Batman Legacy: Prototype Batman and Lt. Jim Gordon

When I heard that Mattel was making a movie version of Jim Gordon, I was incredibly excited. When I saw pictures, I became decidedly less so. And the fact it came with a repackaged version of the "Prototype Suit" Batman didn't exactly help matters. The $30 price tag (more in some places) was the final blow: thanks, but no thanks, Mattel: I can live without a third Gordon in this scale.

Then a funny thing happened: no one bought this. Consequently, there were plenty of extras, and Amazon went ahead and marked it down to EIGHT DOLARS. Plus shipping (unless you have Amazon Prime and get free shipping. Which I do).

Crappy or not, these were worth $8, so I ordered them a few days before Christmas.

The bio on back doesn't shy away from Batman's motivation: the opening words are, "After his parents are murdered in cold blood before his young eyes...." I appreciate the fact that Mattel didn't pull punches here: the front states this is intended for adult collectors, and they seem to mean it. On top of the opening, Gordon has a fairly realistic gun, something Mattel seemed reluctant to include in the Movie Masters line this spun off of.

The gun is definitely the better of the two accessories included: Bruce comes with a rubber mask that goes over his head:

See, that's exactly the kind of accessory conventional wisdom says you stick in with toys aimed at young kids (though I question whether kids want something so ridiculously awkward, either). At any rate, this effect clearly should have been done with an alternate head sculpt.

On the other hand, this pose is kind of cool:

I expect that most people displaying this figure are doing so without the mask. The rest of suit is actually pretty cool, though there can't be that much interest in displaying Bruce in his prototype costume. Frankly, I'd rather if they'd made Bruce Wayne wearing a business suit, or that sort of thing.

The Wayne head sculpt is well done. If nothing else, this figure is an opportunity to make a custom unmasked Batman. Of course, Mattel did produce one in this scale, but that was a rare variant. If I had an extra movie Batman lying around, I have to admit I'd be tempted to make my own.

Yeah. Bruce's head was nice, but something is seriously wrong with Gordon. The nose is just ridiculous, and the glasses are way too big. The paint's off, too, though with a sculpt this bad, I'm not sure I can blame Mattel for phoning the rest in.

Ultimately, this set just isn't all that good. It's certainly worth the eight bucks I spent, but I feel bad for anyone who paid retail.