Tim Burton's 1989 Batman is a successful and iconic classic superhero movie which had influenced today's superhero movies. Jack Nicholson's Oscar grade performance as the Joker had also taken the villain role into another level! Can Hot Toys bring this iconic villain back to life?
Starting from the face sculpt, the likeness is 100% spot on (creepy ...). The face sculpt is so detail that even the wrinkles and roughness of the heavy makeup are sculpted on the face. But in a very subtle way. The hair sculpt is extremely detail as well, and the parting for the PER system is done so seamlessly. The only nitpick is the eyeball rolling system may make the facial expression looks strange on some angle.
There are layers of costume wear on this figure (from top to bottom): The purple hat, orange shirt, turquoise vest, turquoise dotted tie, purple tuxedo, purple overcoat, purple sculpted gloves, purple checker pants with suspenders, and purple sculpted shoes. Superb tailoring to make all these clothes fit into a 1/6 body and still keeping the size as accurate as the real Nicholson at that time. Hot Toys has used different materials on the costume: Suede-like fabric for the hat, tuxedo and overcoat / Silk-like fabric for the shirt and tie / Pants and vest is regular polyester-like. These materials enhanced not only the look but also the on hands feeling of the figure. Surprisingly, all these clothing does not hinder the articulation of the figure at all. It can do all sort of pose!
Hot Toys included great deal of accessories for the figure: a remote, magic stick, walkie talkie, speaker, chattering teeth, mask, Joker card, piles of US bills, long pistol, and a short pistol etc. But there are some nitpicks here and there on the accessories which Hot Toys could have done a bit better:
The speaker is great and the figure has no problem holding it. However, the facial expression is kind of not matching with it. But it's still acceptable.
The long and short pistols are very detailed with moveable revolver, and the gun holding hands come with it. Too bad that the Bang flag can only fit on the short one. They should have just do the same on the long one to get one more option.
The walkie talkie can barely put in the hand loosely.
There should have a rubber band or something on the mask, so that it can be wear on the face. There is no hand sculpt either to hold the mask properly. The poison orchid is too heavy to clip on the coat.
The stack of money and joker cards are printed so fine. But again, the sculpted hand comes with it can only hold them very loosely. The stack of money is better cause it has 4 stacks, and can be adjusted by the number of stacks to make it hold tighter. The joker cards will need to stay in the box.
The chatting teeth is spring loaded, which can treat as a little toy individually. But for the figure itself, it is not much use as there are no compatible hand sculpt to hold it.
Lastly, the magic stick should have been one of the most iconic accessory for Joker. But same problem again the hand sculpt comes with it can only hold it loosely.
Other than the little problem on the accessories, it is still a very good figure and worth collecting! I was expecting more Batman villains will release by Hot Toys, like the Penguin, Catwoman, Two Face, Riddler, Poison Ivy .... Unfortunately it does not seem to go that way. Too bad :(