Official solicit:

The Dark Knight Movie Masters Batman Begins Batman

Inspired by the timeless DC comics, the Legends of the Dark Knight 7 inch scale action figure collection feature the dark superhero as he has never been seen before, with highly dynamic poses and articulation. Collect them all, each sold seperately.

Experience the denizens of Gotham City in all their heroic or hideous glory with Movie Masters figures. These highly detailed figures give you an up-close-and-personal look at the unsettling presentation of Scarecrow and the subtleties of Batman’s suit.

JUNE 2008
MSRP 10.99USD

Readers of the site will remember that a couple months back I finally managed to get my hands on the Movie Master Dark Knight figure - only to have it break on me almost immediately out of package. Luckily the nice people of Mattel were unable to replace it, but did give me a voucher for the cost of the figure so I could replace it myself. Problem is, I’ve never seen the figure again since, and not only that, I’ve almost never seen any of the Mattel DC Universe action figures either. My voucher expires sometime next month, so I’ve only got a few weeks to get something free with it, sucks Mattel’s distribution is soooo bad that almost no store I go to actually has any of their product in stock. Ever.

BUT, that is a rant for another time.

For now, let’s see how I feel about the Movie Masters Batman Begins figure, and see if this thing broke too…

The packaging for the line is pretty uniform, almost so much so that I bet people have bought the wrong figure because they all kinda look the same. It might have been wise to make a more visual distinction on the packaging to show the difference between the Dark Knight logo it sports, and the Batman Begins figure it contains.

One thing worth noting, and worth noting loudly too, is in the 3rd picture from the left you can see circular vents running down the side of the bubble. There are about 4 or 5 of them on each side of the package, and one can only assume it was in response to reviews like my initial Movie Masters Joker from way back in May, where I point out just how toxic these figures smelled out of the package. Since I know for a fact some people from Mattel read that review, and those vents are now standard on all Mattel action figures, I can only assume that it was my words which possibly helped saved lives of children the world over, or at the very least, kept their rooms from smelling like burnt rubber kitties.

And for the record, the figures still smell like burnt turds, but it was a nice try with the vents all the same.

As for the toy itself, we see Bats here off the card and still in the bubble comes with the signature accessory all the figures in this line have, namely the evidence bag and some item marginally associated with the figure. The Joker came with a playing card, Dark Knight Batman came with an imposters Batmask, and Batman Begins Bats comes with a gold batarang. A very rubbery batarang, that has the consistency of a warm gummy worm. I get that there were probably safety standards at play here, or maybe worry that the same stupid children who were sucking on their He-Man figures and getting lead poisoning might jab the batarang into their monkey-eyes repeatedly, but c’mon. A little more rigid plastic on an item meant to be thrown would have been nice, the way it actually is reminds me of those little eggs of snot you’d get from the toy vending machines for .25¢ and immediately spill all over your bedroom carpet. You know the stuff I’m talking about, the Slimer ooze. Yes, that’s right, Batman’s weapon is made of gold Slimer ooze.

C’mon Mattel, seriously.

Out of the bubble, and now we’re cooking with gas. As much as I liked the sculpt on the Dark Knight figure, I almost like this one more. It’s a much more accurate representation of the Batman Begins suit than the Dark Knight version was of its, and just seems to be a little bit better figure all around. Of course, I do actually PREFER the Dark Knight suit in the movie to the Batman Begins version, I just think the Four Horsemen did a better job putting this one together than the other.

The bulk of the suit is in a glorious matte black, with glossy sheen only on the gloves, cape and boots. His cape is sculpted to be in a hanging position, and is stuck that way, so no open-cape attack scenes. It still looks great though, and unlike most of the DC Direct Batman figures I’ve seen lately the cape doesn’t hinder movement in any way.

I was extra careful breaking this figure in and moving all his joints around, for fear of any sudden snaps like the last time, but it was a fear I needn’t have worried about as this figure was great right out of package as far as that was concerned. WHEW.

Articulation is great with this guy, about 19 points of articulation, and in all the usual Mattel DC figures places allowing for a wide range of movement.

Batman’s joints are all strong enough too to hold his various poses, and because the sculpt was so lifelike, he looks good doing them too.

My usual complaints for lack of accessories apply, as the batarang this comes with is not actually an accessory for Batman but an accessory for ME. Too often lately toys are skimping on extras for the figures, all the while driving up costs to justify bigger packaging and less QC. Put the figure in a brown paper sack, charge me 15.99, and give the figure no less than 10 accessories each and I’ll be a happy camper. If Revoltech can do it, I don’t see why Mattel couldn’t do it just as well, short of not even caring to try.

The details in the sculpt are pretty amazing too. Not only do they get the suit to look as good as it does, with as many of the accurate details from Batman Begins as they do, but they get the little stuff as well - like the cell phone in the utility belt there.

Paint apps are mostly non-existent on this guy, and really the only flaw. As you can see on the above right picture, the flesh tones are applied rather sloppily, and the eyes are kinda unrealistic looking too. Both problems I can easily solve with my own brush and paints, but I do get a little peeved with such randomly bad applications on modern toys lately. I mean, if I am to be expected to clean up bad paintjobs all the time on a line we all know was not intended for children but for collectors (ie fat old dudes), why not at least give me the option of ordering a figure with NO paint at all so I can just do it myself from the start. You know, kinda like Hasbro’s blank Mighty Muggs and My Little Pony figures?

All in all, this is a great figure and really washes the bad taste out of my mouth as far as the Joker sculpt and cheap Dark Knight figure go. In fact I’d go so far as to say…

Oh wait, what’s this?

Man, Batman is sure short compared to the Joker (my custom repaint Joker actually, which you can see here), that’s kinda strange. Too bad my Dark Knight figure broke, or I could have held them up to each to compare and OH HEY NO WAIT A MINUTE THIS IS BS!! The Batman Begins figure is like 1/4h of an inch shorter than the Dark Knight Batman and Joker - what gives?! Sure, it’s a pretty minor thing, but if you’re posing both Batmans (men?) next to each other, it’s gonna look pretty silly yeah? (ok, I stood my broken Dark Knight figure up next to this one, I just didn’t get any pictures of it - and the difference is immediately noticeable for sure)

I’m just kinda shocked by the oversight on this, because visually it is kind of a big deal, you think they’d want to keep the line pretty much standard sized. Especially with the main character. Are we to assume Batman grew 4 inches between movies? And Joker being taller than Batman is just blasphemy I tell you, BLASPHEMY.

In the end, if you’re able to disassociate the one Batman figure from the other mentally and accept the difference in height, AND you’re even able to find any of these, I think I do actually prefer this version of Batman. Heigh deficient as he is. The mold looks good, the change in finishes from the matte to gloss are nice, and again, the flesh paint problems aside, he’s pretty amazing to look at.

It’s just too bad it’s been nearly 6 months since this line started and I’ve still barely seen any of the figures, and then when I have they either break on me or smell like they’ll give me skin cancer upon first contact. Mattel has the access and ability to make some great toys right now, but the company behind the toy division is I am going to assume, the main problems with all the complaints fans are having all across the country. It’s unfortunate a company as big as Mattel is a shell of its former self, and if I had to make a prediction based on performance of late, might not be around too much longer in its current incarnation either.

Let’s just hope I can another Movie Masters Dark Knight though before that happens…