Posts: 1631 Location: Rockville, IA Joined: 24.06.05
Due to the craze of Ledger's award-winning performance, eBay has seen a lot of Joker custom figures lately for both TDK and Jack Nicholson's version. In particular I've seen plenty of 1:6 scale "dolls," which may be due to the popularity of Hot Toys' amazing TDK series. Below are a couple recent auctions for figures ranging from awesome to ugly as hell.
1:6 Scale TDK Joker
The contrast of dull and bright colors on this reminds me of toys my mom would've had in the '50s and early '60s. If it was supposed to be stylized as a 1960s doll, kudos to the creator because it's quite creepy looking. I also love the cute poses he's placed in. But if this was intended to have a legitimately realistic design that stands alongside modern collector items, he did an awful job. $96 is steep, but apparently some people wanted this.
1:6 Scale TDK Nurse Joker
I simply don't understand how people can take so much time in recreating a character in figure form but miss fundamental elements. This figure has great detail on the wardrobe - even pink trim on the shirt. But where the hell did the black socks come from? The hair department lacks greatly too; thick green moss covers his head with a giant brown wig that looks like vintage April O'Neil. The teeth are primitively painted and the black "eye shadow" is far too clean with its jaggedness. This guy was filthy in the movie! How could we ignore that? Somehow this sold for over $150.
1:6 Scale 1989 Joker
This one has a combination of greatness and crappiness. Rather than using the old Joker head symbol seen on the Joker's van, he tried making one himself using his equally bad Joker head sculpt. Some great accessories ideas here; although, some look sloppily sculpted. The new head and wardrobe are impressive, especially the different hats. I was bugged at the staggering Buy it Now, but someone did bite after all. Apparently this guy made 50 of these, which could legally be a problem since I think that borders on mass production of an unlicensed item.
1:6 Scale '89 "foreign" Joker
This was made for Sovereign Studios, and whether or not it's actually foreign, this figure's stylization definitely looks unusual. The face and inaccurate colors make him quite unique. He has a special little charm about him, but he certainly doesn't stand up against Hot Toys quality. The current $24 seems normal if not low.
1:6 Scale 1989 Mime Joker
This is my favorite of the customs reviewed here. I've been wanting to make a "mime" Joker for TDKC myself. The sculpting and wardrobe are excellent. My one minor gripe would be the puffy gloves (maybe he could've just painted the hands white). The pants are puffy too, but I think they were like that in the film. It's so good there's not much else to say. $415 is very high, but I'm sure the winner will love displaying and playing with this figure.
Movie Masters Joker
From my observation, whenever people customize a Joker figure they usually go too light with the face paint. But this one goes so over the top it looks as though he used a kid's giant paint brush... or maybe just his thumbs. Thankfully no one's been dumb enough to buy this for $10.
I did see a cool MM repaint where a guy included a sidewalk base, brick background with Harvey Dent posters, and other items like a pizza box, dollar bills, and newspapers. That was a good Joker. There's plenty more stuff on eBay, like Hot Toys Joker head sculpts and even a dorky "Mrs. Joker" LEGO figure. But this list would never end if I went into all that.
RE: Joker Figure Customs: Good, Bad, and Ugly -
Posted on 02-02-2009 14:41
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