KILLER CROC - DC Direct - Arkham Asylum Deluxe Action Figure Review

From the moment he stepped off that lift at the beginning of Arkham Asylum, Killer Croc blew me away. So, when I heard that he was being released by DC Direct as part of their Arkham line of action figures, I pre-ordered him right away. Well, Croc showed up this week. He's an expensive figure, no doubt about it- the question is, is he worth it?

Killer Croc comes packaged securely in a mostly-white partial-display window box. The figure is half-hidden, and there isn't much eye-catching about the box, but the cardboard is very sturdy, and Croc is twisty-tied in place, so it does it's primary job of protecting the figure, without being particularly attractive. The box size is also fairly appropriate- I saw a Deluxe Mr. Freeze at a comic shop and wondered about the need for the "deluxe" box for him (I'm guessing it's the accessories). Not so with Croc here.

He's definitely a large-sized figure. He stands 9 and 1/2 inches at the top of his domed head. I'm guessing he'd have another inch if he could straighten out his hunched back! Croc weighs in at 1 lb. 11 oz., so he's a solid figure with some weight behind him (just for comparison's sake, Build-A-Figure Pitt weighs 2 lb. 4 oz. at 10" tall). The sculpt captures the game look really well, and there's loads of sculpted detail in the form of cracks, scales, armor plates, etc. (check out his back!). That said, the sculpt lines do feel a little "soft" to me- the detail is there, but for some reason it just doesn't seem to "pop" like it does on say a NECA figure. Take, for instance, the rope belt around his waist. It's sculpted, I can tell it's supposed to be rope, but there's something very ho-hum about it. The whole figure is like that, in some ways, and I'm honestly not positive why. My other complaint (and yeah it's a weird one), is that he's too symmetrical side-to-side. What I mean is, that his plates, their shading, and even the location of the weird spikes are identically placed on his left side, and on his right side. I'm not sure why this bothers me as well, but it does.


Killer Croc's paint apps capture the look well enough. They aren't sloppy in application, and the chosen colors seem to work very well. Small things like metal buckles, pupils and toe-nails are all well done. The upper portion of the pants are very smooth and very orange, while the lower portions are filthy and much more wrinkled. It's a good job, overall, much as I'd expect from DC Direct (I'm rarely disappointed with their paint work). Croc sports thick broken chains from each ankle cuff, both forearm bands and the neck piece. They look great.

I try not to expect too much from the articulation of DC Direct's figures- for me, they are mostly there to view on a shelf in a vanilla pose. That said, Killer Croc has had some effort put into his articulation. His head is on a semi-ball (because he's hunched forward, it's limited in its range of motion), and his lower jaw is hinged to open and close (nice touch!). Shoulders are ball joints that can be raised laterally very well. He's got cut twist biceps (great), and single-pin elbow joints that are restricted by the forearm braces. The hands are on ball-joints at the wrists, with one clenched into a fist and the other open-clawed. The hips provide for movement forward, backwards and side to side, but mine has a pretty floppy left one, so I have to be gentle with it or I'm afraid he'll get to toppling around. Single pin knees (with some ratchet to them, I think) and ball-jointed ankles round out the articulation. It's not perfect, but it is more than I expected- I'd say it's about right given the constraints of Croc's size and sculpt.

So, where do things stand so far? Packaging- average, sculpt - good, paint - good, articulation - good, accessories - none. Lastly, we need to consider the price. Clearly, he's a good figure, a necessary figure to an Arkham line, but yeah, he's too expensive. I'd put him reasonable at $30-$35, with the standard figures at about $20 (which I also think is too expensive).

Overall, Killer Croc is a good figure. He looks exactly like the prototype pictures, and he's very well-constructed. But at the same time, he shouldn't be good, he should be great. He ought to be in the top ten of action figure that I own, but he's just not. There's something about him that's very "underwhelming", and I can't find a clear-cut reason why. This is a character design that I love, a figure that I want to love, solid execution (the face in particular is terrific). But I can already tell that he'll go on the shelf and won't get much of a second look after a couple of weeks. There's no way I'd pay what I did for Croc for Mr. Freeze or Titan Joker or any other figure from the line, and I probably do regret the money that went into getting the big guy, although he does look cool with Batman on the shelf.