REVIEW: Classic Batmobile and Batman and Robin From Mattel

As I explained a few days ago, I've become so jaded by the current state of affairs at DC Comics that I've become much more forgiving of, shall we say, lesser incarnations of Batman. Regardless, even the most devout West-hater out there will have a hard time denying the cool factor of the George Barris-designed Batmobile from the old television show.

Apparently the rights to the actors' likenesses for the TV series have been in some sort of legal limbo for the past 40 years, and the battle for rights and celebrity approval still has the series' DVD release held up. But they did manage to free enough up that we have a slew of merchandise coming, and Mattel, having the main 6" DC license, got a jump on most other companies with these.

As surprised as I was to find myself purchasing these, I was even more astounded at how much I'm enjoying them.

Batman and Robin

The Good: The figures capture the look of the show well, and your preference toward a specific iteration of Batman may make that a bad thing. But admittedly, they look just as goofy as West and Ward did. I won't profess expertise on the actors' likenesses, buy you do know which version of the Dynamic Duo these toys represent instantly. Their articulation is pretty good (Mattel's Movie Masters, which is what these really are, are notoriously limited in range of motion), and they stick pretty well to the included wall base through their feet pegs. Other than the base, there's only one accessory, a blue batarang that's clear-banded to BatWest's hand and bent up because of it. It looks appropriate, and in scale, but there's a hole on one edge that looks like it was meant to have a string or rope. Speaking of the rope...

The Bad: The rope is a piece of shit. It looks like someone took a bunch of sucked-on Blo-Pop sticks and sort of twisted them together and painted it black. I'm afraid that it will unwind or fray over time, so a replacement rope will be needed to allay my fears. I also checked to see if my DC Universe Detective Batman's feet would stick on the pegs of the base, but they're a tad too small. Whether or not all my DCU Batmen will have this problem is yet to be seen, but it would be nice to use the base for other figures, since BatWest and Wardbin will probably permanently occupy the Batmobile.

While most other Movie Masters seem to have sort of squat or stocky proportions, these two seem a little on the lanky side. Again, from my memories of the show, that might be appropriate, but their arms and legs in particular seem a little too thin to be right.

The paint apps also seem to be hit or miss; While the faces on mine seem solid, there are parts of Robin's thighs that have green showing through, or worse, an entire chunk of plastic missing like an exacto got taken to him. Finally, the capes leave something to be desired. Others have mentioned the huge tags (which are RIDICULOUS, by the way), but it's the wire in the edges of the capes that misses the mark the most. I'd understand if it was on the bottom edge, something many other companies have done much more successfully, but it runs about 90% of the way along the vertical edge of their capes, and makes no sense whatsoever or helps with 'posing' the capes that I've found, save for getting the capes to sit better beneath them in the Batmobile. Simply plunking the figure down and futzing with an un-wired cape would have been preferable to these infernal things.

Overall: I'm going to be more forgiving with these two than I should; the real reason I got them was to go in the car. The two-pack costs between $25 and $35, depending on where you grab one, which is about what us poor suckers (read: action figure collectors) are used to paying for something in this scale and this quality. So are they great figures? Not really, and I can't call them good while standing behind all my aforementioned reservations. They're just below good, and if not for the main reason I purchased them, I'd definitely grade them at a C. But let's get to this reason I keep talking about, shall we?

The Batmobile

The Good: As soon as I opened the gigantic box that these items came in, I let out a "Holy SHIT!" Because this fucker is just that big. I still haven't decided where the fuck I'm going to put it, it's so huge. The size alone makes this a very impressive piece, and once you get Batman and Robin in there, it looks even cooler. There are all sorts of little details sculpted in, such as the Bat-phone, the label reading "Emergency Bat-Turn Lever", the buttons all over the consoles, the textured detail sculpted into the front bumper. It all looks extremely nice, even if there are a few scuffs on mine and the red striping is a tad dicey in places. You kind of want to look around inside and see if anything works, but nothing does. Just about everything on here is static except for the very plastic tires.

And while it certainly rolls smoothly across the carpet (I checked. I smiled like a kid and scooted it across the room a few times, and this baby flies!), that may not be enough for some collectors who've been waiting a lifetime for this to come out.

The Bad: This is a very nice looking toy, but if you want more than that, save your money. Although it's extremely easy on the geeky eye, once you have it in hand, impressive size aside, it has a very "Barbie Dream Car" feel to it. While I certainly wasn't expecting anything of import quality or intricacy, I was expecting the car to do more than roll satisfactorily across the carpet. I mean, opening doors would have at least been considered by the designers, wouldn't they? And opening doors would also help with getting the figures in and out.

While it's not as much of a hassle as I would have thought, it can still be frustrating to get the figures in and strap them down. Robin is a bit easier than Batman, due to BatWest's belt and the fact that you want his hands on the wheel, but you still need to finagle with 'em before they're in there just the way you want. And this is made that much harder because everything inside the cabin is made of soft, rubbery plastic that barely holds its shape and gets caught under the figures (because of the bloody over-wired capes!). This same plastic is not only used inside, but on the roof fixture and the three exhaust pipes. There's a little bending going on already, and I fear it won't get better with time.

The seatbelts are rubber, and thankfully can be pulled taut from underneath the car once you get the figures in and thread the belt through, and so far they've done their job well, even when turning the car upside-down.

Again, mine has a few scuffs, the ugliest of which is on the front hood, so if you're willing to risk waiting for these to hit retail you may want to choose carefully. Combine the scuffing with spotty paint and bent ornamentation, not to mention Mattel's infamously poor Quality Control, and I'm surprised mine doesn't have even more issues.

The Batmobile costs $60 at Toysrus, and while other stores will allegedly get this (Target has this on their site, unavailable and listed at $50), I took the plunge anyway, not wanting to be left out once I decided I had to have it.

Overall: I wasn't looking for lights and sounds, or super-fancy details like die-cast; I wanted the iconic TV Batmobile, and this is certainly a stellar version of it. There are better (and more expensive) versions out there in different scales, but this is the only one, at least so far, to have the appropriate Batman and Robin to go with it. If the lack of working parts and extras bums you out, you're probably better off saving the dosh. I spent a little over $100 on the two sets, and for me, these days, that's not a lot on two items, specifically "exclusive" items from Toysrus. Is it a great price? No, but it's a fair one, in my opinion. Without the car, Batman and Robin would score a C. Without the figures, the Batmobile gets a B-. As a package deal, I can't go any higher than a B, but damn, does this thing look awesome.

I should be back on track with my reviews very, very soon. Cheers!

Swift

Random Ramblings: One Fan's State Of Disinterest

I loved the reruns of Adam West and Burt Ward's Batman as a little Swift. I must have been seven or eight: Tim Burton's Batman had just been released or was about to be released, and Bat-Mania had most of us lads firmly in its grip for the next few years, along with the Ninja Turtles.

I didn't know any better at the time. I didn't understand that there were different interpretations of the character, that ill-fitting spandex costumes, a Joker with a mustache, and loud, colorful sound effects were not the Batman most fans wanted. But again, I was small. My folks didn't have a lot of money to throw around at the movies, and they were often concerned with what I watched (or more accurately, my mother was-- Dad was more understanding). I wouldn't see Batman until it came out on VHS; I would take what I could get at the time.

Of course, I grew up. After immersing myself in whatever Batman comics I could get my hands on, I understood how the Batman of the 60's show was a far, far cry from the comics I was reading, like Batman: Son Of The Demon, The Dark Knight Returns, and the Norm Breyfogle run of Detective Comics. I grew to disdain the campy show and its star, Adam West.

So why did I just spend over a hundred bucks on a 1/12 scale Batmobile from said show and two little plastic men in ill-fitting tights to occupy it?

You could argue that I'm somewhat more forgiving of the character, more accepting of Batman as a whole as I grow older. Which would be true, and Grant Morrison has a lot to do with that. Like it or loathe it, the 60's Batman show left its mark on the character and mythos, and is nothing if not iconic.

But I think it goes deeper than that. New 52? A Joker with his own cut-off face strapped to his head? Ben Affleck? The death of my beloved DC Universe toys from Mattel?

I'm just disheartened, at this point. As I grow older, more and more decisions made with my favorite character cease to interest me. I guess you could say I'm set in my ways, that I like what I like, and I have no qualms about spending what some would consider waaaaay too much money amassing the things that I like.

But they're few and far between. You could argue that I'm growing up; I would argue vehemently against that for every time I make or laugh at an inappropriate and childish joke.

There's a lull of things that interest me because there's not a lot of things, geek-wise, that are being marketed towards my demographic: the long-time fans who've stuck through the Dark Times of the 90's, who've suffered through things like Smallville, Joel Schumacher's Batman, the first terrible Hulk movie and almost been straight-jacketed in the belts, straps and buckles, almost crushed by the gigantic, impractical guns of the 90's anti-hero. We've towed the line for so long, stuck with these characters and tried to support their adaptations into other media, oft times finding them to be more Daredevil than The Avengers.

And now that our geek culture is being assimilated into pop culture as a whole, how do these companies (mostly DC) claiming ownership repay us?

They change everything. They shift their focus to reigning in new readers, new demographics, letting us stand by the wayside, our righteous indignation and sense of entitlement being completely ignored as they continue to mold their corporate mascots into something that can appeal to everyone.

I won't say I feel entitled, anymore. But I will say it's a pretty shitty time to be a long-time comic fan. They say nostalgia is just a feeling that things back then were better, but things really weren't; Adam West's Batman definitely makes that true. So what do I expect? Do I want them to cater to everyone? Maybe. They've done it before, and still do, every once in a while. They have all-ages comics as well as the ones with their joke of a "ratings" system on the covers. Do I expect some sort of favoritism? I did at first, but seeing kids run around with a Captain America shield or a Batman mask or those Hulk fists makes me smile. These characters are going to endure, just as the nostalgia for the Adam West stuff has endured.

So what do I expect? What do I want, out of my favorite comic book company? They've already shunted "my" version of the DC Universe aside for this shiny new bucket of piss; to change it around again would make even less sense than changing it in the first place. I don't know what I want, is what I'm trying to say. I'm disheartened, disinterested and unconcerned about what happens next, since it feels that all inroads to "Classic" DC Universe stuff have been roadblocked and declared off limits, with no media to tie into. With DC Universe Classics, some of the sting was taken away. For a little while, it seemed like I could hold onto characters that have been written out, made unrecognizable, or ignored (like Wally West) in plastic form and carry on. But now?

I don't know. I expect that I'll have a sweet Batmobile in a few days, is what I expect.

Cheers.

Swift

REVIEW: Square Enix Play Arts Kai Dark Knight Trilogy: Batman and Joker

I know what you're thinking: "Another Batman? Another Joker? Really?"

Yes, really. I had canceled the pre-order at one point for Batman. See, I'd told myself, that among a myriad of DC Universe Classics versions of Batman (most being repaints or mild reworkings of the same mold), several LEGO minifigures, my old comic-version Microman and more than a few DC Direct incarnations of the character, not to mention the THREE different Bat-men I already have from Play Arts Kai, I didn't need this figure. On top of that, I didn't need a Nolan/Bale Batman; while I love The Dark Knight Trilogy for what it is, Batman, to me, is so much more than Chris Nolan's "grounded in reality" take for the character. I didn't need another Batman.

BATMAN

That was until I saw the first pics leaking out. And then they announced the Ledger Joker. And then came the pictures of their Man of Steel offerings. And the clencher? They brought back the two-piece articulated cape. Yep, if you can believe it, that was the deal-maker. It is so sorely lacking on the Arkham City Batman that simply bringing this feature back was enough to get me to buy another Batman figure that I was all but convinced I didn't need.

THE GOOD: So here we go-- Bale Batman in all his Anime-cized glory. And really, they didn't make him too cartoony. There's a resemblance in the sculpt that shows they were at least trying to make it look like Bale, so good for them. The rest of the sculpt seems accurate to the source material, and it's my preferred look for Nolan's Batman; that clunky first suit from Begins with the weird panther neck looks worse every time I see it. So while the proportions aren't all there (he's still stylized to a point), the liberties they've taken with the movie design are welcomed in the age of stumpy, awkward looking Movie Masters from Mattel. Something about this figure compared to the real actor in the real suit is more dynamic and super-hero-y.

As I said, the jointed cape is back, and it's very welcome. Bale-man can do all sorts of poses that will make you forget how... less than dynamic the greater half of the Dynamic Duo was for three films and just have fun trying to figure out if you can get him in a gliding pose with the new, included stand. I was going to take a picture of just that, but here's the thing: as welcome as the stand is, it's a GIANT pain in the dick. You have to assemble it, which is fine, but it took me a minute to realize the little thingamajig (not pictured) was for tightening the bolts when changing poses. And here I was, using pliers. I've since broken one of their stands, and wish there was a better option available that didn't involve a Third Party manufacturer. It's nice to include stands, but make them more durable and give us a better tool than a plastic "wrench," please. Anyway...

The hands and accessories seem to trump almost every other Batman release thus far. Throw in the stand, and the value starts to seem better and makes that $60-$65 price tag sting a little less. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself.

THE BAD: I'm sure this is a factory error, but I have to laugh a little. Wasn't it Bruce's left leg that was gimpy in the film? Because Mine totally has a bum left leg. When you get him posed, it's less obvious, but stand him up straight and he's definitely got an issue with his left knee. I also had to use a Sakura marker to replace the dot of black paint missing from his nose. Minor issues, but still as annoying as the minor issues  I seem to keep having with these. For fuck's sake, Square, get it together. I really love your products, foibles aside, but I could love them more-- I'm not asking for perfect, I'm asking for consistent. And the only consistency I see is that you have consistent, minor problems that could easily be rectified with better QC.

Other than that, there's the weird "floating crotch" that these figures have. The strip going around his taint (yes, I've referred to an action figure's taint now) looks like a Bat-thong. It's less obvious in some poses, but it's a weird, weird thing.

In conclusion, another swell Batman figure from Square. It's much more property-specific, but they managed to make a Bale Batman and still throw in their own style without getting too far from the source material.

JOKER

THE GOOD: Here's Nolan and Ledger's Joker, in all his punk-y, dirty glory. Articulation is what you would expect, although the lack of a bicep joint is puzzling. Thankfully, the elbows also swivel, so that kind of makes up for it. There's a pretty good attempt at a Ledger as Joker portrait here, but I wasn't expecting Hot Toys quality here, and Ledger was so enveloped in that character that you could barely tell who he was anyway. Does he look like the Joker did in The Dark Knight? Absolutely. Did they stylize him without straying from the source, as they did with Batman? You bet your sweet bippy they did. He is a fantastic companion piece to that Batman for sure.

Joker comes with not one, but two alternate heads: the first is (as far as I can tell) nearly identical to the portrait he comes with in the box, albeit with more smudging on the make-up. Thus far, the messier make-up head is my go-to. He also includes his clown mask from the Prologue, and it looks pretty accurate. I doubt I'll use that one, seeing as how his outfit was different and I think the Joker heads are cooler, but I guess it's a nice option to change up the display.

Other accessories are a bit of a let-down. He only comes with his knife, two playing cards, and two extra hands. No guns, no bomb detonators, no stacks of cash or grenades. Bummer. Also included is his stand, which isn't really necessary, but will gladly be used for another PAK figure when I get the chance to assemble the bloody thing.

THE BAD: QC strikes again. On the default head, there's an unsightly patch of glue in his hair where they glued the front portion on. With a little work and an exacto blade, I got some of it off, an improvement but not perfect. It's a bummer that such a nice sculpt, paint, etc. can be ruined with sloppy glue like that (not to mention it looks like Joker re-enacted that scene from There's Something About Mary. Blech!). So not terrible, but still a bummer, and why I've been using the other head more. The clicky joints in his left shoulder are nonexistent, but for now, hold poses just fine. I'm just bummed he doesn't have more accessories. His pistol at the very least would have made this figure a much better value, and the limited hand options are also a let-down. As it is, he doesn't even have a hand that I can squeeze a gun into from another figure or any relaxed right hands, so he has to hold his knife or his cards to not look weird. The left hand options are equally limited: he has a splayed-open hand and a fist, so it either looks like he's trying to take a dynamic, heroic stance (fist), saying "whaddya want?" or that he's talking with his hands like Linda Richman from Cawfee Talk or something (open hand). The playing cards are very tiny, and have to be wedged just right in his hand to stay, meaning they can get lost easily.

OVERALL: Batman is an easy A-, due to it being Batman and the crapload of accessories he has. The Joker, while fun and an excellent representation of the character, I have to give a B-. He's just too light on accessories to score as high as Batman. But, qualms and quibbles aside, these are still great figures, and any fan of import figures and Nolan's Batman films would probably deem them a worthy purchase. Til next time, kids.

Cheers,

Swift