I picked up my Joker yesterday, and I have to say that, in hand, he looks a lot better than most any of the pics I've seen. He's not perfect, but his features are far less Croc like than I had initially surmised. Anyway, I cracked him open today, and holy ****. What a difference. It really is like night and day, compared to Series 1. I barely wanted to move them, as I was terrified they'd break; still am, actually. This guy, though; this guy. With Series 1, I felt like I was handling delicate China dolls or something, but I'm confident that this figure could hold up to heavy play from most older children. The joints are smooth as silk, and the only issue I really had was with some excess paint sealing the hand pegs, but a couple minutes with some small fingernail clippers later, and they were in ship shape. I was blown away by how perfectly everything worked, and I can say, with 100% confidence that I will absolutely rebuy the Series 1 figures with this level of quality.
The fact that I'm this impressed with Joker, though; probably my least favorite figure of the current wave that I've seen, only serves to excite me more for Robin and Man-Bat; Creeper, too. THIS is what I wanted to see, when those first photos came out last July, and, even though it got off to a rough start, better late than never. My excitement for this line just increased exponentially. All of the cool offerings we saw out of Toy Fair amazed me, but I still had that lingering thought that I'd have to treat them the same way I did my Wave 1 figures. The thought of a TAS Batman figure like this, though? That's like grail material.
