Movie Masters Joker

For reference, you can check out the original figure (as well as my review of it) here.

This was a no-brainer project, from the moment I got him I knew this was going to happen. I’m just surprised it took as long for it to happen as it did. I was really disappointed with the Joker figure after I got him, and he ended up sitting in the closet for a few months until after I finally saw The Dark Knight in theaters, at which point I decided it was time to upgrade the figure.

First off, I took an X-acto knife to his face, to deepen the lines and creases, the various bits around the forehead etc. THEN I took the soldering iron to his cheeks, and just added a touch more detail to the scars at the end of his smiles. It just really didn’t feel like Mattel did such a great job on that, although considering they were assuming children to buy this guy, and those scars are pretty scary, I can see why they underplayed it.

Next came the painting. He was almost entirely repainted, save for his pants which I mostly left alone other than some drybrushing to bring out the creases and details.

His jacket and arms were all repainted with a custom enamel purple base, and then built upon with multiple layers of lighter acrylic purples to bring out the highlights and details in the sculpt. Joker’s head was entirely repainted, his hair given a closer to dirty light green/yellow like the movie, with several layers and washes for effect, as well as dirtying up his white makeup, which was WAY too clean looking before. His lips were given multiple shades of red to highlight his new more horrific smile. His vest was painted with several layers of green, darker to light, to again bring out the details and also give it texture. His shoes were painted with a similar color to the original, but also drybrushed with a few coats of varying colors to dirty them up as well.

After all that, Joker was given 2 coats of Testors Dull Coat, to seal but also to give it a rugged flat look, as I felt the original figure was far too glossy and unnatural looking as it was.

Finally, I gave him a new supplement of weapons, and fixed up the one he came with. A new knife, painted and sealed, as well as a trick handgun are all part of the Joker’s new repertoire, with a possible few surprises still being worked on.

All in all, not a huge fan of the figure or the mold, but I think he at least looks a ton better than he did before.