BATMAN - Mattel Total Heroes figure

I never really dove full-blast into Mattel's Total Heroes line of DC figures. I didn't mind the look of them, but they didn't really grab me, either. I think I was simply over-saturated between DCUC and Power Attack figures, so I only ever picked up two Total Heroes figures: this Batman and a Mr. Freeze. Both sat in their packages for ages, mostly forgotten, until the new Batman v Superman movie re-kindled my interest in the Dark Knight. So, I decided to finally open this guy up and see what he could do...

Package Backside

Total Heroes Batman strikes me as a really great Batman for a kid, but as a poor specimen for an adult collector. The packaging is quite nice, with lots of eye-catching colors and neat artwork.You can clearly see the figure and accessories inside, and nothing is posed in a way that would cause warpage. 

Batman comes with a cloth cape and 3 accessories: 2 Batarangs and a grapnel gun. They are all completely black, the Batarangs are stamped with "China" on one side, as is the handle of the grapnel, and are made of soft, rubbery plastic.

The Batarangs peg onto Batman's utility belt in the back and fit into his left hand adequately enough to look ok, but they fall out if they aren't shoved down into the hand far enough. The grapnel also goes into his left hand (the right one is a closed fist, but is held at a really awkward angle, pointing nearly straight upwards. There's no trigger finger on the figure, and his head doesn't tilt upwards at all, so as a result he looks pretty odd with the grapnel in nearly any pose.

With regards to articulation, there's  a swivel head, hinged shoulders that can go forwards/backwards and out to the sides (slightly less than parallel with the ground), DCUC hips that can go forwards and out to the sides (very little backwards movement, as they hit the butt sculpt), hinges at the knees and ankles and a twist at the waist and wrists. Sounds like a lot. It's not. There's nothing below the waist to allow the legs to rotate in any fashion. In other words, the toes will always point straight ahead. As a result, it's difficult to get something dynamic out of this guy below the waist. It's unfortunate, because if the knees were done like the elbows are (I purposely left his out above, but it's the best joint on the figure - a ball and hinge that allows for rotation as well as bend, and is hidden pretty decently by the sculpt!), the figure would be fairly awesome. As it is, he's just fun. The oversized feet help keep him standing, and I did have quite a bit of fun messing around with him, but the poses just aren't very fluid or natural looking.

I really do like the actual sculpt of the figure. I think the body is re-used across the line, so I suppose it's good that I generally like the proportions and shapes they chose. He's muscular without being too bulky. The abs and thigh muscles are clearly defined, and there are some details sculpted in somewhat random places. The belt pouches, shoulders and torso have lines engraved on them, and there are two spots on his back that have some lattice work sculpted on, almost like bandages or something. The figure is otherwise mostly smooth and made of a neat speckled grey plastic, painted matte black in places. The joints are all tight and hold poses well, and nothing feels like it's going to break, so it should stand up well to play, even from kids. There are a couple of small quality control issues with my figure - two deep scratches in the neck straight out of the package, and a small dot of flesh paint on the nose of the cowl. I can take a black marker to all of those, I suppose, so they are really minor issues. At the $10 MSRP this figure carries, it's a really good deal - something I would not hesitate to buy for my own kids. At TRU's markup price of $15, it was less attractive, which is another reason I never bothered to dive "all-in". As a collector, I'm happy with this guy, but he won't be at the forefront of my Batman shelf, though with one change to one joint, he might have been...