McFarlane Toys Solomon Grundy - Arkham City

 

Solomon Grundy has a few different origin stories. I believe the name (but not the origin story) is inspired by the 1842 English nursery rhyme of the same name: 

Solomon Grundy,
Born on a Monday,
Christened on Tuesday,
Married on Wednesday,
Took ill on Thursday,
Grew worse on Friday,
Died on Saturday,
Buried on Sunday,
That was the end,
Of Solomon Grundy.

This poem is quoted in the game, but the origins of the character differ. Initially, in the late 19th century, a wealthy merchant named Cyrus Gold is murdered and his body is disposed of in Slaughter Swamp. Fifty years later he comes back as a revenant type supervillain and occasionally anti-hero. He is initially a villain for Alan Scott's Green Lantern but crosses over and becomes a problem for other heroes. He's basically unkillable with both super strength and stamina. He seems to be partly made of the same life force as Swamp thing and is nearly invulnerable to fire, cold, magic and other energy attacks. 

In Arkham City his origin story is a bit different: first appearing in Batman: Arkham City, this version was a merchant who was murdered and had his body dumped in a swamp-like Lazarus Pit, where a strange thunderstorm combined with the pit's mystical properties to resurrect him as an effectively immortal zombie-like monster. He temporarily became part of a travelling circus before he was found by Ra's al Ghul, who realized the swamp's true nature and took him to Wonder City. Seeking to understand the pit's properties, Ra's repeatedly murdered Grundy until Wonder City was eventually shut down and Gotham City built over it, with the Iceberg Lounge being built over Grundy's prison. After the Penguin finds him, he uses Grundy to kill traitorous underlings and attempts to kill Batman, who eventually defeats Grundy.

Sculpt&Paint: 2/3 He looks really good! The sculpted details are pretty awesome. Tons of veins, stitches, angry face details, and hideous cracked nails. Once again there is a very noticeable miss for some details. Given you collected 4 figures to make this, the veins aren't painted the lightning blue of the game, some jacket details aren't painted at all, and the toes are strangely pinkish....no idea why. nothing in the game made the toes any different as far as I can tell. Still amazing textures though. 

Articulation: 2/3 (28) There are more joints than you'd think here, but they're pretty limited in range. The ankles, knees, shoulders and elbows are so heavily ratcheted that it's difficult to pose him. He gets surprising movement on the diaphragm joint, but because of the very bulky arms and legs, you won't move his limbs far. The Head has some decent movement, but posing the hips ends up in the legs popping out half the time. 

Accessories: 0/1 He doesn't come with anything, which is too bad. Even being a build-a-figure they could have included removable balls and chains attached to his wrist chains like he used in the game to slam the ground. 

Fun Factor: 1/3 After having a lot of difficulty posing his legs and seeing how limited Grundy is to move, it's a great-looking figure but not as fun to play or balance. 

Verdict: 5/10 Limited I like having a good-looking Solomon Grundy in my collection, but with all the figures I wasn't 100% happy with, I'm not sure I wouldn't have been better off saving the 100+ dollars and trying to continue to search for an old DC Collectibles version. 

Nice face details! He has clearly not had his snack!

Love the cloth texturing

The veins and cuts are cool, though the brown
for the rusted chains is just kinda bleh

What is up with the toes colour...

Grundy SMASH

The whole wave!