S.H. Figuarts Spike Spiegel - Cowboy Bebop

I've already written a full Gemr Guest Blog post which you can find here about our friend Spike:
Figure Review: Spike Spiegel

As per the new rating system, see his rating here!

Update: Rating change

Although I've been using my rating system based on how some other reviewers rate their figures, 

I've decided to remove the Price/Availability category from the rating system. 

Previously it went like this:

Price/Availability:  /5 
1- You are made of money and can find one or two sources that even sell online! Damn scalppers.... 
2 - Hard to find. Available online or from the rare collector. Easily 200%+ of its original value.
3 - Mostly available online only from few sellers. Expect to pay 125-150% of original value. 
4 -Available most places at standard price, or fewer places at a decent discount (10-50%). 
5- Either available everywhere at standard price, or heavily (50%+) discounted. 

It seems it can skew a figure when the rest of the figure is excellent or a poor figure receive a higher rating. On top of that, it seems that a figure can rapidly change in its price and availability over time, making the current rating of it more or less useless after a while. I will still mention price and availability near the end of a review, but it'll be kept off the numbers! 

To this end, Verdict will now be out of /20 with the following guide:

1-5: Poor: Very underwhelming, even if you like collecting the particular type or line of figures. 
6-10: Limited: Some poseability or paint/sculpt and accessories. Limited but disappointing. 
11-15: Good: Pretty good figure on its own merits, even if you lack interest in the character/line
16-19: Great: Great aesthetic with lots of play, options and more. Get it right meow! 
20: Amazing. Best figure. Top 10 in your collection. 

Mafex Batman - Batman Begins

Nolan's first film Batman Begins wasn't his best Batman film but it definitely set the tone, cinematography style and realism of his Batman vision. I still very much enjoy watching it to this day, and I thought it was clever how he ingrained Ras Al Ghul into Batman's origins. I also liked that he didn't jump from traumatized kid to full Batman. It was a gradual step into the cowl. He had to figure things out, realize he can't just walk into someplace wielding a gun on the big criminals of the city.

This figure does a lot of things well given it was one of the first Mafex Nolan Batman figures released in 2017. He's got a very wide range of movement, smooth joints and a lot of great accessories. AND if you got the Scarecrow you've almost got a second action figure! I'm not 100% sure that I would have gone with a floating belt and a massive torso gap. The head can turn and ankle slightly under the cowl edge but has nothing at the neck joint. This is fairly accurate both to the real costume and the general flexibility issue of wearing a fabric/armoured cowl connected to a cape. I love that they included an unmasked head but it definitely looks less like Christian Bale than the newer Mafex Bruce Wayne from the Nolan films.

Mafex Scarecrow - Batman Begins

Dr. Johnathan Crane is a psycho-pharmacologist who probably should have had a psych eval done on him before he became a professor or anyone who is allowed to come in contact with people in general! He is the secondary antagonist in the first film of the Christopher Nolan trilogy, Batman Begins. He is one of the few characters to appear in all three Nola films in one role or another with his biggest role in the first movie.

As per classic Scarecrow, he is using his fear toxin to experiment on people as a psychiatrist at Arkham. He is in cahoots with Ra's al Ghul to destroy Gotham. In exchange for conducting research and testing out his toxins, Scarecrow releases the inmates to cause chaos in the streets. Wouldn't be the first or last time inmates get out of Arkham. The terrible security at that place is like, 50% of Batman's work.

This figure is once again an amazing representation of Scarecrow and Dr. Crane. The likeness is incredible, the articulation is once again great and the accessories are everything you really need. To top it off (and yes, this is some of the reason I bought the figure), it includes an alternate cape, head and hands for the Mafex Batman Begins figure to replicate his fear toxin look when he doses Crane with his own gas (also a classic staple of having Scarecrow as a villain...eventually he gets a taste of his own medicine).