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.

SWAMP THING

 

When Todd McFarlane created Image comics he did it shatter the chains DC and Marvel put on comic artists for many years, and when he opened McFarlane Toys he did it too to create figures on his own therms without the big corporations over him (Kenner, Mattel...), soo McFarlane was the rebel boy of the 90s, kind of like George Lucas or a Tim Burton. See McFarlane working for DC now is actually pretty shocking for me and i still dont get used to it.

In the last years, McFarlane has focused his entire existance to mass produce Batmen on each of his many version as well as other JL characters with irregular results: some figures looks pretty cool, some other looks hiddeous and horrific (Lobo?) but all of them stick to the "quantity over quality" philosophy. I knew i somehow was going to fall into that rabbit hole eventually tough wasnt sure wit"who" and now i know it: Swamp Thing.

I love Swamp Thing since i was a little kid, with the Kenner action figures, the silly movies and the Alan Moore comics, even this blog started with a figure of Swamp Thing and i am very happy McFarlane finally worked with the character, its odd he did it until now since the character fits perfectlly with Todd´s grotesque style pretty good.

And this figure is actually gargantuan....GIGANTIC!!! Swamp Thing is twice as tall as the rest of action figures of the same brand of NECA. He is actually taller than a Hot Toys or a Play Arts Kai, reaching in high the Sideshow figures, making this guy one of the tallest figures i ever had. Tough he is quiet light and thats a good thing since helps him stand...kind of....sometimes. With his impresive size sometimes is not easy for him to keep balance.

Tough McFarlane gives him a base....a tiny black tokken thingy that fits with a peg on a hile of the figure feet. This small thing is totally useless of course and wins the prize of the most pathetic base i ever seen in this whle century.

Swamp Thing is articulated on the head, chest, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, waist, legs, knes, ankles and halg feet, all this are ball joints soo they have a pretty wide range of motion but they also sre super strong ball joints that make a loud "click" when moved and they keep the possition despite Swamp Thing weigth. All of them except the half feet articulations, those ones keep beding and making him fall.

He is made with hard plastic, bbt have a cover of soft plastic moss and nature elements that cover the articulations perfectly. Like an example on his shoulders he have palm leafs that cover the ball joint completelly or his chest section that have some kind of "ribs" like structure covering the torso ball joint, pretty good aesthetic.

And this is where the figure shyne, since the Mattel figure that came out 10 years ago is covered in soft plastic, his articulations are very limited but this McFarane version have a total movement range and a sculpt to match that.

The sculpt is juts beautifull and impresive. This figure is totally asimetric, since on his shoulders have palm leafs, but on the other shoulder he have wood cover. Each inch of his body is is nicelly scupted to be different to the rest of the body and fill with amazing details, like roses growing around his spinal cord or some bony structures under the web of vines and moss. Even his joints are sculpted following the nature pattern, this when they dosnt looks like amall blank spaces with no texture.

My favorite part are his claws, he does have claws, pretty harp claws and his face, thick jaw with a fierce smirk and sunken deep eyes with pasture growing around it, it almost looks like a soft beard. The expression is really good, pretty stoic and strong, perfect for Alec Holland.

The paint tough, this is the element that ruins everything. He is green and thats it, just green....plain green with some brownish washes here and there but that all. The roses, the flowers, the roots, fungus, fruits and bones sculpted all around his body are just...all green. From a distance its ok he looks very green, but once you see the magnifiscent sculpt, its pretty evident how many elements are not painted at all.

The only detail on the paint are his mouth and eyes. He have pretty thin black lips and black shadows around his eyes that makes his bloody red eyes shine even more. The paint on his face is really good, but thats it....

He dosnt have any extra hands or heads or anything at all, aside of that pathetic and stupid base, he only have a kind of blade looking appendage that at first i tough was his penis. You can remove the hands and put this "blade" hand on the sucket of his arm. The process is kind of difficult but given how big he is i dont think it will be easy to break him. This blade thingy looks really good and is even articulated as wellm tough....its made of wood but is just all green....

Aside of that he also comes with a card. The photo on the card is pretty good looking and while is such an useless accesory, it feels a lot like something Playmates or Kenner would add if they made a DC serires of figures back in the 80s.

Despite the complete lack of accesoryes (i wish they gives him vines or rubber tentacles...) and the hottible and lazy paint job, this figures is extremelly imposing and menacing looking. By just standing in a plain museum straigth pose, this guy feels like a true dangerous monster. His silhouette and muscly frame is impresive and he towers over anything eles on display.

Its sad that McFarlane cannot reach the level fo perfection he had in the 2000s, not even with this amazing character and sculpt. This is soo clsoe to be the definitive Swamp Thing figure, it even tempts me to repaint him, tough this is deffinetly ine of the best monster and horro figures i ever seen.

LOBO

 

Honestly Injustice is not mya favorite fight game, far from it, its full of the same issues Nether Realm rejoice reproduce over and over again: odd models, weird and choppy animations, stiff movement and tacky half combos as well as unbalancing enviroment gimmicks, and yet despite being soo "basic" it had a lot of mindless fun as well as a good athmosphere and an inviting idea; using the DC characters.

When Strom Collectibles took the lisence it was a susprise but not as much as when they released the figures: not only they didnt touch Batman, Superman or any other Justice League characters, but they focused entirelly on the villians! And not only that but they give a chance to a DLC, my favorite character from the game, Lobo.

It took me a long time to get Lobo, like i said, i dont like too much Injustice but Storm releasing my favorite character first was once in a million chances, also after seen the hiddeous version of McFarlane Toys it was pretty evident Strom´s Lobo is the best plastic version of the character soo i took the chance before his price sky rocket next year.

Lobo is huge, much more taller than the rest of figures of Strom and even a little bit taller than Dimitri and is also much more heavyer. He dosnt have issues standing tough his legs kind of "bounce" due to the heavy weigth, something i only say on the Play Arts Kai. And since he is not a Street Figther, he dosnt have the honor to have a base.

He is articulated on the head, shoulders, elbows, biceps, wrists, chest, waist, legs, knes, ankles and half feet. The chest section (including his vest), as well as the hips piece and skulls on his knes are made with soft plastic soo they dont get in the way of the articulations, tough thanks to his masive frame, he have a kind of limited movement. Like an example he cant hold his weapon with both hands at front because his arms and chest are soo huge his hands cannot meet. ALos his ankles articulations move in front and back but somehow dosnt move to the sides.

His head is also restricted by his hair but thats to be expected, all the pose limitations are due to the character muscles and hair and not by the clothes or enginering issues.

Now the sculpt, really it seems Storm wanted to mix the Injustice design with the original comic book version because there is a lot of alterations in here. First his huge frame, in the game he is much more lean but in this figure he is almost hulkish (and of course taller), also he is missing the gun on his left leg hostler and in the game he have only one glove, here he have two. The face is also different, since in the game he have a thicker beard and here he have a thin mustache and the "marks" on his eyes are also different.

This is like the comic book Lobo dressed on the outfit of the Injustice Lobo and i cant blame Storm for doing this since Injustice character models are very poor in quality (in Injustice 2 every female character have the same face lmao) soo by sticking to the comic book original design i think they defined the character much more and made him stand out from other figures of the same brand.

Once you forget the difference with the game (and is not hard) is easy to see how good the sculpt is. His anatomy looks very unique compared to the other Strom figures, his abs looks amazing and extremelly realistic as well as the veins on his biceps, the wrinkles on his forehead and around his mouth shows this is not a young guy but a mature man and i love that.

The leatherish texture on his vest is fantastic as well as the small details on it, like the skull pin and the "Bit me Fanboy" on the back . The softish spikes on his shoulders, the granedes on his legs, the skull buckle on his belt, i think is imposible to find a single thing that looks out of place in here.

The paint have the same quality, with a very dark blue and grey color palette, with only red on the stars of his shin guards and eyes, there is a lot of paint here unlike the other Storm figures, mostly because his body is not cast on skin color like the rest, but is fully painted, this gives to his skin a pretty unatural texture and theres risk of chipping away the paint with the movement of the articulation and theres even some chipping already on his skull, under the hair, but i guess that cant be helped given the odd color of his skin.

His accesorys are a bunch of extra hands: a pair to hold his gun, a pair to hold his chain and a pair to hold his cigar soo he can hold any item on either side and exchange them is pretty easy. He also have two extra head: one smiling, and another one smiling with the cigar between his teeth. His smile is extremelly big and demonic, very sexy really and bod heads have the same quality paint as the normal serious head.

He also have 3 extra wigs and that was a susprise. Is pretty evident Storm really wanted this figure to be taken as well as something from the comic book, since they give him two wish with the hair style of the comic, with the short hair in front. This two hair pieces are helpfull to move his head better and reveal his vest since the other two hair pieces have really thick dreads locks hanging on front. One of the dread locks wigs is sculpted looking at the side because move his head with the basic hair piece is pretty difficult.

All 4 wigs can be exchanged in between the 3 heads using a little lid that fits on a small cavity on his cranium. This hair change is pretty tricky and kind of confusing, really, but i guess is better to have more than less and you can chose his looks from the comic or the videogame.

His other accesory is a cigar that fits between his fingers and gives him lots of personality as well as his two weapons: a short shotgun and his hook. The shotgun is nicelly sculpted and reads "BOOM!" on the side tough for some reason it have no paint application, it have a metalic texture and is totally black, with some grey tones here and there but somehow they forget to add the brown and white details for the wood and bandages section. I am surprised Storm forget the paint considering how spectacular is the rest of the figure. The shotgun fits on the hostler on his back perfectly while not on his hands.

His other weapon is his hook, attached to a long chain that forms a bracalet that conects with his wrists. This chain can be detached by removing the hand and the hook can be separated from the chain as well with the use of a clasp. I was expecting the chain to be really anoying but is not, while really good looking, it wraps around his arms pretty nicelly and is easy to remove, totaly opposite to McFarlane Toys, tough while not in use there no place to "hold" the hook since on the game it hangs from the back side of his pants but thats impposible with this figure.

And thats it....there is no effect in here, this is the very first Strom figure i get with no effect and i dont know wath to think about it. I mean, Lobo dosnt shoot any eye ray like Superman or anything but i wish they gives him a shootign effect for his shotgun. Also, and even more worrysome for me, he is laking any background. Really, all Storm figures have a background made of cardboard with an image of a level of the games, but here thats missing. I cant belive Storm is missing one of the signatures details of his products. Sorry, not one sigantrue detail, but two since there is no effect either.

While i find the missing effect and background alarming, the rest of the figure is stelar: he looks really mean, menacing, scary and unique and the quaity is top notch, even the design libertys they took with him are really good and suits him well.

Lobo is in fact one of the sexyer male characters from the comic book industry and this action figure really do him justice as the best plastic representation of the character (not counting the Sideshow statues). There is not any other character from Injustice i want too soo he will be alone, until Storm release his bike....i am really REALLY tempted to get his bike now....

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.