What’s up, everybody, it’s DrunkWooky here back with another Action Figure Review. Today I’m taking a look at the Mezco One:12 Collective Commissioner James Gordon with Bat Signal Mezco Summer 2019 Exclusive. This pack, like a lot of Mezco online exclusives sold out relatively quickly after pre-orders opened up and is, unfortunately now only available through places like Ebay where the prices are all made up and everybody loses.
Now, at retail price, about $125.oo plus shipping, this figure is a whole lot of bang for your buck! You’ve got James Gordon, who comes complete with a walk-talkie, pistol, badge, bullet-proof vest, raincoat, two head sculpts and a four interchangeable hands! Gordon also comes with a analog wristwatch that I’m pretty sure is supposed to say “One:12” like the Gomez one, but mine is a little off-center so it says something like “2:22”. This is still a nice Easter Egg I like seeing in Mezco figures, regardless of the askew nature of Gordon’s watch face.
Then you have the Bat Signal which is articulated so that the base rotates and the lamp itself swivels. The Bat Signal even has an operational lever on the side that needs to be flipped in order to turn on (that’s a pro tip because I was convinced mine was broken until I accidentally flipped it). The Bat Signal actually projects the Bat Symbol and makes for a nice piece of ambiance when posing Gordon. Then, on top of all that, it comes with the cardboard rooftop diorama pictured above! Now, this isn’t the most convincing diorama you could opt for, but it gets the job done and is great as a toss in for this package!
Above retail price (read Ebay prices) it’s hard to say if this is worth it. I have nothing bad to say about this figure, but prices are creeping above $200 now. There is also the less concrete factor to consider: how much is it worth to you to pose your Mezco Batman on the rooftop with Gordon and the Bat Signal? That could get you over the edge into $200 range quick.
As always, I tend to write in long form, so use the fancy dancy headings below to navigate your way around!
Packaging:
The exterior slipcase box is a nice depiction of Gotham City from the perspective of the Bat Signal rooftop presented in two tones of blue with flashes of yellow. Some of the yellow windows and the Bat Signal and Gordon’s glasses on the smaller side panels of the box are actually die cut to expose the yellow beneath. The two side panels have some nice atmospheric art depicting Gordon waiting rooftop. The back is actually a photo of the product itself with a simple filter over it. That part is probably the least appealing part of the box, but it gets the job done.
Beneath you have a yellow and black depiction of the same Gotham rooftop scene with branding. The whole box is about the size of a large shoe box, like some basketball high tops of something. The yellow interior box has two round stickers closing the flap that need to either be removed or cut to get into the box. I cut them because I’m a mindless bear. Wookiee.
Inside, the Bat Signal is neatly tucked away, surrounded in 360 degrees of foam and Gordon is in the standard plastic slip tray without any tape or tie-downs of any significance to hinder getting to the figure. You will have to tear some plastic bags to get to Gordon’s bullet proof vest and jacket, making this not entirely collector friendly, but pretty close.
Sculpt
As I mentioned before, Gordon comes with two alternate head sculpts. They bother differ slightly in sculpt and paint application. The left head sculpt is a much younger Gordon with less wrinkles, dimples, and gray hair. The right has more of all of those features. The head photographs well and at each angle looks like the Jim Gordon I know and grew up with. Like many One:12 Collective figures, this is less of an exact replica of any particular iteration of Gordon and more of an amalgamation of the sum total of Gordons from his different appearances in cartoons, comics, and film. What you end up with is a Gordon who appeals to just about everybody regardless of what their pet nostalgia happens to be. I prefer the right-most head sculpt because the added features and gray paint make it more interesting to me. This is a preference area, though.
Each of Gordon’s accessories has a high level of detailing in the sculpt and provide relatively little to complain about. For example, there’s nothing you can read on Gordon’s badge, but it gives the impression of all that detail actually being there if you were to get that close. The pistol has all the necessary bevels, grooves, grips, textures and shapes and the hammer even slides back if you want to pose it firing with the muzzle blast. Speaking of the muzzle blast, this is cast in a nice two-tone translucent plastic that is now standard fare for Mezco. It’s not completely realistic, but stylistically consistent with Mezco and looks pretty great under close scrutiny. There’s even a tiny silver slug at the end. Gordon’s hands are each sculpted with the requisite amount of detail in the fingers, palms, and back of the hands. Where the fingers aren’t truly individual, the sculpting at least gives the impression. The fine sculpting continues all the way down to the shoes which give the impression of a well-worn pair of black leather shoes Gordon has had since he was a gumshoe. There’s a properly scaled heel on both and some grips on the sole.
Articulation
When it comes to articulation on Gordon, he’s a bit limited by his slacks and dress shirt. Anybody with a desk job will know that this is true in real life as it is at the twelfth scale. This is somewhat acceptable because this ain’t no Spider-Man and Gordon isn’t ninja-trained like Batman. What he has is a lot of expressive range of motion with some limited ability to get into some action poses. When attempting a cross-body two-handed pistol grasp, he was stopped just short by his articulation. As you can see from the pictures below, though, he can get into some decently deep stances.
The neck is a single ball joint at the base of the neck and I feel like Mezco could include a second ball joint at the top of the neck/bottom of the skull to add more expressive swivel and tilt. The elbow joints are still single swivel joints that don’t allow too much more than a 90 degree angle at the elbow. You get a little bit of tilt at the waist and the hips and knees provide you as much range of motion as his slacks will allow. The pictures below were about as far as I wanted to take him without fear of tearing his butt seam.
Paint
The paint application on Jim Gordon comes down to his head sculpt and accessories. The head sculpt has clean paint applied to the gray hair and black glasses without smudging or painting outside the lines. Accessories such as his pistol and walkie-talkie essentially have a silver wash giving some depth to the raised portions of the sculpt and this effect works well. The badge is a simple black sculpt with gold paint on the emblem. Gordon also has a silver buckle applied crisply.
Accessories
I’ve already discussed the sliding hammer on the pistol above. Let’s start with a discussion of Bat Signal. That’s why we’re all here right?
In terms of sculpting, the Bat Signal is a large imposing piece of machinery that sizes up properly with Gordon and looks interesting from all angles. This is not a high tech piece of machinery, just a really high-powered search light. Every side of the Bat Signal scultping has interested grooves, divots, wires, levers, and rivets. There’s a tarnished silver wash over the entirety that fives the casing a weathered look. There are also some small yellow and red but When it comes to articulation, the signal rotates at the base and swivels at the top of the two arms holding the lamp. The wires connecting the different points are made of a softer plastic that bends with the movement of the signal. There’s an additional point of articulation on the lever which is actually required to turn the light on (in addition to the on/off switch on the bottom of the base of the Bat Signal.
The lamp projects a nice bat signal onto nearby surfaces, if not a little blurry around the edges. The light of course gets a little weaker and blurry as it makes its way across the room and won’t really provide a bat signal beyond ten feet.
Another interesting feature to note is that Gordon’s radio mouthpiece connects to his chest with a small magnet in both the figure and the mouthpiece. The radio itself along with the pistol holster, and badge all connect to Gordon’s belt securely through properly sized pegs and holes int he belt.
The number of interchangeable hands offered with Gordon is not the main selling point. He has six total hands that provide just enough variety for him to hold his walkie-talkie while looking like he’s pressing the mic button, present his badge out front, wield a pistol, and otherwise pose pensively on the rooftop.
Gordon’s bulletproof vest slips on nicely over his arms without too much bother. At least less bother than my kid gives me changing her outfit. As is true of the rest of Gordon’s soft goods outfit, the vest has straight stitches and nice details like pouches and straps, together with the GCPD logo on the back. Of course, the zipper pull is slightly too large for the scale, but this is nothing new from Mezco and is now somewhat part of their style and charm.
As you can see from some of the pictures above, the belt on Gordon’s raincoat actually flows quite well. That’s because it has a wire inside of it allowing for some wind-swept action poses. The rest of the jacket is absent of wires but falls well around his body to complete most poses and look natural. The collar can either be worn down or flipped up against the wind. The one disappointment is the lack of pockets for Gordon to shove his fists into while bracing against the rain.
Now, what’s missing? Gordon has an ongoing battle with cigarettes. This figure would have just been perfect if a cigarette of some description (smoking, pack, or in-hand) we included. But that’s just icing on the cake. I mean, you have a Bat Signal for gods’ sake!
All-in-all Gordon is a great figure as either a companion figure to other DC Universe figures or as a standalone display piece. If this is your first Mezco One:12 Collective figure, it’s going to be awful tempting for that Bat Signal to kick off a whole line of DC One:12 Collective characters line up on your shelf. The only thing that would likely make you disappointed with this set up, honestly, would be overpaying on ebay. Try and haggle into a price below $200. $150 would be the sweet spot for what I think Gordon is worth without the scarcity in the mix.
That’s it for now! Thanks for reading! More later! DrunkWooky out!
