Saturday, September 3, 2016

Not Hot Toys Bane but custom-made 1/6th scale Bane costume set from "The Dark Knight Rises"

This was part of my August 2016 haul (posted on my toy blog HERE)

Better late than never :) This is a custom-made 1/6th scale BANE Head and Costume set. It is based on the character of Bane portrayed by Tom Hardy in the 2012 superhero film "The Dark Knight Rises". Bane is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly as an adversary of the superhero Batman. Known for his mix of brute strength and exceptional intelligence, the character is often credited as being the only villain to have "Broken the Bat". Bane was also portrayed by the late Robert Swenson in the 1997 film "Batman & Robin".


In "The Dark Knight Rises", Tom Hardy's Bane ia a mysterious and physically imposing revolutionary who was excommunicated from the League of Shadows and portrays himself as a "liberator of pain". He is desperate to continue Ra's al Ghul's legacy by destroying Gotham. The character was chosen by Christopher Nolan because of his desire to see Batman tested on both a physical and mental level. Hardy intended to portray the character as "more menacing" than Robert Swenson's version of the character in Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin and that in order to do so, his portrayal entailed creating a contradiction between his voice and body. Hardy gained 30 pounds (14 kg) for the role and based Bane's voice on several influences, which include Bartley Gorman as well as a desire to honor the character's intellect and Caribbean heritage.

Scroll down to see all the pictures.
Click on them for bigger and better view.


The Custom-made 1/6th scale BANE Head and Costume set comes with: a leather-like brown jacket (trenchcoat), green combat vest, pair of grey military pants, pair of dark green combat boots, broken Batman mask / cowl,

The set does not come with a body and I chose the Kaustic Plastik 1/6 scale Athletik Muscle Body KP03B Caucasian version as it's more muscular and also 31 cm tall. I feel that bane has to be taller and bigger to be imposing and threatening. You can check out the action figure review of KP03B posted HERE and HERE. Tom Hardy stands around 5'9" / 5'10" (depending on the source) while Christian Bale is 6'0". Since Bane towers over Batman in height in the comics, special film techniques were used to make Hardy's stature and figure appear larger and imposing. In particular, three-inch lifts were added to Hardy's boots to make him equal in height to other tall characters.


Custom-made 1/6th scale Bane almost in full costume. The brown trenchcost has been left out at this moment in order to show off the unique style vest he wears as well as the weightlifter type belt around his waist. He holds the broken Batman cowl in his hand as a trophy of his vanquishing of Batman and breaking him, physically and mentally. Although this is not made by Hot Toys, the quality is pretty good and I'm quite pleased with it. I don't have the Hot Toys Movie Masterpiece Series MMS183 version of BANE for comparison but it holds up on its own and when posed with Hot Toys Batman (see pictures below), they look quite the pair, like they belong together.


Scroll down to see close-ups of the Bane head sculpt. One can't really tell if it's Tom Hardy under the mask because the mask almost covers his entire face. According to costume designer Lindy Hemming, the character wears a mask that supplies him with an analgesic gas to relieve pain he suffers from an injury sustained "early in his story". His mask inhibited the excruciating pain that agonized his body to bearable levels.


Bane's costume for the film is markedly different from his comic book counterpart who wears a Mexican wrestler's mask. In the film, his mask does not cover his full face, but rather his mouth, jaw, and his back head, with his eyes and brows clearly exposed. In the comic books, Bane has abnormal physical strength as a result of having undergone experiments involving a derivative of the drug Venom. But he needs to take it every 12 hours (via a system of cables pumped directly into his brain) or he would suffer debilitating side-effects. Hence the mask and tubes.


Check out the close-up pictures taken of 1/6th scale custom-made Bane action figure. All the nice details are there and it looks as good as the Hot Toys version, based on the prototype pictures released by Hot Toys. Great thing is the price which is way below what Hot Toys was charging.


Bane in full costume with leather-like brown trenchcoat worn over military grade armored vest, with a matching pair of combat pants complete with knee pads and boots.


Custom-made The Dark Knight Rises 1/6th scale Tom Hardy Bane figure standing side-by-side with Hot Toys Christopher Bale Batman. Full review of this Hot Toys Movie Masterpiece Series Deluxe MMS DX 02 Batman The Dark Knight 1/6th scale figure is posted HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE :)


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