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Packaging - ***
The packaging has that great silver age feel to it, reminding you of the comic
art of the period. It's easy to store if you so desire, it shows the
figures themselves in 'action', and you can see both figures clearly through the
window. There's a couple twisty ties to deal with, but with a little work
you could always put things back together again if you really wanted to.
The only real negative is that the cardboard is
fairly think and it's likely to end up crushed pretty easily.
Sculpting - Joker ***1/2, Batgirl ***
Are you a big fan of silver age art and designs? Then you'll love the
overall look of these figures. There's just the perfect amount of detail
on both figures, not too much, not too little. I'm particularly happy with
the Joker, who has a great facial expression, and lots of details in the
clothing.
Batgirl didn't rank quite as high, mostly due to
her zombie facial expression. While I despise any sort of constipated
grimace, Batgirl needed something to give her face a little more life, and maker
her look a little less like a mannequin. Some folks will also be annoyed
that the purse on her belt is not removable, but I'm pretty sure that this
silver age version had her bat-belt come right out of her purse, so being
connected like that would make sense.
Paint - ***1/2
I complained about the awful quality on the paint ops with the Kingdom Come
figures. No such problems here! Sure, there's a little unevenness on
a few of the borders between colors, but there's no overspray or glopping, and
there's a great variety of colors and detail.
The predominate colors are also very consistent,
and the lines between the black and yellow on Batgirl's costume are extremely
well done. Joker's face has perhaps the most errors, but neither figure
has any sort of serious paint application problem.
Articulation - ***1/2
Both figures have just the right amount of articulation, although some of the
posing is a bit limited unless you use the base.
They have neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists (very
important!), hips and knees. The knees on both are a bit funky, with a
slightly odd bend to them, but it's not a major problem.
Using the included base and pegs, there's tons
of variety that you can add to your display.
Accessories - ***
The accessories include the rooftop base, a Joker topped cane, a batarang, and
the climbing rope/ suction cup doohickey that we saw earlier with Batman.
The accessories are all nicely sculpted
(although the recent Mattel Joker cane is better looking than this version), but
it's still a tad light at this price point.
Easily the best part of the accessories is the
base. As advertised, it hooks to the other half of the base that came with
Batman and Robin, forming a rectangular roof top. There's plenty of peg
holes, and plenty of pegs, to give you a pretty good variety of ways to pose all
four figures together.
I ended up with a great pose, having Batgirl in
the center, with Batman and Robin to either side and the Joker in the
back. His extreme height made that work a little better than the goofy set
up I have in the photos.
Value - **
DC Direct has one big problem - price. Yes, these are low runs,
sold only through comic shops. But it's still extremely difficult to
justify a $40 price tag for two seven inch figures and a handful of
accessories. $25 is a price point that works far better, and perhaps
might drive demand even higher, allowing for more units to sell.
Setting a high price point assuming low demand is a self fulfilling prophecy.
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