I used to have a guitar that was made of resin. If I had known that when I first played it, I probably would have passed on it. Guitars are made of wood, dagnabbit! I kind of felt the same way about Diamond’s collection of Batman: the Animated Series resin busts when I first saw them. Sure, they looked neat, but who makes a fifty-dollar half-statue out of resin? I was pretty ignorant about the material, but I had already written it off.
On resin wings
Then Diamond shipped Batman News a box of assorted Animated Series stuff, and my foot came rushing at my mouth so fast that I feared I would have toes poking out of the back of my neck. If you’ve already read my review of the Batman Beyond stuff, then you know where this is going: resin busts are actually pretty great, and I’m delighted to be proven wrong. But if Terry and Bruce shook the foundations of my unfounded bias against resin, then Man-Bat is a 9.0 earthquake that cracked open the earth and swallowed them whole.
I suspect that Man-Bat is the same scale as the other busts; but because Man-Bat is a much larger creature than the average human, his bust is likewise huge. He’s two inches taller from desk-to-top than the Beyond busts, and his broad shoulders and enormous wings make him seem strikingly large. And whereas Terry and Bruce come in good-but-fairly-simple poses, Man-Bat cuts a much more dynamic figure. There’s so much movement implied in his pose, and I love it. Diamond’s other busts—as much as I love them—all look like poses. This one looks like we’ve caught Man-Bat in the middle of something. Super cool.
Resin is still fragile if you’re a ham-fisted idiot
I will at this time reiterate the warning I gave when I reviewed the other busts: BE GENTLE WITH THIS THING. Do not, under any circumstance, attempt to lay hold of one of the wings in your efforts to remove the bust from its packaging. If you do, here’s what you get:
I was devastated when I felt it crack. Thankfully, it didn’t break completely off, and from my favorite viewing angles, I don’t even notice it. But man, be careful. If you drop this, it will break. If you need to move it, use two hands. If you can’t, try to grab it by the head, or better yet, the chest. Just keep your clumsy hands off of those wings, Warshaw. I mean, dear reader.
I’d hate to have to paint him, but I’m glad someone did
Dang, the paint on this thing is awesome. If you look closely, the edge of the waist has a few imperfections, but other than that, Diamond absolutely nailed this. The teeth and eyes are perfect, the wings look great, and the ears—even further in as the shape funnels tighter—are perfectly done, as well. The Animated Series simplicity is broken a little bit around the “fingers” of the wings, with a transitional hue between the each finger and the surrounding skin of the wing, but that’s okay. Who knows—maybe it’s not intentional, but rather the result of imperfect airbrush application of the darker finger color. Whatever the case, it still looks good, and unless you’re close up and looking for it, you won’t see it.
Overall
I’ve been pleasantly surprised by all of these busts, but Man-Bat takes it to the next level. An excellently-molded, dynamic pose is painted awfully close to perfection, and the bust’s large size cuts an imposing figure on any desk or shelf. This is a piece I would put under lights—I love it that much—and I suspect many of you would feel the same. You can find it in comic shops or order on Amazon today. At forty bucks, it’s a great deal.
