Jay's Toy Shelf : S.H. Figuarts

Injustice: Gods Among Us is hands down the best story in a fighting game I wasn't looking for. When I initially bought the game, I basically just wanted to match up fights with big-time DC villains and heroes because hey, fighting games are a fun way to pass time without needing a big time commitment to enjoy. What I got instead was an interesting story that was interesting enough to spawn several ongoing comic series and a second game (which I will definitely buy at some point!).

S.H. Figuarts made 4 figures of characters from their appearance: Superman, Batman, Harley Quinn and Joker. I like how each of these characters is a unique take in the game. In fact, the game has two versions of many of the characters: original versions and the alternate reality ones under Superman's One Earth regime, where he is High Councilor and is a pretty hardcore dictator/tyrant.

In this universe, Batman and many others are sent to an alternate reality (I won't tell you how, no spoilers!), and find themselves under Superman's regime. Some heroes (and villains) have allied themselves with Superman (who is looking kinda sickly!) while other heroes (and former villains?) have joined Batman's Insurgency group. This version of Batman is a bit more ruthless. He's got a bit more obvious armour plating to his suit, but it adds to the more unique world and takes on the characters. He's voiced by Kevin Conroy, so that makes most other things good in my books!

SH Figuarts pretty well nails the look of this figure, except I find they made this Batman a little too broad in the chest and head compared to his proportions in the game. It's not a deal breaker, but it's not perfect, shall we say. The rest is amazing, with sculpt details everywhere, great poseability and a pretty good set of accessories. The cape is a 3 part piece that plugs into the back. It's the weakest part of the figure for me since it makes it hard to pose with the cape on since it is a fairly sizeable plastic.

Caution to the buyer, all the pointy bits on this figure are HELLA sharp. That sounds funny, but it's true!

Sculpt/Paint: 5/5 Amazing details, almost all sculpted. There's a mix of lead metals, dark moulded plastics in a few different shades and grays here and there and all of it is very clean. I don't mind the sculpt of the regular head but the sculpt of the armoured face is my favourite.

Articulation: 5/5 (30+ points): They kinda shotgun blasted this figure with articulation to varying degrees of success. His head is limited, by the neck makes up for it to give him some good attitude up and down. The cape is articulated with not only swivels side to side but also backwards and forwards for each piece! The shoulder armour moves to allow arm movement, and there is a ton of good joints in the limbs. The lower ab crunch is slightly restricted by the belt that is glued on, not floating. The hip joints are great, though mine are particularly loose. The double bend at the knees doesn't quite give the best range that a normal double joint would, but still gives quite a bit. All in all, good!

Price/Availability: 4/5 He's about standard price still on Amazon (80-90 CAD).

Accessories: 5/5 He's got pretty much everything he uses for fights in the game, minus the Batmobile and the little bat-bots that fly around him for defence or offence. Two batarangs, an extra sweet robot masked head, 7 extra hands, grapple gun with hook, three-piece cape, and an extendable wired grapple piece. The paint is pretty good on the grapple gun, but the other accessories don't have much on them. The cape I have mixed feelings about. On the one hand, with the proper angles, it's possible to get some nice posing shots. It also helps support him in certain poses. The downside is it is pretty fragile, falls off fairly easily while being posed, and weighs quite a bit for posing. Again, still great accessories.

Fun Factor: 4/5 Really fun figure visually, with a few minor issues. 1) The hip joints on mine are so loose it can be difficult to pose with a cape on 2) Cape falls off a little easily 3) The pieces of the gauntlets, cape and ears are SURPRISINGLY sharp! I did manage to stab myself a few times...
4) I'm not a big fan of the regular head. Other than that, he's great looking on the shelf and as some good weight to him.

Verdict: 23/25 Great! Really good figure. Great for any Batman fan and a must for the Injustice line (which is a pretty limited lineup for SH Figuarts of four figures). Recommend!