Jay's Toy Shelf : McFarlane Toys Deathstroke

Probably the coolest of all the DC Villains after Joker, Deathstroke is the Batman (with extra experimentation!) of the villain world. A gadget and martial arts villain, he really shines in the Arkham Origins game. The fight scene at the beginning is probably the best cut scene in the game hands down, and later on, he is the toughest boss in the Arkham franchise, especially if you play New Game Plus mode.

I've previously reviewed Deathstroke from DC Collectibles here: DC Collectibles DeathstrScuoke. That figure did some things better than this one, some worse. I actually like the darker tones on the figure BUT there were a lot of areas that were not painted compared to both that figure and the game source material. Like, the left chainmail rib side wasn't painted at all. It's just so weird! Why McFarlane? Why you gotta rush your process so much? I actually went ahead and painted silver for the ab plating outline, the chainmail, and black over some of the battle damaged textures. It wasn't great but it looks much better than the plainness that was there before. I would much prefer McFarlane make fewer figures of higher quality and price than do stuff like this honestly. ANYWAY, it's decent for posing, the blade is bent but of a good sculpt. He is a bit lacking in accessories though, since he really only comes with the blade and that's it. No staff? Also, the nicely painted gun is sculpted and not something that can be removed from the holster. Missed opportunity!

For all my gripes it is a decent enough figure and I like having a helmeted version of the character from the game that can scale well with the other McFarlane Arkham figures.

Sculpt/Paint: 2/3 McFarlane really nails the sculpt on this one. There is dotted armor texture in all the blue parts, the armored parts themselves are really well done and for paint the copper and blue is in all the right places with not too much shine, just enough to make it look good. See above about how they utterly missed areas to paint for no reason I can see, and the lack of wash makes it look kinda plain.

Articulation: 3/3 (31 points) There are a lot of McFarlane ratchet joints here that get in the way of smooth posing, but that said you can get him into some good poses. His head has really good range which I always love, and no gaping at the neck. The waist joint seems to allow both swivel and really good side to side while forward and backward isnt' great but not terrible like other McFarlane toys. The arms are good in having both bicep swivel and all the other typical double joints. The hips have no swivel but good enough splits and kicking range. The knees are weird in that they are double jointed but I really can't get the top joint of either side to move much without risking damage, so it is almost a single joint at this point. The ankles work well, with forward limitation because of the armor plating sculpt at the bottom of the shin guards.

Accessories: 0/1 I'm a little disappointed with this. Yes, he does have the card, sword and stand. Normally that'd be ok, but here's the thing: the scabbard that houses his sword is built with a weird unnecessary peg that forces it to bend, and since every single figure has it packaged with the sword in there, it always comes bent! To add to that the hilt isn't painted, and they don't include a gun or the staff he fights with iconically in the game. It's pretty subpar! If Batman can come with a few gadgets, Deathstroke should come with more than just the sword I'd think. His left hand even has a trigger finger but have no gun. Why....

Fun Factor: 2/3 I have had a lot of fun posing this figure. He isn't smooth as I've said, but he can get some intense, intimidating Deathstroke poses. I'll just have to give him some accessories form the DCC one to play with! His only big downside for play and fun is that he is very top heavy so holding him in a one legged or crazy pose may require a stand depending on what you're doing.

Verdict: 7/10 Aside the disappointment with the accessories and some of the paint, it's a cool figure but do you need it? If you have the DC Collectibles Origins version which has a lot more accessories and comparable articulation, I'd say no. I bought this one to have a helmet version with supposedly modern articulation and it works! But if you have a version you like better, this might be a pass!

Comparison post coming soon!