Review date: 7/22/2006

Manufacturer: DC Direct

Released: 2006

Availability: HARD

Type: Statue

Personal Story:
I read about this figure before its released and wasn't heavily interested. Then, my online buddy, John, told me he had purchased this figure and really liked it. I was interested again but quickly forgot about it. I didn't care until I went to a local comic store during its grand opening when I saw this figure in person. I was floored by the quality and design. I was enticed. They only had one so I could only buy the one on display. But the guys there promised me that it's brand new and they only opened it to be sold. I believed them since their store only opened for a few days and the one they were selling had no major defects during my inspection. I felt confident so I purchased it. The guys sold it for the same as retail so it wasn't too bad. And since I was able to inspect it for defects, I wouldn't have to worry about that if I had ordered it online.

Sculpt:
Excellent. The design and sculpt of this statue looks great. They captured the look of Mike Mignola's design perfectly. Mignola tends to draw characters that have a very 2D look so making anything that he illustrated into 3D is quite difficult. But they pulled it off quite nicely. Mignola's design for Batman himself is pretty slick. He looks quite calm and tough at the same time. He's got the same slouch that Hellboy has in all or most of Mignola's works which is pretty neat for Hellboy fans like me. You could probably put him next to one of the Hellboy Comic action figures from NECA and he would fit in nicely. But let's get to the sculpt itself...

The statue is quite charming. It's not too big or too small. It looks very solid. Like I said, The sculptor managed to sculpt out all the little details that Mignola draws or would create. The face, cowl and body all look terrific. The sculpt itself is actually quite flat with almost no muscles on his body/limbs or folds in his belt. All of this is shown by the paint job alone. The cape is fairly well done and the folds are nice and sharp. He even has little dents on different parts of his body to mimic the "craters" that Mignola tends to add to his drawings. It's nice added effect that I wasn't expecting. The batarang and rope he holds is actually made of metal. Since the rope is metal, you won't be able to extend or shorten the batarang's position. The position looks good and the batarang is also well sculpted. OVerall, the sculptor did an excellent job in capturing the Mignola design and also adding in his own interpretation to faithfully rendering him out.

The base is fairly basic sculpt-wise. It's an oval shape with very little else. All the details involve the paint which brings me to...

Paint:
...the paint job itself. Let me tell you that the design of the paint and colors is awesome. The blacks, whites and grays used is perfectly designed and applied. It's not easy bringing Mignola's use of shadows into the 3D realm. But they really did an outstanding job here. The blacks and grays accentuate the sculpt really well and add a lot of interesting viewpoints to the statue. It looks lighted even though it's not. The paint job is what makes the statue pop out at you more than the sculpt itself. All the grays used on his body really make the nonexistent muscles and folds of his belt on the sculpture itself look like they're there. It's a nice illusion and mimics the look of Mignola's art wonderfully. Really great job. The base also has the same colors and is done in the same way to the Batman logo to make it look like a puzzle of some sort. Pretty nice.

The paint job ain't perfect though. My statue had a little blemish on his chin. It's not noticeable from a distance, thankfully. There are also tiny bits of paint that were chipped off in several tiny spots. They're not noticeable from a distance either and can be fixed quite easily since they're all in the black parts. The blemish on his chin is the only major defect that bugged me but like I said, as long as it's not too noticeable, I can live with it. But these tiny problem does take away my Flawless Award.

Where can I find this?
Not too hard. The statue is one of the more popular ones in the line-up so most places were quickly sold out due to Mike Mignola's fame and design. Most retailers I found online were sold out but a few still have it in stock so you should be able to snag one for the retail price (as of this review).

The box. Cool design with a nice drawing from Mike Mignola on the side.

"Something smells..."

The side.

The other side.

The base. Pretty basic but it looks nice.

The back. Very nice design with the folds.