“You don’t get it, son. This isn’t a mudhole … It’s an operating table. And I’m the surgeon.”

Mezco Toys stepped into Hot Toys arena recently with it’s new, high end One:12 Collective The Dark Knight Batman action figure. Yes. This is an “action figure”. But calling it that is a great disservice to the figure (and Mezco, for that matter). We need to come up with some new classification of figures for this line. Like “super action figure”. Or better yet, “super fine action figures”. Or, we could just stick with the “1/12th scale” (hence the name of the line, One:12 Collective) and move on with our review.

For this inaugural line, Mezco decided to release a few different versions of the Dark Knight figure: the classic black and grey suit with black bat emblem, the dark blue and grey suit with black bat emblem, and the one I picked up, the classic blue and grey costume with black/yellow emblem (“Why do you think I wear a target on my chest. I can’t armor my head.”). Of the three, why pick up that one? Well, for one, it’s the Previews Exclusive version. Not that I have any affiliation with Previews, but I love me some exclusives.

And two? Because it’s the suit Bats wore when he returned to fighting crime in the first issue of the The Dark Knight Returns. C’mon! It’s the classic suit! Not getting the classic costume is a travesty. Yeah … the other costumes are cool and all, and if I had to, I would’ve settled for one of those. But not getting the blue and grey would’ve been just wrong.

Either way, this is one impressive action 1/12th scale figure. You can tell from the packaging that Mezco put a lot of thought and time into this line. It’s clearly designed with the collector in mind. No tape on the packaging. No seals. Nothing. Everything is easily removed and put back in place. The package resembles the cover of the original graphic novel, with the Dark Knight silhouetted against lightning.

To say the figure is wicked articulate is an understatement. Mezco crammed 30 points of articulation into the Dark Knight. How? I don’t know, but they created this handy dandy graphic showing all the points Bats is articulated. The really impressive part? Most times that articulation comes at a price; usually a flimsy, loose-jointed figure. The Dark Knight is no such thing. He’s as sturdy as he looks.

For the cape and costume, Mezco once again reached into Hot Toys’ playbook. Made of real fabric, the costume fits the figure nicely. With smaller figures like Bats, fabric costumes can look … well, crappy. But, the folks at Mezco did a nice job stitching this thing together. Either that or they’ve got magic elves in their employ to do the dirty work.

The cape is the most impressive part of the costume, though. It’s a nice, flowing piece of fabric. It’s not weighted down like the fabric capes Hasbro uses in their Star Wars Black Series line, but it doesn’t matter. It’s sit well on the figure, without being a flimsy mess.

Another nice touch on Mezco’s part are the amount of accessories the figure comes with. The Dark Knight comes with four sets of hands, a Bat symbol base, alternate head, rifle and grappling hook. All this so you can recreate several of the famous scenes from The Dark Knight Returns.

What would really make this figure perfect? Some sort of blasted off Bat-emblem that you could put on him, to recreate another classic seen from the graphic novel. But I’m nitpicking at this point.

All this awesomeness comes at a price, though. A really high price at that. The Previews Exclusive Dark Knight retails for $69.99. Yea. That’s right. $69.99. I’ll give you a few moments to push your peepers back into your head.

If you’re thinking the Previews Exclusive isn’t for you, but maybe the regular versions are, be warned: those figures retail for $65.00. So they’re not cheap (yet another reason not to call them “action figures”). Still, if you’re a collector or a fan of Frank Miller’s seminal work, this is one figure not to pass up.

Just don’t tell anyone how much you spent on him. ‘Cause I’m certainly not.