As much as I like the black-and-gray DCSH Batman, he’s a little too buff to be my perfect Batman. I’ve been fiddling around with a custom Batman figure for ages, and recently I made a couple changes that may finally have made him cool enough to be my current “standard” Batman until such time as DCUC offers one with a pouch belt and black bat symbol.
His upper torso and arms come from the TRU exclusive Batman; the head, pelvis, and legs are from a DCUC Batman (and yes, could use some paint touch-ups, I know); and the belt and cape are from an Alex Ross Justice Batman.
What do you think, sirs?
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Esbat
You still got that TRU exclusive bats head?
chuck21
I love it, just trhe anal retentive in me notices some blue bleed through, esp on the top of the boots and the hips. LOVE the hands.
Poe
@OP636:
It actually wasn't too difficult to free up TRU exclusive Batman's head, though I think what I did was pull out the peg and replace it with a ball joint peg and a different head. If you want to keep the same head as the TRU exclusive, you'll have to cut or shave around the bottom of the head and neck a bit so the seam isn't perfectly lining up with the bottom of the cowl. (Does that make any sense?)
As for the torso and legs…well, this was a bit unorthodox.
First, I took my DCUC Batman, cracked open the chest, and tossed aside the upper body, leaving just the pelvis and the legs together. Then I carefully snapped my TRU exclusive Batman in half at the waist peg.
I used my Dremel to cut, split and trim the rest of the peg that was stuck in the waist hole in the TRU exclusive Batman until I got as much of it out as I could.
I then turned to the peg on the DCUC Batman pelvis. I used the Dremel to sand the top edges of it, to make it slightly more of a mushroom shape.
Then I just pushed real hard and got the peg to go into the torso š That's it–no cracking and re-gluing of the torso required.
There's a slight gap between the torso and pelvis because the DCUC peg is a tiny bit longer than the TRU exclusive one, so I trimmed a bit of vinyl from an old Toy Biz WCW belt and stuck it in there, making the joint nice and tight.
Then I painted the figure and glued the cape and belt from the Ross Justice Batman on. Voila!
There were some other steps in there, because this figure went through a few different iterations, but that's how you'd get from A to B if you started from scratch with this figure in mind.
orionpax636
I fully empathize with this ongoing quest of Poe's. It's almost impossible to get a "default" figure of characters as iconic as Batman, and no matter how good many of them have been, there's always maybe one little flaw.
Poe, I love the custom and totally agree with your choice of pieces other than the cape. I'dve kept the soft cape, as it has a nice ability to cover the figure or fold to the back.
Two questions: 1) Is there any way of freeing up TRU Batman's head so he can look up a bit? 2) How did you attach the bottom to the top half? I think you've explained before, but I forgot.
All in all, you're right to be quite pleased with the end product.
Kenneth
I love the overall look of the fig… especially how good the DCUC Batman's head looks when its painted properly, in a single color. Though, yeah the belt looks a little off, but I suppose it's a personal preference thing.
I, for one, would switch out at least one of the hands for one in a fist, though. It just doesn't feel like a proper Batman to me if he can't be posed slugging a bad guy.
But give us more pics of the thing, Poe! Make all that articulation work!
Poe
I may try to clean up the wash a bit–I'm going to use a thin black Sharpie to clean up the blue bits tonight.
And yeah, I think this guy may actually replace DCSH black-and-gray Bats as my standard Batman. I do still hope Mattel makes us a black-and-gray Batman using the DCUC molds with a pouch belt with a black bat symbol.
Griffin
I think the belt looks a little big to me but I actually really like the washed look on the legs. Are you planning on putting that on the rest of the grey parts? This would probably be my standard batman as well if I had him.
VinMan
Love it. Love it. I need one for my shelf. Horsemen beware, here comes Poe!!!!!
Jim
Nice Job Poe! I prefer that black batman head on your custom with the black and gray batman but that's because I don't mind his over buffness..in fact I sort of prefer it. If not for my preference, your batman is the best I've seen!
Pete
That head is the best Batman head to come along in a while. I've now sacrificed my second DCUC Bats to the gods of customization–for some reason, I can see it happening a third time.
Frogster
I wasn't a huge fan of the first Batman DCUC figure with the black on blue cowl shadow, and the short cape, so I hope another Batman is done soon. That is a nice custom overall.
Poe
What's really nice about him is the big cape which flows over his shoulders, but doesn't really inhibit any of his articulation aside from direct arm-straight-up poses.
Frowny McBeard
I like the face sculpt better, and the hands on DCSH Batman always kind of bothered me. Other than the legs (for reasons you've already mentioned) it looks good.
Nicholai
I'm surprised they haven't put out another DCUC Batman yet. Superman has gotten four figures already in the line, and there are definitely enough different looks for Batman to support a few more figures.
Poe
Yeah…originally this figure had the same belt as the TRU exclusive, but for some reason I really liked the futuristic look of the Ross belt. Personally I'm pretty happy with this custom.
Andrew
The belt's the only part that strikes me as off, though I can't for the life of me put my finger on why. Otherwise it seems pretty cool. š