This doesn’t work with a character like the Penguin. DeVito is 5’ tall, nearly a full head shorter than Michael Keaton. And never mind that the Penguin is short anyway. That didn’t happen here. Penguin is sculpted proportionally, so he looks great, but he looks huge when placed next to Batman. Maybe Mattel just didn’t want to make a 3 1/3” does tall figure. Maybe they just didn’t even think about it at all, but it hurts “the collection” overall. On the Brightside, this Penguin is nearly in perfect scale with any 5” figures you might have around.
The articulation is fine, but, like usual, I want more. The ball-jointed neck retains some tilt despite Penguin’s long hair. The arms need bicep swivels, but I can get good range out of the ball shoulder, elbow hinge, and wrist swivel. It seems like there should be a waist swivel, but I had no luck with mine. The legs feature the typical Mattel hips, but only hinge knees below that. No thigh swivels like Batman and no ankles at all. I don’t need Penguin to do any martial arts poses, but the legs just come across as underarticulated.
Finally, Penguin did include his trademark umbrella. I’m not terribly fond of this one. I have trouble getting him to hold it and it kinda seems like no real thought went into it. It is black with a brown handle, so it’s technically movie accurate. I would’ve liked to see the hypno-deco even if it doesn’t quite match this particular costume. Or, heck, I’d like to get a closed umbrella for once. How novel would that be? In the end, though, if he’d just hold it a little better, I’d be happy.
Overall, unto himself this is a figure I’m going to keep for a long time. It’s from one of my favorite movies and it’s going to look great on the shelf. He’s going to be too big posed next to Batman & Catwoman, but I’ll live with that mistake. I could say I’d like to see more articulation or a better executed accessory, but first things first, I want more figures in the Multiverse line to be like this. Granted, I didn’t pay much attention to the first wave, but this figure clobbers the Unmasked Batman and is better done than Zod & the regular Batman too. I’m not sure who is the line after Catwoman & Superman, but I hope they’re done at least this well, if not better.
For More Reviews, check out our Review Index.
Any chance of a shot of this with maybe The Dark Knight Movie Masters figures? I’d love to see how he directly compares, scale wise.
I can snag one when I’m home, sure!
Cheers! I look forward to it.
Noisy, Maybe see what he look like with an Indiana Jones, Henry Jones Umbrella?
Good call! I was trying to think of a closed umbrella accessory and pulling a blank!
I 7th Doctor Who (Sylvester McCoy) figure.
The 7th Doctor Who figure.
you know, with an inventive application of ankle articulation, they could have replicated his waddle. alas, that’s not what mattel does.
he does look great though, a fantastic likeness for a character that i sometimes feel i’m the only person who enjoyed. seriously, over the years, i’ve read so much vitriol over how dark and mean the character was, how out of character his portrayal was… and then nearly every penguin story afterwards foresook the burgess meredith in favor of the devito. 🙂 but i think that odd reception is why it took so long to get a good figure of him. now the question is, will this line end up producing any red triangle circus gang members to accompany him?
Articulation is not their strongsuit.
These being 4″ kills me but I’ll probably pick up a Keaton Batman and Reeve Superman.
Just curious, what is a Marlon Wayans Robin?
Marlon Wayans was cast and fitted for a Robin costume for Batman Returns (& then paid to not be in Batman Forever, so they could recast). He wasn’t cut in time to stop the figure though, so collectors still got it. Since the body couldn’t be reused for endless Robin variants, he’s a fun, unique figure. (Though the TAS Robin used it as I recall).
The figure is in the tiny pic where Penguin feels likes number two.
My understanding is he helped fight the (day-glo?) gang. Bats thanks him for his help, and noting the bat-symbol, he makes some comment about his mama naming him after a bird.
“Robin?”
“Naw man, Jay.”
good joke. roll on snare. everybody laugh.
hrrm.
sloppy paint and out of scale. Another home run for Mattel
This, this is a perfect example of why Mattel gives me so much heartburn.
That’s a PERFECT DeVito Penguin. Fantastic sculpt, decent detail. And it’s the WRONG SIZE.
Why? we’ll never know. Maybe the Chinese Factory thought it was silly to make him smaller, maybe the control art didn’t make it clear, somehow, maybe there was a whole lot of “well, we don’t need to worry, EVERYONE KNOWS” going on.
And then you get that so-called Keaton head. YEESH.
What was the rational for this product line again? Besides “Only Batman sells for us so now everything is Batman”.
If they do honest-to-god Miller Dark Knight Returns Batman in this line, I’ll buy it. I MAY buy Zod, because all must kneel before Zod. Reeve Supes, it’s going to have to be a drop-dead perfect sculpt.
yep, for everything they got wrong with Keaton, they got right with DeVito. the “proper size” issue is minor to me at that scale, and I might grab him if I see him. unfortunately, m Target only had Keatons and Zod case, and the two TRU I hit yesterday in StL didn’t have these in. :/
So this Penguin isn’t the right size to fight any Batman figure I own, but he might be in scale to fight Doctor Who.
Penguin vs Churchill! KBO!
My local comic shop has that Victory of the Daleks set, and I’ve had my eye on it for months. I just haven’t been able to bring myself to pull the trigger on it. For $55, you get one Dalek and a Churchill. I just ordered the Eleven Doctors set, and got all 11 Doctors (minus Hurt) for $90.
not entirely true… i bet the original line of batmovie figs, the 5 inchers, he’d look great with.
I think I might still have a couple old Batman figures buried away in storage, but if you strapped a bomb to my chest and told me I had 1 hour to find them, I’d probably be dead in an hour.
I guess Mattel never learns, they just don’t care, or both. If they had made this figure in proper scale they would have saved money on plastic and we still would have bought it.
Actually, the scale is perfect.
Hear me out. Yes, I too am dying to get some good 6″ figures from the classic Batman films. But…Penguin being 4″, and the full four inches rather than proportional, makes him look perfect, absolutely PERFECT next to the original 5″ figures from back in the day. Currently I have mine displayed next to my vintage Dark Knight Collection Bruce Wayne Batman and Sky Attack Joker and it is absolutely spot on.
If only it didn’t take 22 years to get it…
I guess this works to my benefit that, so far, the Penguin figure is the only Multiverse figure I’m impressed with. I was gonna get the Penguin anyway, cause I’m a die-hard Cobblepot fan, and pretty much buy anything Penguin (I’m dead serious; a former classmate recently sent me the Batman Returns McDonald’s cups, and a Batman Returns Penguin stamper; and I just had to pick up the ’66 Burgess Meredith at Motor City Comic Con, along with the late ’70s Pocket Heroes Penguin there, too).
This officially corrects a mistake from 20 years ago, and seeing the rest of the output makes me so much happier that all I really want for now is Cobblepot. 🙂
BTW, your last pic was hilarious.
Great review!
It kills me just how well Mattel nailed the head sculpt and paint apps on this figure and yet how they fell short on the unmasked Batman.
Still, I was as giddy as a 6 year old on Christmas morning when I finally found the Penguin in stores last week!