Jay's Toy Shelf : DC Collectibles Red Hood (Arkham Knight)

Jason Todd aka Red Hood plays a big role in the Arkham Knight series because, spoiler alert...
The voice acting is awesome and I do love how they handled him in the game. His DLC was waaaaaaay too short and I felt they could have added his origin story from the time he was awoken after dying at the Joker's hands. He is super fun to play though and I wish developers had allowed you the option to free-roam as Red Hood. Apparently, there is some cheat to do that?

Anyway the point is, I finally got it! Red Hood has been on my holy grail list of Arkham figures for quite a while. After over a year or so of looking at eBay, I found one and bit the bullet on the price. It was ridiculously high for that particular figure but to be fair it was only sold at Gamestops. Some scalpers charged an insane amount for what is essentially the same moulding and plastics process that created the other 40 dollars CAD Arkham figures. I discovered my holy grail limit is about 100 considering the original price. Learn something new every day!

Now to make matters confusing, this is NOT the Red Hood that is basically the Arkham knight with this head minus the hood. This is much rarer and harder to find. He's a really cool figure and I dig the aesthetic they went with to create this version of Red Hood. The voice acting for him in the game was great, and I enjoyed the (all too brief) side mission where you play as this version of the character.

This officially completes the Arkham figures I wanted for the Bat-family in the game. I think one of the neatest, though really impossible, things I like is the two massive pistols he has. They combine and link to transform into his sniper rifle, and while they didn't do that here, you can imagine with the Arkham Knight's sniper rifle. His range of movement is pretty good and he has a good weight to him like the Azrael figure. The hood I would've preferred to be removable and the jacket a little softer to allow his ab crunch to move him backwards. Otherwise, his paint and sculpt is great, and am having tons of fun with him in various two gun poses.

Sculpt/Paint: 5/5 Great paint apps here. There's only slight messiness in the application of paint but there's so much to like. His red helmet is super shiny, as are the painted on silver parts. He's got tons of little stretches, shading, and other details that draw the eye and show some of the extras that make the figure stand out over other Red Hood figures.

Articulation: 4/5 (29 points) He's got most of what's good in the Arkham Knight line for articulation: fairly good double-jointed knees and elbows, hinge-swivel wrists and ankles, thigh and mid-bicep cuts and an ab crunch. A few points to note: because you can't remove the hood, he''s kind of like Azrael in that you can only twist his head from his chin to look from one side to the other. His jacket is also too rigid to allow the ab crunch to move backwards at all, which is too bad.

Accessories: 3/5 He only comes with his two pistols, which are admittedly awesome and really well detailed and painted. Unfortunately, that's it. It would've been nice to at least have some punching hands, but that kind goes for nearly all the figures in the line. To be fair, he doesn't use anything else in the DLC except for flashbangs.

Fun Factor: 5/5 By a factor of hype, constant research to get him, and how much I love his aesthetic, he's a top 10 for me, hands down. A jewel in the collection if you will for all those reasons. He can do quite a bit, even with the hood and jacket limitations.

Verdict: 17/20 Great While I am a huge fan, and he is a great figure, I can see quite a few reasons why collectors may not get or want this one. It only really appeals to people who loved Arkham Knight, or this look for Red Hood. It's pretty expensive and very hard to find if you're not really jonesing for it. All that said, I am a happy collector with this figure on my shelf, and if you can snag it without setting your wallet on fire, get it!