New Custom Action Figure Shows That I’m Batty

I’m really terrible at Bat-related puns, aren’t I? Don’t tell me, my ego is fragile. Anyway, it does elude to my newest custom action figure. The newest addition to the showcase is a movie concept for John Blake from the Dark Knight Rises as Nightwing. Don’t worry, it’s not a spoiler, but after seeing the movie I just couldn’t get the concept out of my head, so I had to make it.

You can view the entire gallery and description by clicking on the photo below. I even wrote up my own little story for incorporating John Blake as Nightwing into the Nolan Batman movie universe. And if you’re interested then you can bid on this custom right now on eBay. Don’t forget to tell your friends who you think might be interested.

 

Custom 6" Dark Knight Rises DC Universe Classics Movie Masters Nightwing Robin John Blake Concept Action Figure

 

Thanks for looking.

Custom Nightwing Movie Concept 6″ Dark Knight Rises Action Figure – Created July 29th, 2012

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*** Head on over to my Ebay Auctions to see what’s available this week, or commission me if you’d like your very own custom action figure like this one. ***

During the events of the Dark Knight Rises, Detective John Blake helped Batman during Bane’s attack on Gotham. After the attack, John Blake was approached by Batman to help him keep Gotham city safe. John Blake modified a spare Batman suit for his liking, but wanted to wear as little of a mask as possible. Lucius Fox developed a pair of sonar goggles specially for Blake, modified from a pair of spy goggles worn by Selina Kyle. After some training and preparationg, Blake took some of his old police night sticks, strapped them to his side, and fought to protect Gotham City from criminals as the vigilante hero, Nightwing!

Pretty cool story huh? It’s the story that I wrote in my head for what could happen after the events of The Dark Knight Rises. I just couldn’t get out of my head the image of a movie concept Nightwing, so I had to make it. He’s made using the body of a Movie Masters Dark Knight Rises Batman, the head from a MM John Blake, the goggles from a MM Catwoman, and the belt, holster, and night sticks from a Marvel Legends movie Daredevil.

I removed the belt and cape and filled in the gaps left from them. Then, I had to resculpt the chest area to make the Nightwing symbol, and sculpted onto the shoulders as well. I also sculpted onto the bicep areas, and removed the scallops on his forearms and sculpted over that to smooth it out. Then I just had to paint the mask on, rework the Catwoman goggles to fit on John Blake’s head AND be removable, and attach the Daredevil belt and then paint everything up accordingly. And now John Blake is ready to roam the streets of Gotham City as Nightwing, protecting all the citizens!


Custom Nightwing 6" Dark Knight Rises DC Universe Classics Movie Masters Robin John Blake Concept Action FigureCustom Nightwing 6" Dark Knight Rises DC Universe Classics Movie Masters Robin John Blake Concept Action FigureCustom Nightwing 6" Dark Knight Rises DC Universe Classics Movie Masters Robin John Blake Concept Action Figure

Review – Mr. Freeze – Arkham City, DC Collectibles (DC Direct)

DC Collectibles (DC Direct) Mr. Freeze Batman Arkham City 7" Deluxe Action Figure

Mr. Freeze is the second figure to be released by DC Collectibles (formerly DC Direct) in its Arkham City Deluxe figure line. He was actually released just this week, the same time as Killer Croc. A lot of fans have wondered, and rightly so, why a character like Mr. Freeze warrants a deluxe price, when he’s practically a normal sized character.

Last year, at New York Comic-Con, someone at the DC Direct booth actually explained it. It turns out that Mr. Freeze was too expensive to put under the basic figure SKU (stock keeping unit – a number or code used to identify each unique product or item for sale in a store or other business). Like everything else, toy lines have budgets. They have a certain amount of money allotted to them, and only have enough budget for a certain amount of SKU’s.

At the time they were working on the Arkham City line, they had the budget for two SKU’s. The basic figure SKU and the Deluxe figure SKU. Due to Mr. Freeze’s larger than normal size (his design dictates this, due to his freeze suit adding height to him), mixed with other elements such as his accessories, he just came in too expensive to be put under the basic figure SKU. So they were left with two options. Either cancel him outright, or place him in the deluxe line. Since they couldn’t just create a new SKU specifically for Freeze, or raise the price of him as a basic figure (they all have to be the same price under one SKU), those were their only options. And they did not want to cancel Mr. Freeze, since to many fans he was the best boss fight in the entire Arkham City game, and many fans have been waiting for a really good Mr. Freeze action figure. So they put him in the deluxe line and now here we are.

Many fans have been criticizing this decision though, thinking that DC Direct is just abusing the deluxe price, but if you look at every figure they’re going to be releasing in the deluxe line, Mr. Freeze is the only one arguably not a deluxe. If they wanted to abuse it, they could have just made every single figure in the line a deluxe. But toy companies are not out to alienate its market. That’s just bad business. I hope the above helps explain to some the decision to make Mr. Freeze a deluxe figure.

Enough of that though, you guys came for a review and pictures right? Well let’s get to that, shall we?

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Review – Killer Croc – Arkham City, DC Collectibles (DC Direct)

DC Direct Colllectibles Batman Arkham Asylum City Deluxe Action Figure Killer Croc 9.5"

There’s no denying that DC Direct has been on a role lately with their Arkham city toy line. They really upped the ante back in 2010 with their Arkham Asylum toy line, making two waves worth of characters that were really the first DC Direct figures I was ever truly interested in. But the fact that the game was amazing I’m sure helped sway me into buying them.

Now, in their second wave of Arkham City figures, we’ve seen more detailed sculpts, new articulation (for DC Direct anyway), and a name change for the company (switching from DC Direct to DC Collectibles). And now we have the inclusion of the Deluxe line of Arkham City figures, specifically meant for the larger characters. The first character in this new sub-line of figures is Killer Croc. Fans have been wanting a figure of him ever since Arkham Asylum, since that’s the game he was predominantly featured in. But now that we have him, we’re going to take a closer look.

So is DC Collectibles’ first foray into the Deluxe Arkham Figure a hit or a miss? Read on to find out.

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News – Figma Link, Godfather Monopoly, & LEGO Batman 2

Figma Max Factory Legend of Zelda Link Action Figure 6" Video GameI am one who loves to partake in the occasional video game. And you all know I toys. I also enjoy a board game every now and then. So that’s why I put all the topics into today’s news post into one, to give you all some information regarding some upcoming game/toy news.

First up in the Action figure/Video game crossover news, we have a Legend of Zelda Link figure coming from the Japanese Figma toy line from Max Factory.

Continue after the jump for pictures of Figma Link, as well as a slew of information regarding all of the topics from the title!

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Ask Mattel – Answers for June 1st, 2012

Mattel Mattycollector Logo

Welcome to the latest edition of Ask Mattel! Let’s just jump right in and read the questions you submitted, and the answers given by Mattel’s staff.

Dwaine asks: Will there be a pre sale for temple of darkness Sorceress for power con?

 No. We are just brining units to the show to sell.

 

 

Jared asks: Can you explain the decision to make the SDCC Death an 8 inch statue, instead of a DCUC 6″ figure? Many fans would love a 6″ Death and Sandman to go with their DCUC collections. Did you only have the license to make her a statue, or was it completely a design choice? And if you do have the license to make figures of these characters, will we ever see them as figures?
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News – Mattel SDCC 2012 Dark Knight Rises Exclusive Figure Revealed

San Diego Comic-Con 2012 Comic Book ConventionToday, Mattycollector announced some information regarding their San Diego Comic-Con 2012 pre-voucher sale, and in that release they revealed what the Dark Knight Rises Movie Masters Exclusive figure will be. Up until now, we haven’t known anything about what it could be, other than there would be one.

Speculation rose that perhaps it would be the Liam Neeson Ra’s Al Ghul figure that fans have been wanting since 2008 and the inception of the Dark Knight Movie Masters figures.

There are no photos yet of what the SDCC exclusive will look like, but we do know the package will feature lights and sounds, and now we know the character it’s going to be.

Continue after the jump to find out the SDCC 2012 Dark Knight Rises Movie Masters exclusive figure!

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Ask Mattel – Answers for May 15th, 2012

Mattel Mattycollector Logo

Welcome to another edition of Ask Mattel! In this session, Matty gives a surprisingly long thought out answer regarding the SDCC Death statue, gives us a hint at the SDCC Dark Knight Rises exclusive figure, and more! Let’s jump in.

Brandon Gibbs asks: Can you explain why there are no SDCC exclusives in DCUC scale this year and why you instead chose to do a less-articulated 8-inch version of death. As someone who has almost every DCUC figure, I frankly, feel a little insulted that you have nothing for me this year.

Some fans were confused (or Angry) that we didn’t do a 6” DCU (Classics) item at SDCC this year. Honestly, a big part of that was that we now have CIE on Mattycollector.com. In the past, we needed SDCC to put out 6” figures (for the “overall collection”) that didn’t fit into the retail line for one reason or another. Whether this was due to character selection (Lobo) piece count (Plastic Man) or a plus’ d up package with light and sounds (Wonder-Twins), in the past SDCC was our avenue to deliver items that really “didn’t work at retail for one reason or another”.

Now that we have Club Infinite Earths on Mattycollector.com, we can offer all of these executions without having to wait for an annual show. Honestly, fans are in the best position ever for 6”. By  supporting the online club (which we know was a “risk” in year 1 with a lot of unknowns at the time we sold the sub) fans are really going to be rewarded. Ideally it will be like getting a DCU 6” SDCC item every month. (no need to toy hunt!)  Metron is a great example. How in the world would we have done that at retail? He would have had to be part of a “deluxe” assortment with a Batman and Superman deluxe figure and would have been short packed with many fans unable to find him. He would have been better off at SDCC to do the full chair.

BUT now that we have CIE we can just include him (and other collector only figures) without retail restrains or having to wait for SDCC. With the online club the gloves are off and you will really see some great collector product (pending the sub goes forward in 2013, which I can’t imagine it won’t!).

Because we now have CIE delivering SDCC quality 6″ figures every month, we decided to use SDCC therefore to try out new form factors for fans to collect the DC Universe. This was not a slight to fans at all. you are still getting SDCC quality 6″ figures, and thanks to CIE you will get them every month instead of only once a year!

 

 

Victor asks: How about if the MOTUC line include a series of pink variants (and other figures), and proceeds could be donated to Breast Cancer Research? Such variants could include Filmation colors Prince Adam, pink minicomics Sorceress and Teela, and pink SwiftWind.

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Ask Mattel – Answers for May 1st, 2012

Mattel Mattycollector Logo

Welcome to another edition of Ask Matty! We’ve got a lot of questions about Batman and DC Universe Classics, so let’s jump in and see Mattel’s answers!

 

Jason Melo asks: Hi, Huge DCU & YJ 6′ fan and collector. You have mentioned that 2013 your relaunch the 6′? Does this mean you might combine the 2 and continue with the characters? Have been waiting for months, years for a real Superboy\Connor and Huntress and more main characters like Lois Lane, Cassandra\wondergirl, Jimmy Olsen, Elogated man etc…

At this point, it’s too early to comment on 2013 beyond what we’ve said. However, we do love hearing your figure suggestions.

 

 

Matthew Roche asks: We know that there is no collector aimed DC at retail until 2013 (we’ve all heard the announcements by now). When does matty intend on announcing what will be offered at SDCC??

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Holy New Custom Action Figures Batman!

Haha, that’s right I have four new customs posted in the archive. I recently did a few quick Batman related customs and wanted to share them with you. They’re all repaints, but I feel they’re pretty nifty. Click the pictures to take you to their pages.

DC Universe 6" Penguin in Black and white tuxedo Mattel Mint Condition Custom Action Figure John HarmonDC Universe 6" Robin Young Justice Teen Titans Mattel Mint Condition Custom Action Figure John HarmonDC Universe 6" Batman Mattel Mint Condition Custom Action Figure John HarmonDC Universe 6" Nightwing New 52 Mattel Mint Condition Custom Action Figure John Harmon

The first one is this custom DC Universe Penguin action figure, repainted in a completely black and white tuxedo. The next one is a Young Justice Robin action figure, repainted in Teen Titans cartoon colors as a mashup of the two designs. The third is a modern comics style DC Universe Batman. This exact version of Batman has never been done by Mattel and I never understood why. This is, in my opinion, THE version of Batman. And lastly, I leave you with a Nightwing in New 52 colors. He was a lot of fun to do, although it was also very frustrating ha ha. Click the link to his page to see what I mean.

Thanks for looking, and I hope you dig the new customs.