Toy Review: The Dark Knight Rises Movie Masters John Blake Action Figure (Mattel)

Packaging:
This figure comes with your standard Dark Knight Rises packing with the Batman arm gauntlet look on the side. The back of the box gives you a breakdown of the Bat-Signal, numbering sections that come with each figure. As you can see, the Blake figure shows sections 3, 4, and 5 that come with Alfred Pennyworth, Catwoman, and John Blake, respectively.

The Figure:
Blake comes packed with his piece of the Bat-Signal, which in this case is the front with the symbol. He has no accessories (i.e. a gun, for example). Most of the Movie Masters figures don’t come with additional accessories, so while it would have been cool if he had been packaged with a gun, it’s by no means a deal-breaker. He has multiple points of articulation starting with the head (side to side and minor up and down movement). Arms move at the shoulder, bicep, elbow, and wrist. He has ab movements and waist swivel. Legs move at the thigh and knee. The ankles turn, but do not point up or down. The paint application is amazing; there’s no sloppy application at all. The GCPD emblem on his left arm is painted on with superb detail. The jacket is removable if you wanted to remove it. His head sculpt is a tad weird from afar, like a more life-like Woody from Toy Story, but once this figure is open and in-hand it looks much better.

This figure was created with the adult collector in mind, but has an age discretion of 4 and older. There are no small parts in this figure, so if a child were to play with it, I don’t see any noticeable threat to their safety. At first, I was not impressed with this action figure, but after I saw the movie, my opinion changed very quickly. His role in The Dark Knight Rises made him very likeable as a character because he, in fact, lived up to the hype in becoming Batman’s successor. Most are collecting this line just to complete the Bat-Signal, and with the detail that the signal has you cannot fault them.

Fair Price/Final Thoughts:
Blake is currently being found at Wal-Mart, and online on Amazon.com. The fair price range for Blake is anywhere from $16.99-$21.99. Ebay has auctions asking as much as $45-$50, but actual completed auctions have an average of $27-$30 shipped. The case break down seems to show an influx of Blakes, so the “rare factor” is slowly fading. As I have heard from friends who work at Wal-Mart, Blake is showing up as two per case and not the one per every three cases as previously reported though various online outlets. I would not want to pass up on this figure as most of the older Movie Masters are becoming more popular and sought after. Why wait? Grab this great figure and complete that Bat-Signal!