Packaging - ***
The boxes they are using for these are very nice with great graphics and
mood. They are collector friendly as well, and can easily be used to
store the figures in the future.
Sculpting - ***1/2
I've always loved the animated style of Batman figures, and the design is
timeless and classic, although it's only a decade old.
Both the Nightwing and Batman (who is really another quick
change Bruce Wayne) are decent sculpts, and look just as nice as they did
the first time around.
Killer Croc looks great - except he's not the TNBA style,
but the original style. That's because he's simply a repaint of
course, but they used graphics of the newer style Croc on the box, just
reminding me how much I wish that's what we'd gotten. They lose
sculpting points for teasing me.
The sculpt on the Ventriloquist and Scarface is excellent
though, at least in terms of accuracy to the source material. The
level of detail is just right, and I love the expression on the face of the
Ventriloquist.
However, there's other factors the come into play with the
sculpting. One of those is the pose, particularly with a figure like
this. Since the hands and arms of the Ventriloquist were sculpted to
hold the dummy in a very particular pose, the overall body sculpt for both
was crucial. And here they dropped the ball.
Don't get me wrong - he holds Scarface easily, just like he
should. But because of the additional weight, you have to turn his
body to one side, so there is no way for him to hold Scarface facing
forward, and his torso has to be turned just to stay standing. If
Scarface could turn his head, at least you could have them both looking
forward, but that's not possible due to the lack of articulation.
The second factor of the sculpting that is a bit wonky here
is the scale. While the size of the Ventriloquist is good, it seems to
me that Scarface is a bit on the large side. I may have to drag out
one of the episodes to be sure though, as I might just be remembering
incorrectly.
Paint - **1/2
The quality of the paint ops on some of these four packs has been
borderline, and this one is no exception. The eyes on Scarface were
particularly sloppy on mine, and in general the lines on the figures were
uneven and rough.
But the biggest negative in this category is Killer Croc,
who suffers from cheap self tanning cream disorder. His torso is a
distinctly different color from his arms and head, obviously due to the
different plastics used. It's very obvious on the shelf however, and
detracts from the figure. As you can see in the photo, at least the
original version had a consistent skin color.
Articulation - **1/2
Most of these figures have the standard Hasbro five points - neck,
shoulders, and hips. The only new figure(s) in the bunch breaks the
rule.
The Ventriloquist loses one point of articulation, with only
neck, shoulders and waist. He still stands fine, however when he's
holding Scarface you have to get a bit creative.
Scarface is really just a pvc figure, and he really needs at
least neck articulation to give you any posing options.
Accessories - ***
Everybody comes with something, and they are all pretty fun.
It looks like Scarface was the accessory for the
Ventriloquist, although I think he'd have something to say about that.
Batman is really the Quick Change Bruce Wayne, and comes
with the overcoat for his Bruce Wayne look, and a cape/cowl and wicked
looking gloves for his Batman look. They swap easily, and both outfits
look decent. I particularly like the Bruce Wayne look though, and I
think the gray overcoat is a big improvement over the original red.
Killer Croc just comes with his little crocodile. It's made
of soft rubber, and has a nice sculpt. You know, there's some real display
options with a Killer Croc figure and one of those Steve Irwin figures...
Finally, Nightwing comes with his 'wing' shield, and a
firing grappling hook that works fairly well.
Value - **
This really depends on whether you have three of these four figures or
not. I'm assuming you already own the Batman, Nightwing and Croc, and
are only buying the set for the new figure. Twenty bucks is a steep
price to pay in that situation. If that's not true, the value score
goes up.
Overall - **1/2
If this was just the Ventriloquist and Scarface, the score would be
higher, but I have to admit the failings of the overall set, particularly
when it comes to value.