NIGHTWING — KNIGHTFALL

SUPER POWERS (MCFARLANE)

“Dick Grayson began his crime-fighting career as the original Robin—Batman’s protégé and crime-fighting partner. An expert acrobat and skilled fighter, Dick eventually left the nest and ventured out on his own as a new hero called Nightwing. His childhood experiences as a circus acrobat and trapeze artist make him extremely agile. He is a superior fighter and a highly skilled martial artist who has been personally trained by Batman. Nightwing is a keen detective, a natural leader, and a strategist with advanced knowledge of a variety of technologies.”

My first McFarlane Super Powers figure, which I reviewed over a year ago now, was Nightwing.  He was a figure I remarked wasn’t terrible, but which missed the mark of “Super Powers” by, amongst other things, putting Dick into a modern costume, rather than something more era appropriate.  Well, it’s okay, because they did another Nightwing, and he’s in an older costume.  Surely there will be no problems with this one, right?  Riiiiiight?  Look, let’s just get into the review, shall we?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Nightwing (Knightfall) was released in Series 5 of the McFarlane Super Powers line under the DC Direct banner.  He was accompanied in the line-up by a similarly Knightfall-themed repaint of the Tim Drake Robin figure from just a series prior.  So, here’s where we encounter our first problem: costume choice.  The last figure was in his modern costume, which didn’t exactly fit with the vintage line.  This one goes earlier, but it’s only a little bit earlier, since this one made its first appearance in 1992.  That would place the vintage of this design not with Kenner’s run, but honestly closer to, say, the Toy Biz run, continuing to add to my theory that Todd’s actually trying to homage the TB line, not the Kenner one.  The figure stands just shy of 5 inches tall and has 7 points of articulation.  We’re back again to the figure’s being too large, but that’s really because of the parts re-use, since he’s just a repaint of the Series 3 figure.  And here we are again with the problems.  See, if we’re throwing in the towel on an accurate costume choice for the line, can’t we at least get an accurate depiction of the costume we’re getting? Well, it would seem no.  The most glaring thing here is that there are two distinctive hairstyles associated with this costume: the mullet and the ponytail.  This sculpt is neither of those, and it robs the design of some of it’s punch.  I can forgive the body sculpt re-use, but couldn’t we at least get a new head?  His new paint is at least alright.  I dig the metallic color choices, which give him a rather nifty appearance.  Nightwing is packed with his eskrima sticks, now in black.  They’re also not really accurate to this costume, since he was pretty exclusively using the discs at the time, but this one I’ll let slide, because you could have just as well left him with no accessories.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This figure frustrates me immensely.  I got the first Nightwing, and I accepted him for what he was, but getting a second Nightwing who’s still in the wrong costume, and said wrong costume not even being done the right way seems downright insulting.  So, why’d I buy it?  It landed in front of me, it’s a Nightwing, and I’m week.  Honestly, I don’t hate him.  The choices are weird, but I still kinda find him fun.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.