My DX12 arrived over the weekend, and it's an absolutely worthy upgrade to my old MMS71 Dark Knight. I really love the armor on cloth costume, it's a perfect miniature replica of the actual Bat-Suit.
Immeditely, I upgraded the figure with the Robbiethepainter faceplate, it really captures Bale's likeness, and his paint work is supurb. I bent the elbow guards in, widened the gauntlet at the wrist, and cut the cuffs off the gloves. While I have an iforgio cape, I actually like the stock one, which can easily be futzed and has the velvety exterior, and nylon interior like the real cape.
What I didn't like was the lack of lower body and hip articulation. So I decided to cut apart the batsuit to see why, only to find a foam padded undersuit. The undersuit is held in place with lycra shoulder straps, and glued to slots in the inner thighs of the True Type body. Also the shoulder and bicep areas are adhered to the suit with a sticky adhesive.
This deliberate destruction of such an expensive item isn't for the faint of heart, but if you are careful, the outer suit will come off with care and no permenant damage.
As seen in the picture, I cut an inch down the front and back of the black suit, and slipped the body out. When it was reassembled, the cut ends were reinforced with fabric glue to prevent fraying, and a strip of elastic lycra was glued under the cut ends to rejoin it. Glue for me as I cant sew.
Because the undersuit is removed, the belt will fit too loose. I cut off a single link from the belt, then drilled and pinned it back together, so it articulates like a wrist watch:
And the strap under the arms were fitted with button snaps so I can easily remove the chest armor if I needed to make any future modifications:
As illustrated below, the range of motion is now quite impressive, allowing the figure to appear in a number of great fighting poses.
I can say that with the Robbiethepainter faceplate, and undersuit removal, the figure is perfect, and worth every penny spent. It's a great tribute to Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy, and should be in every serious 1/6 collector's display.
BOBBY
PS- I did make use of the padded undersuit, I cut off the portion below the knee and stuffed it into the ankle area so it wouldn't appear too thin.
