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So another Hot Toys Movie Masterpiece figure finally came out, and, as is my nature, I simply had to get it. This time, Hong Kong collectible figure maker Hot Toys came out with a version 2.0 to their highly popular Dark Knight Joker figure. Interestingly enough, the first Hot Toys Movie Masterpiece item I ever bought was the Bank Robber version of the Joker, so it seemed fitting that the moment the new Joker figure was announced, I immediately pre-ordered (seriously one of the only ways you can actually be assured to get one at this point… And even then, sometimes your order can get cancelled due to short supply) one for myself.

Like always, Hot Toys has delivered a quality product. The Joker is one of the few 1/6 scale figures I've seen that wears a shirt, a vest, a coat, and an overcoat and doesn't end up looking extremely bulky or losing pretty much all of its mobility. This leads to some difficulty in removing or putting said clothing back on the figure, but considering how awesome the figure looks, it's a low price to pay.
The face of the Joker is pretty much a spot on likeness of Heath Ledger's portrayal of the character: dark, eerie, and sinister. This is pretty much a no-brainer, since Hot Toys has been getting it right since 2008. The moveable eye feature is present again, which leads to a whole range of possibilities in terms of poses you can give the character. It's fascinating that no matter what position you put the eyes in, the Joker still manages to remain menacing and scary.

As for differences when compared with the Hot Toys Joker 1.0 figure, the police uniform and no-makeup head have been excluded, as has the in-jacket grenade bundle. Instead, the figure comes with an interrogation room setup: a replica table and chair, and a 3-wall backdrop.

The table has authentic-looking scuff and scratch marks on it, and even includes a little hole where you can stick a tiny pencil in it to recreate the Joker's disappearing pencil trick.

All this makes for a really fun and cool setup. When setting things up to take pictures, I found myself quoting lines from The Dark Knight. I even took my Batman figure down from his post and starting setting up scenes from the movie.

Now, no figure is without its flaws, but to be honest, there were surprisingly few to mention with the Joker 2.0 figure. One relatively big one was that the figure comes with 2 shoe knives, but despite what the instruction booklet says, the blades can't be inserted into the Joker's shoes, rendering them useless. This was only a minor annoyance, however, since everything else about the figure was so cool I stopped caring after about 5 seconds. Otherwise, the only real complaints I could find had nothing to do with the figure itself, but were the fact that 1: the replica table lamp didn't have a built-in LED for added effect, and 2: that the interrogation room setup did not come with a floor.

The Joker 2.0 figure comes with the above mentioned interrogation room set, 3 guns (automatic pistol, shotgun, and machine gun), handcuffs, bills and joker cards, 2 knives, 2 (useless) shoe blades, a pencil (I laughed), a vegetable peeler (I laughed even harder), 7 pairs of interchangeable hands (4 gloved, 3 naked), an interchangeable creepy-as-hell laughing expression head, and a light-up stand. Altogether a very satisfying package.

As of writing this article, the Joker 2.0 figure is on pre-order in the West through Sideshow Collectibles.

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