Alfred E. Neuman as Batman
Posted 09/28/01
Overall score - ***1/2 out of ****

(originally posted at Comic Book Galaxy)

First up is Superman and Batman, soon to be followed by Robin, Green Lantern, Green Arrow and others.  I picked up the Batman today, since I simply couldn't resist once I saw it at the comic shop.

Packaging - ***1/2
At first, I wasn't too excited by the card art.  But the more I looked at it, the more I liked it.  The graphics are styled very much like MAD magazine, and the back shows pictures of the future figures.

Yep, it's fairly plain, but I think it fits the material extremely well.

Paint - ***1/2
Nice work on this figure.  DC Direct tends to be very hit and miss when it comes to paint ops, but this time the've done a great job.  The yellow on the belt is clean and consistent, as is the gray and blue of the uniform.

Sculpting - ****
These are excellent versions of Mr. Neuman.  It looks just like him, and the expressions and style of the costumes fits his personality to a 't'.  The floppy ear of the cowl is a perfect example of matching his style to the Batman mythos.

The sculpting on the individual items on the belt is also very good, with lots of detail and clean lines.  He's carrying a T.V. remote, salt and pepper shakers, banana and yo-yo.  They don't come off.

Accessories - ***
I'm going to count two separate items as accessories - the extra pair of hands, and his cloth cape.

The extra hands are great, and after I took these photos, I ended up deciding that I liked the extra, open palm hands better than the ones you see here.  The only down side is that the hands come off very easily.

The cape is long - very long.  Todd McFarlane would be happy.  It's a quality cape, with stitching around the edge and the MAD logo on the back.  However, it's not easily removable.

He's got neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, hips and knees.  Unfortunately, the elbows and knees are very limited, and turning the wrists tend to pop the hands off pretty easily.

Value - **1/2
As much as I like this figure, he's still not worth $12 - $15 bucks.  Because of that price tag, I'll only be picking up Batman and Robin.  If they were 10 bucks each or lower, I'd buy the whole line.

Overall - ***1/2
I'm pretty surprised by these - while they are silly, they are some of my favorite DC Direct figures so far.  It's a weird amalgam of two of my favorite childhood memories - Batman and MAD.  I never thought I'd see the two mixed quite like this.