Hot Toys 1/6th scale The Dark Knight: The Joker
Bank Robber Version 2.0 Toy Fair Exclusive
Released: August/September 2014
Manufactured by: Hot Toys
Now its time to talk about a Hot Toy I knew was coming for
quite sometime. Back when I was at the Warner Bros. Archive, we would help out
consumer products with various research on intellectual properties. One client
they have is Hot Toys. Hot Toys asked them if they could look at the costumes
for the Jack Nicholson Joker Mime costume and the Heath Ledger Bank Robber
costume.
Now this request actually happened almost two years ago and,
unfortunately, Hot Toys never came to the archive to view the costumes I had
pulled and ready to be viewed. I had always wondered what happened with the
Bank Robber Joker project, but it looks like my question has been answered.
I might be a bit biased here, but this is a great looking
representation of the real costume. The real suit is actually custom made and
not store bought like so many other suits seen in movies. This goes with
Christopher Nolan’s idea that the Joker could not be traced or identified
easily by the police hence he wears a suit with no identifiable labels.
I’m very glad Hot Toys put in the watch and socks. This was
one of those details I made sure to point out. You don’t really see these
things in the movie let alone knew he wore during that scene, but he did.
The face sculpt is what really sells this figure. This time
around we get the usual grim expression from the Joker but his eyes are now
fixed looking to his right side, which gives him an even eerier look.
His other face sculpt is the bank robber mask. This time
around it exist as an actual head to switch out rather than a mask you put on.
The neat detail is you can see his eyes if you look closely in the mask. The
smooth yet rubbery feel of the mask is also very accurate to the real one. I’ve
only held it a couple of times, but the real mask isn’t exactly made of the
soft rubber latex but seems to be a harder rubber much like how this mask feels
on the figure.
He also comes with a base, duffel bag, pump action shotgun,
semi automatic hand gun, grenades, tear gas, switch blade, a back drop
featuring the school bus crashing through the bank, and the bomb he puts in the
guys mouth.
The back drop is another nice piece to add to this figure
and hopefully Hot Toys will include more of these for future releases rather
than these huge diamond shaped bases. Since this didn’t come with a dynamic
base rod, it instead comes with a plastic rod with a really bad looking cradle.
The cradle makes it look like he has a boner, which I’m not too pleased with.
I’m very surprised by how good this figure looks. Like many
other people, I saw this as a frivolous release. Did we really need a 2.0
figure of the Bank Robber Joker? Not really, but Hot Toys did it again and
proved their techniques have gotten better as each year passes. Compare this with the 1.0, and you will
see the difference.
With the eventual release of other Dark Knight trilogy
figures, this Bank Robber figure might go well with the whole set. I do have other stories to tell about my experiences with these costumes and props...but that's a story for another time or when the next figures come out.
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