UNDERCOVER BRUCE WAYNE

THE NEW BATMAN ADVENTURES (KENNER)

Secret identities are a fixture of the traditional super hero set-up, but when it comes to the merchandising fixture of said set-up, they aren’t the most exciting thing to put out there, which can prove a little bit tricky.  But, if the super hero’s popular enough, they might be able to leverage it.  So, Batman’s alter-ego Bruce Wayne?  Pretty safe bet.  Bruce was one of the earliest secret identity figures, as part of the Montgomery Ward-exclusive mail-away set done by Mego.  And, through the magic of media tie-ins, he got quite a few figures under the guidance of Kenner as well.  Here’s the last of those!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Undercover Bruce Wayne was part of the second run of Kenner’s The New Batman Adventures tie-in line in 1998.  He was the other notable “new” figure alongside last week’s Creeper.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and has 5 points of articulation.  The figure’s sculpt was based on Bruce’s updated, slightly more suave look from TNBA (which was subsequently carried over into Justice League and Justice League Unlimited), so the sculpt was a complete departure from earlier animated Bruce figures.  It was a totally unique offering, though it would be repainted twice, once for the Return of Joker line, and once for one of Hasbro’s four-packs.  The head is a spot-on recreation of Bruce’s show design, and just generally a strong offering.  Below the neck is a different story.  Much like the Superman: The Animated Series Quick Change Superman, the desire for some sort of a quick change feature means that the civilian guise sort of takes on some adjustments.  In Bruce’s case, he gets an overcoat over his standard suit and tie.  It’s generally not a terrible look (sculpturally, at least; I’ll discuss it more in the color work section), though it’s perhaps a bit bulky.  The whole coat piece is an overlay, which can be removed revealing a variation on the Batman suit beneath.  There’s some interesting touches, like the boots having a double cuff thing going on, so that they can look like suit pants when the coat is in place.  In terms of color work, there are some definite choices here.  There’s some more minor stuff, like he’s a bit more pale than on the show, and also lacks his rather distinctive blue eyes from the redesign, but by far the strangest thing is the decision to make the overcoat a bright red color, which feels out of place (Kenner for some reason liked to tie Bruce to red; the original animated line Bruce to Batman and the Mask of the Phantasm Decoy Batman both also use a lot of red), especially because the Batman suit ends up being predominantly red as a result.  The Return of Joker variant made it even worse, shifting it to a neon orange, but the four-pack version swapped it for grey, which was far more appealing shade.  Bruce was packed with a cape/cowl combo, a pair of armored gauntlets, and a weird secret identity shield thing.  The cape and cowl are nice, but the gauntlets are kind of clunky, and I don’t even know what the point of the shield is, but I also kind of like it.  There was even an extra selection of identities printed on the cardback, which you could clip and slide over the standard decal.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I had a real want for this figure when he was first released, and I remember putting a lot of effort into getting one.  It was, I believe, after my birthday, and I’d gotten some “Geoffrey Dollars” (Toys “R” Us’ pre-cursor to gift cards), so I remember going to a bunch of TRUs and only finding Creeper, but none of this guy.  I finally ended up finding him at a different store, so I couldn’t use the Geoffrey Dollars, but my parents spotted me the actual cash, and I guess I used the Geoffrey Dollars for something else.  He’s goofy, but also the best version of Bruce that Kenner did during their tenure.  Bright red overcoat aside, he’s honestly not bad.