McFarlane Toys Batman - Arkham City

 I have a lot of Arkham Batmen. Between DC Collectibles and DC Direct versions, I now own 9 different Arkham versions of Batman. Crazy! This one is better in a couple of ways than the Arkham Asylum version by McFarlane Toys, but disappointing in others. 

First, it uses nearly the exact same mould as the Asylum suit. The rivers and suit lines are the same, the arm and leg sculpt, and the boots, hands and neck build are identical. The articulation is almost identical except for one improvement and one stagnation. The Arkham Asylum Batman had these odd single jointed ratchet joint elbows that didn't move very far. Given that it was the start of McFarlane's venture into DC Multiverse licences and others, I let it go. Now though, everything, including shorter kid figures like Robin, has double-jointed elbows, so there's no excuse not to have that in all the figures. Hell, even Penguin had double-jointed elbows. It's insane that this Batman still uses the super old elbows. 

To the figure's credit, it's engineered slightly better at the torso. Now you can bend it better at the waist both back and forth and side to side. They must've raised the ball joint connection inside the torso because it is better that way than the Arkham Asylum figure. 

Other differences are the head sculpt, which has white eyes instead of the standard eyes in the game, but I don't mind that. The ears are still long while the face is a bit more reasonable in proportions. The gauntlets match the Arkham City suit and the cape has the side swoosh to emulate how the game has it drifting in the wind all the time in-game. The paint is much more lacking here than the other Arkham Asylum version, so that's also disappointing. It's an ok Batman figure, but given how many Arkham figures I have, I could have potentially skipped this one and gone straight for the Gold Label Solomon figure. 

Sculpt&Paint: 2/3 The sculpt is pretty nice on this figure as it was with the Arkham Asylum one. The furrowed brow expression in the cowl is great as are the skin tones. I like how the chest symbol is larger but there is so much missing here compared to the Asylum one. I notice the asylum one has dry brushed silver on the gauntlets and boots, as well as the belt. This is gone from the City version. Too bad! 

Articulation: 2/3 (28 points) The articulation would otherwise be just as good as any McFarlane figure out there, but the missing double-jointed elbows make it that much less. 

Accessories: 1/1 These are fine. He comes with the grapple gun (all black, no paint...), stand, card and Solomon Grundy legs. 

Fun Factor: 1.5/3 Since I have the Asylum figure, this one didn't impress me as much. It has nice proportions compared to some of the old Arkham figures I have but the sameness makes it less exciting. 

Verdict 6.5/10 Limited. I could've probably passed on this one but if you don't have the Asylum version or another Arkham City Batman it does the job and fits in with the rest of your 7-inch collection. 

Close up. Decent cowl eye shaping here

I quite like the swoosh they put in the cape

Side profile. Mine came with some damage in package
on the back of the head. Kind of disappointing as well!

Accessories

McFarlane vs. DC Collectibles Arkham City Batman.
I like him but he's...very odd proportions and musculature

Kinda weird how the Asylum figure is better painted
but less well built. 

Grapple away! 

Loved setting up batshaped explosive gel wire 
in the game.

Decent balance but very uneven foot 
bottom treds on the figure.