Tag Archives: DC

#4065: Battle Gear Bruce Wayne

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

BATTLE GEAR BRUCE WAYNE

BATMAN & ROBIN (KENNER)

After a quick look back at prior reviews, it seems my only reviews for Batman & Robin are from 2020, when I was focussed on pulling some more items out of the back catalogue during the shutdown.  At that point, I looked at both Ice Board Robin and the standard Batgirl.  And then a whole lot of nothing.  Notably, not a single Batman.  So, I guess I’ll sort of address that here.  Kind of.  It’s not *technically* Batman, it’s Bruce Wayne, but I’ve got it on pretty good authority they *might* be the same guy.  I mean, have you ever seen them both in my collection at the same time?  Well, yes, but still!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Battle Gear Bruce Wayne is part of the initial assortment of Kenner’s tie-in line for Batman & Robin.  He’s one of the three Batman variants in the initial drop, though he’s not officially labeled as such.  Interestingly, there are quick change secret identity variants of both Batman and Robin in this first assortment, but while Dick is labeled “Robin,” Bruce uses his real name.  Why?  Who knows.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  In his core look, he’s a George Clooney Bruce Wayne…sort of.  I mean, he looks more or less like Clooney, but not especially like Clooney from Batman & Robin, and he’s not really wearing anything much like what Bruce wears in the movie.  But, it’s certainly far from the worst look we’ve gotten on one of these Bruce-to-Batman figures.  The coloring is fine; honestly, it’s surprisingly subdued given the source material’s neon color scheme.  To facilitate the transformation to Batman, Bruce includes five clip-on armor pieces.  The chest plate has a head and cape on it, which slip over the main figure, who, much like the Val Kilmer Bruce from the prior movie line, has a spring-loaded head, which depresses so that the Batman head can take its place.  The final appearance is…well, it’s a Batman, I guess.  Not really a standard Batman, or anything close to the look seen in the movie but, I guess it’s…fine?  I do rather like the inclusion of the skates on the bottoms of the leg pieces.  That’s fun.  He’s also got this odd sort of claw-missile thing that goes into one of the armor pieces, and it gives our one bit of neon for the figure, which feels appropriate.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My whole Batman & Robin collection is made up of figures I actually got back when they were new, and the vast majority of them were gifts, mostly for my birthday the year the movie came out.  This guy’s from that latter category…or at least he was.  I got one for my birthday (with the corresponding Robin), but, while I kept all the armor, I lost the actual Bruce figure (which also happened with my Val Kilmer Bruce, for that matter).  I found a replacement Bruce later, and boom, here we are.  He’s goofy and silly, and not movie accurate, but for a toy from a toy commercial movie, he’s pretty fun.

#4061: Parademon

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

PARADEMON

SUPER POWERS (KENNER)

“Although the Parademons of Apokolips wear protective armor and can fly, their true strength is in their numbers.  There are literally thousands of them, and, the acting together, they can overcome even the most powerful heroes.”

After the first year was really focused in on the heavy hitters, in terms of both heroes and their antagonists, subsequent years of Kenner’s Super Powers run would dial in a bit more on the weirder side of DC.  Jack Kirby was brought in to do some work on the line, and a focus was placed on his creations the New Gods, who would serve as a notable backbone for the antagonistic side of the line.  It also gave us I believe our earliest instance of an army builder in a super hero line, in the form of the Parademon!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Parademon was released in the second series of Super Powers, as one of the six Fourth World figures added to the line-up that year.  The figure stands a little over 4 1/2 inches tall and it has 7 points of articulation.  Most of the Fourth World characters got some degree of redesign for the line (only Darkseid and Mr. Miracle kept their originals), and the Parademon is pretty much the most divergent design of the bunch.  Steppenwolf and Mantis both got pretty hefty re-works, but the Parademon winds up sharing no elements with its original comics look.  Perhaps there was a feeling that there was too much green amongst the villains?  Or maybe that the proper Parademon look, with its more ogre-ish features, might not be as kid friendly?  It’s hard to say.  I’m hard-pressed to say this is a bad design, mind you.  It’s actually pretty decent, and feels like a respectable take on a retro-inspired alien design.  It just doesn’t really read as a Parademon.  That said, the sculpt is fun.  It’s more cartoony than the rest of the line, but maintains the same level of detailing and general stylizing, so it doesn’t feel out of place with the rest of them.  The color scheme, heavy on reds and oranges, feels a bit more like Firestorm than anything else from the line, but it’s generally unique, and certainly stands out on the shelf.  The Parademon was packed with a yellow blaster pistol, which is easily lost (especially since the hands don’t really grip it all that tightly), so there’s reproductions available.  The Parademon also featured a wing-flapping action feature, triggered by squeezing the legs.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I purchased the Parademon for myself, more than two decades ago.  I’d gotten $20 to Cosmic Comix for Christmas, and used $15 of that to buy an Elongated Man, so I had $5 left, and that ended up going towards this guy, mostly because I didn’t have it.  He lacked his accessory, bit in more recent years I’ve “completed” it with a replacement gun from Made Like Old.  It’s a kind of weird figure, in that it’s got pretty much no connection to the comics, but it’s certainly not a bad toy, and it’s memorable for it’s sort of out there nature.

#4057: Green Arrow

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

GREEN ARROW

SUPER POWERS (KENNER)

“Green Arrow uses an arsenal of ingenious trick arrows in his war against crime.  These weapons, combined with his keen eyes and steady hands, make him feared by criminals everywhere.”

A lot of Kenner’s inspiration for their Super Powers line was drawn from Super Friends, understandable, given the show was the defining take on most of the characters for a lot of people at the time.  They ultimately went deeper on the Justice League line-up than the show ever did, but even some of their deeper cuts, like Green Arrow, who had a guest appearance in the show, were still banking on that tie-in.  Though not as big a name as others (at the time; he’s certainly a lot more mainstream now), Green Arrow had a tendency to be one of the nicer figures of any line he occupied.  Was this one an exception?  Let’s find out.  Okay, no, I won’t string you along, that’s just cruel.  He’s not an exception; he’s very nice. Let’s get into the specifics.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Green Arrow was released in the second series of Kenner’s Super Powers line, one of four new JLA members added that year.  All of them built on the Satellite era line-up, which was still fairly current at the time.  This was Arrow’s second time as an action figure, following up on his debut during Mego’s run.  Both figures used his second, far more distinctive look, which is really a classic.  The figure stands 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  He’s got pretty much the standard articulation for the line, with the standard set-up, and the frequent “squeeze the legs” gimmick, which in this figure’s case is a “Power Action Archery Pull”, raising his arms up as if he’s taking aim with his bow.  His sculpt is on par with the quality of the rest of the line, which is to say it’s very good.  Proportions are generally well-balanced, and there’s plenty of costume details to keep things interesting.  Things like the little “G” buckle and the wrinkles in his boots are very cool, and give the whole thing quite a nice flair.  Everything below the neck on this guy was later re-used (with some light re-tooling to remove the knee joints) for Kenner’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves tie-in line’s take on the original emerald archer, albeit with a rather ill-sized Kevin Costner head shoved on the neck joint.  But, at the time, it was all unique to Ollie, and it looked really good.  He’s got a bit of pre-posing on the arms, to better work with a bow and arrow set-up.  The figure’s paint is pretty solid; there’s three whole shades of green, which gives him some decent variety.  Application is basic but clean, and he really does look the part.  Green Arrow was packed with his bow and three arrows, which are very nice pieces, but also very, very easily lost, which is why mine has a set of reproductions.  The bow is held securely in his left hand, and the arrows can either go in his quiver, or one of them clips to the bow, to aid in this “Archery Pull” gimmick.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When I was a kid, I got at least one Super Powers figure each year for Christmas.  This guy is one of the very few I specifically requested.  The year prior I’d gotten Green Lantern, and I really wanted to have this guy to go with him.  In order to make sure I got him, my dad actually bought me a rather sizable lot of Super Powers, which included my Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Superman as well, and accessories for a few others I already had.  Green Arrow was certainly the star, even without his accessories.  As with Aquaman, I recently “completed” him with a set of repro parts from Made Like Old, though he thankfully didn’t need the extensive paint work that Aquaman did.

#4053: The Joker

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

THE JOKER

SUPER POWERS (KENNER)

Last week, I dove back into the world of Kenner’s Super Powers, and I’m keeping that whole business going this week.  In prep for this review, I discovered that I haven’t reviewed a Joker figure since 2021, which does seem kind of crazy, given he’s a rather prominent character.  Honestly, I chalk it up to my general feeling that he’s become a bit overplayed, but I digress. Curiously, despite Todd’s focus on the Batman side of things, Joker was a notable omission from the McFarlane revival of Super Powers, so we have to go back to the vintage Kenner days for him.  Let’s take a look at him now!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Joker was released as part of the first series of Kenner’s Super Powers line in 1984.  He was one of two different Bat-Rogues included in the line-up, pairing off with Penguin.  This was Joker’s third figure after his Mego World’s Greatest Super Heroes and Comic Action Heroes figures from the ‘70s.  The figure stands just over 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  Joker has the line’s standard articulation set-up, which works well enough for him.  His sculpt was totally unique at the time (though it would be retooled for Kenner’s World of Batman line for a Nicholson-inspired Joker in 1991), and like the rest of the line, it’s based on his Style Guide entry.  It’s a nice, polished classic Joker design.  He’s notably a lot skinnier than the other figures in the line, in keeping with his usual depictions, as well as nicely distinguishing him from the others. The suit’s well-defined, with lots of folds and texturings, and even etched-in lines for the pin-stripes on his pants.  The paint work is rather basic, but covers the basics.  It matches his usual depictions at the time, though it’s maybe a bit washed out compared to the other figures in the line.  Joker is packed with a large green mallet, which is hollow on one side, and can fit over his head to look like a larger version of his face?  Because, that’s a thing?  It’s weird, but also somewhat endearing.  I do kind of dig it, in an odd way.  His action feature is when your squeeze his legs, his right arm swings down, so as to smash things with his hammer.  

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I honestly don’t really recall much about getting this guy.  He was one that just was sort of added to my collection in the shuffle.  I wanna say I got him at the same time as Penguin, at a Comic Con?  He had neither his accessory, nor his coat tails.  I got the mallet first, with a larger lot that also netted me Penguin’s coat tails, and a Batmobile.  The coat tails were actually really recent, only in the last couple of years.  Nothing about getting this guy is particularly notable, and, if I’m honest, after so many Joker figures, it’s hard to find anything notable about this guy in general.  But, he’s certainly not a bad figure.

Friday Figure Addendum #0075: Aquaman

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

AQUAMAN

SUPER POWERS (KENNER)

When is a Friday Figure Addendum not a Flashback? When it’s for a review I only ran three days ago.  I mean, I guess that’s still a flashback.  Right?  But it doesn’t feel like it, and I’m writing this literally right after the proper review, so I’m just gonna drop the “Flashback” for this one.  So, let’s talk a little more about Aquaman!

In Tuesday’s review, I discussed my Super Powers Aquaman, who was a rather cheap addition to my collection, which came to me in rather rough shape.  Further more, I was seven when I got it, so it only got more played with from there.  For the fullest extent of what I’m talking about, here’s what my Aquaman looked like in March of this year:

As you can see, he took quite a beating.   Since my Super Powers are something I’m rather proud of, with a pretty prominent display spot, I wanted him to be a bit better.  I used to do a fair bit of customizing, and even some restoring from time to time, so I decided to break those skills out again, and get this guy back up to his fullest potential.  I think I did pretty well, and I’m very happy with the end result.  And, I threw in a repro trident courtesy of Made Like Old, so he feels all polished and complete.  For a beater figure I bought for $2.50 almost three decades ago, I think he’s doing pretty well!

#4049: Aquaman

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

AQUAMAN

SUPER POWERS (KENNER)

“Aquaman, King of the Seven Seas, can remain underwater indefinitely, can swim tremendous distances, and can communicate telepathically with sea creatures and have them obey him.”

Hey, it’s Super Powers!  I haven’t talked about Super Powers since January, after a whopping 25 Super Powers reviews last year.  I blame Todd McFarlane.  I mean, for, like, a lot of things, but in this case, he’s responsible for the upswing and then downswing in new Super Powers figures after a 40 year break, which gave me a bunch more to review.  I’ve decided to finally get myself together and take a look at the remaining unreviewed Kenner Super Powers in my collection, so, you know, here’s that.  We’re starting off with Aquaman, swift and powerful monarch of the seas!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Aquaman was released in the first series of Kenner’s Super Powers in 1984.  He was no stranger to the toy world at this point, with multiple figures from Mego, and even a Captain Action set from Ideal.  As one of the heroes to receive his own Filmation cartoon, as well as maintain a presence for the whole run of Super Friends, Aquaman’s a pretty logical pick, especially for this era.  Perhaps the most curious thing was that, for all his prominent placement early in the run, he never got any of his own antagonists in the line (McFarlane did at least give us a Black Manta).  The figure stands 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  His movement is standard for the line, with the caveat that, unlike most of the line, his action feature is in his legs, triggered by squeezing his arms, rather than the usual reverse.  It’s worth noting that Flash, also in the first series, had the same set-up, though.  It makes him slightly less stable on his feet, but ultimately, it’s not a major shift.  Aquaman’s sculpt was unique to him, and certainly up to the line’s high standard.  He’s clearly working closely towards that Jose Garcia-Lopez style guide look, even moreso than some of the others in the line.  There’s a ton of work going into the texturing, especially on the scaled shirt.  The head is also quite a spot-on Aquaman, in a way that I think a lot of later figures would miss; he feels like the same general character seen in Super Friends, but also doesn’t look quite as silly.  There’s a slight goofy charm still there, though, and you do love to see it.  I particularly love that swoop to how his hair falls, which just feels very natural and expressive.  His posing is more understated for this line, which tended to at least somewhat bend the arms.  Since he was meant for swimming, though, Aquaman’s got straighter arms, and a particularly well sculpted flat hand on the left side.  Aquaman’s color work matches well with his classic design, covering all the basics, but not getting too crazy.  Aquaman was packed with a trident (Tim would note that it’s technically got five points, though, so it’s really a “quintdent”), which is quite prone to both loss and breakage, but there are thankfully a lot of pretty decent reproductions out there, if one were so inclined.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Aquaman is, I think, my second Super Powers figure.  He was purchased during one of many trips to Ageless Heroes, a comic shop that closed down at the end of the ‘90s, and liquidated all of its inventory.  He was behind the counter, tied to a backer board, and wound up being, like, $2.50?  It was a very low price.  Admittedly, he was in very rough shape, and remained that way for my entire childhood.  At the time, it was pretty much the only way I was getting a classic Aquaman, though, and I wasn’t much for the hook-handed look, so I was pretty thrilled.  Over the years, I’ve contemplated getting a replacement in better condition, but more recently I decided to give my original some TLC, and get him a bit closer to his former glory.  I love every Super Powers figure, but Aquaman is certainly one of the nicest, in a decidedly understated sort of way, that I can really dig.

#4045: Vigilante

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

VIGILANTE

DC MULTIVERSE (McFARLANE)

In addition to launching Superman, unquestionably its biggest star by quite a lot, DC’s Action Comics had a number of running features in the Golden Age, and while a lot of them didn’t really stick, a few did.  Though he’s never been super well-known, the Greg Saunders version of Vigilante is one of the more notable characters to get his own feature there in the Golden Age.  With the success of the Justice Society, DC tried out other groups of super heroes, and Vigilante found himself folded into the Seven Soldiers of Victory, who had a short Golden Age run, and a pretty notable return in Justice League of America #100 in 1972.  In media outside of the comics, perhaps his best known appearances were on Justice League Unlimited, where he was Nathan Fillion’s *first* DC role.  Greg’s been light on the action figure coverage, previously only having a single JLU tie-in figure, but he’s got himself a new figure courtesy of the last days of McFarlane!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Vigilante is figure 56 in the Collector’s Edition sub-line of McFarlane’s DC Multiverse line.  Like Elongated Man, Vigilante is part of a larger than usual drop of figures from the line, as McFarlane presumably aims to get as may out as they can before the license wraps up.  As with the Collector’s Edition figures before him, Vigilante has both a standard release and a one-per-case Platinum Edition.  The standard is based on Vigilante’s original comics colors, while the Platinum (which is the one reviewed here) uses his cartoon color scheme.  The figure stands just shy of 7 1/4 inches tall and he has 35 points of articulation.  His movement is the standard McFarlane scheme, which can be a mixed bag at times, but generally works out okay for Vig.  He’s using a decent number of parts from fellow western hero Jonah Hex, which seems pretty sensible.  He still gets a pretty extensive selection of new parts, notably the head, torso, and lower legs, which make him into a pretty respectable match for Vig as he’s appeared in the comics.  If I have one complaint about the body, it’s that the pelvis feels like it sits a bit too low and is too large for the rest of the body, not really helping with that general “diaper” look that the McFarlane figures unfortunately tend to have.  At least he’s got the gun belt to help hide it a bit.  His head sculpt has the hat permanently attached, but in contrast to the the last time Vig got a figure, his signature red mask isn’t a sculpted element, but rather cloth.  I wasn’t sure how it would look (especially since it’s pulled down off his face in the package, I’d imagine to prevent him from ending up with a red stain on his lower face), but I think it ultimately works pretty well.  It could perhaps be a touch thicker (you can see the buttons on his torso through it), and I’m not a huge fan of how it’s stitched at the back, but it stays in place well, it hangs naturally, and it looks the part.  The underlying face is perfectly fine, if a bit generic, but I can’t say I expect to see it much when I’m displaying him.  The color work on this release is meant to evoke his JLU and other more modern appearances, which means it’s more heavy on contrast, and I think is ultimately a more striking design.  Apart from some slightly inconsistent coverage on his buttons, the application’s pretty clean, and the colors are nicely chosen.  Vigilante is packed with his signature pair of six-shooters, a lasso, a knife, an axe, and a rifle, as well as a display stand and a collector card.  The guns are nice, and I appreciate that the knife has a spot on his belt.  The lasso is kind of lame, since it’s just a length of thread, with no easy way to actually get it to stay on his shoulder, which does slightly hinder his usual look.  In general, he does feel rather light for a Collector’s Edition figure, with no extra head or hands.  An alternate head with the hat removed would have been a nice option, as would some additional hand poses beyond just the gripping.  As it stands, he’s got a notch above bare minimum, which is better than nothing extra at all, so I can still appreciate it to a certain extent.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Most of my love of Vigilante is because of his JLU appearances.  Obviously, I had the JLU figure, but I’d always hoped for a non-animated figure of some sort, especially during the DCUC days (which only gave us the Adrian Chase Vigilante, an odd choice in a pre-Peacemaker world), but never got one.  I knew this figure was coming, but didn’t really pay it much mind, since I didn’t really click with the standard colors.  But, Matty had some birthday money and really wanted to get a Zelda game for the Switch, so we found ourselves at GameStop, and they had one Vigilante figure and it happened to be the Platinum, which made it rather hard for me to say no.  As with so many of these late stage McFarlane DC figures, he’s incredibly nice, and I’m happy I decided to snag him.

#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.