The original Joker figure from DC Collectible’s Batman: The Animated Series line had a head sculpt that failed to capture the Clown Prince’s iconic visage, and in my opinion it’s the one toy that’s the least worth your money from the entire collection. So it’s a pleasure to report that the newly released Joker Expressions Pack finally gives Mr. J the action figure he and his fans deserve.
Joker was one of the first toys in the line and it had a body that was okay overall, except for feet that couldn’t pivot. His head sculpt, on the other hand was a little too long and the proportions of his eyes and mouth…something was just off. It didn’t have the look of a premium quality collectible. With this upgrade, however, you get an assortment of new head sculpts that are not only incredibly cartoon accurate, but show off a wide range of emotions perfect for countless poses.
Additionally, Joker includes the dark gray trench coat (with matching gray arms that are easy to swap-out) and a head sculpt with matching gray hat so you can recreate your favorite moments from Joker’s Favor, Joker’s Wild, and even Mask of the Phantasm. There’s also the Bang! flag revolver from Harley & Ivy, Joker grenades from Joker’s Wild (the eyes and grin are perfectly applied to these itty-bitty extras), a Joker-faced revolver from Joker’s Wild (outstanding detail on this little Joker face), the machine gun hands seen on the Joker bots from Christmas with the Joker, and the duck innertube from the climax of The Laughing Fish. Oddly enough, there’s no laughing fish. If you want one of those you’ll need to buy a Harley Quinn! I love all of these accessories, except maybe the machine gun hands which were a really surprising choice. I mean, why would you want to pose the most highly expressive Joker toy as an unexpressive but deadly Joker decoy? I suppose you can plug them into the original Joker toy that you can retire now that this replacement is so, so much better… But I would’ve preferred hands with the dramatically curled fingers like we saw included with Mad Hatter.
Joker stands about 6.25 inches tall and also comes with a white peg display stand (I hope this becomes the new standard, except I’d prefer a clear foundation instead of a white one) and an articulating clear plastic stand with adjustable arm and clamp. The clear plastic stand is quite large so it can balance out those flight/falling poses, and it boasts a few extra holes in case you want to pop in your expressions pack Batman (wouldn’t recommend paying full price for that one) or another figure on the same platform.
Articulation is identical to what you saw from the original Joker and most figures from the BTAS/TNBA line, but I’ll give you a quick rundown:
- The head turns left and right with good back and forth movement and left/right pivot
- Arms operate on peg hinge joints with good rotation, and thankfully they aren’t noticeably loose despite being swappable between purple and gray options
- Elbow is a single hinge and rotates just a tad, and the wrist rotates on a hinge– don’t go crazy with swapping out hands all the time, though. The paint continues onto the pegs and will shave away every time you swap
- His waist swivels but there’s no ab crunch
- A side hinge makes it possible for the legs to move forward and out, this movement is greatly restricted when wearing the trench coat
- Knees sport a single hinge and don’t bend all that much
- I was hoping the feet would get improvements, but they’re still swivel only, so if you drop your Joker just hope that he doesn’t fall feet-first or these things will snap right off
Overall
It’s a must-buy and at around $40 it’s a pretty great value for something that so brilliantly captures the Joker and his mood swings. There’s never been a better Joker figure from Batman the Animated Series and I mean that both in terms of cartoon-accurate appearance and quality accessories.
