Wednesday, July 12, 2023

Action Figure Review: The Batman Who Laughs with Sky Tyrant Wings (Dark Knights Metal) from DC Multiverse by McFarlane Toys


   

   Last week I went to one of my favorite collectible shops, Back in Time Collectibles in Gastonia, NC, to do some trading. I cleared out some older stuff I had in boxes and walked out with the complete Merciless build-a-figure series from  DC Multiverse, so I was pretty happy. I'm not going to be reviewing all of them right now but this figure of the Batman Who Laughs with Sky Tyrant Wings is just so cool that I had to show him off. The Batman Who Laughs is the Batman of Earth -22 mixed with the concentrated chemicals released from the Joker's dying body, creating a bizarre and terrifying hybrid of Batman and the Joker. While McFarlane Toys didn't have the DC Comics license when the character was first introduced in 2017 by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo, it's always seemed like a perfect match for McFarlane's style. McFarlane's DC Multiverse line has returned to the Dark Multiverse again and again but this version was released in 2020, the first year of the line, and it's become a bit difficult to find him. Let's take a look at this incredibly creepy amalgam of Batman and the Joker...




The Facts:

Height: 7 inches

Articulation: Hinged toes, double swivel hinged ankles, double hinged knees, swivel thighs, swivel/hinge hips, balljointed waist, swivel/hinge shoulders w/ ballsockets, bicep swivels, double hinged elbows, double swivel/ hinge wrists, swivel/ hinge wing bases, swivel mid-wings, balljointed neck, and a barbell jointed head.

 Accessories: Collector card, display stand, 2 wings, and the head, pauldron, and sword for the Merciless build-a-figure.

Year of Release: 2020

Original Retail Price: $25 dollars



The Positive:

* While the Batman Who Laughs is a mix between Batman and the Joker, he also resembles Pinhead from Hellraiser. He's definitely wearing lots  of black leather and straps, something you'd expect to find in the closet of one of the Cenobites. As one of the releases from the first year of the line, figures like the Batman Who Laughs definitely showed that McFarlane wasn't afraid to offer unique sculpts rather than relaying on a library of easily reworked base parts. His coat and harness is one piece that rests over the body itself, or at least over a torso structure of some sort. There's some nice paintwork here and more color than on the standard figure of the Batman Who Laughs. 


* The Batman Who Laughs has a fairly long name and an absurdly large smile. It's pretty terrifying, though. Can't you just picture him as one of those weird McFarlane and Clive Barker Tortured Souls figures? The sculpt on the teeth is ridiculous and you can even see his uvula! Weird! The points  on his crown are also fairly sharp and look great; they're very spikey and not bent at all. 




* Flip the Batman Who Laughs around and you can see the detail on his coat with lots of rips and tears and random straps hanging here and there. To complement his early 2000 Hot Topic ensemble, the Laughing Batman is also sporting a harness for holding the Sky Tyrant Wings. 


* These wings are huge! They're easily removable if you want a more normal Laughing Dark Knight but they're might impressive when on. They each have a swivel/hinge joint at the base and can swivel at the midpoint. The way they lay on the Dark Knight Who Giggles is also impressive, as they look very natural whether folded or extended. 



* The feathers have a terrific sculpt with some nice texture work and a shark bit of paint to bring out the detail of each feather. 

* The Giggling Caped Crusader has the same articulation as most other figures in the line, though he does have the extra wing joints and a balljointed neck and head. Even during the first year of the line, these figures were sturdy and well made, and while the articulation has since been refined more and more, it was never bad at all. He looks perfect and fits in just fine with even the newest figures in the line.  

* The Caped Crusader who Snickers comes with a collectible card with some cool art work and a bio.



* There's also a standard disc stand. You may need to work with some poses, as the wings are fairly heavy, but I was able to use it to really get the  Snickering World's Greatest Detective into some very respectable poses. Decent, indeed.


* The Batman Who Laughs (OK, I'm back to using his real name, again) was one of three figures in a Build-a-Figure series where you could build The Merciless, the Batman of Earth -12. The Batman Who Laughs comes with four parts of the Merciless, one of which is his sword. It's a cool piece and while it's too big for most figures, it looks awesome with the Merciless. 



* The other three pieces are the head and the pauldrons for the Merciless. I've been trying to finish the set of the original Dark Knights and all I'm missing now is the Red Death. Maybe I'll get around to reviewing this crew once I complete them. 





   The Batman Who Laughs with Sky Tyrant Wings is definitely one of the coolest figures from the first year of Mcfarlane's DC Multiverse line. He's a fantastic looking figure who managed to show how McFarlane's sculpt and detail could surpass Mattel's offerings while also offering up figures more well articulated and sturdier than what DC Collectibles/ DC Direct had been putting out. It took me some time to acquire this guy but I'm glad to finally have him on my shelf. He's a pretty Epic villain and a wicked cool figure.





   This is the first figure of the Batman Who Laughs I've reviewed, though since he is a mixture of the Batman and the Joker, you might want to check out my reviews of those characters. Visit the Dark Knight Gallery or the Joker's Funhouse for more reviews.

For more DC Multiverse reviews check out the following:
Harley Quinn (The Suicide Squad)
Impulse (Flash War)
The Joker (Infinite Frontier)
Kalibak (The Darkseid War)
Man-Bat (DC Rebirth)
Mister Freeze (Victor Fries)
Nekron (Blackest Night)
Nightwing (Titans)
Project Superman (Flashpoint)
Raven (Titans)
The Riddler (Arkham City)
Scarecrow (The Dark Knight Trilogy)
The Signal Duke Thomas
Superman (Superman: Lois and Clark)
Two-Face (The Dark Knight Trilogy)




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1 comment:

  1. Barbecue17July 17, 2023 at 12:29 PM

    That sucks! I've only ever had one broken McFarlane figure since the DC Multiverse and new Spawn stuff came out: My first Christian Bale Batman had a broken wrist peg, and I probably now have close to 150-160 Mcfarlane figures from this decade. The only real QC error I've had besides that is my BAF Cyborg is missing an arm panel.

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