BATMAN BEYOND

DC UNIVERSE CLASSICS (MATTEL)

FiQ Fun Fact #0026:  While he started as a purely animated character, Batman Beyond has had 12 different non-animation based figures.

DC Universe Classics launched with a lot of weirdness when it came to distribution, and not helping things early on was the closure of KB Toys, one of the few stores consistently carrying the line’s earliest assortments.  Their closure coincided with the fourth series of the line, a fact I vividly recall because they were actually amongst the very last things I bought from KB.  Well, most of them, anyway.  There was one figure I missed, largely because he was far and away the most popular figure in the set.  And that figure?  Batman Beyond.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Batman Beyond is part of the aforementioned Series 4 line-up of DC Universe Classics.  There were actually two different versions of the figure available, a standard and a KB Toys-exclusive unmasked release.  The standard was also meant to get a re-release under the planned DC Universe All-Stars line, but that was scrapped when All-Stars was rejected by retailers.  So, just the one release on this guy.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 23 points of articulation.  He’s based on the medium-sided male body, which honestly seems a bit too large for Terry, who was just a teenager most of the times we saw him.  At this point in the line, however, the only smaller body was the one used for Sinestro, which would have made him really short as well, so they just did the best they could, I suppose.  Admittedly, the whole line seemed a little bulked up relative to their usual looks, so it wound up being more a stylistic change-up than anything.  Terry got a new head, forearms, and belt piece.  They all match-up well enough with the base body pieces, and make for pretty decent “real world” takes on the Batman Beyond design.  It keeps the design fairly clean, which I definitely like, especially compared to other realistic updates to the look.  The color work on this figure is pretty cool.  They opted to make the black a glossy finish, which is a different choice, but one that very definitely works for the figure.  It makes him really pop out from the rest of the series, when he could otherwise get lost in the crowd.  Batman Beyond was packed with a single batarang, and the arm to the Despero Collect-N-Connect.  The batarang is an okay sculpt, but is for some reason silver.  I get not having the budget to do multi-colors, but either red or black would have made more sense, I feel.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

Back when KB was going out of business, I got the full set of these minus Terry.  I tried and tried, but one never made its way to me, so I just made due with my DC Direct Superman/Batman figure for a while.  In the mean time, I’ve been constantly searching for the perfect Batman Beyond for my collection, and I’ve just kept coming up shy on every figure.  Sometimes, you just have to go back to the beginning, I guess.  I finally got ahold of a loose one recently, and, well, here he is.  He’s a pretty by the numbers DCUC figure, but I honestly really like by the numbers DCUC figures.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.