Mafex Medicom Poison Ivy - Batman Hush

Poison Ivy has always been one of the most understood villains to me. Extreme? Yes. A little more murdery at times than necessary? Maaaaybe! But ultimately her motivation is fighting for the ecosystem that humans have ruined. I get it! This version is from the Hush comics, where she has managed to use her powers to control Superman. That is pretty wild! In this case, he is commanded to kill Batman, but luckily he has a plan with Catwoman to drop Lois Lane from a building, forcing Superman to break his compulsion and save her. 

This figure from Mafex is stellar as usual! Excellent details on the face, simple design and many extras to attach to create vine effects throughout the figure. I don't love how all the vine effects are fairly loose, I feel like they could have been better off with other attachment pegs that might be held at the back of the limbs and torso. The alternate hands, money case and heads are also a great addition. 

Mafex Medicom Nightwing - Batman Hush

 

Nightwing is one of my favourite DC characters, Dick Grayson is my favourite Robin and this figure is by far my favourite Nightwing figure. Mafex has done an amazing job of this, and because of Nightwing's basic design, this Nightwing honestly fits in just about everywhere in your collection. 

As per the Hush storyline, Nightwing is helping Batman discover a grand plot that involves or touches nearly every main villain in Batman's rogue gallery. He doesn't play a particularly large role, but he does fight the Riddler and his goons. They discover some ash at the end of the scene from the Lazarus pit. 

This Nightwing comes with some amazing poseability, and some interesting accessories to make for some great posing. 

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Sculpt & Paint: 3/3 Mafex nails it once again with this one, really clean paint, some gloss here and there, and great face sculpting and musculature. 

Articulation: 3/3 (31 points): This is fully fleshed out articulation with pretty good range everywhere. The most impressive is probably the butterfly joints that have a large shoulder cap and a large swivel inside the armpit area. It gives a lot of flexibility to the character when using his Escrima sticks. His hips have a second cap inside that allows more motion inwards. He comes with pretty decent ab and diaphragm work. His neck is extremely flexible, and maybe the head sits slightly too high on the top ball joint. 

Accessories: 1/1 He comes with everything you need for Nightwing: six sets of hands (punching, grasping, clutching, splayed, knife hands, and baton effect twirling), his escrima sticks, a long wire tied set of sticks, a back plate to swap to store his sticks and two heads (angry and calm, both with great hair).

Fun Factor: 3/3 He's one of my favourite figures outside my Naruto collection. He looks cool, you can pose him so well, he's got great balance and I regularly have him outside my glass Detolf shelves so I can change his pose and put him alongside other characters. 

Verdict: 10/10 No notes. 

Nice look here, if a bit grainy

VERY muscular back

Many a decent accessory. Forgot to include one of 
the clear poles for the stand (oh well!)

GRIT TIME

This is how you remove the back piece.
Interesting to see the Mafex engineering!

Clips work well but they're a little stiff, worried
they'll break one day if I'm not careful

Spin time!

This extended stick grapple rope is insanely good. The bendy wire
they use for Mafex is really durable and easy to handle

...also very long!

Look up!

Kinda sweet he can pose on his hands. 
Very well balanced figure. 

Some flying Grayson maneuvers!

All the Hush Mafex figures I have so far. Huntress
and Poison Ivy are up for review! I don't
think I'll be getting Joker, Harley or Riddler, but
who knows!

Mafex Hush - Batman Hush

 

Hush is a villainous foil to Bruce Wayne/Batman who tried to kill his parents as a child. He grows up a bit of a psychopath and uses his surgeon skills to literally impersonate other people by sewing on face parts to infiltrate, cause chaos and assassinate others! This is Face-Off but upgraded! In the Hush storyline where he makes his first appearance, Hush is first thought to be Jason Todd in an epic battle at the end, then melts to be revealed as Clayface, THEN the real Hush eventually shows up, and is shot by a reconstructed Two-Face (aka One face now! hah!). 

Hush makes a bunch of appearances after this, because what is a Batman villain if they can't escape and do more crime again?! Anyway, this is a pretty great figure. The joints in the foot/knees are a bit loose on mine, but a lot of range here! There's a ton of extras (some of which are VERY small and loseable!!), and they've done some things to make the figure more flexible: the pouches on the belt actually have a hinge that flips up, and the coat is a softer plastic that allows some movement. Being able to swap out the chest decal and belt is a cool feature! 

Mafex Medicom Superman - Batman Hush

 

Superman in Batman Hush plays in another bizarre event in the comics. Amongst all of Batman's rogue gallery, all of whom are acting strangely, Superman adds to the list. Poison Ivy has managed to use her pheromonal control and is manipulating Superman into killing Batman. Batman notices that Superman is subtly resisting Ivy's control, and after a classic Batman v. Superman fight, triggers him into wrestling control back. He gets Catwoman to drop Lois off a building. Jeez. Anyway, so he breaks free from Ivy's control to save her, so good thing that worked! 

I only own a few Superman figures, but this is my favourite. It has all the classic look with lots of poseability, a wired cloth cape, and a few different head sculpts. The proportions are nice, and the paint is really clean. 

Mafex Medicom Catwoman - Batman Hush

Catwoman has always walked a tightrope between being a burglar-style villain and an antihero that helps out Batman and his allies. I have always liked her character in the comics because of how she balances and foils Batman's way too serious demeanour and tone. The Hush comics put Catwoman front and center to a whole wack of crazy plots, including ones that go against and for Batman's goals. Catwoman starts off by being mind controlled by Poison Ivy into stealing some ransom money, but eventually is freed from her grasp, and gains the trust of Batman. He reveals his identity to her and a romance blossoms in the story. 

This Catwoman has a classic plain black suit with goggles that became popular post-post-crisis storyline. The whip is more ropelike than the typical black whip you see in other iterations. This version sports the large belt buckle and nice sturdy boots as well, which REALLY helps keep the figure stable. It comes with a handful of accessories and is probably the most poseable Catwoman I own. The feel of the figure is a bit light but the joints are solid and neither stick nor are they too loose. Yay! 

Mafex Medicom Batman (Black ver.) - Batman Hush

 

The Batman: Hush storyline is an iconic Batman series of comics from Oct 2002 to Sept 2003. It's a pretty convoluted back-and-forth storyline, but it all boils down to a mysterious villain Hush who is manipulating Batman's villains and allies to destroy Batman. These involve pretty elaborate schemes that cause his typical rogues' gallery to behave in unusual ways, all cumulating in the final reveal: Who is Hush? 

I read the story and while I liked it and the art, like many comic book stories it's all over the place and tenuously connected. That's just the reality of comic books it seems, no hate! The version of Batman here is very plain and classic: blue and grey with a yellow utility belt. I prefer black and grey so when Mafex offered the alternative, I had to scoop it up!

This figure is fantastic: well-painted and sculpted, poses smoothly, comes with a bunch of accessories and is fun to play with. Unlike the original blue and grey release it comes with a cool gargoyle piece stand! Makes for some iconic posing! Unfortunately, it doesn't come with the unmasked Bruce Wayne head, which I think is one of the best comic forms of his face in figure form! 

Mafex Medicom Bane - The Dark Knight Rises

I'm a big fan of things Batman in general, and The Dark Knight trilogy is one of my favourite live-action Batman films (yes, I did also very much enjoy The Batman as well). The first film was great, the second was even better, and the third was...ok. Despite wanting to collect this Bane figure played by the very talented Tom Hardy in the film, this was more for the completionist's sake than my love for how they wrote Bane. Overlooking the interesting voice he uses for the film, this Bane is far less imposing and threatening than your average venom-roided Bane. He is portrayed as a clever villain, which fits his character, but he just wasn't that interesting to watch in Nolan's Batman universe. 

That said, Mafex absolutely nailed this figure's rendition. His articulation is great, the digital face printing and paint details are very accurate, and he comes with pieces to swap out his jacket for bare arms. I can't think of any way they could improve the figure honestly. 

4th Annual Top 10 Most Viewed Figures!

 It's a few (*coughs many coughs) months late but I've finally gotten around to the 4th annual most viewed figures! This year I've dived headfirst into the absolute INSANE world that is McFarlane toys in a big way. As in, I've had to really push myself away from not collecting EVERY DC Multiverse toy that came along. Some were easy decisions (often mediocre face sculpts from live-action DC films) and others were tempting but from comic lines, I had never read nor cared a lot about (White Knight, Last Knight on Earth etc). Advance warning this list of 50% McFarlane, 20% import, and 30% older figures I recently got hold of. I did recently get a Spiderman PS4 figure THINKING it was the real thing but sadly it is a knockoff. Maybe one day if I get the real one I'll do another comparison. 

So here are the ten that you liked clicking on! 

Mafex - Wonder Woman (Justice League Movie)

Don't get me wrong, I'm a DC fan for sure, but Justice League wasn't a great movie. I liked parts of it, sure. I enjoyed the lighter tone (I don't really care about the Zack Snyder "cut" or whatever it is, but I'll probably watch it anyway). It wasn't DCEUs best or worst movie. Gal Gadot though I enjoyed as Wonder Woman. She appears to be Bruce's first ally in forming a team to find the other Mother Boxes sought after by Steppenwolf, who is a terrible villain. 

This figure scales well with the other DC Mafex film figures, and is decent, though not a great likeness to the actress. The paint and sculpt are great so that helps it out a lot! The accessories are also great even if they have a missed opportunity with the extra head - it has hair in a different style but the expression is more or less the same! Odd. 

The articulation has some odd gapping in the shoulder but is otherwise very good as well. You can get her in tons of poses and as an added plus they made her hair out of very soft material so that she can actually turn her head and has some decent range! What?! A female figure with long hair that allows head movement? Yes! It's true. 

3rd Annual Top 10 (11!) Most Viewed Action Figures!

It's that time again! I first posted on this blog on April 27th of 2017, so here's to year three!
I've bee admittedly far less active this year for blogging, though this time has given me more chances to do so recently. This year I've been branching out more into collecting some less mainstream toy lines as well as diving heavily into the Mafex Christopher Nolan Batman Trilogy figures. I did mention the last year that I'd be buying the S.H. Figuarts version of PS4 Spiderman but that never happened (it is really hard to find and ridiculously expensive now)

Honourable mention also goes out to the Do you Even Bootleg Mafex Batman Justice league post that actually garnered the most views out of anything else, but isn't technically one figure! Also, note one entry has two figures because it came in a two-pack I reviewed together, so technically this is 11!

Without further ado, here are your most viewed of 2019-2020!

Mafex Joker (Police ver.) - The Dark Knight

I've already reviewed the Joker here before, and that figure was fantastic. The actor was also obviously fantastic in the film! He did have several costume changes throughout that made him appear disturbing in each and every one! He begins appearing as a bank robber with an angry clown mask then in his standard wear, then as a police officer (no makeup) and then a nurse. Mafex and SH Figuarts has released quite a few of these versions.

I normally am not a big fan of variants or versions of the character that appear so briefly in a film or comic. They are a bit unnecessary and a bit of a money grab usually. THAT SAID....I definitely bought this figure for the alternate arms and head for the original Joker from the interrogation scene. Two for one!!

Mafex Selina Kyle 2.0 - The Dark Knight Rises

A lot of people didn't necessarily love The Dark Knight Rises. It had its share of good moments, and while I certainly enjoyed it, it didn't feel as new (at the time) as Batman Begins nor did it feel the high stakes and amazing Joker appearance as The Dark Knight had. It did tie up some loose ends from the last film and added some interesting characters. Tom Hardy as Bane was well done. I might be one of the few that enjoyed Selina Kyle's character (and she is never called Catwoman outright, but that's fine since that might've taken more time to work in in a way that kept with Nolan's vision of a realistic-ish Batman franchise).

Some people compared her too much with the other more beloved Selina Kyla (no, not Halle Berry), Michelle Pheiffer from Batman Returns. I feel that both Catwomen are drastically different in their character approach. I did love Pheiffer's unhinged, seductive and dangerous Catwoman with a handmade costume. Anne Hathaway did a respectable job though, had some good fight scenes, and I enjoyed that she became more of an ally at the end. I also liked the new look and costume they designed, it was neat (though I still don't get why everyone in film, media, and comics still puts a cat burglar character wearing very high heeled shoes...seems super impractical). It was unfortunate there was quite a bit of jumping between characters like Bane and others so you didn't get the best grasp of them all.

Mafex Ra's al Ghul - Batman Begins

Ra's al Ghul is the leader of the League of Shadows, a secret organization that seeks to cleanse the world of its crime and impurities. Ras himself has appeared in many comics and notably as the main villain in Batman Begins, Christopher Nolan's first Batman film of the trilogy. I enjoyed Liam Neeson's performance as Ras, and to be honest there are days when his ideology doesn't seem too radical! That said, he doesn't concern himself too much with innocents vs criminals in the movie, so naturally, he has to be stopped!

This figure, in particular, is the outfit he wears while training Bruce Wayne in the art of Ninjutsu. He has his black padded armour, back hooked bracers, ninja sword, and you can alternate between his masked head and unmasked face. The unmasked head is a great look-alike to the actor! And the sculpt and paint is also pretty on point, though granted they didn't have to do anything much with that given it is mostly black with mixes of matte and shiny finishes. The biggest disappointment here isn't the number of joints exactly but how very limited the range of motion is in this figure compared to nearly every other Mafex I've collected so far. It's kind of bizarre, to be honest! Not the worst figure but far, but probably the least posable import figure I've seen.

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 Two-Face - The Dark Knight

I've already talked a little about Two-Face in my previous post on the Arkham City version (if you haven't seen it, look here! Arkham Two-Face review. I find him to be a much more dramatic and powerful character in The Dark Knight than I have in other movies or shows. He also has a true purpose for his wrath, as opposed to just for the sake of being a small-time criminal. Aside from his character's motivation, I think Aaron Eckhart delivered a good performance, and I don't say that often about him!

This is one of the few figures I own that is in a suit and tie, and I have to say Mafex really pulls it off well. With a figure like this, you don't need a ton of articulation, but it is surprisingly good despite some limits, such as on the jacket bottom. He comes with every accessory possible for his role in the show with the options of changing him into pre-burnt Harvey Dent!  His sculpt and facial features are actually fairly close to the actor, though the eyes seem to be overly squinted for either head sculpt.

Do you even Bootleg? Mafex Batman Justice League Edition

Before I got my hands on a legitimate copy of the Mafex Justice League Batman, I managed to buy a bootleg off eBay that I did not realize was a bootleg until past the date of return. It was well done enough that the smaller details had escaped my notice, and by the time I actually handled the figure a while longer, went to youtube to confirm my fears! A FAKE! No justice here.

Now it's time to play a game! 

Let's play: Do you even Bootleg? 

Mafex Justice League Batman

As I said previously I've begun posting content on Gemr, a great website for collectors of all things that you might collect!
My review of that is here: https://gemr.com/blog/action-figure-review-mafex-justice-league-batman/
On occassion, I will do this type of "linked review" to bring some much-deserved traffic to Gemr and showcase some of the guest blog work.

Please check it out if you haven't already! The folks there helped edit some of the photos and layout and it turned out pretty great!

The only thing I didn't include is the Jaystoyshelf rating which I will do below.

Mafex The Dark Knight: Joker 2.0

In The Dark Knight directed by Christopher Nolan, one thing stood out above all the rest in the film regardless of whether you are a superhero/Batman fan or not: the performance by the late Heath Ledger.  He was amazing as the Joker because he put such a unique take on the character's personality and appearance while also keeping to the essentials of what Joker's motivational psychopathy from the comics.

Mafex Medicom The Dark Knight Rises Batman 3.0

I really thought that Christopher Nolan did a great job of his Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises set of films. They were meant to be his own universe and his own slightly more realistic (as realistic as you can get with a superhero) take on Batman. There have been a few releases of Mafex Batmen from these movies, and out of the few I've seen, this one from The Dark Knight Rises seems to be one of the best all around. I much preferred the second film, but I enjoyed them all in their own way.

This and the Joker are my first Mafex figures, so I was really excited to have them and see what Mafex has been doing. They didn't disappoint. The details in sculpting and paint seem often superior to what S.H. Figuarts does, the articulation is top notch and the accessories are plentiful.
Also, this is my first figure that has a bendy-wire cape! So much fun what you can do with this guy!
This one has definitely become a top figure in my collection.