Review > Sickened Joker NYCC Exclusive (Arkham City, DC Direct)

There are times I regret my rash oath to collect every toy based on Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City. For one thing, I still have to cough up the cash for that Battle-Damaged Batman from a couple SDCCs ago. Then there are the disappointing figures. And then there are the figures I’m not that excited about, but get anyway. Case in point is the subject of today’s review: Sickened Joker.

To be fair, this is the sort of exclusive I like. If I hadn’t made my silly vow, I could have happily skipped this variant. He’s nearly identical to the standard figure, with the exception of his new head, some paint apps, and his distinct lack of an accessory (aside from a stand). All for the low low price of $20, along with the pain in the ass of having to get a wristband at 10am in order to have the right to buy one (or two) of these things.

Given that the whole point of the exclusive is the head, you’d think that the sculpt would be a bit better. It’s possible the Joker gets this sick in the game, but none of the images released so far look anywhere near this disgusting. He looks like he’s got third-degree burns on his face and thinks it’s the funniest thing in the world. Which makes sense for the Joker, of course, but still…yuck.

Seriously, I find this sculpt creepy and disgusting. Perhaps that was the point, though…it certainly makes for a good Halloween-time exclusive. But grossness aside, I do like his expression.

Though I think the paint apps are part of the problem too. Again, unless we simply haven’t seen the part of the game where the Joker looks this bad, there’s way too much red on the face.  Some of the pinstripes are seriously screwed up too, especially beneath the right shoulder. And why put so much red on the face, then go to the trouble to give him white hands (instead of gloves) and not bloody those up too?

On the plus side, the rest of the figure has a much dirtier wash than the standard figure–even the flower is decayed. It definitely conveys that this is a very sick Joker–possibly one near death.

I’ll be curious to see if the official DCD Arkham City packaging looks like the one for this figure, since they clearly just reused the Arkham Asylum packaging. Given how rushed this exclusive seems to have been, I suspect they just used the Asylum packaging and threw in some new graphics. But it does allow the figure to look good alongside the other figures when kept on card.

In terms of articulation, he’s identical to the standard figure, and I had no quality control issues. His only “accessory” is a display stand.

Ultimately I’m glad I own this exclusive, but that’s mostly due to the inimitable sense of accomplishment one gets when one actually picks up an exclusive figure at a show by themselves. Unless you’re a diehard BAA/BAC fan like me, you can easily skip this guy, especially for the $30-$50 he’s going for on eBay.

Plus, it’s just one more thing to get me excited for Arkham City, which I finally get to play tonight. I’ll be picking up my copy at Best Buy in just a few hours.

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12 Comments

  1. Barbecue17

    http://www.graphittidesigns.com/shop/ARKHAM-CITY-

    On sale on Graphitti Designs website for $20.

  2. if you get to the very end of the game this is indeed what the joker looks like, without spoiling it.

  3. Barbecue17

    Finished the main story last night. Let me say that this is ineed a very important Joker figure to own! I actually bought the Batman Legacy 2-pack with Robin and Joker. It is a decent Joker figure, but doesn't look as nice as the one you reviewed, Poe.

    • Did you find the 2-pack at a store or get it from overseas?

    • Barbecue17

      Bought it at a Walmart about 5 minutes from my house. Just went back tonight to buy Batman: Year One and ended up grabbing the Gordon/ Bruce two pack as well. (I know that one has been out a bit, but this was the first refresh of it I have seen).

  4. Mecha-Shiva

    Looks like a good Joker fig after batman beat the living crap out of him.

  5. Southzen

    That picture made me want to harf up.

    Neener neener neener.. I'm ignoring I saw BBQ'17s post.

  6. Barbecue17

    I think it actually looks pretty cool and definitely is a nice exclusive (non necessary variant).

    *Spoilers*

    I was playing Arkham City last night and saw the Joker in the game about 2 hours in. While the figure looks a little more disfigured, this is a pretty nice representation of how the Joker looks in game. His "sickness" plays a fairly major role thus far.

  7. George

    I dig it, Just uh hate the articulation. ha.

  8. R.Ace

    This figure disturbs me and that makes me want it even though i'm not a fan of the games.

  9. JediCreeper

    yeah, not only didn't I want this figure, I really wanted it to peg warm the whole con… I can see no reason to buy it at all… on the other hand, I was able to easily get the SDCC flashpoint Zoom… a figure I really wanted, because of the head sculpt…

  10. "Creepy and disgusting," I think you hit it on the head there. That's just gross.

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