Getting back into reviews, let’s take a look at DC Infinite Heroes’ second version of the Joker. How does it stack up? Better than the first? Worse? Check it out here for yourself and decide!

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Popularity: 8% [?]

One-18th now presents to you from DC Infinite Heroes: OMAC! He’s a cyborg, blue, got a mohawk, a creepy eye on his chest, and…did I mention a mohawk? Feast your eyes on this guy! Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 11% [?]

What do you get when you mix a screwy psychologist with an interest in fear, throw in some toxin gas, and add a pinch of a Wizard of Oz character gone wrong?  You get the Scarecrow, one of the Batman’s more unique rogues.  And Courtesy of DC Infinite Heroes, you can now get your own Scarecrow action figure in 1:18th scale. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 21% [?]

He’s a scourge of the underworld.  A shadow-like detective often found battling a combination of everyday criminals and those on the edge of the supernatural.  A loner who gets by on using just his wits, his fists, and the occasional gadget.  It ain’t Batman folks, it’s the man with a fedora and no face – THE QUESTION!

Starting off as a Chalrton Comics character, along with the likes of the Blue Beetle, and the basis for the character Rorschach from Moore and Gibon’s classic “Watchmen”, The Question has had a bit of a rough go finding his niche in the DC universe.  He starred in a realtively well recieved solo series at the begining of the 90′s and a really trippy mini-series a few years back, but for the better part of the last couple decades he has been at most a bit player in the overall DC universe.  A real C-list character to be sure.

However, in the past few years, Victor Sage has found a renewed prominence in the greater fandom.  Starting with a couple great appearances in Cartoon Network’s Justice League Unlimited as a bit of an oddball conspiracy theorist with a thing for the Huntress.  Then The Question featured very prominently in DC’s event series “52″ in which the mantle of The Question is passed from Victor Sage to Renee Montoya of Batman: TAS and Gotham Central fame. 

One of the more esoteric and psychologically interesting comic character’s out there, The Question is a great throwback to the golden age of comics and shares a lot of design similarities to the original Sandman, Eisner’s The Spirit, and pulp fiction’s The Shadow.  One part Zen Master, one part detective, all awesome.  But how does that translate into DCIH’s offering of Vic Sage in toy form:

Packaging:

Fairly standard DCIH packaging featuring the red/orange/yellow motif backer with the Blue & White logo.  The ominous “Crisis Hand” bubble appears to be grasping the character.  As with the recent waves of DCIH figs, The Question is in a “action” pose (more on this later). 

Honestly, it’s pretty boring.  The DCIH packaging is pretty boring to begin with outside of the hand bubble.  But the lack of any unique art on the front of the package combined with the fairly bland coloring makes this a pretty ho-hum looking package hanging from a peg.

The backside of the packaging is a bit better.  It features the “file card” along with showcasing the other figures in the wave.  The file card is pretty bare bones, no personality traits, backstory, allies/foes, or anything to really flesh out the character.  If a kid were to just pick this up out of the blue, there would be absolutely no connection to the character.  Of particular note is the “Identity”.  It lists Charles Szasz as opposed to the more common Victor Sage.  It was revealed in a later annual, that Charles Victor Szasz is in fact his original name, but was changed to Victor Sage.  Still an odd bit of trivial inclusion when the vast majority  who are  aware of the character even periphially know The Question as Vic Sage.

Sculpt & Deco :

The Question, undoubtably, can be called a minimalistic look.  Best known for the simple suit, fedora, and trenchcoat look, Mattel does a reasonable job capturing the look of the character.  The torso features a simple suit coat buttoned over a straight oxford styled shirt and plain neck tie.  The coat is part of the actual sculpt as opposed to a soft good, which looks decent, but leads to some problems down the road.  The coat features a couple buttons and some nice fabric wrinkling, but lacks much detail at all around the collar or shirt or tie.

The arms and legs are serviceable if not awe-inspiring.  The shirt sleeves sticking out from the coat are a nice touch, but are once again lacking any real detail.  Legs are pretty non-descript, but do the job well enough.

The headsculpt is tricky to critique.  Does it look like The Question?  Yes it does.  Is it a good headsculpt?  Eh . . . .  A blank face is pretty tough to screw up, and thankfully Mattel didn’t just give us an unpainted face.  It looks very much like a person with a sheet of latex over their face, and is very representative of a look somewhere between his “52″ and JLU appearance.  The ears anf hairline are still present and works well.  The real hangup is with the hat though.  It looks like a grown man stretched a kid sized hat on his head.  Brim is too narrow, the crown too squat, and the overall shape is amateurish at best.

As for the deco.  Mattel went with his classic blue suit look, with white shirt and red tie.  The Question has sported a few different looks recently, but this is his most recognizable look.  The blue is bright without being garrish, and gives a real old school, 4-color comic feel to it.  As for the actual applications themselves, it’s a bit sloppy as seems to be the norm for DCIH.  Really it’s a bit sad that a large corp like Mattel settles for these  kind of paint masks when other companies seem to be able to get much more for relatively equivilent prices.

Accessories :

None.  Thats right, none.  The varient features the Gordon/Hush trenchcoat.  I am flabergasted as to why that is a varient rather than the normal fig.

Articulation :

Prepare yourselves for a bloodbath.  Out of the gate, we all know of the inexcusably poor articulation of the DCIH line.  To run down the POA for the uninitiated:

Neck – Swivel joint

Shoulder – Ball joint x2

Elbow – Hinge joint x2

Waist – Cut Joint

Hips – Cut joint x2

Knees – Hinge joint x2

That’s a whopping 10 points-of-articulation.  And of the 9, only 2 feature ball or muti-angle joints.  Unacceptable in 2009.  Happy Meal toys come with 10 POA.  Well guess what true-beleivers . . . . The Question doesn’t even have 10.  Thanks to the completely clueless sculpting choice on the torso the hip articulation and the waist articulation is useless.  Oh, the joints are there, but the sculpted coat renders them not only useless, but a potential hazard to your figure.

See the 2 nice cut grooves in the thighs?  Those aren’t part of the sculpt.  If you try and move the legs forward with any force, expect divets to be chopped from the thighs.  The torso is cast in a harder plastic than the limbs, hence the danger.  Mattel opted to mold the coat as one peice with the torso, and thus sacrificed articulation and playability for aesthetics (presumably, although it might have been sheer stupidity).  A much better option would have been to use soft goods here (like they used with Green Arrow), or to have sculped the lower coat onto the legs (ala figures from 20 years ago lol ).  But, as it is, you get a mediocre looking maquette with posable arms.  Yay.

Overall :

To say I’m disappointed with this fig is an understatement.  The DCIH has been a bit of a disappointment as a whole, but they are really the only game in town for 1/18th DC characters.  There are promises from Mattel of added areticulation and such, but no one has seen that yet.  There is some nice sculpt pieces in the line, but as a whole it is way behind on the 8-ball compared to other current 1/18th lines.

The question about The Question (come on, I went the whole review without a pun!) is how does it match up to other figs in the line.  Sadly, the answer is poorly.  He looks passably fine, but no where near as good as some others like Green Arrow, Hawkman, or even Jim Gordon.  His articulation problems are infuriatingly dumb.  And the complete and utter lack of any accessories is sad.  A removable hat, his trenchcoat as standard release, a soft goods jacket with his gas belt underneath and an alternate head all seem like no-brainer inclusions, but alas, we get this cheaply produced glorified repaint.  Shame Mattel, shame.

This figure gets a paltry 9.67 Yo Hos! out of a possible 38.78.  In other words: BOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

You can discuss The Question here!

Popularity: 15% [?]

Line: DC’s Infinite Heroes Name: Joker Year(s) Available At Retail: 2008/2009 Stores Available In: Most Stores Now One-18th would like to present to you, DC: Infinite Heroes’ Joker. Arguably one of the most important characters and recognizable characters in all of DC, it’s nice to see DC giving him an action figure in their new 1:18th line.  So, does this figure do the evil clown prince of darkness justice?  Find out below.
I love packaging.  I personally think each package should be somewhat unique to the figure it’s holding.  Not only does it make for a more interesting package, but it also makes looking for the figure on the pegs easier.  Unfortunately, DC doesn’t feel the same way.  Still though, the package design is unique and interesting, as the bubble that houses the figure is in the shape of a hand.  Other than that, the front of the package is incredibly boring.  As you can see above, the only thing that differentiates this package from any other is “THE JOKER” and “FIGURE 20″.  It bores me.  There is, fortunately, some life on the back.On the back of the DC Universe Infinite Heroes (DCIH) package, there’s a short breakdown of the character, a “Power Score”, and a drawing of the character.  It’s not incredibly dynamic, but it’s something unique to the character.                                    I do like the drawing of the Joker.  It gives him an over-exaggerated smile that he’s known for, and it’s something that the action figure tries to emulate, as well.
Let’s get on with it, shall we?  We get something that’s a little better than the typical DCIH figure.  Starting with the top, and working down, we get a stylized head with tossled hair and that evil grin that fits the Joker.  The hair is extremely well detailed, with it coming up to two points, to give the Joker a devil-ish appearance.  It even has a lock of hair coming out seperate from the face to give it more of a wilder look.  The paints apps on the face are extremely well done.  The eyebrows, eyes, and lips are well done, with no real bleed-over.  the Joker has some gray ‘eye shadow’ to emphasize the eyebrows and eyes.    The face is extremely long, to exaggerate the smile and devilish look, and can give the impression that it’s a bit on the small size.  But, it really fits, size-wise, it’s just the over-exaggerated smile and chin that gives the impression that it’s a small head.  Don’t get me wrong, they use a unique head sculpt on a standard body, so there is SOME head-to-body size issues.  But it isn’t as bad as it looks.  The problem with the exaggerated chin is that it restricts head movement.  You can only turn the head so far, due to the chin being restricted by the vest.  The only issue I had with the head is my head had a paint error on the back side.  It looks like someone thumped him in the back of the head with a paintball.  I’m sure a little touch up with the paint will cure all, but it’s my only gripe with the head.  This also gives you a chance to see a profile of the head.  You can see the eyeshadow and lock of green hair that I was referring to earlier.  They really did a great job of sculpting the Joker’s head, that’s for sure. You can also see the eye shadow I spoke about earlier.  The whites in his hair are not missed paint apps, they are glare.  Other than the yellow on the back of the head, it’s a perfectly paint application.
Moving past the head sculpt, is not as overly detailed.  The Joker comes in a suit with an overcoat, undercoat and striped pants.  The overcoat and undercoat is one piece, molded as a soft good that’s seperate from the main body.  Unfortunately, without doing damage to the jacket, you cannot remove it from the figure.  On the overcoat, comes the Joker’s flower that he’s been known to wear.  The flower is pretty weak.  A circle raised up on the jacket, and petals are cut into the circle.  The paint application is pretty lazy.  They painted the circle yellow (the same as the hair goof on mine), and kind of thickly applied.  The petal detail was almost lost in the heavy paint application.    The overcoat also sports tails that add nice style points to the figure.  With the overcoat being in soft plastic, the tails are very flexible, but not poseable. The overcoat has some wrinkles and folds in it, but nothing I would call overly detailed.  The arms have full range of motion at the shoulders.  The overcoat does not hinder movement at all in that regard.   The shoulders have a basic joint that only allow forward motion.  While the Joker’s arms can’t swing from side to side, his arms can go to an almost 45% angle.  The hands are soft, but not overly so.  He can firmly grip a gun, or the cane he came with, and the hands do not stretch out of shape.  The paint application on the wrists and hands was pretty thick.  They thought enough to match his sleeves with his orange undershirt, but the paint was sloppy.  Still though, the orange contrast of the sleeves to the purple of the jacket is a nice touch.  On the undershirt, the green tie is nicely done with no real paint issues.  He has side-to-side motion at the stomach, and the undercoat does a great job of covering the joint. They put a nice touch on the pants with the stirrups going around the shoes.  The paint job is continued on the bottom of the feet (often a place where there are no extra paint apps).  The paint job on the shoes and stirrups are nice and clean.  Very well done.  As for construction, as you can see, our Joker here has a T-Crotch.  The legs can go up to a 45 Degree at the hips.  There’s no additional joint that the 6 inch DC figures have to rotate the leg or to move the leg out from the side, so you’re only looking at a straight up and down motion.  The knees have a clean, simple joint that is firm enough to not buckle under weight of the figure.  There is an issue with the construction of the Joker, as his rear prevents his legs from going straight up and down.  So, to make him stand, you have to have the upper and lower legs at a slight angle.  Otherwise, if you have his legs straight up and down, his torso with be bent forward.  It’s no a huge deal, but I would have thought they would have caught that before production. One of the few DC Infinite Heroes figures to have an accessory, Joker comes with a black cane.  There’s a design on the head of the cane, but damned if I can figure out what it is, exactly.  Kind of disappointing, as I was hoping for a small Joker head that has been seen with the Joker on other occasions.  The plastic used is a good, sturdy, hard plastic, so you won’t have to worry about this cane being warped out of the package.  As far as accessories go, it’s a fitting one.  Kind of boring, but fitting. The only different accessory I could think of would be a big prop gun.  So, should you get this figure?  If you’re a fan of the character or Batman-related figures, you should go out the door and get this figure right now.  It’s a good addition to those of you who have a Batman figure collection.  The look of Joker with his stylized sinister, psychotic smile and glossy glare in his eye is a great portrayal of the character.  If you’re a fan of action figures, I’d still get this figure.  It’s a solid portrayal if you want a Joker in your 1:18th scale world.  The hinderence with this figure, is the curse of the DC Infinite Heroes.  Articulation.  In a time and day where figures have advanced arm and wrist articulation, and leg and foot articulation, or even heads that can bob up and down, this figure fails, like the rest of the line.  But, it is a solid figure.  I recommend it.
More pictures of DC Infinite Heroes Joker: I was so excited at the news of the release of this figure, being a huge Batman fan, I was able to acquire a test sample from overseas of the DC Infinite Heroes Joker.  When I got it in hand, the sample got me excited to see the actual painted figure.                                               Detail of the backside of the figure:                                                         Here is a comparison of the Dark Knight 1:18th Joker figure to the DC Infinite Heroes Joker figure.  While the Dark Knight Joker has quite better detail overall, the head suffers, as it looks like a big rubber cartoon mask.  Either they decided not to go with a Heath Ledger head sculpt, or they didn’t get the sculpt done before his passing.  Also, the articulation on the DK Joker is SEVERELY lacking, even compared to the DCIH Joker.                                         For size comparison, you can see how DCIH Joker stacks up agaist a VvV G.I. Joe figure, and a 25th Anniversary G.I. Joe figure.  He’s a little bit taller than both, but that’s primarily due to his stylized head sculpt.
Thanks for taking the time to read the review on DC Infinite Heroes’ Joker!  You can discuss it here!

Popularity: 17% [?]

Posted on Toynewsi.com:

A new set of pictures from the 6-pack DC Infinite Heroes set – Mallah’s revenge.  The set includes 1:18th Robin, Arsenal, Cyborg, Raven, Mallah and the Brain.  Pictures can be seen here.

Popularity: 12% [?]

This is it, folks, an attempt at a site dedicated to action figures in the 1:18th scale.  Sure, there will be a little information about other toy lines, but here at 1-18th, the focus is on 1:18th (aka 3 3/4″) figures.  G.I. Joe, Microman, DC, Marvel, Star Wars, Indiana Jones… you name it, we’re trying to cover it.  Enjoy your stay here!!

Popularity: 95% [?]