Tag Archives: Batman: The Animated Series

#4041: The Ventriloquist with Scarface

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

THE VENTRILOQUIST with SCARFACE

BATMAN (HASBRO)

“When paired with the puppet known as SCARFACE, mild-mannered ARNOLD WESKER becomes THE VENTRILOQUIST—one of Batman’s greatest criminal foes.  Wesker channels his dark side through his crime lord style dummy.  When the two are together, Scarface’s evil influence over his partner in crime is absolute.”

Since Batman: The Animated Series needed to fill out a syndication order’s worth of episodes, and its producers didn’t want to get too repetitive with the same few rogues, they had to delve into some of the lesser known villains.  In addition to revamping older villains (most famously Mr. Freeze), they also brought in a smaller number of newer foes.  One of the most recent choices at the time was The Ventriloquist, chosen because the producers felt he fit well with the pseudo period piece vibe of BTAS.  It aided the character’s recognition, and helped him become a rather memorable second tier rogue, appearing in multiple shows since BTAS wrapped up.  While not the most prevalent sort of character in terms of toys, he was one of the small handful of new characters introduced during Hasbro’s run with the license.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Ventriloquist with Scarface was released as part of the “Puppets of Crime” boxed set, released under Hasbro’s generic Batman line in 2002.  Arnold was noteworthy for being the only new figure in the set, which was otherwise re-packs.  The figure is just under 5 inches tall and has 4 points of articulation.  His articulation is really, really restricted, to the point that he’s effectively just kind of a statue.  There’s no movement in the legs, instead just a waist swivel, and while he’s got shoulder swivels, the posing of the arms means they get very little play.  You can sort of move his head back and forth, so that’s cool.  Also, without any leg movement, it can be a little tricky to find that sweet spot for keeping him standing.  His sculpt is based on his BTAS design, which is his more conventionally approachable look.  Generally speaking, it’s a good take on the look.  The head in particular is pretty on the mark, capturing Arnold’s reserved expression well.  The body sculpt’s got the crazy pre-posing going on which is odd.  I mean, the arms are sensible enough, since they’re meant for holding the Scarface puppet.  The legs, though, are weird in their wide stance and inward-pointing feet.  Maybe it’s supposed to be a balance thing, but it doesn’t quite work out.  In the show, he just stood with his legs together.  That, with maybe a display stand, would have gone a long way.  Also an odd is the coloring, which for some reason gives him a tan suit.  Why tan?  It’s not like it’s a particularly exciting color to shift to.  Maybe the tan plastic was cheaper.    The Ventriloquist was packed with Scarface, the most sensible possible accessory for him.  It’s a pretty good piece, nicely scaled to the main figure, and matching the show model.  Even the coloring’s not as wonky on him.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I somehow managed to miss all of the Ventriloquist and Scarface episodes of Batman when they aired, so I didn’t have much of an attachment to the character.  After the fact, I did find particular enjoyment in his lone TNBA appearance.  This figure (and the rest of the set he came from) actually was a Christmas gift to my brother in 2002, not me.  But, as a three-year-old, he had minimal interest in a guy in a suit, so this guy found his way into my collection.  He’s not the most play-worthy figure, but he’s still pretty cool, and surprisingly on the mark for a figure of this era for Hasbro.

#4037: Catwoman

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

CATWOMAN

BATMAN (HASBRO

“SELINA KYLE is a daring and strong-minded woman with a passion for cats.  As Catwoman, her headstrong ways often tempt her into reckless criminal behavior, but her morals have brought her into close cooperation with BATMAN more than once.  Knowing that her cat-like grace makes her the ideal burglar, Catwoman can’t turn down The Penguin’s challenge to purloin the prized Crest of Gotham City.  Catwoman’s weapons, a powerful whip and claw gauntlets, also serve as escape tools—but can they help her escape the Penguin’s insidious trap?”

When she first appeared as “The Cat” in Batman #1, Selina Kyle was unquestionably a villain, and would remain so for a good many decades after that, though she always maintained a flirtatious relationship with Batman, in the comics and other media.  By the ‘90s, the comics had started presenting Catwoman as more of an anti-hero, so in Batman: The Animated Series, Selina never serves as a proper antagonist to the heroes, more often then not an ally, at worst an unwitting pawn in a larger villain’s game.  It’s become kind of the defining take on the character, and honestly, good for her.  Selina’s no stranger to the toy game, but ultimately only got one proper figure during the Animated run, which I’m looking at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Catwoman was, like last week’s Robin, released in the 2001 “Revenge of the Penguin” boxed set, under Hasbro’s wider Batman banner.  She’s effectively just a re-release of Kenner’s original Animated tie-in figure from 1992, and she would see an additional (and truly identical) release from Hasbro in 2003’s “Girls of Gotham City” boxed set.  The figure stands 4 1/4 inches tall and has 5 points of articulation…or close to it.  She’s got a spring-loaded feature in her right shoulder, which brings it back down when you raise it, meant for use in conjunction with her included whip.  While visually unobtrusive, it means the shoulder doesn’t actually hold any poses, which is a bit of a bummer.  Beyond that, she’s got v-hips, which are never my favorite, and result in the figure being rather hard to pose.  The sculpt is the one originated by Kenner in 1992, and it’s…fine.  It’s not bad, but it’s a little more pre-posed than other figures from the same line, a little hard to get standing, and also she’s got a very stubby neck.  Stubby is honestly just a pretty good descriptor for her in general, and it’s not quite in keeping with her more slender frame from the show.  That said, all of the figures in the early run were a little stubby, so she’s not in the worst of company.  Catwoman’s paint work is a decent match for how she looked on the show, and unlike the Robin from the same set, she doesn’t get saddled with any really out there shades or color replacements.  The only notable thing here is that she’s a bit wall-eyed, which can look rather silly.  Her eyes are a darker shade of green than the original figure, one of two notable changes on this release.  Like her original release, Catwoman includes her whip, a pair off claw gauntlets, and a small figurine of her cat Isis.  Isis is black for this release, in contrast to the grey of the original.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The original animated Catwoman was totally gone from shelves when I started collecting, so my default version of her for many years was the Legends of Batman version, until I got this set for Christmas in 2001.  Robin was my main focus, but I remember being quite pleased to get a proper Catwoman figure as well.  She’s far from perfect, but she’s also far from bad, and I think there’s more to like than to dislike, whichever version of her you might get.

#4033: Robin

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

ROBIN

BATMAN (HASBRO)

“The son of gifted circus acrobats, DICK GRAYSON was left an orphan when a two-bit extortionist sabotaged his parents’ high-wire act.  Bruce Wayne, who lost his own family to a senseless crime, felt an instant connection to the boy and took him in.  Eventually, Wayne revealed his secret identity to the talented young man and made him his crime-fighting apprentice.  Now, as Robin, Grayson is a skilled and quick-minded fighter in his own right, and Batman’s most trusted comrade in justice.”

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve reviewed a proper figure of Dick Grayson as Robin.  Nightwing sure, but for Robin, we’re going back to 2021.  Heck of a jump.  For specifically the animated version, we’re talking about 2016.  Whole decade.  Anyway, 15 years before *that*, the DC license was still held by Hasbro, who were really just largely running on the remnants of what Kenner had done before, more or less just focussing on the Batman side of things until handing off the license to Mattel.  On the animated side, they did a lot of boxed sets, revisiting old molds and themes.  While predominantly focussed on the New Adventures era, there were a few The Animated Series figure mixed in as well, including today’s Robin figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Robin was released in the 2001 “Revenge of the Penguin” boxed set, under Hasbro’s wider Batman banner.  At this point, the bulk of the line was Mission Masters, but the boxed sets didn’t sport that title, rather just sticking with a rather generic “Batman.”  “Revenge of the Penguin” was a totally BTAS themed set, which was rare, sporting Robin, a Penguin I previously reviewed, Catwoman, and a wonky Batman variant.  The figure stands 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  He’s a total mold re-use of the Kenner animated Robin from 1992 (which had previously been used by Hasbro a year prior in their Spectrum of the Bat line), itself a neck-down re-use of the Batman Returns Robin figure from 1991.  At the time of this release, most of the mold was a decade old, which, honestly?  It’s not bad.  In part, it fits in fine due to how much Hasbro stagnated with the license, of course.  When you’re aiming to do as few new molds as possible, you aim to make them work match the ones you’ve already got.  It’s…well, it’s fine for its original intended use, as a realistic take on what would become the comics Tim Drake costume. It’s less ideal for an animated Dick Grayson, whose outfit was streamlined a bit, and who never sported anything close to the musculature detailed on this figure.  The head was at least an okay take on Dick’s original animation model, if perhaps a bit flattened and soft on detailing.  It did fit well with the other figures from the Kenner line, though.  He keeps the original’s two-tone cloth cape, which remains a pretty impressive piece for the scale.  A little unnatural in how it hangs, but generally very cool.  His paint marks the main change-up here.  In a general sense, it’s not drastically different, but the colors lean more toward the Mission Masters palette, where the flesh tones were very pale, the greens were more neon, and the “warm” colors were colder.  The actual application’s generally fine (though the black paint was really prone to wear), and he even gets an additional paint app on the neck, under the cape.  There’s a sculpted spot there that’s clearly meant to be a different shade than the rest of the torso, and the original just left it red.  This one…makes it green?  Still not a match for the cape, but points for effort.  Robin was packed with a missile launcher and missile.  It was originally packed with the Legends of Batman Crusader Batman, and it was one of Hasbro’s favorite accessories of this era, no matter how illogical or ill-suited it was to the figure it was packed with.  At least it’s in colors that match?

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Since I missed the main runs of the Animated figures, the boxed sets were really my personal jumping on point for the style, and served as my earliest versions of a lot of the characters.  They were almost always birthday or Christmas gift fodder from family members, and this particular set was the latter, given to me by my Nanna.  Robin was my main interest.  I’d been making do with the Total Justice Robin as a stand-in for this look for far too long at this point, and was happy to get a better approximation.  He’s got some quirks of this era, but given how lazy and odd most of the late-run Hasbro DC product was, he’s honestly not bad.  He may be little more than a re-issue, but he was at least a decent choice for one, and one I definitely was glad to have then, and am still glad to have now.

#4021: Undercover Bruce Wayne

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

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.

#4017: The Creeper

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

THE CREEPER

THE NEW BATMAN ADVENTURES (KENNER)

You know, I can’t believe this, but going back to double-check some numbers, I realized that this will be the third time I’ve talked about the Creeper here on the site, which feels like a really high number.  Sure, I like the Creeper fine, but three times?  When he’s only got six figures total?  Weird.  Am I gonna have to track down those other three Creepers now?  No, I really can’t.  I can’t do it, guys.  Right, so today, I’m looking back at the Creeper, a very rare instance of Steve Ditko (of Spider-Man and Doctor Strange fame) creating a character for DC outright, rather than creating it for someone else and then just having them purchase it later.  Originally, he had no notable ties to any other major DC heroes, but in the ‘90s, he inexplicably showed up in The New Batman Adventures, getting his own focus episode “Beware the Creeper,” which re-worked his origin story to include Batman and the Joker.  And he also got his first action figure* that way!  Yay!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Creeper was released as part of Kenner’s The New Batman Adventures tie-in line, hitting with the second push of product in 1998.  He was one of two notable “new” figures, the other being Bruce Wayne.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  He had an all-new sculpt, based on his design from the show.  In terms of accuracy, this one’s pretty good.  I mean, in general, TNBA’s tie-in figures were more on-model than earlier Kenner offerings, but Creeper in particular sticks very close to his animated counterpart.  While he’s still doing the line’s general “just standing there” posing, he’s got a lot of character in his stance, with crazed hands, and a notable hunch, which his neck extended forward.  His head sculpt matches well with the character’s on-screen likeness, translating his pretty nicely into three dimensions.  His signature boa is a separate piece here, which is sort of an odd choice, but to their credit, it’s molded to his torso in such a way that it actually stays in place pretty well.  His paint work is generally very basic, but it does well.  Mine’s taken a bit of wear over the years, but not tremendously so, so he ultimately looks pretty good even now.  It’s interesting that his hair is black, rather than having any sort of green to it, but that’s the approach they took with this line’s Joker as well, so it’s not too out there.  Creeper was packed with a television camera, referencing Jack Ryder’s role as a reporter on the show.  The plate on the back can be slid to show Jack, or flipped over to reveal Creeper.  The whole thing also turns into a bit cannon of some sort, because why not?  I do quite like that the missile is designed to resemble a microphone.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I saw this figure a great many times when he was new, and did *not* buy him…largely because I was really looking for that Bruce Wayne, who was more desirable at the time, meaning every store had not Bruce, and a whole peg of Creeper.  I caught his episode of the show after he’d disappeared from retail, so when I wanted one, I had to get a little help from Cosmic Comix.  He’s easily one of the best figures from this line.  He’s on model, he’s unique, and he’s got a gimmicky accessory that’s on brand and also not intrusive, which is all super cool.

*Though it almost wasn’t his first; Creeper was on the shortlist of figures had Kenner’s Super Powers continued in the ‘80s, and would have made his debut there.

#3631: Condiment King

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

CONDIMENT KING

BATMAN: ANIMATED (DC DIRECT)

Fun FiQ Fact #0110: In his original Batman: The Animated Series appearance, Condiment King was one of three new “villains” who turned out to be stand-up comedians brainwashed into villainy by the Joker.  The other two, Packrat and Mighty Mom, didn’t have the same staying power as the King, though.

As a kid of the ’90s, I of course experienced a great deal of Batman: The Animated Series in its…well, maybe not first run, but early run.  Syndication run?  Something like that.  However, I hardly saw the whole run of episodes.  For a good portion of the episodes, I actually saw them for the first time when the DVD collections came out.  I quite proudly had the whole run of Batman, and I watched those DVDs religiously in my teen years.  It was through those religious watchings that I gained my appreciation for characters like Condiment King, a one-off throw-away character from the episode “Make ‘Em Laugh.”  As in depth as Kenner/Hasbro’s Batman: The Animated Series tie-in lines were, we never got anything that deep.  But, McFarlane’s DC Direct-branded relaunch of the DC Collectibles/Direct Batman: Animated line has been doing sets of re-paints that have new figures done as Build-A-Fogures, and, well, where else am I going to get a Condiment King, right?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Condiment King is the Build-A-Figure for the first “new” assortment of Batman: Animated under McFarlane (previous releases have just been straight reissues of DCC/DCD figures), assembled by purchasing re-decoed versions of Batman, Robin, Mr. Freeze, & Scarecrow.  The figure stands about 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 26 point of articulation.  In terms of movement, he’s pretty much on par with the later run stuff from DCC/DCD, which is a good thing, since that’s when they started actually giving the figures consistently useful articulation.  Unfortunately, McFarlane’s spottier QC hits a bit here, though, and pretty much every copy has incredibly loose hip joints, which make him quite tricky to keep standing.  Other than that, though, the articulation works quite well.  Condiment King’s sculpt was an all-new one, and a pretty good one.  Condiment King comes from the pre-design change years of the show, which is when the characters had a tendency to be more inconsistent from shot to shot.  This guy seems to be aiming for a “best approximation” look, rather than going for one specific frame from the show.  The general feel is there, and the only real inaccuracy that sticks out to me is the lack of ears visible under his cowl.  The most important aspect of the sculpt, of course, is that he fits in with the pre-existing figures, and that he definitely does.  In terms of color work, Condiment King does run into the one notable downside of the McFarlane Animated figures: cel shading.  DCC/DCD experimented with some shading later in their run, but only for characters that already had figures, and in a fairly minor fashion.  While Condiment King isn’t as intense as the others in the set that builds him, but it’s still a little…off looking, especially because it doesn’t really follow a logical path, and there are just a bunch of spots it outright skips.  It’s weird.  Not ruin him weird, but worth noting it weird.  Also, there’s one notable error: the packets on his right arm should be red, not white.  It’s small, but still important.  Condiment King includes his backpack and attached ketchup and mustard guns.  The backpack doesn’t sit *quite* right on his back, but it’s close enough.  I like that they used actual string for the tubes going to the guns, so as to avoid issues of breakage.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

You know whose fault this is?  I’ll tell you: Max.  See, I wanted this figure, sure.  It’s Condiment King, and he’s great.  However, I’d already walked away from and unloaded a large portion of my DCC Batman: Animated figures, and I certainly wasn’t looking to re-buy four of them for a single new figure.  So, no Condiment King for me.  But, Max wouldn’t stand for that, so when a complete one came into All Time, he purchased it for me.  So, Condiment King for me.  He’s got his issues, but he’s still fun, and I’m glad to have him.

#3226: Air Assault Batman

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

AIR ASSAULT BATMAN

BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (KENNER)

“Gotham City’s most dangerous villains have escaped from Arkham Asylum! In order to save humanity. BATMAN and ROBIN have armed themselves with special rapid-deployment techno-cape backpack equipment and highly- camouflaged suits to track down every last criminal- no matter where they are hiding! Join the BATMAN Crime Squad on their life or death mission to save humanity from its most dangerous enemies!”

Last Friday, Kevin Conroy passed away.  Though perhaps not a household name, he was well known through the world of fandom as the voice of Batman for three decades.  He was the definitive voice for the character, and the one that legions of Bat-fans hear in their voice whenever they think of the character.  Like so many greats, I never met Kevin Conroy, but I’ve heard plenty of stories from people that did that support that, outside of being the definitive Batman, he was also just a really great person, who very genuinely appreciated the support of his fans.  Batman: The Animated Series launched the year I was born, so, for me, Kevin was always Batman.  There was no time where he wasn’t the voice I heard in my head, and his portrayal shaped my view on the character almost entirely.  It’s going to be very odd to not hear him as Batman in future projects.  But, there’s no denying the impact he had, and the legacy he left behind.  So, in his honor, today I’m taking a look at a Batman figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Air Assault Batman was released in 1995 as part of the “Crime Stoppers” sub-branding of Kenner’s Batman: The Animated Series tie-in line.  “Crime Stoppers” was designed as Kenner’s justification for doing a bunch of wacky Batman and Robin variants, under the trappings that these new suits were designed to aid in rounding up a bunch of escaped villains.  The first series has six Batmen and one Robin, and notably no actual villains for them to stop.  This guy was very areal themed, as you might guest from his name.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  His sculpt was largely unique, apart from sharing his head with all of the standard Kenner Batmen from the line.  The head was, admittedly, a pretty good recreation of the animation model, so it’s a respectable re-use.  The body sculpt was new, and sports a bit of an armored up look. Presumably, it’s to help combat g-force, or something like that.  It also looks pretty sweet, so it’s got that going for it.  The extra armoring details are rather fun, and do a rather nice job of changing him up a bit from the basic Batman look.  The color scheme on this guy goes for a very sky-oriented look.  He’s largely a light blue shade, with some white accenting that got a sort of art deco kind of patterning to it.  It’s funky, and honestly doesn’t feel too out of place with the overall aesthetic of the line.  The finish on mine has taken a bit of a beating over the years, but it’s not as bad as some in my collection.  Air Assault Batman only included one accessory, but it was the source of his whole gimmick: his Transforming Techno-Wing Backpack, perfect for all your assaulting in the air needs!  It’s honestly a pretty fun piece, with a bunch of moving parts, and just a cool overall look.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This figure’s pretty notable, because, while he’s not my first Batman (that was this guy), he’s still a very early one, more than likely my second, and very definitely my first Animated Batman figure.  I got him for Christmas in 1995, alongside my very first Robin, which sort of cemented the two of them as a pair, especially given their similar gimmicks.  He got a lot of play time as my go-to Batman, until I had more standard versions to replace him (and even then, he just got shifted to being Earth-2 Batman for all of my JLA/JSA cross overs).  And, of course, he always sounded like Kevin Conroy in my head.  Thank you for everything you did, Kevin.

#3215: Batman Beyond

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

BATMAN BEYOND

BATMAN: ANIMATED (DC COLLECTIBLES)

Before their demise, DC Collectibles had quite a run with their Batman: Animated line, dedicated to specifically the Batman side of the DCAU.  The stuff was mostly based purely on Batman: The Animated Series and The New Adventures of Batman, but towards the end of things, they tried expanding their reach a little bit more.  Keeping things within the Bat-family, there was one single boxed set based on Batman Beyond.  I’m gonna let you know upfront, I’m not doing the whole set.  But I do have the BB, so, you know, there’s that!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Batman Beyond is one-third of the “Batman Beyond” three-pack from DCC’s Batman: Animated line, which was released in early 2017.  The figure stands about 5 3/4 inches tall and he has 24 points of articulation.  The articulation schemes for these figures were always spotty, up until the last assortment, and BB is more of that.  He’s not terrible.  The head and the ankles do okay on the range of motion, but the elbows and knees are, on the flip side, kind of restricted.  He also has the issue of no lateral movement below the hips, which plagued so many of the line’s figures.  The ankles do at least work out a bit better in conjunction with everything, so he’s not quite as pigeon-toed.  The quality of the sculpt is at least pretty good.  Honestly, this is probably the closest to an animation-accurate Batman Beyond we’ve ever gotten.  Yeah, that was the aim of the line, but they also tended to miss the mark, so them getting it so close here was definitely an accomplishment.  BB’s paint work is pretty basic, but it’s checks all the right boxes.  The colors match the cartoon, and the application is actually pretty clean.  It’s again a pretty nice change of pace, given how fuzzy the work on other figures in the line tended to be.  BB was packed with four sets of hands (in fists, gripping, and two different styles of open gesture), a removable set of wings, two batarangs, and a display stand.  My figure is without the batarangs and stand, but he’s got everything else.  The wings being removable is nice, since, you know, not everybody does that.  I’m not super keen on the way they get broken up by the joints, but I suppose it’s kind of a catch-22.  It could be worse, though, and when posed properly, they honestly look better than I’d expected.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While I kept up with this line pretty closely when it first launched, by the time this set came along, I had kind of gotten burned out.  With just about everything eventually going on serious mark down, I opted to hold out on this one.  Unfortunately, it wound up being short-printed, since just about everyone else was seemingly burning out around the same time.  It wound up picking up quite a hefty price on the aftermarket, and that was all she wrote.  Well, until a Batman Beyond got traded into All Time all by himself.  I’m still looking for the best possible version of the character, and, honestly, this one’s better than I’d expected.

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.

#2994: Batman, Robin, Alfred, & Clayface

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

BATMAN, ROBIN, ALFRED, & CLAYFACE

THE NEW BATMAN ADVENTURES (HASBRO)

“Criminals beware…these relentless Caped Crusaders are ready to fight the forces of evil anytime, anywhere, and stop even the most devious villains in their tracks!

Gotham City’s Dark Knight Detective, Batman never shirks his duty to defend the city against its many bizarre criminals, no matter how powerful.  Even if it means facing the awesome might of Matt Hagan, aka Clayface.  Empowered by strange chemicals, Clayface is stronger, bulkier and meaner than ever!  Of course, Batman is far from alone in his crusade for justice.  Tim Drake, as Robin, is the newest member of Gotham’s crime-fighting elite.  Along with Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne’s ever-faithful butler and confidante, Batman is ready to continue his battle against evil!”

It’s Christmas Day, a day that I usually devote to something a little more festive and Christmas-y.  For a number of reasons, I’m not feeling that one quite as much this year, so I’ve opted to instead continue my look into Hasbro’s late-game Animated Batman sets.  I suppose it’s not the oddest connection.  This one in particular does really push the surrogate family angle, which feels a little bit Christmas-y, I guess.  So, in the spirit of a little bit Christmas-y, let’s look at this here set of figures.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Batman, Robin, Alfred, and Clayface were released as a TRU-exclusive boxed set, released in late 1999 to expand the New Adventures of Batman line under the Hasbro banner.

BATMAN

Have I mentioned the need for a Batman variant in these sets?  Because they totally needed one, in each and every one of these. For this one, they went for a rather nifty little tweak for the variant.  He’s not animation accurate, but he’s a classic blue Batman, which is rather fun.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Structurally, he’s another re-use of Detective Batman, which is really always a nice starting point.  It’s a good sculpt, and it still worked well here.  The change up to this one comes in the from of paint, mainly the cape, cowl, gloves, and boots are all bright blue instead of the usual black.  It’s a good look, and simulates the classic look quite nicely.  Batman was originally packed with a big missile launcher.  It was goofy, and I didn’t hang onto it.

ROBIN

Since Dick Grayson was Nightwing, TNBA replaced him in the role of Robin with Tim Drake.  Tim had previously been released in the  Bat-family set, and became the first of said family to get another go in the boxed sets.  The figure stands just shy of 4 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  This figure used the same mold as the two single-carded versions of the same character.  It’s generally pretty on-model for the show design.  I suppose he’s a touch tall and lanky, but not overly so.  The cape is a separate piece.  It’s a little bulky at the collar, but otherwise a rather nice piece.  His paint work is bright, colorful, and fairly cleanly applied, which is cool.  Robin was packed with a weird sled thing, which I’m missing, of course.

ALFRED

The undoubted selling point of this here set, Alfred, much like Gordon and Lois, was granted his very first action figure here.  The figure stands just shy of 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  He was constructed from a mix of unique and re-used parts.  His arms and legs came from Wildcard Joker, while his head and torso were all-new.  The head was quite a nice in-model Alfred from the show, and it’s certainly one of their stronger ones.  The Joker parts don’t technically match the show design, especially with the gloves that he never wore, but they approximate well enough that the re-use is understandable.  Alfred’s paint work is rather basic, mostly just black and white.  At least, unlike Gordon, the eyes are painted.  Always a plus.  The hair’s not the right color, at least not for a present day Alfred, but it’s admittedly a relatively minor thing.  Alfred was packed with a serving tray, which I actually still have, thanks to it being actually relevant to the character.

CLAYFACE

Clayface hadn’t had a toy release since the BTAS days, and that one was rather scarce by this point, so I guess a re-release wasn’t the worst idea.  The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and he has movement at his shoulders, and that’s it.  The set’s definitely very New Adventures-themed, and the shaping of that design was quite different, but this figure nevertheless uses his BTAS mold, largely unchanged.  The only actual adjustment is to the left arm, which rather than ending in a shooting spike formation like the original, is now just an arm with a fist.  The whole thing isn’t the worst sculpt, but much like Batgirl and Poison Ivy, it suffers from rather plainly not being accurate to what it’s supposed to be representing.  Also, this release has some major issues with a sticky residue building up on the figure’s surface over time.  You can clean it off, but it comes back, and it’s just generally not so pleasant.  The paint work on this figure, or at least the coloring, marked a change, since he was now a much paler tan.  No idea why, but he was.  Clayface was packed with a safe and a bomb to go inside it.  He couldn’t really do anything with it, of course, and I lost mine, so there we are.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This set does hold a bit of significance to this particular date, as the year it was released, it was very definitely the item highest on my Christmas list.  I’d gotten the Bat-family pack the year prior, and I desperately wanted this set to expand my roster.  How could you not want an Alfred?  Well, and I also didn’t have a Clayface, and the blue Batman did rather excite me too, so it was really just Robin I didn’t need.  Even he was a solid release of his own, and wound up becoming my go-to figure for him.  In retrospect, it’s maybe not the most thrilling set, but I’m still very glad I got it, and I remember it quite fondly.

#2987: Arkham Asylum Escape

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

BATMAN, TWO-FACE, POISON IVY, & HARLEY QUINN

THE NEW ADVENTURES OF BATMAN (HASBRO)

“They’re on the loose!  Those sinister, diabolical misfits of society, Two-Face, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn have broken the boundaries of incarceration and once again hit the streets on a path of destruction.  But Batman is ready to put them behind bars once and for all…where they belong!”

Hey, we’re heading down this late-game Hasbro DC rabbit-hole, so I guess we might as well just, you know, do that.  I sure do like themes, right?  And at least this theme is definitively not a Marvel Legends one, which is a nice change of pace these days.  I might be suffering from a bit of Legends burn out here, you guys.  But I’m not talking about them today!  No!  I’m talking about DC!  Yeah!  Let’s do it!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Arkham Asylum Escape, a set made up of Batman, Two-Face, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn, was released by Hasbro in early 2000 as a Toys R Us exclusive.  The set has the four figures, as well as a selection of accessories, some character specific, some less so.  The least specific is the Arkham Asylum sign, which actually should have two additional supports not seen in my photo.  It’s a cool piece that makes for a fun backdrop, which isn’t the sort of thing we tended to get for this line.  There’s also a straightjacket, which is listed as being Two-Faces, but which can easily be used for either him or Batman, and I honestly like it more with Batman.

BATMAN

“The people of Gotham City see Batman as an almost mythological figure, able to tame any adversary, no matter how powerful.  But now, with so many bizarre criminals running amok in Gotham City, Batman turns to his trusted allies to aid him in his battle against evil.  The Dark Knight has evened the odds by creating more amazing weapons, gadgets, and vehicles, all of which are available to his crime fighting team.”

You gotta have a Batman, so here’s the Batman.  He’s all Batman-y.  The figure stands 4 1/2 inches tall and has 6 points of articulation.  Amazingly, he gets a whole extra point of articulation, thanks to the swivel at the waist.  This Batman re-uses the mold of the Batman originally packed in the “Batman Vs Two-Face Battle Pack,” which is a rather basic Batman, but running.  Or lunging.  For some reason.  I guess it’s more dynamic.  It’s honestly not a bad sculpt, apart from being a little hard to keep standing.  It’s rather clean, and internally consistent with the standard Detective Batman sculpt.  To match his more dynamic pose, his cape is also more dynamic, with a whole arc and flow to it, which is really cool.  Though this set generally goes for TNBA designs, and the figure’s sculpt is clearly TNBA-based, the paint scheme on this guy is decidedly BTAS-based.  It’s not a terrible look.  The only downside is that it doesn’t really hold up so well to wear and tear.  Batman was originally packed with a grappling hook, but it was lost by foolish child Ethan.

TWO-FACE

“Two-Face (Harvey Dent), well-entrenched as an underworld crime boss, continues to be a major threat to Batman and Gotham City.  However, Two-Face is always finding himself at odds with his dual nature, torn between his own good and evil sides.”

Though prominent early in the show’s run, Two-Face’s only toy release during TNBA‘s actual run was in a two-pack with a Batman variant.  This one upgrades that to a four pack, so I guess it’s sort of a lateral move.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  His sculpt is shared with the two-pack release, and is based on his updated appearance from TNBA.  It’s a good look, and the figure does a good job of capturing the design and translating it into three dimensions.  Given how basic a suited body this is, it’s genuinely a bit surprising that no other uses came from this figure.  It seems like it would be kind of natural.  It was certainly a popular piece amongst customizers at the time.  The paint work was ever so slightly changed here.  Instead of off-white, the lighter parts are a true white, and the lip on the scarred side is red, rather than black.  Technically, the original release was the more accurate scheme, but this one I think maybe presents a bit better in figure form.  Two-Face was originally packed with a machine gun and a pistol, both of which I have been missing since shortly after getting the figure.

POISON IVY

“Villainous vixen of vines, Poison Ivy (Pamela Isley) returns to continue her crusade for botanical supremacy.  While essentially a loner, Ivy is not above ‘hanging with the girls,’ as she occasionally teams up with Harley Quinn.”

Ivy was completely absent from the TNBA tie-ins, at least for the main line.  So, this figure was the first of hers under that specific branding.  It’s a bit of a cheat, of course, since she’s actually not TNBA at all, but I’ll get to that.  The figure stands about 4 1/2 inches tall and she has 5 points of articulation…technically.  The neck joint doesn’t really do anything, honestly.  Since there was no TNBA Ivy sculpt from Kenner, this figure re-uses the BTAS sculpt.  It’s not a great sculpt, but it’s not a terrible sculpt either.  It’s biggest issue is that it’s rather squat and a bit pre-posed.  Of course, it’s biggest issue here in particular is that Ivy’s design changed pretty drastically between the two iterations of the show, so she doesn’t match the theme here all that well.  The paint is also kind of suspect.  Technically, they’re following her TNBA scheme…sort of.  I mean, she doesn’t have leggings, which is the main thing.  Her skin tone is still peach, rather than a greenish white, and her outfit is a far brighter green than it really should be.  Ivy is packed with a crossbow and a plant capture weapon.  Astoundingly, I’ve actually still got both of them.

HARLEY QUINN

“Harley Quinn (Harleen Quinzel) continues to be Gotham City’s deadly wild card.  Her lethal toys come in handy whether she’s working out her aggressions with her ‘puddin,’ The Joker, best gal-pal Poison Ivy, or taking on Batman solo.  While she masks her dark and unpredictable nature with playfulness, her hatred of Batman is never far from the surface.”

Introduced within the original run of BTAS, Harley, unsurprisingly, got her very first figure in that line.  It was, however, never an exceedingly easy one to find.  So a second release was far from the worst idea.  The figure stands about 4 3/4 inches tall and she has 5 points of articulation.  She makes use of the single-release BTAS Harley’s sculpt.  It’s a good sculpt, which is pretty on model, and unlike Ivy, it actually matches okay with the TNBA set-up of this release, since her overall design wasn’t really that different between the two shows.  Her paint work is generally pretty decent.  The only change between this release and the single release is the color of the lips, which are red here, in contrast to the black on the original.  Harley was packed with a boxing glove launcher, as well as a gun with a “bang” flag.  Curiously, no mallet.  Mine is missing the gun, but still has the glove launcher.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I actually got this set at the same time as the set I looked at last week, both of them being given to me for my 8th birthday in 2000.  I was more interested in the Gordon set overall, but this one was a definite sleeper hit for me, because all of the figures in it were actually pretty solid, at least to child me.  Harley and Two-Face are still my go-to versions for this scale, and I definitely dig the Batman.  Ivy only really ranks lower because I wound up with the original BTAS release later down the line, and didn’t need it’s off-color repaint so much.