Monday 18 June 2018

Neca Bat Gremlin (plus friends) Figure review

I mentioned (I think) in my recent Gremlins post that I had recently picked up the Bat Gremlin.

For what ever reason the image of a Gremlin sprouting bat wings really stuck with me when I saw the film as a kid. So when I first heard NECA where doing Gremlins figures I held out hope they'd produce this little fella, and when he was finally announced I knew I really had to have him!

He's a great figure and I'd highly recommend him to any fan of the film, he makes a great display piece.

For a change I thought I'd include a packaging pic. I'm not really a big "ooh the box" type of person, so I only took a quick picture on my phone. I do like how NECA went with a Gothic roof tile pattern on the box and a big open window display. Simple but cool.


Sculpt: I'm really happy with the sculpt overall. They've captured the look of the film very well. I love his littler features and smaller ears. I suppose his facial features are intended to capture the feel of a bats face and it's great to have that variety thrown into the mix, especially if you have a few of the NECA Gremlin figures. Just like his brothers before him, his entire body is sculpted in a way to make the articulation subtle and it works well once again.

The one thing that makes this guy stand out from the others is he's a much smaller Gremlin than his brothers. I mean excluding the wings of course, his body compared to Mohawk for instance is a couple of steps smaller. I'd probably say this is accurate to the film tbh so I don't have an issue with it. Just don't expect a huge hulking figure if you're thinking about buying him.


Paint: Another great result here, there's very little colour bleed and slop on the figure which can't always be avoided on a 'cheapish' mass produced figure.

He has a slightly darker and dare I say, boring colour scheme than the other Gremlins but obviously this is to match the films look, his eyes really stand out as bright red and yellow as a nice side effect to the muted colours though. His body has lots of spots and colour variation and his wings have a very well done colour wash applied across them that helps lift out all of the detail.


Articulation: He's not the most articulated figure I've come across but there's some nice areas to note. Firstly his ears can move which is something NECA seem to avoid usually. It helps you reproduce the look when the Bat Gremlin takes perch on the chapels roof in the movie. He also has an articulated mouth which could easily have been omitted.

The arms and legs have pretty basic ball and swivel joints that function good enough but overall don't allow a massive range of movement. I've said it previously but I'd sum it up as good but not great for all of these Gremlins. Perhaps with this one I'd say he suffers a little bit more than the others due to his smaller scale as mentioned before.

One area I would mark him down on however is those bloody wings. NECA opted for soft rubber with a wire insert which is clearly meant to allow you to 'pose' the wings. The trouble is that the rubber is quite thick and heavy and the wire that runs across the top of the wing is just too thin. The end result? Wings that cannot be posed. He's packaged with his wings folded in the box so when you lift him out he's stuck however he was boxed up. It took a good amount of warming the figure up and then cooling him down to try and get the wings to stay in any sort of decent pose. Even days after buying him his wings tended to return back to how they where when he was boxed. They really should have just gone with wings broken into two parts with simple articulation. 


Accessories: He comes with one accessory only: his stand. Thank god he did! Otherwise there's no way he'd be standing under his own feet. He has tiny feet and fairly thin legs, with the sheer weight of the rubber wings he'd topple over. The figure is a simple clamp type and works well. Just like Mohawk though, they could have perhaps thrown in a science beaker.

As a bonus I thought I'd throw in some pictures of previous Gremlins figures that I've picked up over the years. One of my regrets is not buying every figure in the series tut.






I'll be getting the Spider Mohawk figure soon enough and I can't wait. Look out for those pictures in the next couple of month :)











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