aka "Dang it Mattel, Part 2"

Now, I can and will continue to harp on Mattel for going the lazy route on the 3.75" figure line, but once you get past the stupid articulation, they actually did a serviceable job on the "Dark Knight Rises" figures. Batman and Catwoman are pretty well detailed, and even Bane looked decent once I gave him a proper paint job. That said... "The Dark Knight" toys aren't exactly on the same level. Joker here was luckier than his fellows and ended up with a decent body sculpt, but the head sculpt was so laughably un-Ledger like that the figure has been an embarrassment to me ever since I stupidly bought the thing. It doesn't even work from a "Toony" perspective, because the features aren't exaggerated enough for him to actually look like a cartoon character.

So yeah, the head had to go. Back when I started setting up for this series of customs, I commissioned several head shrinks from Glassman, using the sculpts from Mattel's Movie Masters line of figures. I then removed the original abomination of a head as well as the neck joint and replaced it with a brand new ball joint and sculpted the new neck around it.

(Also, quick shout out to JeddTheJedi for catching the slop on Bane's neckline... I was in a rush to finish the final touches and get him photographed, and completely dropped the ball on cleaning up the collar. I still need to touch up the right shoulder, but it's far cleaner then it was when I posted it.)