1:6 Batman Original Suit...The Comparison.

The Dark Knight released July 18, 2009, and the world was ecstatic. To most of the media, the cash in was purely for promotional purposes. To merchandisers though, that was a whole different story. Many companies rushed to get the license to manufacture toys of all kinds and age groups. Mattel was a main player in this race, modeling children’s toys after vehicles, scenes, and characters from the movie. They sold very well, and to many it was a surprise that such an aggressive movie would be so accepted by the general public.
However, like most movie merchandise, interest fades and production of these toys slows down to accommodate the lack of sales. Even with public interest fading, true fans stay interested and want more. That’s where high-end toy manufactures come in. These companies’ products availability is very exclusive and can become very pricey. But true collectors spend the money on these figures, and the market moves on.
Three companies seem to be the most popular when it comes to the high-end Batman 1:6 figures: Hot Toys, Takara, and Medicom. All have been debated greatly on ever since the release of The Dark Knight, because it’s the first time there has been 3 different figures of Batman in his original suit available. In my opinion (and what seems to be most) Hong Kong toy maker Hot Toys has the most movie accurate, detailed, and best scaled figure available. The suit is made of complete rubber, stretched over a plastic Hot Toys Truetype body with 32 points of articulation. The head sculpt is completely movie accurate, and has the best cowl out of the 3. It comes with many accessories and separate interchangeable head sculpt featuring Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne. Takara offers a separate Bruce Wayne head as well, but does not even come close to the detail that Hot Toys offers. The scale of the figure is actually too tall, and throws the overall look of it off. The only plus that the Takara Batman offers is the accessories. Takara offers the harness and ski-mask from the beginning of Batman Begins. In my opinion, last place goes to Medicom’s rendition of Batman in his original suit. One of the negatives that throws me off, as well as Takara’s, is the fact that his neck can turn. In the movie The Dark Knight, Bruce Wayne asks Lucious Fox to design him a new suit, because his original suit’s cowl does not allow him to move his head and turn his neck. This was a critical detail in the plot of the movie, and is the whole reason why The Dark Knight bares a new suit. I’m very disappointed that Medicom and Takara didn’t take this into consideration. Medicom didn’t seem to care about accuracy, because he is far too short, and for the most part the body of the figure is made of plastic and just makes it appear very cheap. The detail is very poor as well, and makes this figure fall short below the other 2.