I’m not even a huge DC fan (as you can tell from all the stupid Batman: The Animated Series stuff I buy!), but I feel like every serious toy collector needs at least one really good Joker and Batman figure in their collection. Batman versus Joker is THE iconic comic rivalry. That’s right, screw you Spider-Man and Green Goblin. Eat a bag of dicks Professor Xavier and Magneto. Superman and Lex Luthor? Haw!
After the Punisher’s mini arsenal, Joker’s accessory load out looks small and much more bare bones. He comes with three extra hands, a revolver, alternate head, windup chattering teeth, and display stand. With the extra hands included the total appendages you have to work with is five: two fists, right hand with trigger finger, right hand open holding a Joker card, and open left hand. I’m always a fan of mirroring the right and left hands, so if we have a right handed trigger finger also include a left one. The chattering teeth can really only be held with his open left hand.
Now let’s talk about the heads. This is where Mezco really made this Joker their own. The press pictures prior to release don’t do them justice at all, these are some premier-quality Joker heads. The sculpt and paints are stunning in hand. He includes both a screaming face, and a more “well kept” head with the hair slicked back. The screaming head is easily my favorite. I love the facial expression and his disheveled hair. One thing to look out for when swapping the heads is that the peg goes really deep into his head since he has such a long neck. So just ease it in to avoid breaking anything.
I’d imagine you could also consider his jacket an accessory since it can be removed. I actually prefer him with the jacket off. I’m preferential to the short sleeves, vest, and tie. I think it’s also best to mess around with the arm articulation with the coat off first so that you can get a good feel as to what you can and can’t do. I’m not a huge fan of soft goods at this scale (or maybe any? It’s kind of turned me off to 1/6 scale as well), but that could just be years and years of bad implementation of them. This Joker’s tailoring feels pretty good!
The little details like the buttons on his shirt or the Batman socks that’s visible when his pants ride up are fantastic.
I have maybe one complaint with this figure, and it’s less of a complaint and more of a personal preference. I do wish he utilized double elbows. What he comes with is fine. However, I’d like a little more elbow range when messing around with his different hands and accessories. It’s entirely possible that a double elbow under cloth doesn’t look good at this scale, so that could be a reason why they didn’t go with it.
My personal recommendation is to remove his jacket and feel out the articulation before anything else. Get a good feel for the body because a lot of the joints are under tailored cloth that is not easy to remove. His ab joint actually has a pretty good range of motion, definitely better than my Punisher’s. Also wash your hands before messing around with him … potato chip grease is not going to wash out of his clothes, you animal!
Also remember that while this is a fully articulated figure, it does have its limitations as far as range of motion. I popped one of his legs out of the hip ball while trying to pose him, and while it’s a fixable problem it isn’t by any means easy. Nothing actually broke. I definitely pushed it too far trying to get the leg into a certain position, and I’m willing to bet most people wouldn’t be as dumb as me. In order to fix it I basically had to pull down his pants (bet you didn’t think this review was going to get sexy!), pop the leg back in, and then work the pants back over the hips and then his shirt. Tweezers were a giant help in accomplishing this.
While I had his pants off (mmmmmmmm!), I did notice there was a string connecting the pants and the shirt. While it keeps me from playing One:12 dress up, it does really help hold the pants and undershirt in the right position.
I’m avoiding jumping the gun and claiming this as my favorite Joker ever. However, it is certainly making a case to be in my top five! Mezco just continues to impress me with the One:12 Collective line. I’ve been extremely impressed with every figure I buy from this line. More and more it’s becoming a great supplement to the Marvel Legends or DC Classics collections. Joker is sold out directly from Mezco, but rest assured, Amazon has your back!
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I’m not a fan of soft goods at this scale, but This level of quality kind of changes my mind, that and I’ve seen a couple people online who have been making soft goods for their figures which look fantastic, yarns ahead of what I’m used to seeing.