NIGHTWING

BATMAN: THE CAPED CRUSADER (SPIN MASTER)

It’s been a good long while since I’ve looked at anything from Spin Master’s run with the DC license. The last things I looked at were from Black Adam. Man, my decidedly checked optimism didn’t pay off, did it? There were a handful of other movie lines from Spin Master, which I largely wound up skipping, but they’ve also been keeping their Batman comic line running steady the whole time. My main focus there is and always has been the Nightwings, and there’s a new one!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Nightwing is part of Spin Master’s on-going Batman: The Caped Crusader line.  I’ve fallen behind on the exact assortment breakdowns at this point, but his copyright info says 2023.  There was an Amazon 4-pack which had him packed with a Batman, Joker, and Robin variant, and this appears to be a single carded release of that same figure, which I’ve only just recently seen popping up.  The figure stands about 4 inches tall and he has 17 points of articulation.  The articulation scheme is the same one we’ve been seeing since Spin Master took over the license, and it’s honestly not a bad set-up, so why fix what’s not broken?   While the first few Spin Master Nightwings were all built from the same parts, this one has an all-new sculpt, which is based on Dick’s look from the “Future State” event.  It’s actually a pretty fun tweak on his classic blue and black design, and certainly a very toyetic choice.  The sculpt itself is a lot more refined than the prior Nightwing piece, with sharper details and more balanced proportions than earlier figures, more like the movie figures I looked at.  Nightwing’s paint is rather basic.  His boots (and entire lower leg, for that matter) are just molded in blue, which isn’t right, and there are definitely some other sculpted elements that go unpainted, but he’s generally not a bad set-up, given the style and price point.  One noted change-up from earlier Nightwings is that Spin Master’s cut the basic accessory count down from three to two.  He gets one escrima stick and one night-a-rang.  Honestly, I’d have preferred to loose the night-a-rang for a second stick, since he’s oddly balanced with just the one.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve generally fallen out of the Spin Master stuff, especially with the trend more towards just Batman and movie stuff.  That said, I did see the four pack with this guy on Amazon, and passed because I just didn’t really want the other three.  I was pleasantly surprised to happen upon the single release while out running errands.  He’s a very cool little Nightwing figure.  He’s basic, but as with the other Spin Master figures, he’s very fun.