DC Collectibles Batman : Arkham Origins Series 1 – Black Mask Review

As promised in last month’s review, I’m back reviewing another figure from the first wave of DC Collectibles Batman: Arkham Origins, and the figure in the spotlight is Black Mask.

The review may seem shorter than the previous ones, but once we get to the details of the figure the reason for that should become evident.

Just to bulk up the potentially frugal word count let me elaborate on the character and its importance in the game. Without going into any spoilers most people who have played the game – or haven’t played but have seen the trailers – know that the game is based around Black Mask (the erstwhile corporate Roman Sionis), the chief mob boss of Gotham of that time putting a 50 million dollars bounty on the head of Batman, which attracts some of the ‘top’ assassins and villains of the DC Universe. So considering the whole plot of the game is supposed to be based around his machinations you do expect the figure to reflect his impact on the plot.

Ironically the events of the game and the way the figure turned out are quite uncannily related, and here’s why:

Packaging – 9/10

It’s the same clamshell design as the DC Collectibles Batman, except of course with character specific printed inlays. The twisty ties on this is minimal too, as Black Mask is pretty much a generic man-in-a-suit-with-a-mask character.

Sculpt – 7/10

The sculpt, as with Batman, is credited to Gentle Giant Studios and the head-sculpt is especially outstanding – you can bet that almost all the score I am giving for this category is based on the quality of the head sculpt alone, because honestly the rest of the body is plagued by something I credit artistic choice. The Suit’s pinstripes are sculpted on and it makes the figure, in my opinion, look a little awkward. I would have preferred the pinstripes to be painted by Alas.

Paint – 7/10

I really like the paint on the figure… in the head-sculpt again, which is painted brilliantly! The shade black gives it that translucent quality of the mask and the eye sockets and inner eye work is amazingly accurate with no bleeds!
The rest of the body really doesn’t need much credit as the next challenge would be the pinstripe, however, since they are sculpted, there isn’t any chance of paint sops or inconsistencies per se.