The Dark Knight/The Dark Knight Rises 3.75" basic series Mattel 2008/2012

Christopher Nolan's seminal trilogy based on the DC comics icon rejuvenated the fledgling franchise bringing the Batman movie series back to its former glory! This darker, grittier take on the popular character pleased long time fans of the caped crusader and astonished critics and cinemagoers everywhere setting the bar for every other comic book adaptation that followed. Kenner had famously provided Batman action figures for the previous four movies instalments but due to that toy company going bust the licence has now moved on to Mattel who have taken the task of producing actions figures based on this new interpretation of Batman in its stride, not only producing the standard figures and playsets we have come to expect but also more adult focused collectors figures (to be covered in a future review). Here we will focus on the 4" series of figures that we released in 2008 and 2012 respectively:

BATMAN: Few characters are as iconic and instantly recognisable as Batman yet with each new entry that comes to the fore it seems as distinctly individual as the one before (for better or worse) and each Actor who dons the Bat-Suit helps define the character in one sense or another, this is certainly true of Christian Bale who brought a real depth and believability to the role with his Batman being the one children and young adults of this generation will remember with the most fondness 

The Bat-suit was updated for The Dark Knight in 2008 and was kept for the third sequel TDK Rises in 2012 so Mattel just simply recycled the figure they produced for the second film and to add insult to injury didn't even add any accessories! still it is a stunning sculpt especially in this 4" scale with a decent likeness of Bale's lower face  

BANE: Considering that some of Batman's most iconic adversaries have been around almost as long as Batman himself it came as something of a surprise that one of the more recent additions to the rouges gallery was chosen to be pitted against the Caped Crusader in the final instalment, especially after being featured in the ill fated Batman and Robin here the character was reduced to a little more than a dumb henchman! The casting of Tom Hardy suggested that this was to be a very different take on Bane, who in the comics had super strength as a result of pumping a drug named Venom into his body, with this version of Bane being portrayed as a master strategist hell bent on bringing Gotham city to its knees!    

Of all of the 4" Batman  figures produced by Mattel Bane is the most basic looking, there is barley any paint applications at all despite having lots of sculpted details that would have benefited from a little paint detailing!

SCARECROW: One of Batman's greatest adversaries has featured in many iterations and has remained pretty much unchanged until Batman Begins gave him a much more sinister edge, a former doctor at Arkham Jonathan Crane used his fear toxin to keep control of his patients and aided in almost destroying Gotham City by poisoning the water supply with his concoction!


This scarecrow figure was originally released in 5"1/2 scale for the Batman Begins line before being shrunk down to 3.75" for the sequel to be released in a two-pack with a Batman variant. like its larger counterpart this figure has two faces on either side to symbolize the effect of the fear toxin one side appears to be screaming with light up eyes via a clear piece of plastic on the top of the head that lets light through (something of a trademark for scarecrow figures as both the animated series and legends of the Dark Knight series have the same feature) Unlike Bane this figure has plenty of paint applications and even a dark wash to give his straightjacket a dirtied appearance!

TWO-FACE: Arguably Two-Face is the Batman's most tragic foe, a former friend who becomes insane as the result of having acid hurled in his face (or in the case of the Dark Knight doused gasoline and set alight after the Joker tries to blow him up!) a former district attorney Harvey Dent  at first champions the efforts of Gotham's nightly guardian until he is almost burnt alive and loses the woman he loves blaming Batman for not saving her. Dent uses a doubled sided coin to decide his victims fate with the scarred side of his coin denoting certain death! 
Tw0-Face is probably the best figure of the bunch with a strong likeness of actor Aaron Eckhart and lots of great detailing especially on the "burnt" side of his suit!





Mattel's range of figures for the respective Batman movies of late have been something of a mixed bag with the more recent The Dark Knight Rises range really lacking in almost all respects. Thankfully Mattel were able to make amends with the far superior "Movie Masters" range of figures but these basic series (in both the 5" and 3.75" scales) are made up of mainly repaints and re-issues making collecting these a rather dull experience!


Other figures available in the series:


Batman Begins 2005:
(Batman)
-Battle Gear
-attack net
-Bomb Blast
-Power Punch
-Exo-Suit
-Rapid Fire
-Roto-Blade
-Zip-Line Attack
-Bruce Wayne to Batman
-Ra's Al Ghul
-Scarecrow
-Skull Strike Scarecrow
-Ducard


Deluxe:
(Batman)
-Laser Blaster
-Electro Strike
-Light Suit
-Battle Cape
-Zip-Line Blaster


The Dark Knight 2008:
(Batman)
-Elasto-Cuffs
-Grip Gear
-Stealth Wing
-Staff Strike
-Body cannon
-Sky Glider
-Grapnel Launcher
-Sonar Blast
-Sky Glider
-Sonic Spy
-Saw -shot
-Body cannon
-Grapnel Gear
-Battle Case
-Mobile Attack
-Shoulder Cannon
-Spin Blade
-Punch Packing Joker
-Ninja Bruce to Batman
-Descructo case  Joker
-Fear Shot Scarecrow
-Deathstroke
-Firefly
-Two-Face

Ultra Armour:
-Drill Strike
-Areo Blast
-Electro Crush
-Triple Shot
-Swing Shot



3.75" line:
-Batman & Joker
-Stealth Suit Batman & Scarecrow
-Battle Armor Batman & Bruce Wayne
-Thermo Suit Batman & Gotham City Thug


The Dark Knight Rises 2012:
(Batman)
-Black costume
-Gold costume
-Caped Crusader
-Ultra Blast
-Stealth Vision
-Teal/Silver Costume
-Grey/Black Costume
-Batarang Bash
-Zip-Line Blaster
-Bane
-Final Assault Bane


Quick Tec:
(Batman)
-Air attack
-Combat Claw
-Flight Strike
-Missile Amour
-Tank Blaster
-Saw Strike
-Gold Drill Canon
-Cyber Glider
-Brow Drill canon
-Bane Venom Menace
-Bane