I’d heard Mattel recently upgraded the bodies of their 3 3/4″ DC action figure line, and the results are impressive.
The articulation and sculpt of this Batman figure is comparable to most Hasbro Marvel Universe figures. All the typical joints you would expect, and most of them work well. However, the ankles on mine were quite loose, making standing poses a little difficult.
The sculpt of this particular figure is pretty awesome, I love the retro feel of the entire costume, very simple. I particularly like the sculpted cape over the shoulders, even if the solid rubber cape makes some low poses a little difficult. As with most figures of this scale, the paint apps can be a little sketchy, but luckily this guy doesn’t have many to worry about.
I’m not incredibly familiar with this figure line, with this being my first venture into DC figures of this size, but I am glad I don’t regret it, and I’m glad this figure fits in well with other figures of the same scale and build.
I would love to see Mattel really bring these figures further in line with Hasbro’s offerings for this scale as I would love to collect both companies products in the same scale.
From the looks of it, this new model blows away the previous DCIH releases. I think they’ll be able to compete w/ Hasbro’s 3.75″ line now, but I’m sure that will include a price increase on these. I only have one DCIH toy, a Wonder Woman figure I bought for my wife and the articulation is horrible. I’m glad they revised it, but they’ll have to step up in the accessories department, too.
What this line needs is a nice Batmobile to go with Bats ala Mego’s Pocket Super Heroes.
it’s a big improvement over previous Infinite Heroes figures.
I’d like to see Mattel add a mid-torso ball joint like most Marvel Universe figures have.
Yep, that, too!
I’d like to see them start over with bigger bodies to match Hasbro’s Joe/Marvel “universes”. Mattel shot at the Star Wars scale, which is noticeably smaller than Joes and MU. Granted, on average it’s around 1/4″, but that looks off when Superman at full height is as tall or shorter than a properly-scaled Wolverine.
The figures are definitely improving, but the muscles and new articulation just look soft to me. I’d argue that they should have had a learning curve, but they seemed more focused on getting characters out before they really paid attention to whether or not they should be improving. Considering these have been out about as long as MU, I’d say the improvement is coming, but not as fast as Hasbro is improving their game. I have high hopes for a reboot come SDCC, hopefully with 4H involved…
SD