Happy Harleynukkah and Merry Quinnsmas

I tend to forget that even though a toy isn't an action figure, it's still 'Batman the Animated Toys' relevant, and therefore should be blogged about here.

Case in point: this Harley Quinn 'beanie' dolly.

I got this Harley Quinn for my daughter for Christmas. This beanie doll was originally sold at WB Stores in 1999, so sufficed to say I had to do some 'secondary market' (aka eBay) searching to get it. My daughter also has Poison Ivy and her sister has Batgirl...maybe I'll get those on the blog someday as well.

I've been patient and wise in my search for these BTAS beanies, so I have been able to procure all three that we currently own here for around what they retailed for when new. But I do see them appear for pretty high prices on eBay quite often. The fact that they were made so long ago for a now defunct specialty store does tend to give them the air of rarity, but be patient and you too could probably find most if not all of them for less than ten bucks each.

Here's another shot of Harley with some more of my daughter's Christmas loot!

The Batman & Robin Adventures #3

I've managed to find some more Batman & Robin Adventures in the dollar comics bins, including this well worn copy of issue #3, A Christmas Riddle! Just in time for the holidays!  In addition to the fun art, I'm pleased that all of these I've found were well read: some kid read this two dozen times, loaned it to a friend, who loaned it to a friend... it was really enjoyed, then enjoyed again by me  :D

During the yearly holiday festivities at Gotham City's exclusive Peregrinator Club, an appearance by Father Christmas turns out to be one Edward Nygma in disguise, who literally holds his wealthy audience captive! Insisting that Batman must be wealthy to afford his war on crime, the Riddler begins to call out names of Gotham's patriarchs, listing aloud the reasons why each might be the one which wields the gauntlet of the Dark Knight. Television reporter Summer Gleeson gets caught in the fray, Nygma now given a live media platform on which to expose & humiliate his arch enemy & his teen sidekick!

Picking up the news in the Batmobile, Batman quickly realizes that while a couple good guesses were made, Nygma doesn't really know the identity of the caped crusaders, and that his very public stunt is merely cover for the real crime- stealing the club's treasured pair of gold Mayan statues!

The Dynamic Duo nab Riddler's henchmen robbing priceless statues, and confront the Riddler in the club's ballroom, where cornered, he detonates a bomb planted in the giant Christmas tree! Batman & Robin are forced to let Riddler escape with one of the statues in order to save the trapped patrons.

Slipping through Commissioner Gordon's line of officers surrounding the Peregrinator Club dressed in swat gear, Nygma commandeers a paddy wagon for his getaway. But the Dynamic Duo hitch a ride atop the stolen vehicle, and Nygma runs it off a bridge in the struggle, crashing into the icy lake with Batman while the Boy Wonder leaps onto shore. "It's not fair", the defeated villain coughs as Batman pulls him and one of the gold Mayan statues to the surface.

In the epilogue, Bruce Wayne & his young ward survey the club's damage, and the young billionaire is asked if he will finally accept the invitation to join in light of his generous donation toward the building's repair. Straightening an oil painting on the wall of his father & former member Thomas Wayne, Bruce declines, adding that while his father wanted him to become a Peregrinator, he never was the club-joining type   :)

***Merry Christmas to my partners in blogging BubbaShelby & ChunkyB, and to all of our readers here at Batman the Animated Toys!***

-Colin, the Boyish Wonder

The Batman & Robin Aventures #9

The Batman & Robin Adventures was a DC Comics title that ran from 1995-1997, set in the continuity & style of the popular animated series. From 1992-1995 it had been The Batman Adventures until the television series Batman: The Animated Series was re-branded The Adventures of Batman and Robin. There were twenty-five issues, two annuals, and two specials. I picked up this ragged issue in the dollar bin at a local comics retailer, having never read one of these upbeat, kid-friendly little books. I mean, who could resist that cover with Batgirl flying into action?? Any of you kids ever have any of these?

Taking courses in criminal toxicology, Barbara Gordon returns from her locker to find the nightwatchmen tranquilized on the lobby floor. With the police five minutes away, she decides Batgirl may be needed before it's too late!

As it turns out, Barbara's professor, Dr. Fazil (now Mr. Siddiq), was formerly employed/enslaved by Ra's Al Ghul, and Talia was sent to retrieve the renowned disease & immunity expert after his sudden disappearance.

Talia proceeds to give the younger, less experienced Babs a scathing beat down, and while laying in the closet floor of the laboratory she spots a can of bromide powder. Remembering a childhood chemistry lesson, she also grabs a container of denzenel on the way downstairs, in pursuit of Talia & her hostage. Her confidence is regained in the knowledge that together these are the ingredients to a form of tear gas, which puts Talia down as the Gotham police arrive onto the scene.

Pulling Mr. Siddiq to safety, Babs loses his kidnapper- never having learned Talia's name nor her intent. Writing in her journal that night, Barbara recalls what Talia said during their confrontation, about it taking more than a costume to make a warrior. Talia was right about that, Barbara noted, adding that "it takes courage & brains, too."   :)

*Writer: Ty Templeton

*Pencils: Brandon Kruse

See my post on the New 52 Bagirl #1 at The Super-DuperToyBox!

Incoming!

I have been a busy little Gotham Ghoul this October. Cleaning house at my other blog, busting butt at work, and taking care of business at the house. So this is more of a heads up for the fine citizens of BTATs and my partners in crime... I just gots me some goodies I am dying to crack open and shoot some pictures of. So, please be patient, enjoy some of the other offerings at BTATs and I will be back in the swing of things hopefully in a week or two.



This fine little kitty joined my packaged collection about a week or two ago, Pretty decent package, some flaws but for 99¢ I couldn't beat it.



This one was almost handed to me, not so much of a great deal, but better than what I have seen these go for. He arrived in the most impressive packing job I have ever seen, and that says a lot because I used to work for the old brown shipping company in college and I know a few people that ship stuff for the eagle now, Anyway I have full plans to add this guy to my loose Batman collection so I will be opening Batsy here. Hey bubba I know it's not to your usual toy liking being a he man doll hater, but you have to admit this is one minty looking Bat Dolly!

I now return you to the further adventures of BTATs!

Kenner Turbo Glider Robin

There are several words I could use to describe this Kenner Turbo Glider Robin from the Batman Animated series, and they are all synonymous with AWESOME! I couldn't think of a better action figure for my inaugural post on this blog than Robin. He's one of my favorite characters from the Batman mythos:  a symbol of my boyish pluck and youthful enthusiasm. They don't call me Boy Wonder for nothin', Kids  :D

I got this one for south of ten clams on account of his mangled backing card- I'm gonna open him anyway, so I didn't care. Robin has a cloth cape, which is right up my alley, and check out that yellow glider! Really cool!

This figure is a Series 1, released in 1992. The head is a new sculpt, but the body is a repaint of the Batman Returns Robin released by Kenner only a year earlier. Later on Robin would receive a body stylized more like the animated character- The "Crimefighter Robin" figure, styled after Tim Drake, would be released after the show was rebooted as Batman: The New Adventures.

The yellow glider with Robin's trademark "R" on top has so much eye appeal- I had to have it when I discovered it existed! The insignia is a factory applied decal, mine relatively well placed in the molded oval depression atop the wing. A red chest plate clips onto Robin's torso, and to my surprise, he can stand uptight with the entire apparatus attached.

The packaging advertises that the missiles can be "dropped"- in reality a manual affair, released by pressing the exposed pegs down from atop the glider. It works  :)  Robin can hold the two hand controls while flying his glider over Gotham City.

And now for your viewing pleasure, from my own Super-DuperToyBox YouTube channel:  A Moment of Zen with The Boy Wonder  :D

Big Thanks to Chunky B and BubbaShelby for appointing me membership to Batman the Animated Toys Blog!

*Visit Batman the Animated Figure Archive!
*Come play with me at The Super-DuperToyBox!

BTATs gets it's own Boy Wonder!

Bubbashelby and I are proud to announce Batman The Animated Toys newest member, Super Duper Toy Box's own Colin "The Boy Wonder"!

If you haven't read the Super Duper Toy Box I highly recommend it. Colin has a fun, infectious way of looking at toys and I am sure he will carry that over to his posts here on BTATs. Colin has jumped head first into toy collecting a little over a year ago and has surpassed many who have been doing this a life time. He always has a positive attitude towards the hobby and others, that really comes through in his style of writing and photograph. Toy Collector, Comic Fanatic, Musician, and Artist. I think you will find him a welcome member to our little community.

So join Eric and I in welcoming the Boy Wonder to Gotham's Greatest Little Animated Blog!

Pen-goo-ins is prac-tic-ally chickens!

This is my favorite Penguin action figure:

Oswald Cobblepot, aka Penguin, from Batman the animated series. This is the later redesign, after the Penguin that was modeled after Batman Returns.

So much more in line with his classic comic book look and original appearance, this is Oswald at his finest.

Regal and refined, this Penguin ain't no chicken!


If you're blue and you don't know where to go to
why don't you go where fashion sits...


"Puttin' on the Ritz!"

(Re-posted from Toyriffic, but that post was originally made a long time ago so maybe you forgot.)

Fuga Dalla Prigione Di Arkham

What? Oh I'm sorry Arkham Asylum Escape, two pack from Kenner. I have been on the prowl for this two pack or for that matter the four pack that included the Arkham Asylum entrance gates for a long, long time. How long you ask? Lets see the two pack was released in 1997. So about that long.

Notice Batman is "Batman" in all languages represented here? He's the Batman that's why!

Now, I remember seeing both the two packs and the four packs in stores back then and I always thought "those will always be around" Boy was I wrong. The four packs disappeared over night, the two pack hung out for a while longer, but in the back of my head I kept thinking "get it next time, you need these other toys now!" I hate budgets.



All that being said I have been relentlessly searching for these gates at every toy show, flee market and ebay listing ever since... well relentlessly searching for an inexpensive set ever since. Finally the gates broke wide open and out rushed a super inexpensive two pack. I guess no one wanted this one, the package was rough, but I wanted to open it anyway so I didn't care. I could have went the rout of buying the gates loose, but where is the fun in that? I wanted the whole experience, plus I needed a loose version of Two-Face for the shelf and I could always use a different Batman.



I will admit that I did feel a little weird opening up this 14 year old package, plus to make matters a little worse it was a trilingual version and by the looks not the usual English, Canadian English, French I am so used to seeing in toy shops and on Star Wars figures, no this looks like the Queen's English, Spanish (guessing here) and Italian. But I decided to open it up anyway, if not for the gates (personal reasons) than for the good readers of Batman the Animated Toy.

First up is the Gates. Not much going on here but man are these going to look awesome on the shelf with all the baddies busting out of them.



Oh no it's Dos Caras! Due-Facce! Two Face! This would be the Batman Adventures version of the character, a more stylized version than what appeared on Batman the Animated Series in the first two seasons. he comes with some really nice guns, a pistol and what looks like a sub-machine gun.



Two -Face also comes with a straight jacket that wraps around the figure and fastens in the back to keep him behaving. the package calls this a "harness".



Batman, again from The New Adventures, comes with the molded flowing cape, a first for my collection. Oh I have a silver suit Batman from Mattel, but not this one from Kenner. I will admit I would have liked to have seen a more "natural" looking bat here, but he is a nice addition and I welcome new Batman with open arms. He comes with a grappling hook type device, described on the package as "weapon", that is of course over sized.



Here's a pretty fun item, you can fasten the projectile end of the "weapon" to the "harness" and string Two-Face up on the Asylum Gates for the staff or Police to find later. Hey it shows this on the package, I did't make this up.



I guess if anything this shows if you are patient enough and stick to it you will find the item you are looking for for the price you want to pay, or better, in a matter of time. Oh and this was less than 9 bucks with shipping included, if I am not mistaken these were retailing around 9.99 plus tax back in the day, possible a little more, so not bad in my opinion.



Hope you enjoyed the Gates of Arkham, I am certainly glad to get a hold of these. I had planned a totally different post (and it's still in the works) I was just pretty excited to finally get these in hand and wanted to bust them out for you to see... speaking of busting out, looks like Bats has some work to do! See you next time.

Alfred Pennyworth

I can't think of Salinas, California without thinking of Alfred Pennyworth. Why? Glad you asked.

Way back in 1999/2000, back before I, or most people for that matter, had discovered eBay, the only way to get a newly released toy was (gasp) from the stores that sold them. And then, like now, it was often hit or miss if a store was actually carrying something, even if it was a store exclusive.

Thus was the case with a Batman Animated four pack being sold exclusively at Toys R Us. I had found a picture in Toyfare or Wizard or some other nerd zine of a new set featuring the first ever Batman Animated Alfred Pennyworth action figure! I had to have it!

I cut the picture out and ran with it to my local Toys R Us, and of course they did not have it in stock nor did they have any intention of stocking it ever. Sadface.

Shortly thereafter I was traveling through Salinas and stopped in at their Toys R Us looking for the set. They did not have it on the shelves, but a friendly associate looked all over the store for it (their computer said one was in stock!) and was finally able to locate the set for me! I never got that woman's name, but she was obviously an angel sent from heaven.

Anyways, Alfred was later released with a Batcave/Wayne Manor set, but this version, as the box so excitedly puts it, includes a serving tray! Batman and Robin shall never go hungry again!

"What's for dinner tonight, Alfred? We're famished!"

In addition to Batman and Robin, the set also came with a recolored Clayface.

"Lobster? You know I'm allergic to shellfish!"

"Indeed, sir."

The set also included an accessory for each character. Alfred of course had his serving tray and lid, Robin had his Robin jet car thingamajig, Batman has a projectile firing gun doohickey, and Clayface has a load of dynamite and a 'breakable' safe.

"And guess who gets to clean it all up."

I believe this set was the first set Hasbro released with recolor/re-releases and one 'exclusive' figure. Later sets included such fan favorite characters as Commissioner Gordon, Talia Al-Ghul and Ventriloquist/Scarface. But I will always remember Alfred and my trip through Salinas as the high water mark of my Batman Animated collecting career.