Square Enix continues their Play Arts Kai Batman Arkham Asylum line with figure No. 3: Armored Batman. With ultra-detailed sculpts, multi-layered paint applications, tons of articulation and a handful of useful accessories, it's hard to pass these figures up, despite their hefty price-tag. I initially passed on Armored Batman, but later gave in, and I'm glad I did!
Armored Batman comes in a standard Play Arts window-box. There's plenty of clear plastic to show off the figure, in theory, but there's a second plastic tray overlaid atop the figure. It keeps everything in place VERY securely, but it also makes it more difficult to see the fine details of all the goodies inside.
Armored Bats comes with 2 spare "open" hands, which can be swapped out for the fists he comes attached with. There's also a batarang and a grapple gun to round out his accessories. There's a small, unnecessary insert showing how to switch out the hands, as well.
The package is attractive and features lots of bright colors and designs, while also protecting the contents effectively and showing them off.
The back of the box shows some in-action poses for Batman, and a small shot of the "partner figure" of the wave: Harley Quinn.
Armored Batman stands a little more than 9 inches tall, which means he won't fit in with any of your other figures, except for the rest of the Play Arts Batman line. The larger scale demands a higher attention to detail, and this is where the line shines. The sculpt is fantastic. Armored Batman is ARMORED, from the super-sharp tips of his pointed ears to the protective overlays on the tops of his boots. The armor is textured to look like burnished steel, with lots of deep shading in between plates and crevices. The cape has a leathery look, with light blue highlights brushed along the raised edges. Shin guards, gloves and forearm shields are a deep purple, with plenty of nicks and gouges to make them seem well-used. Play Arts hasn't skimped on the "little things", either. The cowl has tiny steel rivets around the temples, the circular gauges on Batman's forearm guards have blue highlights in the recesses, and the gloves feature steel highlights at the knuckles. It's a brilliant sculpt, with an appropriately detailed paint-job.
The cowl and face are particularly well-done. There are more sharp edges to this cowl than the regular one, especially around the eyes. It makes for a more menacing look. I'm not thrilled with the jaw-piece, in terms of the look, but the face itself is incredibly life-like in appearance.
I've heard some complaints that Play Arts overdoes the washes on their figures, making them look "dirty", rather than allowing the drybrushing to highlight the details of the sculpt. I can understand the argument.
I found the highlights on Ryu and Akuma to be too dark, but on a figure like this, it works well, with the exception of the thighs- I find the dark highlights too thick and deep there.
Every Play Arts figure I get seems to have one small paint "slip" somewhere- my Chun Li and Cammy figures each had a paint drip on their faces. Armored Batman here has an odd "run" under the tip of one wing on his chest bat-symbol. It looks like the paint was still wet and got smeared somehow during production. It's not a major issue, but it is annoying, especially on a specialty market figure that runs nearly $60.
Batman's cape is a 3-piece, articulated feature. The actual cape itself is split into 2 parts, each attached to the figure's back via a large ball-joint.
The joints are nicely hidden, and the cape can be adjusted to add a good bit of life to the poses. The tips are also stiff enough to help keep this back-heavy guy upright. Flared out, they give Batman plenty of intimidating girth. The top portion is a little less helpful. Despite being rubber, the way the sides drape over the shoulders really hinder the arm articulation. Batman's got ball-jointed shoulders, but his arms have little to no lateral movement, and forget about raising them above his head- he won't be shooting that grapple up to any rooftops here.
In terms of articulation, Batman's got lots. But the real question isn't how many joints are there, but how well do they work together? The joints are hideous, no doubt. The neck looks goofy and the balls at the elbow and wrists are hard to ignore, but this guy is a ton of fun to play around with.
The double-jointed knees allow Batman to take some really deep stances, and the cape helps keep him up. The bicep swivels were stuck and took some work to free-up, but once I did, I also discovered that the shoulders have an added joint that allows the arm to come across the chest a bit.
I've only got two real gripes with the articulation. One, the head doesn't have much upward tilt, which I would like. And two, the arms are too restricted at the shoulders. The rest of the articulation takes some getting used to, and my figure's left hip seems a little asymmetrical compared to the right, but once I got the hang of things, I really got a kick out of posing this guy.
If you're a fan of the Arkham Asylum and Arkham City games, buying this Batman is a no-brainer. Play Arts is creating a unique set of collector action figures that are fun to play with. I'm in on this line for the long haul, and can't wait for Catwoman and Arkham City Batman, despite the high price tag.
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