MANBAT

After more than 25 years i stil feel fascinated by McFarlane Toys figures from the 90s and begining of the 2000s but at the same time i really dislike wath McFarlane has been doing in the last 15 years. He produced a lot of Witcher figures yet every single one of them was terrible except a single statue of Geralt i review last year and he also produced an ocean of Batmen and DC characters, again some with an extremelly poor quality and some really good ones but the quality is all over the place in the end.

He did one of the best Swamp Thing figures i ever seen if not the single best one tough soo theres some really good jewells on his stock but they are kind of rare. One of the figures  that pick my attention greatly was Mcfarlane version of Manbat. He is part of the "Mega Figure" line along side Swapm Thing and other big characters like Doomsday soo while he came in a huge box, i was kinda dissapointed by his wings but in the end, i toock the chance i got him before he gets super expensive in the secondary market once McFarlane lose the DC licence.

Like i said, this guy comes in a huge box and is really really heavy but thankfully, price was very good and thats the saving greace of MacFarlane Toys now day. He is on scale with everything else of the brand soo this make him in perfect scale with NECA or Storm figures but given how beastly he is, he is for sure much bigger than those characters. He is actually bigger than Goliath and all the other Gargoyles but he is endeed shorter than the Swamp Thing (just to have in perspective how epic gigantic and imposing is Alec Holland).

This bad boy is articulate don the head, shoulders, elbows, chest, waist, legs, knees, ankles and half feet. The head articulation is really fantastic because he have a long peg with two ball joints in each side, conecting with his shoulders and head soo the head can move at the sides with complete freedom, up and down too and the fur piece on his neck that covers the peg is made of soft plastic. The shoulders have giant ball joints as well as the elbows soo the only thing that blocks the movement are his wings.

Chest and waist ball joints have a huge range of movement and while the legs can rotate only a little bit, they cna split and move front and back pretty nicelly. Theres double joint on the knees soo they can bend pretty good and he have not one, but TWO articulations on the ankles: one that let his feet rotate and a ball joint that makes his feet pivot. 

Wath does this mean? I cant stand on his own at all. I mean, he can technically stand but once you find the perfect balance of weight in the front and the back and even then, its imposible to know for how long this is gonna last....i mean the torso is huge and really heave and the ankles joints are very very lose soo this is to be expected, is logic, is noting but BAD ENGINERING.......

He comes with a tiny mini stand with a peg that conects with any of his feet. The stand is soo crazy generic every single MacFarlane figues has it: a thin circular completelly black with the DC logo on it. Is completely useles. It dosnt help balance at all and it dosnt help make his falls lighter. Is a completelly waste of plastic...

Anyway, i only have another Manbat on my collection and that is the one from Batman The Animated Series that belongs to one of my favorite chapters, "On Leather Wings". This one tough is based on the design of the New 52 comics soo is very different and is more like a Hulk with wings. This version looks like a body builder werewolf with wings, very beastly, extremelly sexy as well and imposing while the animated one looks much more lean and athletic. This version have HUGE biceps and arms in general wich makes sense because you need wings of steel to keep such a beast in the air and makes wonder wath kind of wings he could have.

This is the thing, McFarlane Toys made his wings closed completelly. I knwo this figure is already big but this is such a huge wasted chance to make a trully amazing figure, give him a pair of extra open wings just like DC Direct did with this same character, wings made of rea fabric or even paper or something....having such an amazing design with the wings always closed is soo depressing....

Aside of the wings thing, the sculpt here is amazing. The texture of the muscles is very realistic and theres veings everywhere and little realistic details, like the nipples. The hair parts ofn the shoulders and neck are made with soft plastic and the hair sculpt is very sharp and well defined. The closed wings are also amde of soft plastic and they are divided with most of them coming from Manbat´s hands and a smaller section coming out from his biceps, this way the elbows can still bend and move and the gap between this two sections is very easy to hide.

The head sculot is really really good, with the tiny eyes and almost non-existant nose and the huge ears and mouth full of fangs, tough one of the fangs is thicker and bigger than the other. I tough this was a mistake on y figure but i seen photos and videos other people pointing the same soo i think this is intentional but i dont know waths the story behind it (maybe he broke one of his fangs???). The broken jeans have also a very good texture on them and while the legs seems small comapred to his torso, they are pretty well build too but kind of pre-posed soo he can stand up righ at all since the knees are sculpted bending (logic would tell us this was to make him stand him easyer but it dosnt help at all his balance).

Paint is less interesting tough. The hair in the shoulders, neck and forearms is painted in a dark brown with some black wash to make it stand and it works very well because it even looks a little shiny but pretty much everything else is painted in a softer brown and thats it. Theres no shades or shadows or a wash, nothing....just brown and that makes it looks almost like cell shading clean. I mean, the wings SHOULD be a different color on each side but they are just the same brown as the rest of the body. 

Even the jeans are just blue and nothing else...no stains, dirt or anything else, just plain blue. The inside of the mouth is purple and stands our pretty good with all that brown and the inside of the hear is purple too tough i wish the transition between purple and brown could be better. The fangs...i am not sure if they are brown as well but they looks suspiciouslly like the skin tone but the eyes looks terrific!! The black surrounding the red puplis makes them sttand out perfectly and looks really demonic.

And since this is McFarlane, theres no accesorys beyond the waste of plastic that is the base and a card featuring a very good looking art in the front and the basic info of the character in the back. The card is a nice detail, like always, but i wish they added a closed mouth extra head (or gives him ana rticulated jaw!!!) or some open hands....its soo tiring to have his hands always on a fist.

This figure is nothing but contrast....it looks amazing on the shelve with a horror collection or a DC display, y beastly, sexy and well articulated and have an impresive size and presence, but the paint could be better, the balance needs to be better, the extras dont exist at all....soo this Manbat feels soo perfect yet soo incomplete. Its such a werid feeling.

Even soo i am happy i got him, despitr the headache that represents make him stand, this is one of the best McFarlane Toys has done in many years and looks perfect along side Zood or the Great Wolves and the Furay Planet figures.

NIGHTMARE BAT

 

Now than ever is pretty odd to find a toy of figure that feels unexpected because most of the industry stick with DC, Marvel, Star Wars and even inside those series they stick to the main characters. Its pretty ODD too that some originality comes from McFarlane Toys since the only thing that has beenproducing in the last 10 years is a countless army of Batman. But somehow in between that army of same-ish theres a few sparks of originality at times.

Last century the Batman Forever had a deleted scene that pick the attention of fans all over the world, the scene had Bruce Wayne in a dream like sequence meeting face to face with a gigantic bat that acted like some kind of inspration for his Batman persona. Part of The Riddler mind games, this scene that included a giant bat animatronic wasnt present on the movie at all but in an attacj of originality, McFarlane Toys decided to includes this "Nightamer Bat" into theyr Batman Forever line.

This is a Build-A-Figure soo it was divided into four parts, each inside the box of each character of the line soo this guy dont have a bx of his own and in order to get it you need to collect all other figures. This was something that happened a lot at the 90s and 2000s but is not veyr common to see it now. 

This guy have the size of a standar McFarlane figures but given his body shape he is more "round" than usual and plus the wings....those HUGE wings make this figure looks colossal!!! And of course, it cant stand on hiw own soo it have a black round base with the DC logo in front and a metalic rod that inserts on it in the bottom and on the top it have a ball joint that goes in a hole on the bat chests.

Is not easy to insert the bat but ince in top of the metal rod the base makes a very good job keeping it o the fly and the ball joint let the figure moves to the front, back and sides in a big range of motion. This bat have ball joints on the shoulders and head an have an artoculated jaw.

The head dosnt move too much thanks to the fur of the neck but the mouth opens nicelly and the wings also have a big range of motion in angle or to the front, back, up or down. The membrane stop the movement but the range of motion is still pretty considerable and while is the shame the membrane dont conect to the body, the movility is really worth the big gap between the wings and body.

Andjust the anlge of each wings, the head and the body and you can have this big boy fliying in a very spectacular way and despite the low number of articulations, the display options is almost endles!!!

The sculpt is really really good! The fur have a very sharp sculpt and follows the body structure and msuculature nicelly in a very realistic way and it also fades with the vreature legs and arms in a natural way and changuing into a skin texture with wrinkles and veins. The membrane of the wings have a lot of veins and have a leather like texture pretty similar to NECA´s Gargoyles figures.

The ears are sharp and very deep and the sculpt of each small fangs looks really good as well as his realistic odd shaped nose soo this is McFarlane Toys at its best. The paint tough, its OK but not outstanding since the body is ony painted in plain brown and dosnt have anything that accentuates anything except in the facem where the brown is softer to give the impression of shorter hair.

The red of the eyes and the inside of the mouth stand out a lot and the yellow of the fangs looks good while the inside of the ears have a pink paint with purple wash to make the shadows of theyr ear shape much more natural. The wings have also a mix of pink and pruple and soft brown that makes the leather texture and veins stand out and while this section is brigther, it matches the color palette of the body perfectly.

Overall, the paint job on the face, legs, wings and ears is fantastic but the brown fur of the body is specially simple and with some shadows and shades this figure would looks trully amazing!!! Tough is not like it dosnt looks amazing already.

Really, i am not very fond on McFarlane Toys anymore but once in a blue moon they release somethign that stands out by quality or just by originality because, this goes beyond of a creature from a deleted Batman scene, this figure can stand proudlly like somethign related to Dracula or pretty much fit into any horror themed collection, or even outside of a collection, this big boy can work as a ornament on pretty much any corner of any room and given the movility he have, he is going to looks fantastic all the time.

BATMAN

 

Now this is the Batman i fall in love with!! Speaking of those good times when videogames not only were better than now, but they also offered much more for a much lower price, its imposible not to talk about Batman Arkham City. The game wasnt only brillant, but that beauty was on its outsde package as well: a square perfcet transluscent box with a Gotham landscape inside and Batman and Joker images on the outside, with a little shelf in the bottom with the game and an artbook, and at the center of all, this figure of Batman.

This is one of thsoe rare scenarios where the figure looks really good both outside and inside of its package. The figure - a statue actually - is not that big actually, its shorter than your average action figure but since Batman is crouching his overall scale is bigger soo the details really shine, and wath details he have!!

He is at the corner of a roof, getting ready to jump and punch someone but still looking very depredatory and manly, you can feel the motion of his movement and yet he looks solid as a mountain. Like i said at the begining, i am totally in love of this Batman design, this is the exact image that appeare on my mind when i hear "Batman" soo i am not impartial to really like this.

Every detail is present, like the puches on his belt, the bolts on his outfit, the texture with little holes on the suit, his generouse muculature and how the cape huge his body soo perfectly thanks to the sift plastic material.

Paint is as perfect as the sculpt tough for some reason he is black and white but is difficult to notice since his only color part would be his face and his belt. I do love the grey shadows and white tones that give a lot of volume to his muscles, its actually quiet easy to take pictures of him.

He is posed on top of a big corcular base with the Arkham City logo in red. Really stricking for a black and white figure and  under the base is signed by Kotobukiya. No wonder the high quality of this statue, just like theyr Bishoujo line and the rest of his products. I can say with confidence this is one of my favorite Batman figures i ever seen.

INJUSTICE

 

Oh i still remember the times when videogames had always a physical release and a Special Edition of some sort, a Collectors Edition that didnt cost as much as a whole console. It wasnt too long, but jus one generation ago (two generations with the PS5 out now!!), when i was able to get a lot of figures to a really nice price included each one of theyr games. 

One said game was Injustice, i game that ended with a lot of ups and downs, it wasnt fun to play but it was fun to watch, with all its funky looking animations. Despite the quality of the game, it came in a huge box with some goodies, but most importantly, a pretty spectacular statue figure of Batman facing Wonder Woman.

I am not too much of a fan of the idea since i dont like Wonder Woman and see her beating the crap out of Batman is not pleasant, but in here it makes sense given she is one of the villians of the game and i really dislike this version of Batman. It would make more sence to have something related to Superman tough or if someone would asked me i would prefer a Lobo statue.

But anyway, the truth is that this figure is actually quiet fantastic. First of all is really HUGE and despite its towering size it have no balance issues. It have two characters battling with some background elements but thanks to its big size, the characters dont look tiny or distant, they have a very good scale of a standar action figure size.

I have no idea wath brand developed this statue but the quality of the material is really good, soft to the touch and specially good looking on Wonder Woman´s skin. The sculpt, overall, is really dynamic and full of details. The body of Wonder Woman is really amazing and athletic and you can feel the energy on her jump while she holds the drone. Batman´s sculpt is also really good, with his cape giving him all the movement neded and his horrible looking armour abundant in detailing.

The paint is as perfect as the sculpt, specially on Bamtna´s mouth and Wonder Woman´s face, with her beautifull blue eyes and red lips looking really fierce. There is a lot foinf on here, like how there is a batarang stuck on the drone on Wonder Woman´s hands, is evident Batman defended himself here but with not much succes, and i really like how he is strugling with the Lasso of truth, tough the Lasso´s end dosnt conect with anything at all....maybe it is supposed to conect to Diana´s hip?

But my favorite part are deffinetly the ice sections on the base, mixed with the jade looking rock and the grey smoke coming from the drone, all done with transluscent plastic. The material add a lot to the display since it catches lieght pretty nicelly.

But i guess the best part of this figure is the fact you can display it from any direction, any point of view, and its gonna looks really good and exciting. There is not "bland" spot in here, from every direction all the action can be seen and new details appeare, this is a fantastically designed scene all around.

POISON IVY

 

Twenty years ago the japanese brand Yamato released a bunch of Batman merchadise. This was quiet weird since it was the very first time a japanese brand was releasing american comic book characters and it was really unique to see the the japanese version of the characters, mostly designed by Kia Asamiya. The collection consisted in Batman, Robin and many of the rougue gallery from Gotham tough my favorite is deffinetly Poison Ivy.

This figure is not too big actually, she is smaller than your average action figure scale, smaller than NECA or McFarlane and thats the biggest issue i have with her. If she was bigger this girl would be really spectacular. Not like the is not spectacular in this scale tough since her sculpt is really REALLY amazing for her tiny size.

The details like the leaf on her costume and hair are really cut deep and extremelly defined. Her face is also really elegant and mature, unlike expected from a japanese brand, she dosnt have giant anime eyes or anything like that, her face feature are really reminescent to the american comic book style and her pose is really dynamic but realistic: she is stretching in a sensual way and her hair moves along her back in a pretty beaitufull way.

The paint is also really exquisite, her skin tone is pale but dosnt looks like doll paint, and the red on her lips, hair and greens on her outfit are really vibrant and livelly, i also like all the different tones in the rigth zones that give dimension to the sculpt. 

She cant stand on her own soo she comes with a stand diorama base of a dirt ground, with a cuuple of man eater plants and a jungle in the background. The quality of this base is actually abismal, since its made with soft plastic and dosnt have any of the dimension and detail Poison Ivy have. The ground is boring and the jungle in the back, while it have different greens for different leafs, have pretty pale colors and the sculpt dosnt help it.

The man eater lants, gladlly, are much better looking thanks to a cool looking purple and theyr small fangs and they cna be removed. Is wierd the base is soo basic and boring compared to the figure, but this makes Ivy stand more somehow. Oh, also, she comes with a green vine that cna be wrapped around her body and counts as an accesory i guess?

After twenty years, this figure still looks amazing despite her size, in both sculpt and paint and design, i find this to be the closest representation of the comic book version of Poison Ivy. While i dont care for the rest of the characters, i wish i got Batman to pair her with.