Black Box GOTHAM The Riddler 1/6 Figure

[matrix69]

Ordered The Riddler from TNS this morning. $115 delivered doesn't sound bad. A dollar less than I paid for the Toys Era Cobblepot, who's thread I think has been executed.

I received that figure today and it's mediocre. The Toys Era/Toys Works/TitToys (/Black Box?) company is pretty hit and miss, and tends towards the cheaper end. The Laughter was an exception as he was pretty good overall.

However, Cobblepot is on the back foot from the start: the body is far too tall for the actor, and the neck is far too long. Sculpt is good though. I was going to cut the neck shorter, but found a simpler solution. There's a ring glued just inside the neck opening which luckily happened to fall out. This allowed the neck connector to sit inside the neck, thereby lowering it.

The umbrella is brilliant - fully functioning exactly like the real thing with the little spring clip that holds it open and releases it to close. It was probably sourced from ACI's Wild Toys. The only problem I had was getting the closing strap through the buckle. I ended up having to tuck the strap into itself instead to keep the umbrella closed.

On display he looks alright next to The Laughter, as the latter is a tall figure. You can't really put The Penguin onto a shorter body because his trousers are already long.

Great looking figures! I love the show and the new take on the characters...so i'm very tempted by these...

View attachment 421069

Very nice..

 

[Raven6009]

I have Jerome. Definitely worth picking up. Riddler looks good as well. But I've yet to see any pics of Cobblepot that make me want to order.

The Laughter

 

[jazzman822]

I have Jerome. Definitely worth picking up. Riddler looks good as well. But I've yet to see any pics of Cobblepot that make me want to order.

The Laughter

The Jerome is a great figure, but man does the difference in quality show up when he's next to a Hot Toys figure smh

 

[MegaPrime33]

This Riddler looks really good, but the Jerome figure looks awful.

 

[sj2106]

When is this likely to release?

 

[jazzman822]

When is this likely to release?

Guess between now and January?

 

[Raven6009]

I just received a tracking number from my ebay pre order out of China which estimates 2 weeks for delivery to the US.

 

[sj2106]

I just received a tracking number from my ebay pre order out of China which estimates 2 weeks for delivery to the US.

Cool, so this is shipping now. Looking forward to seeing how it's turned out.

 

[Raven6009]

Okay, so it hasn't been released yet. They just sent me this message:

 

[Raven6009]

Okay, so it appears that it has now shipped this time. Can't wait to receive him.

 

[Dresky]

Got my invoice from TNS, with a note saying it will be in stock next week.

 

[haytil]

Can't stand the show, but I feel this face/outfit isn't so uniquely tied to "Gotham" the way Penguin and Jerome/"Joker" is - so he'd make a potential good Riddler stand-in next to my Nolan figures.

Looking forward to seeing your pics of him in-hand - it's possible I'll grab him if he looks good in person!

 

[Raven6009]

Received mine today from Giantoy. On my way to work so just took a couple quick pics. Looks decent so far. Not sure how much of a pain the gloves are going to be to put on. Ankle joints seem a little loose so it's probably going to need a stand.

 

[JacktheRipper]

Definitely needs some futzing, but that hat was big from the start.

 

[Asta]

The production shots looked a bit dodgy, but he's actually pretty good once you futz the suit lapels.

The 1911 semi-automatic is one of the most detailed I've seen in 1/6. It actually breaks down like the real thing - magazine comes out, the slide works, showing the chamber (and the round if you have the magazine in), and comes completely off when you remove the tiny black slide release. But watch out for the slide release, it's so tiny you could lose it if it dropped onto a carpet.

Just like their Penguin the sculpt sits too high. What I did with Cobblepot was remove the plastic neck connect and sit the neck of sculpt directly into the body.


I say "their" Penguin because I'm fairly certain that Black Box is also known as Toys Works, Toys Era and TITToys.


The sculpt itself is nicely done and painted - I always thought that Penguin looked more natural in hand than he did in the promo photos too. Riddler's glass are very fine plastic and fit perfectly.

The flocked plastic bowler is a bit wide at the crown but starts to look so much better as you turn his head more so he's looking at a 3/4 angle.

The gloves are going to be a devil to get on. He has a set of soft, rubbery open hands to wear them. I'll attempt to to get one on, and use the ungloved gripping hand for the pistol.

I'm a bit inundated with new figures at the moment and don't know who to start on first, but this Riddler exceeds my expectations. Really eye catching colour as well.


EDIT: I got the glove onto the left hand with out too much trouble. It looked fine until I put the hand onto the wrist peg, because then the glove wrinkles up because it's too long to sit neatly over the shirt cuff and under the jacket cuff.

And I thought to myself, why did they use a sledgehammer to crack a nut? Why not just give him moulded gloved hands? That's what they did with the Toys Era Jerome, and I have spare gloved hands I can use from that set.

 

[Asta]

Some observations...

1) The oh so accurate 1911 is a menace. Once the little black slide lock is out it's hard to put it back in as you have to line up the the hole in the barrel mount inside the slide. And then you find that the lock is too loose to actually hold everything together. I put a tiny dab of glue under the lock to fasten it to the slide.

2) When I started futzing the clothing I realised that the neck wasn't too long, but that the shirt collar had been pushed down. The bottom of the neck flares out in an odd manner and I think it''d pushed the shirt down when they assembled him. The shirt collar itself isn't as closed as I'd like, but that's as far as I can get it due to the thickness of his neck.

3) I ended up using a left gloved hand from Blade II as it was capable of holding the other glove, which makes sense since his gun hand is bare.

4) The buttons on both the waistcoat and jacket are functional. They actually push through the buttonholes. However, the top button on the waistcoat was missing on mine. It's not a huge issue, but it could be replaced with one of the other buttons you never see with the jacket closed.


To sum up, I wasn't expecting too much because he looked a horrible mess in the quick retailer unboxing shots. Having him in hand I'm a lot happier, and he will be a pretty striking colour among other figures once on display. Suffice to say, he looks a hell of a lot sharper than in my crappy flash photo.

 

[Asta]

 

[Dresky]

Some observations...

1) The oh so accurate 1911 is a menace. Once the little black slide lock is out it's hard to put it back in as you have to line up the the hole in the barrel mount inside the slide. And then you find that the lock is too loose to actually hold everything together. I put a tiny dab of glue under the lock to fasten it to the slide.

2) When I started futzing the clothing I realised that the neck wasn't too long, but that the shirt collar had been pushed down. The bottom of the neck flares out in an odd manner and I think it''d pushed the shirt down when they assembled him. The shirt collar itself isn't as closed as I'd like, but that's as far as I can get it due to the thickness of his neck.

3) I ended up using a left gloved hand from Blade II as it was capable of holding the other glove, which makes sense since his gun hand is bare.

4) The buttons on both the waistcoat and jacket are functional. They actually push through the buttonholes. However, the top button on the waistcoat was missing on mine. It's not a huge issue, but it could be replaced with one of the other buttons you never see with the jacket closed.


To sum up, I wasn't expecting too much because he looked a horrible mess in the quick retailer unboxing shots. Having him in hand I'm a lot happier, and he will be a pretty striking colour among other figures once on display. Suffice to say, he looks a hell of a lot sharper than in my crappy flash photo.

Thank you for the review and pictures! Looks very good!

Mine should arrive this week. Been looking for pics and reviews, but there's nothing anywhere. Always makes me nervous lol.

 

[sj2106]

Thank's for the detailed review Asta.

I'm considering picking this up once I've paid off a few other figures on pre-order. Hopefully it's possible to use some of the purple gloved hands I have from Arkham or 89 Joker and dye that hat green. I don't care about Gotham but think he could be a good base for a custom comic book Riddler something like this:

 

[Asta]

Thank you for the review and pictures! Looks very good!

Mine should arrive this week. Been looking for pics and reviews, but there's nothing anywhere. Always makes me nervous lol.

It was the same with Redman's Ellie and Mathilda. I couldn't find a single production photo, so had no idea what was in the boxes!

Thank's for the detailed review Asta.

I'm considering picking this up once I've paid off a few other figures on pre-order. Hopefully it's possible to use some of the purple gloved hands I have from Arkham or 89 Joker and dye that hat green. I don't care about Gotham but think he could be a good base for a custom comic book Riddler something like this:

Don't think you'll have any problem using other gloved hands as the pegs are pretty standard, and the bootleg Blade II glove hand fitted this perfectly.

Not sure about dying the hat. The base is hard plastic covered in black flock. You could probably paint it with acrylics?