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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. ***
And don’t forget to check out the Youtube video below to see some exclusive WIP photos!
I always wanted Mattel to make a proper Ra’s Al Ghul Batman Begins figure, but since that never happened, here I bring you Ra’s Al Ghul in full League of Shadows ninja gear! Ra’s al Ghul was made using a Star Wars the Black Series Episode 3 Obi-Wan Kenobi, the head from a Movie Masters Ra’s Al Ghul, and the forearms from a Movie Masters Batman Begins Batman. I fused the Batman Begins forearms to the Obi-Wan arms, and used Aves Apoxie Sculpt to blend and fill in the gaps. I also added plating to the back of the hands (including the rivets!) with styrene. The lower cloak was replaced with fabric. The belt is made using two strips of styrene, with the belt buckle being fodder that happened to be perfectly movie accurate. Everything was repainted several shades of dark brown to match the movie, with the gauntlets dry brushed lightly for a metallic look. The head was also completely repainted, and I even sculpted in to cover that weird open mouth gap he had before. One katana later and League of Shadows Ra’s Al Ghul is ready to take down Batman and do all that is necessary to cleanse the world of corruption!
News – Hot Toys Dark Knight Rises Bane Final Product Images
Hot Toys revealed the final product images of the upcoming Dark Knight Rises: 1/6th scale Bane Collectible Figure. You can check out 20 of the photos after the jump, and you can view the rest here. This figure looks truly impressive and seems like a must-have for any Batman fans.
The figure is set to be released March of 2013. You can pre order it from BigBadToyStore here.
New Batman Play Arts Kai Images From Tokyo Game Show 2012
Thanks to the website Marshallalloc.blog, we now can see the images of the new Batman Play Arts Kai Figures that had been displayed at this year’s Tokyo Game Show. Some of them, such as the Play Arts Dark Knight Rises Catwoman, were teased back at SDCC. Others, we saw some early unpainted prototypes of.
After the jump you can see a plethora of images of the Dark Knight Rises Play Arts Kai Batman, Catwoman, and Bane figures. There are also images of the new Arkham City Robin and Harley Quinn figures, a Dark Knight Returns Batman (yes from the comic), and a Dark Knight (Heath Ledger) Joker. Many of them are still unpainted prototypes, but you can see fully painted prototypes as well.
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.
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!
Review – Mr. Freeze – Arkham City, DC Collectibles (DC Direct)
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?
Review – Killer Croc – Arkham City, DC Collectibles (DC Direct)
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.
News – Mattel SDCC 2012 Dark Knight Rises Exclusive Figure Revealed
Today, 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!
Ask Mattel – Answers for May 1st, 2012
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??