Customer Reviews

Watchmen Movie Action Figure Set No.1

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The graphic novel Watchmen has long been considered the greatest graphic novel of all time. It's on Time's 100 Best Novels (the only comic book/graphic novel on the list), and now the book has finally made its move to the big screen after years and years of trying. Though the film has yet to come out, it looks to be staying as close to the graphic novel as possible (though a certain tentacled creature is allegedly missing from the film's "holy crap" finale), and DC Direct has produced a series of action figures based on the characters' film interpretations.

I am very happy to have a Rorschach and Nite-Owl to accompany my Batman figures (these figures are slightly taller than Mattel's Movie Master figures from The Dark Knight), but there are a few flaws to gripe about:

Let's start with fan-fave Rorschach. He seems to have his head permanently tilted to one side. Why they couldn't put a better joint in the neck to allow for more versatile movement and posing is beyond me. He's also stuck in a pose that has him in mid-stride while the other three figures in the wave seem to be standing upright and erect. Couldn't DC Direct have made the bottom portion of his coat in soft plastic and add hip joints to allow for more posing possibilities?

Rorschach's partner in crime-fighting, Nite-Owl, looks great. However, the crescent-moon belt buckle is removeable. This is good and bad. Good because it may mean that he uses it as a weapon at some point in the movie and it shows that DC Direct is paying attention to little details like that. However, it comes off the figure very easily and can be lost. There's a transparent elastic band around his waist that will keep the piece in its pace, but once you pull the elastic band off, the little thing can fly off the figure and be lost in the carpet or cushions. It nearly lost it myself ten seconds after I got the figure out of the box.

Silk Spectre has a vacant look on her face. Consider that the toy is, in fact, a doll of sorts, she looks very doll-like in her emotionlessness even by doll standards. And no knee joints leave her legs looking stiff.

The only figure that seems to have no vital flaws is Ozymandias. Though on my figure, the paint is globbed on the front of his gold chest piece, that's not a design flaw like the ones I mentioned in the other figures.

The only accessories are Rorschach's grapple gun and an extra hand to grasp it with, the aforementioned crescent-moon belt piece on Nite-Owl, and each figure comes with bases to pose them on. They also come with these little peg pieces that can be pushed through the bottom of the base and into the figure's foot to keep them in their place. But each figure also comes with these weird-shaped pieces that I have yet to found a purpose for. They're the same color and made from the same kind of plastic as the base and the peg pieces, but they don't seem to go anywhere on the bases. Your guess is as good as mine about what they're for.

So yes, these figures do have flaws. They could all use a few more joints here and there as well, but these are really the first real Watchmen figures, so I'm just happy that I have them. Hurm.