Review of the Play Arts Kai Arkham City Joker

Character Bio:
"Batman's arch-nemesis with the deranged deformity. Blood-red lips stand in
stark contrast to a pale white complexion completely devoid of life. His
deranged deformity is assumed to be due to an illness. The Joker has lost to
Batman once before and he stands in Justice's way once again with even more
intense insanity, burning for revenge.
Scale: 9"
Price: $69.99 at your Local Comic Book Shop, $70.00 and up online.



Paint and Sculpt:
As the great Barney Stinson once said "New is always better", and boy oh boy is it! This is Play Arts Kai's second attempt (third if you count the B&W repaint of the original) at an Arkham-verse Joker figure, and he is a vast improvement. The sculpt is fantastic. The suit is even more detailed than the original. I might be wrong but I believe the body is an entirely new sculpt, no reused parts. They could have easily modded the old, but they didn't and for that, I applaud them. Now the body sculpt looks fantastic, no doubt, but the main attraction are the heads. The normal head, while still not a dead on likeness, is miles ahead of the original (pics below), but the real gem is the smiling head. My God that is a beautiful head sculpt. The paint is perfectly applied, not too much shadowing, excellent paint shading, and just a well executed paint job.

 

 

 Articulation and Accessories:
In the way of articulation, Mr. J here features a ball joint at the top of the neck and at the bottom of the neck. He has a butterfly shoulder, a swivel-hinge shoulder, a hinge and a top and bottom swivel at the elbow, a hinge and a top and bottom swivel at the wrist, a ball joint at the mid-torso, a ball joint at the waist, swivel-hinge hips, double hinge knees, and a hinge and a top and bottom swivel at the ankles.

In the way of accessories he comes with his interchangeable heads, 5 hands, a knife, a gun, and the now standard Play Arts Kai base. One thing I was curious about was whether the gun from the first PAK Joker would fit in his hand because I love it oh so much, and yes, yes it does.

 

OVERALL:
Play Arts Kai are known to have some Quality Control issues. Unfortunately that strikes here. Mine have somewhat loose hips. It's not a deal breaker as it doesn't interfere with the figure, and so far I haven't seen many with this complaint except for me and one or two others. I just feel it's bad that a figure line that is considered "high end" and goes for about $70 a figure would have issues with quality control. Other than the hips, this guy is perfect. An improvement in every possible way, and definitely worth a pick-up. So close to perfection, but loose hips get in the way.

9.5 OUT OF 10!!!!!!