Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice is one of those movies that people love or hate. Whichever side you fall on, you can agree that one of the most universally liked aspects of the film is Ben Affleck’s portrayal of the Bat of Gotham. He brought a certain intensity to the role that I haven’t seen in any other live-action portrayal of Batman. With a suit heavily inspired by The Dark Knight Returns, written by Frank Miller, I don’t think Batman has ever looked better on screen. Other than a few minor differences from the actual suit, Mezco Toyz did a fantastic job bringing this Batman into the One:12 Collective.



DESIGN 10/10

If it’s not obvious already, I love this Batsuit. Aside from the earlier mentioned influence, this suit is very reminiscent of the more classic “cloth and leather” Batsuits, as opposed to some of the more armored designs. The only thing missing is the Bat-Trunks. Primarily grey and black, the smaller accents of bronze in the belt, boots, and forearm gauntlets do a great job making the figure pop. The cape isn’t wired, allowing for natural draped poses, and has some weathering at the bottom where the cape would touch the floor. In terms of proportions, Mezco used a fantastic buck for this figure. Ben Affleck’s Batman is definitely bulkier than other versions of the character, and that is translated well here. The head sculpt is also fantastic, and helps make it one of the most screen accurate figures created by Mezco Toyz.

For how great this figure looks, it should be noted that it is not entirely screen accurate. There are a few minor differences, but minor enough that the design score hasn’t been docked. The first is that pattern of the darker lining details are not entirely accurate but it’s understandable if changes were made to get it down to scale. The second is that the cape does not have the double folds as seen on the actual screen-use cape. This actually works out though since this allows the cape to be draped frontwards to achieve that classic broody Batman look. One last difference, which is more like a nitpick, is that the Bat emblem is slightly small. And by small, I mean 5-10% too small. It would be a disservice to the people at Mezco Toyz to say these differences make the figure worse in any way because this really is a fantastic figure and I’m glad to have it in my collection.

ARTICULATION 10/10

From what I can tell, Mezco Toyz used the buck that is consistent throughout other Batman figures released in the One:12 Collective. The buck also happens to be one of their best. With over 30 points of articulation, this figure will do as much as the suit will allow. Thankfully, the suit only restricts the articulation minimally. Upper body posing works very well, with some minor restrictions in the rotation and ab-crunch of the torso. The lower body also poses surprisingly well; the legs can go just about full-split, and there is a solid amount of ankle pivot. You might have trouble getting the figure to crouch though, in case you wanted to do some kind of perched posed. The head is separate from the neck, allowing a good amount of movement as well. All in all, I don’t have any bad things to say about the articulation of this figure.

ACCESSORIES 9/10

The only thing missing is a Batmobile. Okay not really.. but overall, this figure comes with a great accessory set. A set of individual batarangs are included along with a pair of hands with batarangs attached to them. There is also a grappling gun with a couple grappling hooks in closed and open positions, plus a hook with an attached string. The grappling gun can also be plugged into the back of the belt. Another accessory, which is a favorite of mine, is the Bat brand. The only accessory I don’t think is a great fit is the grenade. I believe it’s the smoke grenade Batman uses against Superman near the end of the film, but in the scene, Batman is in his armored suit rather than the one this figure is based on.

Two heads are included, one with a normal expression and the other with a more angry look. They both look great and bear a close likeness to actor Ben Affleck. Several other pairs of hands are also included; fists, accessory holding hands, relaxed hands, and the aforementioned batarang holding hands. The display base and posing post are also there, along with detachable wire clips that can be used to pose the cape dynamically. The set-up can look a little tricky at first, but Mezco Toyz has a blog post with instructions on how to best use it.

This pose was done using the display base, post, and wire clips.

There a couple omissions that I think would have improved the accessory set. The first being the grenade launcher used to fire kryptonite grenades; first against Superman and then against Doomsday in the film. It would make more sense if the grenade launcher was included rather than the individual hand grenade since the launcher isn’t specific to the armored suit. The next omission is an unmasked head sculpt. It’s possible that likeness issues could have existed when this figure was developed, since the later release of the One:12 Collective Knightmare Batman did include one. Other than these, I think what is included is great on its own.

FINAL THOUGHTS

What I love about Batman v. Superman is that it makes Batman feel like this mythological, larger than life character and I think that is translated perfectly into this figure. It has great value out of the box although it is unlikely you will find this figure at list price. While not entirely screen accurate, it is a fantastic translation into a 1/12 scale figure. Seriously, I own multiple figures of this particular version of Batman, including the sixth scale figure from Hot Toys and the Mezco figure looks the best of all of them. It’s definitely a cool, classic look for Batman and a very well made figure that would look great in your figure or Mezco Toyz One:12 collection.

FINAL SCORE 9.5/10

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