DC is over here trying to reboot it’s cinematic universe and here I am still stuck on the Nolan Batman films. Maybe things will shape up and the new Batman will end up being amazing, but for now, I’m satisfied with Christian Bale’s take on the character. I really just don’t feel Ben Affleck as Batman and I don’t like the design of the newer suit(s) as much. As such, for now, I’m sticking with this Batman from Mafex as my “Batman in toy form”. This is the second release of this figure, it fixes a lot of the quality issues that plagued the first release. This seems to be quite a trend with Mafex, a lot of their figures get “second runs” with better joints.
Not every issue was fixed. One common problem I’ve had with all of the Mafex figures I own is the head/neck joint pop off way too easily. I have this issue with both The Joker and Superman. I don’t know if the peg needs to be longer or the ball bit needs to be a bit larger, but the heads just tend to pop off too easily on these guys.
Otherwise the figure is pretty solid. I particularly love the cloth cape, cloth goods at this scale tend to be great or garbage, and this one leans more to the great side. The sculpt and scale are all nice, he fits in well with other 6″ figures as well as a lot of other Batman related toys. The unmasked head looks very much like Christian Bale.
He includes a variety of appropriate accessories as well, a Bat-Grappeling hook, the EMP rifle that he uses during the bike chase, and a few different hands. A few batarangs or flash grenades might have been nice to flesh out his accessory count a bit. It’s not a bad assortment but considering how much The Joker included it’s a bit of a let down. It’s not nearly as anemic as Superman or Catwoman however, both basically came with nothing.
The bottom line is, this is probably the best figure of this version of Batman available. The only other real releases for the Nolan Batman were from Mattel, and they tend to be kind of mediocre. This is the “old” Batman design though, which may be a turn off. The price is a bit higher as well being an Import, though a lot of the older Mafex releases go for fairly cheap compared to most imports (ie Figuarts and Figma). If you are interested in this figure, definitely go for the Version 2.0 release. It fixes the joint problems and includes the unmasked Bruce Head. The easiest way to tell the difference is if it includes the Bruce Wayne head or not.
