POSE STRIKING DIE FLEDERMAUS 

THE TICK (BANDAI)

Okay, so the Tick’s catchphrase is “Spooooooooooon!” and Arthur’s is “Not in the Face! Not in the Face!” but what is Die Fledermaus’s?  Presumably something about leaving town for a week when danger rears its head.  One of the things that Ben Endlund talked about in his discussions of the production of the Tick cartoon was the need to introduce a more colorful cast of supporting players.  A lot of the effort went into creating super villains (who are largely not a thing in the early days of the comics), but there’s a notable cast of recurring heroes as well.  Die Fledermous, who’s name is the German word for “bat,” is a wholly original character with no similarities to any other masked super heroes owned by any other comic companies, in case you were wondering.  He got one single figure during the show’s run, which I’m taking a look at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Pose Striking Die Fledermaus was released in the first series of Bandai’s The Tick tie-in line.  While most of the main cast were present in both the standard 5-inch line and the smaller 2 1/2-inch figurine line, Die Fledermaus was notable for only being in the larger scale line, making this figure his only toy.  The figure stands about 5 1/4 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Die Fledermaus, due to Bandai’s odd approach to scale, winds up as one of the tallest figures in the line, which isn’t quite accurate to the source material.  At least he was taller than Arthur.  The figure’s sculpt was unique to this release.  Die Fledermaus’s design isn’t a super complex one, but this figure notable takes an even more bare bones approach, with a sculpt that’s rather rudimentary.  The head’s quite a nice piece of work, at least, and is ultimately the best thing about it.  The mask is well defined, and there’s a clearly uneasy expression under the mask that feels very true to the character.  His body sculpt is rather lanky and tubular, which doesn’t quite feel right for Die Fledermaus, who, while not as bulky as the Tick, was usually shown as being of a moderate build.  He’s got very basic articulation, and a lot of what’s going on is worked into his “Pose Striking” action feature.  When you push up the lever on his back, his arms raise outward.  This is coupled with a cloth cape (which unfortunately lacks the more distinctive shaping at the top that it had in the show) allows him to “dramatically” flair the cape outward.  Unfortunately, it’s a very basic feature, and has no real way of locking in place, so it’s just sort of unimpressive.  Die Fledermaus’s color work once again falls into that “basic” realm, though this is one area where it’s really appropriate.  The application of paint’s generally good here, and he’s an okay match for the show.  The only downside is that he’s a victim of a line-wide issue, where his torso yellowed over time, and doesn’t quite match his limbs.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I missed the vast majority of Bandai’s The Tick run when it was new.  My freshman year of college, I decided I wanted to try to fix that, and ultimately bought a bunch of the smaller scale line, only to discover that there was no Die Fledermaus in that run.  Shortly after, I found this figure, and no other Tick figures, still sealed at an antique store, so I bought him.  And then, 15 years later, I got the Arthur figure I reviewed last week, which prompted me to retrieve this figure, still sealed, from my parents’ house, and finally open him.  I think he may hold a record for amount of time I’ve owned a figure without opening them.  And why?  I couldn’t tell you.  I just didn’t do it.  Now I have, and, well, I can’t say he’s an amazingly impressive figure, but also I can’t say I dislike him in the slightest.  He’s silly, but he’s fun, and I’m glad to finally have gotten the chance to recognize that.