[BarbaraGordon]

Street Date: Officially 2022-01-26
MSRP: $20
Price I Paid: $20
Scale: 7-inch (or 1/10)

People have spotted action figures and the Batcycle from the upcoming film The Batman on and off throughout January 2022 in Target stores. I saw Riddler last week and came across Batman today, though the plastic window was slightly damaged at the top.

----------

It looks like director Matt Reeves wants to "out-real" any other live-action depiction of Batman. The costumes shown in previews all look very home-made, even Batman's. (This time, Batman is played by Robert Pattinson.) Penguin looks so much like a normal gangster that many people thought he was supposed to be Carmine Falcone, a traditional-style mob boss.

In the plastic tray, there's one main plastic tie around Batman's torso. In addition to an information card and a base stand, Batman comes with one accessory, a grapnel. The cape fits through a slot in the tray so that the figure isn't pressed against it when inside the packaging. The figure is about 7.25-inches tall (to the top of the head, not the Bat ears). He seems to fit better with the comics-based figures rather than the DCEU figures, though The Batman takes place in its own continuity. The head seems a tad big, but this has happened before with McFarlane's figures based on real actors.



The cape, shoulder pads, belt, kneepads, and boot calves are made of rubber or soft plastic. The cape and shoulder pads do hinder articulation a bit, but otherwise you can flex Batman quite a bit. The head can tilt up and down a bit, which is nice after a couple of figures that could only look downwards. The head and upper torso turn 360 degrees -- as do the boots! This Batman can even do full splits. His arms can't be pressed flush against the body, but at least they're not stuck outwards at angles that make him look like a waddling bird.

The grapnel has a peg which fits into a hole in the right hand. I'm okay with this design and wouldn't have even minded if the grapnel had been glued to or molded with the hand. However...

Both hands can be removed easily, unlike other McFarlane action figures that don't have swappable hands. I'm assuming this is because the same pegs were used for both hands, and the right hand actually has a swappable part -- it's just not included with the figure. That's right, in order to get the swappable right hand (which has fingers curled in a grip), you have to buy the Batcycle. I think this was a really poor decision because not everyone who buys this figure will want to buy the Batcycle, and not everyone who buys the Batcycle necessarily plans to use it with this Batman or any of McFarlane's DC figures (since the Batcycle has a generic enough appearance that it wouldn't look out of place with non-DC characters). As such, when you pose this figure, the right hand is perpetually open flat, "Judo chop!"-style.

(I tried to fit Batman Beyond's "trigger finger" hands on this figure, but the peg holes are too small.)

The left hand grip is rather small and tight, so I was only able to fit slender items such as Bloodsport's swords and thin escrima sticks that were included with smaller scale Nightwing figures.

Areas of concern:
-- None really, but the swappable right hand should've been included with the figure instead of with the Batcycle.