Review : Victor Zsasz, Gotham Select (Series 3, Diamond Select)

Review : Victor Zsasz Gotham Select (Diamond Select Toys) Wave/Series : Series 3 Released : November 2016

£19.99 - £22.99

While not one of the major bad guys in the Gotham story to date, Victor Zsasz is a memorable reoccurring character who now has his own 7" Diamond Select figure.

Victor comes in the Select blister pack, complete with impressive spine art of Anthony Carrigan who portrays Victor on screen. The Gotham art is darker and grimier than a lot of other Select ranges, but still stands out with the large Gotham bronze logo's and the backdrop made up of Gotham city lit up at night.

Round the back of the card is a full image of the figure you are about to open and to the side of this in white text is some background information for Victor and where he fits into the Gotham universe. Under this white text are images of the other two figures in this three figure series - Bruce Wayne and Barbara Kean.

Once open you will find Victor strapped into a perspex tray and to the left and to the side of Victor's head are a couple of hand options and two hand guns. To the left of the legs is a very undersized "dumpster" and slipped behind the tray is a grey brick work alley in two parts.

Lets look at Victor first who stands 7" high. The head sculpt does a pretty good job of representing Carrigan while not capturing his unique look completely. As we've seen more recently with Diamond there is a big improvement on the head sculpt and the paint job on top of this, with varying skin shades around the eyes and cheeks. The eyes are neat, but perhaps do not stand out enough - a strong feature of the actor.

Victor is a slim and gaunt figure and is dressed in a plain black suit. The jacket is a rubber cast on top of a dark blue shirt. There is no paint applications on either, but plenty of sculptural elements like buttons and creases. The legs are a little bow-legged and very slim. Victor is of course wearing tight skinny trousers, and even while tight the sculptors have still include the creases and folds particularly around the hem where they gather over his boots. The boots themselves are big and blocky and are even cast with a textured sculpted sole. He carries two peg holes, one in each foot, which if needed allows Victor to be popped onto a stand like a Protech or NECA stand.

Victor comes with two shooting hands which will hold the pistols he comes packed with. There is a second set of wider gripping hands and a third set of punching hands. These slot in and out really easily, and are also nicely sculpted with veins and tendon detail on the back of the hands. There are even rings sculpted and painted on the left hands of the fist and expanded grip - but weirdly not on the gun firing set?

The two guns are cast in a bright silver, and are identical. The grip is painted in a matt black. They will fit into either of the gripping hands, with the right one having the ability for the trigger finger to sit in the trigger.

Articulation is 16 points starting with a ball joined head. This is the first Diamond figure I've had that feels like the head is ratcheted, so it feels a lot tighter to turn and click satisfactorily each time you turn to left, right or upward.

There are then ball jointed shoulders, but despite the thin limbs of Victor these stick out too much for my liking. You can't get his arms down to his side, instead they are left in a wierd half in half out position. The shoulders do still allow the arms to be raised into a 90 degree shooting pose or rotated above his head. Following this is the rotating elbow which bends to 90 degrees and finally the hands are on pegs with a pivot.

There is a torso joint that is really well disguised under the coat and on the shirt. This allows the top half of the figure to twist to either side by a few cm's and also allows some lean forward.

Leg articulation starts with the t-joint hip that Diamond use on most Select figures. This allows the leg to rotate out and also swing to either side. While the coat tails blocks a bit of this, the movement is enough to kneel the figure if you wished to sit him down. There are thigh swivel joints which can help with standing the figure but like usual spoil the lines of the legs. The knees are double jointed and the figure ends with ankle rockers.

If you have sense of Déjà vu with the diorama packed with Victor Zsasz it's because its the same dumpster that dates back to the first Marvel Movie Select - The Origins Wolverine in 2009. It was also in promo images for the series 2 Harvey Bullock but never materialised in his diorama. This dumpster is sadly undersized and looks a bit off. The base section fares a little better. It is supplied in two parts which slot together. The base is a pavement with two drainage grids, while the back wall is grey brickwork with some external plumbing down the centre. Despite being a diorama base for the figure, it doesn't have any pegs for the figure. Nor does it stand high enough as a backdrop only reaching Victor's chest.

Victor Zsasz certainly is not the height of the Gotham Select range, but is in no way a disappointment. The sculpt is brilliant, but the figure is let down by some odd articulation round the way the arms sit and some bow legs. The base adds little value, and this may be a factor going forward in the rumour that Diamond may remove the diorama pieces from the Gotham figures, selling them as a single figure line only.