Reviews of Play Arts Kai Arkham City Robin, and DC COmics Unlimited Savage Hawkman!

It's a Monday two-fer! Let's dive right in by looking first at The Savage Hawkman!

The Basics:
Scale: 6"
Price: $15.99 in store, $13.77 - $26.45 on Amazon.com

Character Bio:

 

When archeologist Carter Hall uncovered an ancient dagger made from the mysterious Nth metal, the mysterious substance became infused with his body, granting him the gifts of super-human strength, flight, and living armor. After fashioning a set of artificial wings to steady his flight,  Hall took to the skies with a collection of medieval weaponry to protect the streets of New York City from the likes of Morphicus and The Gentleman Ghost. Rest assured the bustling metropolis is safe under the watchful eyes of The Savage Hawkman!

For more on Hawkman, check out: http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Hawkman

 

Hawkman here is an example of the good stuff that comes out of Mattel! He is a fantastic figure! His sculpt is perfect, the torso and arms, if im not mistaken are all reused, as well as the legs, up until his knees, that looks to be all new sculpting, as well as his harness/shoulder pad piece and his head. The wings are reused from the original DCUC Hawkman, but this guy just looks cool. He was probably my favorite new design to come out of the New 52! I've always been a Hawkfan, but this look is just so badass.

 

In terms of accessories, Hawkman scores two, which for mattel's DC figures, is like a plethora of goodies. He gets his axe-mace combo which looks like something outta Game of Thrones (anyone catch the new season premiere? Pretty cool if you ask me) and he gets his Claw shield which I have dubbed "The Wolvie-Shield." Both are really cool, but his axe-mace is incredibly soft, and bends easily, and therefore is warped out of packaging. Paint wise, Hawkman is fantastic, but as always, watch for the gold and green, all there really is on him. For articulation, Hawkman has a balljointed head, swivel-hinge shoulders, swivel biceps, hinge elbows, swivel wrists, an ab-crunch, swivel waist, DCUC style hips, swivel thighs, hinge knees, and hinge ankles.

OVERALL:
As I said before, Hawkman is Mattel doing a DC figure right, as always, more articulation is welcome, but this is a really solid figure, double hinge knees,  would really help posing though, but even without him, this is a pretty cool figure!
9 OUT OF 10!!!

 
And now onto the figure that has earned a spot on my top 10 list for this year, It's Robin time!

The Basics:
Scale: 8"/9"
Price: varies depending on comic book store, $42.88 - $91.87 on Amazon.com

Character Bio:
A mastermind sidekick. The third Robin, Tim Drake, is a brilliant young detective who deduced the true identity of Batman himself, as well as those of the previous two Robins. Drake was at Batman's side when he was grieving the murder of the previous Robin, Jason Todd, by the Joker.
To read more about Robin's role in the Arkham games check out : http://batman.wikia.com/wiki/Robin_(Batman:_Arkham_City)


I normally don't do this but I really like the way it looks for this figure so let's take a look at the packaging.

 Yeah, you know this is a high-end figure when the packaging is all fancy and whatnot. I was contemplating leaving him in the box for a bit, just because it looked that good, but no, no, he had to be freed from his plastic prison.

 

Robin looks really good. When it was announced that Robin and Nightwing would be in Arkham City, I couldn't wait to see their new designs, and while Nightwing's did look cool, I fell in love with Robin's and new I wanted a figure version. I passed on the DC direct because it didn't have much articulation, but it had a killer sculpt. I got the Mattel one, but was disappointed with the semi-weak sculpt, and lack of articulation and no accessories. Then this one hit the webs and I knew he would be mine. This is the best Arkham-verse Robin figure to be released. The sculpt is fantastic. The paint is flawless, Play Arts Kai delivers again, and I can see why some people gave up on U.S. toys and wait for these.

The sculpt is really well done here. The armor looks fantastic, and the wrinkles in the pants and cape are perfect. The only problem I had was the hood on mine was glued on all wonky. I took it off and reglued it and it was fine. It may just be mine, but something to look out for when picking yours out should you get it from a retailer. Other than that, I had no issues. Below is just a pic with the flash on to get a look at the wash on the cape and some of the face detail.

 For accessories, Robin comes with two sets of hands, his pre-packaged fists, and an open palm left hand, and a clenching right hand. He also includes his Bo staff, which as you can see in the pic below, has some really nice little details.

Now here is my favorite part when reviewing a Play Arts figure. The articulation. The Boy Wonder here has a balljoint where the skull meets the neck, a balljoint where the neck meets the chest, a hinge at the shoulder blades, swivel-hinge shoulders, swivel biceps, hinge elbows which go past a 90 degree bend, and have a swivel right above and below the hinge. a swivel where the wrist meets the forearm, a hinge at the wrist, and a swivel where the wrist meets the palm. He also has a balljoint at the abs, and a balljoint at the waist. he has a swivel-hinge hip, a hidden thigh swivel, double- hinge knees, a swivel where the ankle meets the calf, a swivel where the ankle meets the foot, and a hinge at the ankle, and finally, a swivel at the toes. That. Is. AMAZING.

OVERALL:
Robin is amazing. This is a perfect figure in my opinion. The only thing that could have been added are more of his gadgets from the game, maybe some shuriken or a grapple gun, but honestly, this figure is perfect as is, at least to me anyway. The only thing that sucks, is, if your OCD with scale, he won't look right next to your Arkham Asylum Batman, but these guys are too much money for me to get a new Batman when I have a perfectly functioning one.
10 OUT OF 10!!!!!!
9 OUT OF 10 IF YOUR OCD ABOUT SCALING ISSUES!!!!!

                                                    Oh come on, tell me that doesn't look cool.