To commemorate the 80th anniversary of Batman (#Batman80, #LongLiveTheBat), AFJ has decided to join in the fun with columns, lists, and reviews from now until Batman Day (Sept. 15th, 2019). The incredible thing about 80 years of Batman, in pop culture, is that we can literally feature anything from comics to movies to Batman's Life-Saving Robot. Yes, Batman's Life-Saving Robot (Google him Millennials). Today, we turn our attention to an action figure from 2018. Enjoy Junkies! #AFJ4LIFE
Written by Rick Alaia
This is the third attempt by Medicom Toy to tackle Batman. They first released their version of The Dark Knight movie version Batman in 2013. The 2013 release was visually amazing. The sculpt of the suit made it irresistible to Batman fanatics like me. It, however, was PLAGUED was QC issues. The most notable being that his arms would just fall out of the sockets if you even looked at them. The face sculpt was definitely not Bale. That was ok, but the arms ruined it.
In April of 2015, we got an updated 2.0 Batman. This was an exciting time. This was going to right all the wrongs of the first release. He was going to be the chosen one. He wasn't. The sculpt was updated, and we got two extra heads, one being an unmasked Bale Bruce Wayne head. The head sculpts were better and actually looked like Bale this time. The arms, however, still fell off easily. Not as easy as the first, but still enough to be a problem for an expensive import. So still not good.
Then news came of MAFEX 3.0 Batman! I have to give Medicom credit here. They wanted to give us the Batman we deserved. Originally released at the beginning of 2018, it got released without much fanfare. Not many people that I know were willing to give it a chance... for a third time. Well, right now, as of this writing, it's sitting at $42 on Amazon Prime. So I gave it a shot and bought one. Was it worth it? The answer is…
Yes! This is the Dark Knight Batman figure we deserve! Everything has been improved. The sculpt, the details, all of it. No more arm issues. The face utilizes the face printing technology that most imports employ now. Gone were the QC issues from the past two releases. It just screams Bale's Batman. The 3 heads look amazing. The normal head captures Bale's static face. Then we get his grimacing teeth look. To put a cherry on top, they made his sonar eyes from The Dark Knight. I love the look of the sonar eyes.
Before its release, S.H.Figuarts released their version of Dark Knight Batman. It claimed the throne as the best looking Bale Batman. MAFEX has unseated the Figuarts' version though. It truly is the best Dark Knight Batman made so far. My suggestion for any Bat-Fan or Bale fan is to snap this up while the price is so low. You definitely won't regret it! #LongLiveTheBat
