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On May 1st of this year, Mattel released its initial offerings for this summer’s sure-to-be blockbuster film event, The Dark Knight. I was there to check out the first waves of items, and found myself gravitating towards the amazing three figures in the Movie Masters line, which consists of Batman, Gotham City Thug, and Joker.
These three figures are far different then Mattel's other Dark Knight movie line. While the regular toy line is a bit too cartoony for my tastes and only stand at 5 inches, the Movie Masters are more in line with the regular DC Universe figures and Marvel Legends. They each stand at 6 inches tall and are far more detailed. Sculpted by the talented Four Horsemen, they are amazing works of figure art that are now prominently displayed with all of my other superhero figures.
The packaging for the Movie Masters series is really awesome. The figures themselves sit in one giant window that allows you to see not only the cool figures within but also their accessories, which we will get too soon.
The design is very simple for these, but very effective in that they really stand out on a shelf or peg hook. At the top it’s made to appear as if the Batman logo is bursting out from behind a wall, with the plastic bubble adding to this effect by appearing cracked and stressed. It creates a cool 3-D effect that is done very well.
The figure, as I stated above, sits in a nice and open bubble, which allows you to see the collectible, the "evidence" it comes with, as well as a rolled up evidence bag.
A nice picture of Batman graces the bottom of the package, as does the characters name. Now, all the packages are exactly the same design, just with different names, of course.
Opening the packages, we finally are able to pull the figures from their plastic tomb and our eyes are treated to simply amazing sculpts. Let’s start with Batman.
This Batman is one of the best sculpted figures I have seen in a while, especially when it comes to a Batman figure. The sheer level of detail on his body armor is enough to really drive anyone to purchase this figure.
I was simply astonished when I looked at him closer. Now the colors of Batman are of course, black. But Mattel has given some interesting shades of grey to the figure, really breaking up the black armor and giving him some much needed shading and detail work. The small amount of grey in the figure does wonders to pull out all of the eye catching sculpts. The costume is a wonderful recreation of the screen version of the Dark Knight, down to the last detail.
The cape on him is a solid piece of rubber, so there isn’t a whole lot of detail there. It’s a cape after all. My only complaint is that you loose a lot when it comes to posing him because the cape doesn’t want to do much more then stay straight up and down. So no crouching Batman, unless he’s on the back edge of a display and you drape his cape over the edge. But it’s a small complaint.
The face is almost dead on in it’s recreation of Christian Bales face, at least the parts you can see. Once again, the detail here, while small, is still very cool. The look of intimidation of his face is perfect!
The Crime Scene Evidence he comes with is just a large Batman mask, and the evidence bag is really just a small zip lock bag with an evidence sticker. It’s supposed to look like a police issue evidence bag, and I suppose it does, but this really is the most unexciting accessory of any figure I have bought in a long time. You can take the evidence, place it in its bag and seal it. Wow. I’m impressed by the figures, not so much by the accessories.
Moving on down the line, let’s pop the Gotham City Thug out and take a look.
Right from the start I find myself unhappy. I mean, there were other figures we could have got other than just a common Joker Thug. Why not Commissioner Gordon, or even Scarecrow in this style? (Ed note: Scarecrow IS coming by the end of the year.)
Anyway, looking at the sculpt I have to say that it looks good. The clothes are cool, with the thug dressed in a nice suit. The coat is rubber, and can be pulled back a little to show that the shirt underneath is well done. The tie he wears is kind of cool, reminds me of my step-father when he went country for a while.
His face is okay for being just a sculpted mask. You can see the detail of the eyes behind the mask, but when it comes down to it though, it just doesn’t do much for me. The paint application is superb though, especially where the edges of the mask meet the thug’s hair. No bleed of splotching.
The thug’s accessory is a small version of the clown mask, and believe it or not, there are a couple of variations on the mask that I’m aware of. Once again you get the mask and an evidence bag. Mask goes into evidence bag. Boring.
But forget the Thug folks, because I saved the best for last!
The figure based on the late Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the homicidal criminal genius The Joker is a spectacular example of artists at the top of their game. The details on Joker are hands down heads above anything else in this line and shows why this figure is so darn hard to track down right now.
The clothes on the maniac's back are dead on perfect. I love the throw back to the classic Joker with the colors, and the modern approach to it with the long overcoat. Now the coat doesn’t come off, but that shouldn’t stop you from getting one. The clothes sculpted under the coat are perfect, down to the chain that hangs from his pants waist. Now here is the greatest problem with this figure and it’s the same with Batman. His poses are limited because of the long coat. Sure it moves, but you really can’t do much with it. So he either stands or you place him on the back edge of a display shelf along with Batman to get the most out of him.
Joker comes with a small knife that can actually be removed from his hand. Alas the knife doesn’t stay gripped very welll. Word of advice: keep the rubberband on his hand. The knife is nice, black and silver and really adds a nice touch to this figure since he’s been seen in the trailer several times with it.
His face is perfect in its level of detail. He looks like a tiny little version of Heath in makeup, which is how a perfect world works folks. The paint application around his scarred mouth really adds a level of realism to it. Add to the list his troubled stare and you have yourself one of the most perfect movie-based figures I have seen.
His evidence is actually inherently much cooler than the other two. You get the old evidence bag, but the evidence Gotham City PD has included for you is the masterminds calling card, a very simple playing card with his namesake adorning the face. This is the best of the three pieces of evidence by far and the only piece that I really like and display.
All in all, this line is very much worth picking up. All three characters have their strengths and weaknesses. The weakest of the three is the Thug, but they are all worth picking up and adding to any superhero collection. Here is to hoping that Mattel adds to this line and we get a Gordon and aTwo-Face at some point in the future!
These figures can be found at retail and through some of our awesome sponsors above, retailing for around $10.99 each.
CLICK HERE for a photo gallery tour of all three Dark Knight Movie Master figures.
Review and Pictures by Jason Devall