, when needed. Of course, that’s usually a given for battery-operated toys, but since I’ve seen one or two pretty nice battery-operated items which are pretty much sealed tight, without an option to replace the power source, I’m mentioning it anyway. The only issue anyone may have with this accessory is the scale, since it’s pretty small, but I suppose you can’t really expect to have a huge Batsignal as an accessory. Maybe they could have afforded to make it larger if they dropped the other two accessories, but there’s not much point arguing over that. Bat Signal Bats’ other two accessories aren’t as impressive as the Batsignal. The grapple launcher thing works alright, and comes with a string attached that you can wind back into the launcher itself. The armor plate is just… well, it’s an armor plate, it fits well over the figure’s chest, and the bat symbol in it isn’t crooked (at least). The vac-metallized effects on both accessories don’t really look that great to me, but if kids like it, then… In the end, though, I think people will really be thinking more about the Batsignal than the other two accessories. After all, they’re essentially just another grappling gun, and another breastplate.

Attack Armor Batman comes with a “Mega Batarang”, and a shield/ missile launcher… thing. The Mega Batarang actually resembles a sword-like weapon that Batman used in the Batman/ Planetary crossover, when fighting their resident strongwoman character. It looks cool enough, whatever the heck you decide it’s supposed to be, but the vac-metallized look, again, doesn’t work so well with me. The shield thing has some pretty decent paintwork, and comes with a projectile launching action, and two wings that pop out of the sides. On its own, it looks interesting enough (though quite abstract), and work well enough… but it’s just too big to work really well with figure.

Fun Factor - Bat Signal Batman-***1/2 Attack Armor Batman ***1/2
It’s really quite hard not to give these high ratings for fun factor, given the amount of articulation and accessories that they have. They’ve got the high articulation that people have been asking for, coupled with some pretty solid sculpts, paint and accessories. I’d advise caution in giving these to kids, though. Despite the fact that this series is, I suppose, pretty kid-oriented, the durability on these seems a little iffy. My Attack Armor Bats’ arm snapped off at the joint within a few minutes of opening, and only an unbelievably crude modification involving super glue, mechanical pencils and staplers was able to save him. (…Don’t ask.)

Value - Bat Signal Batman- **** Attack Armor Batman ****
I’m going out on a limb here, sort of, and giving these the full 4 stars on value. Around here, they’re being sold for the rough equivalent of about 8-9 U.S. dollars or so, and that’s pretty good, especially given how expensive the DC Direct figures are, compared to this. For that much, you get some decent accessories, great articulation, solid paint, and most importantly… these are on a BATMAN figure. Compared to all of the multicolored neon variant stuff we’re seeing, that’s pretty solid. 

Things to Watch Out For:
As I mentioned before, there are a couple of paint and durability issues on these figures. Just make sure to browse whatever available figures there are, and make sure you’re getting one without any significant paint errors, or whatever. Aside from that, it wouldn’t hurt to be a bit careful when moving the joints around.

Overall - Bat Signal Batman ***1/2 Attack Armor Batman ***1/2
The aforementioned minor issues keep these figures from being perfect, and it’s really sorta sad to see these things not miss the mark by just that little. As toys, they’re solid. As Batman toys, they’re even better, but they’re still not the very best that they could be. Still, if you want a well-articulated comic book version Batman, these are pretty much the best, and, I suppose, the only ones out there, really.

Score recap
Packaging - ***
Sculpting - Bat Signal Bats *** Attack Armor Bats ***1/2
Paint - Bat Signal Batman **1/2 Attack Armor Batman ***
Articulation - Bat Signal Batman *** Attack Armor Batman ***1/2
Accessories - Bat Signal Batman-*** Attack Armor Batman **
Fun Factor - Bat Signal Batman-***1/2 Attack Armor Batman ***1/2
Value - Bat Signal Batman- **** Attack Armor Batman ****
Overall - Bat Signal Batman ***1/2 Attack Armor Batman ***1/2

Where to Buy -
I got mine in a local Philippine brick-and-mortar toy store. As far as I know, these haven’t been released in the U.S. yet (they weren’t really meant to be, in the first place), but they’ll probably become available later in the year through a comics distributor.