Another hit for DC Collectibles. Based off of 'Lil' Gotham' books, Batman epitomizes everything about Dustin Nguyen's loose, fun style.

I tell ya…it’s hard not to like Dustin Nguyen’s Li’l Gotham.

In the back pages of 2009’s Batman Annual #27, Li’l Gotham made it’s debut (rather quietly) with “Off Rogue Racing: A Lil Gotham Tale!” Not to be held back, the series showed up again in 2009 in Detective Comics Annual #11 with “Question & Answer, A Lil’ Gotham Tale!”. From there the series grew to a digital-first, holiday themed comic until eventually its sheer popularity drove it to a regular print book. The rest, as it’s been said many times over, is history.

Quasi chibi, part watercolor, but all cute…Lil’ Gotham brings something that is sorely missing in the DC Universe: humor. Not to mention more than a dash of fun.

And DC Collectibles has managed to capture all that whimsy (yeah, I did just use the word “whimsy”) with their new line of figures based off of Dustin Nguyen’s style. The inugaural figure of the Lil’ Gotham line, Batman, hit stores shelves last week.

It’s funny because in the past your friendly neighborhood jman hasn’t been the biggest supporter of smaller scale figures. But this Lil’ Gotham Batman? He’s done right. He’s a solid, stocky version of the Dark Knight, just like he appears in the pages of the Lil’ Gotham book.

For such a small figure, he’s fairly articulate. Batman’s arms move and rotate at the shoulder, hands and head turn, legs move, etc. He doesn’t twist at the waist and his feet don’t move either. I was kinda hoping that his feet might’ve turned at the top of the boot, but unfortunately they don’t. No big deal, just wishful thinking on my part.

Unfortunately, he’s a little light on accessories too. He does come with an alternate hand that holds the grappling gun, which is nice. Maybe some other accessory or another alternate hand might’ve rounded out the figure better, but…again, I’m just nitpicking.

Upcoming figures for the line include Robin, Joker and Harley Quinn. Bats retails for a surprisingly affordable $12.99 and is available at your local comic shop now. If you’re a fan of Lil’ Gotham, you won’t be disappointed.