BatBricks/MrJBricks DCEU Martian Manhunter Review! (Patreon)

Hey cool! It sure has been a while since I’ve talked about a BatBricks fig! So long in fact that it seems they’re converted from PAD Printing to UV Digital and have even started to work on some collab projects!

Right off the bat, I love their eco-friendly packaging! No extra plastic or tape or shrink wrap to deal with! Just pop open the well sealed tin and he’s ready to go! :)

Also another cool and noteworthy praise before we even start talking about the figure was how BatBricks didn’t release this one as a pre-order! It was very minimal wait time for me (minus the nearly two-month shipping delay from Hong Kong of course...)

So double points for both of those aspects! Really nice stuff immediately out of the mailer.

But seriously let’s talk about this fig already!

Now you all know I’m not the biggest proprietor of UV Digital Printing, but this one... well I've got thoughts. I am a little frustrated with resellers that didn’t properly convey that it was a UV fig in their listings and with minimal photos and all that. I had a hunch with it’s price point being under $65, but still...

The head mold and custom cape are really what sells this fig for me. I’d like to think these were the main contributions of MrJBricks. Now I don’t know for sure, but in the past BatBricks have had custom injection-molded elements with their figs. Those parts usually have that Lego-sheen and were never as matte as these parts are.

The head is very alien and unique where it could have just been printed on a standard head mold. The cape is also neat, though a little on the… how do I say “not so refined” side of things. It’s a fine shaped mold and the connection points around the claps and neck bracket all sit well and snugly… but it was dirty/dusty for one thing, and you can see in these photos how it’s not quite as polished from what could have been (little scuffs, a scrape on the bottom tip, irregular color in places). Its almost like it’s missing a layer of print or gloss or something to smooth out the rough edges.

The same can also be said about the head. You can see around the jaw area what looks to be possible molding press lines where the molding cast either wasn’t sealed properly during the plastic injection, or possibly where excess plastic was removed(?) It's a bit unclear.

So yeah, really cool ideas… just… well we’ve seen better from MrJBricks stuff.

Now talking about the figure itself! Design wise (and I’m pretty confident to think that this was all BatBrick’s now), is also pretty good. It’s got a similar design style to what we saw in the Snyder-Cut (not that a fully morphing CGI Character was going to be easy to translate to a static minifigure), but they did a solid job! 

But man, UV Prints dude… they just don’t have that same clarity that PAD has. You can see it down to the static-looking white speckles all over this dark blue. I’ve seen some really great UV Printers out there that really honed their craft to avoid the speckles like this (of course Onlinesailin comes to mind) and this fig could have really used a bit more of that quality refinement.

Also I’m a bit baffled as to why BatBricks decided to go with printing dark blue all the way down the legs. It very clearly cuts off at the boots and is a bit jarring. Like I said, that speckled nature of the UV Print really shows up in certain lighting, but just stands out even more when it’s printed over the plastic of the same color. Perhaps it was intentional to give the feet some shine? Who knows! …It’s just another odd production choice in a line of several I suppose.

Hmm… So I guess my final thoughts on this really comes down to the production of the fig. The aesthetic and design is really quite good! It’s just a shame it was made as mediocre as it was.

I’m sure BatBricks didn’t intend for this one to flop because I can totally envision this in a render looking SWEET! Though for this fig, the real-world production was just a big kick in the manhunters.