Packaging - ***
These come in fairly nice, small boxes. They are collector friendly
- you can take the figures out with no trouble and pop them back in again
later - and the graphics and text are decent.
My favorite aspect of the
packaging though is the cardboard insert. It matches the insert in
the recent Shadows of Gotham four pack from TRU, with the bats flying and
the yellow center. It makes for a nice consistency across the
packages, and looks good to boot.
Sculpting - ***
You won't be surprised by any of these sculpts, but almost all of them are
top notch.
The Batman in the
Batman/Robin set is the best of the more recent sculpts, although his
ankles are a bit thin. Robin is also the basic sculpt, from the
later shows.
The Batman that comes with
Two Face is one of the more recent goofy versions. I'm sure a reader
who has been keeping better track of the various Batman re-decos will let
me know just where this one first showed up. Two Face is the second
version (TNBA), which was also
originally a Wal-mart two pack (Arkham Asylum). He's one of the
better later villain sculpts.
Riddler comes from the very
early BTAS line. So early it seems to me that it was in the first
series, or perhaps second. It's a great sculpt, and this one doesn't
suffer from some of the paint problems of the original. But more on
that later.
The Batman that comes with
the Riddler is the biggest disappointment though, since it's my least
favorite Bats sculpt of the entire BTAS universe. It doesn't stand
well on its own, and looks dorky on top of it. I believe the first
time we saw this Bats was with the first version of this same Two Face, in
the Wal-mart two pack with the Arkham Asylum gate. We've seen him
plenty of times since though!
Paint - ***
Although these are just repaints, they are very good repaints. The
color choices on both Two Face and Riddler are great, and the Riddler
doesn't suffer from arms that are a different color from his chest.
All three Batman repaints are
nice, especially the Batman that comes with Robin. The jet black
outfit with dark blue cowl, cape, gloves and boots really looks great.
The Batmen repaints are good
because there aren't any weird colors - almost everything is blue, gray,
black or yellow.
Riddler really is the winner
in the paint department though, improving on the original with a glossy,
metallic paint job, and a new question mark on his hat. He's not
perfect - there were some splotchy areas on his paints - but he's better
than the first version, and that's tough to do.
Articulation - **
This is Hasbro, remember. There's neck, shoulders and hips, the
usual five points. On some that's fine, but a couple of the Batmen
versions have a very hard time standing on their own.
Accessories - **
Here's where they drop the ball on these. Batman and Two Face
come with the same two guns that Two Face came with last time
around. That's not too bad, and I wish we'd gotten Riddler's
cane. But instead he and his partner come with the nose cannon
again, which we just got with the Ras figure in the TRU four pack.
And to top it off, the
Batman/Robin two pack comes with the grappling/rope accessory. Overall, pretty disappointing
in the accessories department.
Value - ***
While they are light on accessories, less than three bucks a figure is
still a pretty decent value. This is particularly true if you don't
have this Two Face or Riddler, since you can always find a kid some place
that will happily take the Batmen off your hands.
Overall - **1/2
The best thing about these sets is getting two great villains at an
excellent price. For those that already have this it's not that
exciting, but there are plenty of folks that missed out on these
characters the first time around, particularly the Riddler. Also,
these sets are great for kids, giving them a chance to play with some
wonderful figures.
Where to Buy -
There's only one sensible place - your closest Wal-mart! They should
have these on the shelf now, and plenty of them...for awhile. I
wouldn't dawdle around though if you really want a set, since none of
these new re-issues have lasted too long on the shelf.
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