I don’t know if it counts due to its lack of mixed media, but I have got to say that Mondo has absolutely killed it with their Batman animated figure and he’s easily my figure of the year, in spite of the fact that I also got the 1/4 Scale Batman Begins figure from Hot Toys. This probably sounds weird, but Hot Toys figures intimidate me. I opened up the QS and checked everything out and it was like I was blown back in time to 2005, when I was 10 and got the DC Direct 13” figure. At the time, I was like “this is the biggest, coolest Batman ever...” and then I discovered Hot Toys. Fast forward to now and I’m looking at this QS Batman and reeling from how amazing I think the Bale headsculpt is, but I don’t really...do anything with it. Like, I’m afraid to pose it too much because it’s probably the most expensive thing I’ve ever bought, I don’t want to display it out in the open without a case of some sort (which I don’t have), so, I don’t bother taking any of the accessories or the cape out of the package, as I’d only have to try and remember how everything fit in when I have to repack it, and it’s just like “well, that was really cool. I look forward to exploring it more someday.”
...and then I get the Mondo Batman. And, maybe, it is the lack of mixed media that made me feel more at ease with it, but here I am with this thing and I actually, honest to goodness, played with it. I mean, I wrapped it up for myself for Christmas, opened it at probably 4 AM on Christmas Day, and must have been up until 7 just posing it and taking pictures and *gasp* having fun. But, visually, they have utterly succeeded in capturing the visual aesthetic of Bruce Timm’s Signature art style. This type of shading in 3 dimensions should not work as well as it does and yet, for as skeptical as I was of a few of the photos of this guy I’d seen over the years, there is not a single angle where he doesn’t look great and accurate to the show.
More than that, he’s jam packed with pretty much anything a person could think of, ridiculously articulated, and sturdy as hell. All of the paintwork is super crisp and, for the $150 price point, I think the only complaint I could even muster would probably be a combination of his height and the exclusive “swoooshing” cape as the cape is so damn heavy and so large that, unless you kind of angle it or the figure, it is literally taller than him and his feet will not be able to touch the ground. When you do get the right stance, it looks amazing, but it’s also so heavy that the number of poses you can really pull off with it are, effectively, just one (but it’s the only one you really need with that cape, so, I suppose it effectively serves its purpose
).
Anyway, yeah. Those are my two cents. As far as figures that I don’t have, I’d probably have to go with the Homecoming stuff like a bunch of other people, just because that line is ridiculously good looking and I want them all.