Deathstroke: Batman Arkham Origins (DC Collectibles)

Batman Arkham Origins Deathstroke

Many times I've been thinking about playing the Batman Arkham Origins video game on my PS3. This is all because of its notable graphics and gameplay that had me a little excited and could possibly bring back my addiction to video games. Most of all, it's about Batman! And you know how I feel about him and the entire "Batman Universe". In addition to that is Deathstroke, another bad ass character who's one of my favourite villains. Deathstroke may be DC's answer to Deadpool but regardless of whether he can compete with the merc with a mouth or not, I like the kind of coolness this guy has especially how they made him a lot cooler in the video game.













DC Collectibles has done a great job translating these characters into plastic. Despite how awesome these action figures are, I don't have plans of making them part of my collection. A man has his limits. The only reason why I bought this figure is because it's Deathstroke. The figure just renders accurately but boy oh boy... I've never been so scared of playing with it after I heard some complaints by other reviewers about its poor quality of plastic that breaks easily once you move the joints. Fortunately, I haven't encountered such problem yet.

The main highlight of this figure is inarguably the sculpt. There's just good depth in here with Deathstroke. Almost half of his body is covered with armour. I describe it like a thick protective shales of rock molded on top of his clothes and it made him look heavy. The other good thing is that there is so much attention to details over his ammo pack, grenades, utility belt and holster for his gun. The holster is made of a pliable material so it's easy to snug the gun in. Also, you can't ignore the head sculpt. His hollowing eye is perfectly recessed at the left orange side of his head and looked a lot realistic and superior than the other Deathstroke figures I've seen.

The style of painting is something that I'm not a fan of. The choice of colours used on this figure are not bad and lean closer to the standard. However, all these scratch marks that seem to render a battle damaged armour are over the top and not properly done. In fact, it seem to look like some 3-year old was scribbling aimlessly with a pen on this figure. I'm not an expert in this art but I know the paint job could have been done better. Otherwise, the rest of the body parts are paint detailed nicely.

I wish Deathstroke had an additional handgun and a sword plus an assault rifle, but that's just asking too much. I thought he could look more deadly and intimidating other than just his bō staff, his one handgun and his ninjato (a.k.a. ninja sword), but what can you do. The funny thing about Deathstroke's sword is that it got this soft rubbery hilt that is kinda hard to get it through his grip and quite prone to being destroyed. I got no issue with his gun and staff. All his accessories are painted in gunmetal and black which is perfect.

The more current and newer releases of DC figures are more articulated and highly poseable and this figure is one of them. But like I've said, the joints break easily and some of them are stuck. With my Deathstroke, I got a problem with the ab crunch- it's stuck! The rest of it got no problem. His neck is on a ball-joint that has a decent range of motion. He got ball-hinged shoulders, mid-bicep swivel, single-jointed elbows that bend at a perfect 90 degree angle and hinged wrists that bends and rotates. He got a ball-jointed waist that allows him bend forward and back; compromising his dysfunctional ab crunch. Like a Marvel Legends figure, he got T-joints at the hips, upper-thigh swivel, double-jointed knees and hinged ankles with ankle pivots.

The DC Collectibles Arkham Origins Deathstroke doesn't go well in terms of scale with either the Marvel Legends or the Marvel Select figures. He stands at 6.7 inches tall that made him a little too big for a Legends but too small to be a Select, which I guess DC has to do in order for them to not support the competition! And I guess that's what business is all about. Nonetheless, a DC action figure collector might be happy to own this figure because of the detail that would fairly look cool on top of a shelf. If you're strictly a classic comic book fan then this Deathstroke is not for you. Personally, I think the unique feature of this video game Deathstroke should be something that we could consider to be standard.

Green Arrow & Deathstroke: Injustice (DC Collectibles)

Injustice Green Arrow & Deathstroke

"Dear Deathstroke, you're the only reason why I bought this two-pack of you and Mr. Queen here, but how come you're small... like really small?" Anyways, here it is folks, the 3.75-inch Green Arrow and Deathstroke action figure sporting their Injustice outfit, and dammit... this "Injustice-style" makes me wanna wish they're bigger like our New 52 figures. When I first saw this though, I knew it's going to be small but I never expected these guys to be so small. They're not even 3.75 small and you'll see it when I size compare it to a Marvel Universe figure.













As you've already knew, Deathstroke is my favourite DC bad boy and from the looks of this package, it seems Deathstroke looks way more amazing than Green Arrow. However, Green Arrow is actually the "better man" between the two. Although they both have the same articulation but later you'll know why Green Arrow has the upper hand once we'll get into the details. I'm going to begin with each of their sculpt and paint details then head down to their similarities.

Starting with Green Arrow, right away, you'll see that he's not your regular Robin Hood-like archer like you see him in the comic books. While still maintaining his green and yellow colour scheme, this action figure is laced with a little bit of modernity. He got this arm protectors sculpted around half of his right arm. Also, he has "hip guards" at the side of his thighs connecting to his utility belt. Basically, what this toyline did is they sort of going through that Add-Remove-Preserve Process just like when Marvel-Hasbro revolutionized Hawkeye. One thing that really blew my mind about this action figure is the modern bow! Real elastic strings!

Deathstroke, on the other hand, is decorated with a few of his gears and paraphernalias. He has these ala-Batman arm and shin guards painted in orange. He got two handguns plus holsters molded at the front of his thighs, and my complain about these ones is that I can't remove either one of them. Deathstroke got these orange shoulder pads; the one shoulder pad has this big fat ammo pack molded on top of it while the rest goes right around his chest and back. Like his ammo pack, Deathstroke's assault rifle looks pretty much on a larger scale- he's like holding a bazooka! But other than that, his head sculpt and body mold are totally rad.

The paint application on both these figures are flat and solid yet neat and almost precise. I like how they used the appropriate type of paint for each. For example, Green Arrow's bow is painted with a glossier green contrary to his matted uniform, and Deathstroke's bulletproof vest is brushed with a silver gray paint. There are obviously no colour shading or any complex colour details on these guys just like in the case of those other brands of 3.75 inch action figures.

Both Green Arrow and Deathstroke have articulations that are completely the same. Their body molds may be different and deceive you to thinking that the other one is more articulated than the other, but they're all alike. Deathstroke's articulation, however, is being hindered by his "stuff"- he can't raise his arms way high because of these shoulder guards and neither his ab crunch can move to its full potential because of this ammo pack! But with Green Arrow, you can almost utilize every single parts of his articulation given to them.

Green Arrow and Deathstroke have heads that can rotate 360. They got ball-hinged shoulders, bicep swivels, single-jointed elbows, wrist twists, diaphragm swivel, ab crunch, ball-jointed hips, lower thigh swivels, double-jointed knees, mid-calf swivels, and ankle hinges with no ankle pivots. I think it's a fairly good amount of articulation.

Now, the moment we've been waiting for- size comparison! ...With special guest, Marvel Universe Classic Iron Man! If you're thinking of getting these figures just to have them displayed together with your Marvel Universe collection, then just forget it, man! These two midgets just looked like their lost. What I mean is they're not compatible with any MU figures, and what's more surprising is that Deathstroke here is smaller compared to Green Arrow, and I know this guy stands a hell alot taller than the green archer. Like I've said, I purchased this two-pack set because of this one guy here but other than that, I usually tend to ignore those 3.75-inch action figures whenever I see them around. But if you're someone unlike me, I would recommend these two action figures just cause they look well-detailed and modern with some decent articulation.