Review – Legends of the Dark Knight: Batman: The Dark Knight Detective
We took a look at the black version of this mold a few days ago (review here) and I wanted to immediately share the blue and gray Dark Knight Detective action figure with all of you while the toy’s still fresh in our minds. As I mentioned in that earlier review, it was encountering this colorway in the DC Comics Action Figure Archive* that had me searching the web and now owning both toys I can say that this version is definitely the one to grab if you can only get one.
Paint
Since this Legends of the Dark Knight series (Amazon.com search*) toy is basically identical to one we’ve already looked at I’m focusing on the color in this review. And that blue and gray Batman costume is the classic — better! — version of the character so it’s obvious that this is the better toy. But where Kenner could have cheaped out on the variant they instead sunk some cash into the repaint to really make it a “must own” Batman action figure.
The above shot shows the perfectly-executed dark wash that covers the gray Batman suit. The wash even covers the blue parts of the costume — but not the cape, which is a shame — but it is over the gray bits where the wash really does its job and pulls out the details. A great touch and this dramatically improves what would have been a very (visually) flat gray bodysuit.
Batarang!
I failed to mention this in the earlier review of this mold (posted here), but the Dark Knight Detective action figure does come with a single Batarang which fits perfectly in the toy’s hand. It’s a simple accessory, yes, but it’s possibly the best accessory Kenner could have chosen for this Batman action figure. Anything else — such as a missile launcher — would have actually detracted from the comic authenticity approach of the toy. (Kelley Jones capes often did appear to be this big, so we’re all 100% comic perfect with this toy.)
Closing Thoughts
As a repaint of an action figure that we just looked at a few days ago there’s not a lot of terribly exciting things for me to say about the Batman: The Dark Knight Detective. So you guys win this time around and I’ll cut my nonsense short and leave you with photos. This may very well be the best figure in the entire Legends of the Dark Knight series (Amazon.com search*), but that is simply my opinion and it is likely you don’t quite agree with me.
Between both the Legends of Batman and Legends of the Dark Knight lines of the nineties it’s possible Kenner produced some of the best — and strangest! — Batman action figures ever, and I can happily say that I plan to keep looking closer and closer at these old toys. So keep your eyes on battlegrip.com because we’re not at all finished revisiting the Batman of two decades ago.
