Batman (New Batman Adventures) (Mafex) Review

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Batman (New Batman Adventures) (Mafex) Review

Batman (New Batman Adventures)
Mafex (Medicom)After covering McFarlane's re-releases of DC Direct's Batman: the Animated Series figures, I figured (heh) that I'd go over another animated Batman in my collection. I've heard of Medicom's MAFEX figures time and again, but haven't been interested in the line that much. Their animated Batman intrigued me, and here we are.

The packaging is pretty solid with a city byline on both the outside and the inside, along with various shots of the figure. There's no twisties to deal with here; the plastic trays and bags keep everything in place, and it's all easy to take out.

This figure isn't from BTAS, but rather The New Batman Adventures, a retool of the show that overhauled the art style and character designs. This included Batman himself, with narrower eyes on his mask and a blockier chin. The figure stays accurate to that look, and bears mostly clean paint and edges. He also gets an unmasked Bruce Wayne head, which bears some of the same good paint work. The eyes are pretty narrow, but still look very clean. This alternate head doesn't have a cowl down piece to go along with it unfortunately, and that's why I won't be using this head much.

Standing a bit over 6 1/2" due to the ears of his cowl, Batman has an angular body design, with a big chest contrasting with the skinnier legs. There's not much color variation to the suit, so not too much paint was needed, but the work is mostly clean aside from a stray black mark on the abdomen (it's covered by the chest most of the time thankfully). The bat symbol on his chest isn't just painted, it's sculpted as well, adding a bit more to the design. His cape is a big piece of wired cloth, being easily poseable and can be bent to flow with the wind. Alternatively, he gets an all plastic cape that fits the animated style more.

As with most import figures, Batman is well-outfitted with articulation. He gets barbell joints for the neck, chest, and waist, and while the neck is limited partially due to the cape piece, the chest and waist move well. The shoulders are ball-hinge-swivel joints with good movement, and there's extra ball joints inside the torso so they can be shifted up, down, and towards the front of the chest. Aiding in arm poses are swivel biceps, double-hinged elbows (the upper pin going through the bicep and into the shoulder joint), and swivel/hinge/swivel wrists. The legs have ball hips mounted on hinges, along with a bit of thigh twist, double-hinged knees, swivel/hinge/swivel ankles (no rocker, so you have to turn the joint for deeper stances), and hinged toes. The joints move with ease and allow a lot of poses, but the skinny feet can make it hard to him to stand.

I already mentioned Batman gets an extra head and cape, but he also has plenty of hands, including a pair of fists, a pair of relaxed-ish hands, a pair of splayed hands, and two different pairs of grips designed for his other accessories. The hands are pegged into clear bits of plastic, likely to keep the sockets from shrinking, and I'd advise keeping them unless you want to heat up the hands every time you swap them. He comes with a batarang to throw as well as a grapple gun with the hook coming out. The hook can't be removed, but the metal "rope" means it'll hold up well. Since he can't stand too well on his own, he gets a base with two different supports: one is a basic crotch support and lifts him a bit off the ground, and the other is an articulated arm that clamps around his waist. The posing arm is decent, but one of the joints on it is loose, which makes dynamic poses difficult.

Batman is a pretty solid figure overall, as he looks screen-accurate, has joints that both blend into the sculpt and pose well, and a handful of decent accessories. A few more adjustments, such as some paint touch-ups and additional extras, would've made him better, but I'm satisfied with him. I'll admit I was contemplating selling him at one point, but he grew on me, and now I'm glad I didn't.

- 2/5/24