Review – DC Universe Infinite Heroes “Crisis” Scarecrow
“The Scarecrow is a former psychiatrist who uses a variety of drugs and psychological tactics to exploit the fears and phobias of his adversaries. He does not commit his crimes for wealth, but rather as a form of “research” to further study the effects of fear on humans, making the innocent citizens of Gotham City his unwilling guinea pigs. While he will occasionally commit robbery or other types of larceny, he does so only to get the funding he needs to carry out his experiments.”
— from Wikipedia
The DC Universe Infinite Heroes line, in my experience, is spotty in terms of quality. Ranging from poor to decent to kinda cool, the action figures in this toy line can’t be judged as a whole and must, instead, each be judged on its own.
Scarecrow, it would seem, is one of those figures of questionable quality. While he looks decent — even if he’s a little more “animated” Batman than “comic” Batman — he also looks a bit goofy and not at all creepy or cool. Which is unfortunate, since Scarecrow tends to be one of my favorite Batman villains.
As a toy, this particular Scarecrow works out okay, though his paint is a bit sloppy and the sculpting isn’t the greatest. He also has balance issues, with his over-sized hats and semi-loose joints causing problems for the poor guys. The articulation isn’t as good as we’re seeing in today’s G.I. Joe or Star Wars lines, but it’s certainly adequate for the 3.75-inch scale.
In discussions with others recently I’ve commented that Mattel seems to do best with the 6-inch to 7-inch scale action figures while Hasbro should stick to the 3.75-inch action figures . . . and Scarecrow, I think, supports that statement. I mean, I’ve no doubt at all that a DC Universe Classics version of Scarecrow would be completely awesome; maybe we’ll get one soon.
Closing Thoughts
I know this wasn’t exactly all that much of a review, but I’d rather not dwell on yet another bad 3.75-inch action figure from Mattel. I mean, the Bizarro figure I reviewed last month was bad enough for all of us. Scarecrow isn’t Bizarro bad, but then he’s not exactly great.
Mattel, please put some serious effort into your 3.75-inch series. If you can get these figures to be half as good as the DC Universe Classics action figures then I’ll be happy. Until then, I’m gonna stick with the DC Universe Infinite Heroes toys that I’ve already bought and not add any more to my collection.
For more photos and thoughts on the DC Universe Infinite Heroes line, check out this review at Superhero Times and this page at Wikipedia.
Philip Reed probably shouldn’t be so harsh on this line . . . and if it didn’t seem to suck then he would give it some praise. As it is, though, this is a series of action figures that should probably be left on the store shelves.
Mattel released a 6-inch Scarecrow for its DC Superheroes line (the precursor to DC Universe Classics), which was okay. My favorite version of Scarecrow remains the Hasbro Legends of the Dark Knight figure.
You can check out the Mattel figure at Michael Crawford’s site:
http://www.mwctoys.com/REVIEW_041805a.htm
Yeah, it’s disappointing how limited the articulation can be. Even at best, they’ll still have those highly limited hips.
Were it not for that, I probably would have picked a few of the better seeming ones up. The Joker looks cool and while neither Superman nor Batman look quite right to me, I probably would have picked them up if they had balljointed hips. Pity. Because some of the character concepts are pretty good, like Commissioner Gordon and the riot troopers or even Hawkman and the Thanagarians.