ARMORED BATMAN - Square Enix Play Arts Kai "VARIANT" figure

I have so many Batman figures. So, so many. Really. What could possibly make me want another Batman? I think the last Batman I bought was the S.H. Figuarts Injustice version, which I picked up over the summer, and which I regret buying. So, why in the world would I want another? Well, this past week or so I went by my local GameStop, which I haven't been to in a while. I was looking for the new Funko Legacy Fallout Power Armor figure, and was really surprised to see how stocked GameStop has become with toys. There really were quite a bit, between the Pop! figures, loads of McFarlane and some really unusual oddities: statues and one-offs of game-related properties. In a glass case they had this guy out and on display, and holy cow was I blown away! The sheer size, level of sculpted detail and gorgeous paint applications put most statues to shame, and this here is a fully pose-able action figure! I decided I couldn't pass it up, so here it is: the Square Enix Play Arts Kai Variant Armored Batman figure. And it might be my favorite figure of the year (that's saying quite a lot, considering how much I love my Mezco One:12 Collective Batman and Judge Dredd figures)!

I have a pretty long history with Play Arts Kai figures. My first were the Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar figures from Resident Evil 5, which cost me an astounding $35 each when I bought them. I've since gone through Street Fighter, God of War, Batman Arkham, Dark Knight movie, Tomb Raider, Assassin's Creed, Space Pirate Captain Harlock and probably a few others that I'm forgetting. Despite that, I've found that I'm often frustrated by the PAK figures once they are out of the box. I have a hard time posing them, find they have some wonky proportions and odd knee joints, and are either pretty fragile or painted sloppily. So, I swore off of them after the Nolan Batman figures arrived. And then...this. If it wasn't out on display in the store, I never would have even known this figure exists, and now I think it's the best Batman figure I own.

Armored Batman Variant stands 10 & 5/8" tall to the top of his ears. His girth is both astounding and unprecedented. In his armored suit, he possesses the barrel chest, thunderous thighs and barn-sized shoulders of a power-lifter. raised, making it seem like the metal has peeled back from the interior. There's a rough dry-brushing of silver over some of the armor (and, oddly enough, at the base of the cape) to enhance the feeling of metal. The paint on the figure, overall, is simply gorgeous. He's full of dark shades of black, grey, metallic tones and then some deep purple in places, which offset gold and copper weaponry. There's some wonderful silver work peeking out in places that would need chainmail or some such to allow for movement. And the gauntlets feature some of the longest, sharpest and most metallic-looking forearm spikes I've ever seen.

The colors over the entire figure all work together with the sculpt to make this a piece you can examine and stare at endlessly, and still find nuances worth appreciating. Oh, and lest I forget, one of my favorite aspects of the figure is the head and face. The skin tone is really stunning - the plastic is so lifelike, even if there is very little skin showing. I love the white eyes, and the sculpt of the head, with all of it's rigid, geometric lines and angles is spectacular. In short, this is an absolute work of art. I'd love it as a statue. But, this guy is something more. He's fully articulated in the PAK style, with clicky ratchet joints at the key points. There's some restriction to the range of motion, as you'd expect, and I worry that the hip joints are too loose to support the weight of this massive guy over a long time, but the cape actually helps to offset some of that, since is reaches right down to the ground. Speaking of the cape, it's in three pieces, two of which can be pulled outwards like wings on a ball joint. The third piece is a ball-jointed piece of armor that sits at the base of the neck, and can rotate or flex out away from the body.
There's a pound and a half of plastic in this Batman, and he stands like he knows it. If we see Ben Affleck in anything remotely close to this (we won't) I'll walk out of that theater a happy camper. Seriously, this guy looks like he could hold his own with the Hulkbuster! But the armor alone really isn't the impressive part. Play Arts Kai has taken attention to detail to a whole new level. Batman has clearly put his armor through the paces. There are tons of sculpted dings, dents, slashes and gouges over the entire figure. None of them are cheesy or seem like an afterthought. For instance, there's a pretty large laceration on the left breastplate. The edges of the cut are slightly raised to add to the impression of metal. Even the boots are encased in armor reminiscent of a medieval knight!

Armored Batman Variant comes with a nice assortment of extras. You get a stun baton, a "gun", similar in looks to the EMP Launcher Christian Bale's Batman used in the Nolan films, an extension barrel for the gun, a grenade of some sort, a batarang, four extra hands, and the obtrusive and overly elaborate PAK base (I never take these out and assemble them). The baton stores in the holster on his right calf, and the gun and its extension both plug into a rack on his back, under the cape. Everything looks amazing, though the grenade is tiny and doesn't have a peg to keep it in his hand or anything (as a result, it's staying in the box to keep me from losing it). It matches the string of sculpted grenades on his right thigh, and the batarang matches the bracket of 5 sculpted onto his left thigh. I've found that the handle of the gun can be removed and plugged into the baton holster, too, making it look like the gun is stored in there.

The Play Arts Kai Variant Armored Batman is a piece I'm thrilled to add to my collection. I haven't even begun to mess around with posing or swapping out parts and I already love him. The sculpt and paint applications are some of the best I've ever seen on an action figure, period, and to say I'm thoroughly impressed is a monumental understatement. This guy is one my top figures of 2015, hands-down...