Review - Justice League Batman Action Figure by Mattel

The Justice League will finally unite on the big screen this November and with Wonder Woman smashing the box office earlier this year, DC and Warner Bros. are looking to repeat the success and finally get the DC Extended Universe on sure footing. Mattel looks to be releasing two separate lines of action figures for the films release; one under their DC Multiverse banner and another one targeted towards younger fans. Merchandise for the film has already begun to hit retail, and today I'm going to be taking a look at the Batman figure from the kids line.

Batman comes PACKAGED on a fairly simple blister card with the Justice League movie logo and the symbols of the different members of the League. The back of the card is also pretty basic, with a shot of the figure in action as well as the other figures in the line. While Aquaman and Wonder Woman are listed on the back of the card, I only found a full peg of Superman and Batman figures at retail so I'm not sure what the case assortments are like. There's also a big obnoxious sticker covering part of the card, obstructing part of the Batman image.

Batman is SCULPTED in his slightly modified Justice League suit, and looks pretty solid. The sculpt is a little exaggerated and stylized giving Batman and very heroic look. It's actually a little more interesting to look at than the basic 6" Spider-man Homecoming figures by Hasbro. The whole suit has a fine texture to it, and the belt is a separate piece that doesn't seem to be removable. The one big bonus is this figure has an awesome cloth cape that drapes pretty nicely and doesn't bunch up around his neck and shoulders. The scale is a little wonky, he stands just under 6 inches tall so he wont quite fit in with DC Multiverse figures.

The PAINT on this guy is very middle of the road, nothing amazing but not disastrous either. The eyes are a little wonky so watch out for them, but the rest is pretty solid. The bat symbol on his chest is pretty clean, a little fuzzy along the top so the ears get lost. The lines at the gloves are a little sloppy, but I do really like the gold of the spikes on his gloves, it's a nice way to break up all that black and gray. Speaking of gray, the color of the suit is very dark and hides a bit of the detail in the sculpt.

At first glance I assumed this figure would have a basic 9 points of ARTICULATION but boy was I wrong. He's not as decked out as a DC Multiverse figure, but he is rocking 14 points of articulation. Batman has a ball jointed neck, shoulders, elbows, and wrists, with swivel hips, pin kneed, cut waist, and cut shin. The most surprising joints were the ball jointed wrists and cut shins, Mattel shocked me with those. The ball jointed neck works alright, you can get some great side to side movement but it's pretty restricted looking up or down. At the end of the day, it's a shocking amount of articulation for what boils down to a kid oriented line.

Batman comes equipped with some giant gold bladed ACCESSORIES. He can hold them fine but they are way to big. I'm sure they're perfect for cutting Parademons down to size though.

OVERALL, I think this is a great action figure. It really rides the line between collector action figure, and a kid's toy. Sure it looks a little cartoon, but it's got some great added articulation to set it apart from the rest. I think I may pick up a few more members of the League to keep Batman company. Or maybe just save that money for Force Friday II.