Tag Archives: Batman (2003)

#3689: Martial Arts Batman

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

MARTIAL ARTS BATMAN

BATMAN (MATTEL)

Back in 2003, there was a huge change-up in the world of super hero toys, as the DC license passed from Hasbro (who had inherited it when they had fully absorbed Kenner at the end of the ’90s) to Mattel.  While Mattel had focused decidedly less on the action figure market for a lot of the ’90s, in the early ’00s, they’d relaunched their in-house brand Masters of the Universe, with former McFarlane sculptors the Four Horsemen doing the sculpts.  Having netted the DC license, they launched a line of Batman figures, also primarily sculpted by the Four Horsemen.  McFarlane sculptors on DC figures?  It’ll never work….

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Martial Arts Batman was one of a whole plethora of Batman variants present for the launch of Mattel’s Batman line in 2003.  While the standard Batman (dubbed “Zipline”), Robin, and Joker all flew off shelves, the Bat-variants were less speedy.  The figure stands 6 inches tall and he has 12 points of articulation.  While the articulation scheme’s nothing to write home about these days (or even when the figures were new, considering they were contemporaries of Spider-Man Classics and Marvel Legends), it was actually a pretty nice step up from what we were typically seeing from Hasbro before the license transferred.  All of the Bat-variants were sculpted by the Four Horsemen, centered around the core sculpt done for Zipline Batman.  It’s a solid starting point, being a clean and rather “generic” take on the then current Batman design.  The iconography definitely holds up.  Each of the variant figures got their own little selection of unique parts, which, in the case of Martial Arts Batman, was the hands, feet, and belt.  The belt and hands would also see re-use for the Batman packed in with the Nightwing figure later the same year.  Generally speaking, the parts aren’t bad.  They match well with the core body pieces, and the general “martial arts” vibe is captured decently enough.  The wrappings on the hands, in particular, are pretty cool.  Also, in keeping with a theme that the Four Horsemen were very insistent on early in the line, he’s got the little bat-symbol on the bottom of his feet, which is a pretty nifty little bit.  His paint work is…odd.  They saddled him with a lot of maroon, as it’s the base color of his suit for some reason.  There’s some black, of course, but he’s also quite reliant on gold for the accents.  It’s a weird set-up.  I’m also not entirely sure how I feel about the bare hands under the wraps.  The application is at least pretty clean, so he’s got that going for him.  He’s packed with a bladed staff thing which can split into two, as well as a wrist mounted bladed thing.  Look, it’s all very technical, but there are a number of things, and they’re all rather martial arts-y, I guess?  I mean, I guess they’re at least kind of nifty.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Hasbro’s last few years on the DC license were rough.  Mattel gaining the license was a breath of fresh air….until the product actually hit.  This line is a great example of that, being a perfectly fine line, while also being more or less indistinguishable from what Hasbro was doing a year before.  I didn’t get a ton of these figures when they were new, and this one in particular is a rather recent addition to my collection…relatively speaking.  He came into All Time a few years ago, and his package was such that he was going to wind up in the loose figure bin anyway, so I snagged him, because why not.  He’s fine.  Nothing amazing or anything, but fine.  He’s got a good sculpt at the very least.

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.

Flashback Figure Friday #0008: Robin

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Flashback Friday Figure Addendum and tagged with , , , , ,

Hey, look at that, I missed another Friday.  Last week was pretty jam-packed, and I barely had the time to right Friday’s main review, much less a second feature.  Nevertheless, I apologize to all of you who were expecting one of these last week!

This week’s Flashback Friday Figure Addendum is actually less an addendum, and more me going back and finally writing a proper review for #0166: Robin.  Why?  You’ll see in a second.

Okay guys and gals, hang on tight. The site is about to go off! No, not like “off” off. It’s still gonna be here. It’s going off in a metaphorical sense, because today, we’ll be looking at one of the greatest entries into the world of action figures ever.

This figure hails from the very first Batman line released once Mattel had picked up the DC license. I know I’ve been hard on Mattel in the past, but it’s only because I’ve been trying to hold them to the standards they set for themselves so early into their run. You see, this Batman line was important, but not for the ways you think. Oh, sure the Batmen were cool and all (especially those sweet neon colored gun-toting variants!), but the real star of this line was Robin! So, let’s have a look at the greatest toy to ever grace shelves!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Robin was the flagship figure of the first series of Batman. He was the real heavy hitter of the wave, there so that Mattel could take chances on the Joker and Martial Arts Batman. He stands about 5 inches tall, and has 10 points of articulation, which may seem like a low number, but they had to take that awesome sculpt into account. Speaking of that awesome sculpt: has Robin ever looked this cool before? I mean, they really out did themselves. I’ve always found that a bad head sculpt can ruin a great figure. In this case, Mattel has wisely chosen to leave off the head so as to avoid any potential issue. This is the first time I’ve ever truly believed that Robin could make people think he’s anyone other than Tim Drake. I mean, Tim Drake has a head and Robin doesn’t. Can’t be the same guy! I’d also love to commend Mattel on the body sculpt, which perfectly captures Robin’s physique. I mean, those muscles are so realistic! And the torso’s straight posture coupled with the relaxed muscles everywhere else? Perfection. I’m heartbroken to say that I lost the accessories included with Robin. He had his ever present Blade-Shield thingy with his logo on it, which was such an important staple of the character at the time. It even launched discs! Who doesn’t need one of those?

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I knew as soon as I saw the prototype pictures of this figure back in 2003 that it was going to be the figure to own. So, naturally, I spent all my time searching for this figure at every nearby store, day and night. Eventually I found one, and after sucker punching a four year old and his grandmother to get it, finally the figure was in my possession!

Yeah, so this was my first April Fool’s Day post.  It’s almost quaint, isn’t it?  This review was more a joke thing than anything.  Now a days, I’d have written the review both ways, but the figure was quite incomplete at the time.  Since I finally found this guy’s freaking head, I guess I can actually review him now!

The figure, officially titled “Battle Board Robin,” was released in the first series of Mattel’s 2003 Batman line.  Robin stands about 6 inches tall and has 11 points of articulation.  The main hook of this line at the time was that they’d brought in the Four Horsemen (who had just helped Mattel relaunch Masters of the Universe) to sculpt most of the figures, including the Bat-variants.  There was one exception to this in the first series.  Care to guess who it was?  Yep, it was this here Robin figure, which was handled by Mattel’s in-house team.  In their defense, it’s actually a decent enough sculpt.  It doesn’t look quite as good as the  prototype did, but what figure does?  His muscles are sort of impossible, and I’ve always disliked how stiff he was, bit there are some nice things about the sculpt.  The boots in particular look pretty solid.  But how about that head that I finally found after all these years?  Well, full disclosure: the reason it was missing when I found him was because I had fully intended to replace it with another one.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t particularly good at sculpting at 12, so the replacement I made wasn’t much better.  Ultimately, this one’s okay, but not my favorite Robin head.  I think it’s got a lot to do with the hair, which just doesn’t really look like anything Tim ever sported.  Also, still missing from the figure is his cape.  It was just two pieces of fabric glued together, and was too thick and short to actually hang realistically.  It’s kind of exhibit A of why I prefer capes to be sculpted.  In terms of paint, this figure was fairly basic colors.  For some reason the gloves are black.  Don’t know why, never did.  The accents on the muscles and some of the other sculpted work actually weren’t standard to the figure; I added them around the time that I tried replacing the head.  I really wanted to salvage this figure for some reason.  His only accessory was his titular Battle Board, which was really just a disc launcher than he could also stand on.  It was an odd choice.

There’s actually not a particularly exciting figure regarding the acquisition of this figure.  He, Joker, and the basic (Zipline) Batman were all really hard to find when these figures started hitting stores.  I eventually found him at the KB Toys near where my family vacationed (I got him alongside some Star Trek: Nemesis figures.  Oh what a joyous day that was).  He’s not awful, but he’s also not super great.  The saddest thing is that Mattel never actually returned to this design for Robin (apart from an inaccurate repaint of the later DCUC figure), so this is the best there is from them.   

#0166: Robin

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

ROBIN

BATMAN (MATTEL)

 

This was my April Fool’s Day post for 2014.  The following is a proper review of the figure written March 24, 2017.  If you’d like to read the original post, go here.

The original version of this review was more a joke thing than anything.  Now a days, I’d have written the review both ways, but the figure was quite incomplete at the time.  Since I finally found this guy’s freaking head, I guess I can actually review him now!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The figure, officially titled “Battle Board Robin,” was released in the first series of Mattel’s 2003 Batman line.  Robin stands about 6 inches tall and has 11 points of articulation.  The main hook of this line at the time was that they’d brought in the Four Horsemen (who had just helped Mattel relaunch Masters of the Universe) to sculpt most of the figures, including the Bat-variants.  There was one exception to this in the first series.  Care to guess who it was?  Yep, it was this here Robin figure, which was handled by Mattel’s in-house team.  In their defense, it’s actually a decent enough sculpt.  It doesn’t look quite as good as the  prototype did, but what figure does?  His muscles are sort of impossible, and I’ve always disliked how stiff he was, bit there are some nice things about the sculpt.  The boots in particular look pretty solid.  But how about that head that I finally found after all these years?  Well, full disclosure: the reason it was missing when I found him was because I had fully intended to replace it with another one.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t particularly good at sculpting at 12, so the replacement I made wasn’t much better.  Ultimately, this one’s okay, but not my favorite Robin head.  I think it’s got a lot to do with the hair, which just doesn’t really look like anything Tim ever sported.  Also, still missing from the figure is his cape.  It was just two pieces of fabric glued together, and was too thick and short to actually hang realistically.  It’s kind of exhibit A of why I prefer capes to be sculpted.  In terms of paint, this figure was fairly basic colors.  For some reason the gloves are black.  Don’t know why, never did.  The accents on the muscles and some of the other sculpted work actually weren’t standard to the figure; I added them around the time that I tried replacing the head.  I really wanted to salvage this figure for some reason.  His only accessory was his titular Battle Board, which was really just a disc launcher than he could also stand on.  It was an odd choice.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

There’s actually not a particularly exciting figure regarding the acquisition of this figure.  He, Joker, and the basic (Zipline) Batman were all really hard to find when these figures started hitting stores.  I eventually found him at the KB Toys near where my family vacationed (I got him alongside some Star Trek: Nemesis figures.  Oh what a joyous day that was).  He’s not awful, but he’s also not super great.  The saddest thing is that Mattel never actually returned to this design for Robin (apart from an inaccurate repaint of the later DCUC figure), so this is the best there is from them.