This one was actually a spur of the moment idea, although I think it panned out well. I wanted to make a version of Nightwing as he might appear in a Nolan-verse Batman film. One of the things I really wanted to do though was differentiate on his look from that of Batman’s. On one hand, there was the Bat suit, which as we all saw, was very armored looking and menacing. Nolan took the suit from the more fantasy driven, all powerful cloth appearance that was more than meets the eye, and made it into a more realistic suit. That’s what I wanted to do with the design for Nightwing.

Although others might disagree with me, I don’t think Blake would have donned the Bat suit had the Nolan story continued, at least not as it was worn as Batman. I like to think that he would have personalized it more for his own fight on crime. I tried to combine this thought with what we know about Dick Grayson to get a good effect. Obviously, he’s still wearing armor, and a fair amount of it, but not as much as Bruce. Blake wasn’t trained for years in different martial arts and so he wouldn’t use as much of a direct approach in combat situations, and we all know Grayson’s fighting style was more speed, acrobatics and finesse. As such, for this Nightwing, I pictured him more as a quick fighter who would trade the heavy armor in favor of speed, really only protecting his more vital areas.
As you can see, the overall design kept that Nolan-ish look, but gave it more a real world, tactical impression, which is what I was hoping to achieve.

Recipe:
Main body, head and undershirt- Hot Toys figure
Arms, pants, boots and armor vest: GI Joe Movie Ripcord
Escrima sticks: Evangelion tonfas