Harley Qwednesday is here!

I recently started a new feature called Harley Qwednesday on my Toyriffic blog because darnit, I love Harley Quinn! Harley Qwednesday posts are weekly posts (on Wednesdays, silly!) that highlight our favorite card carying red and black harlequin Harley Quinn.

And as everyone knows (or ought to know,) Harley Quinn got her start on Batman: The Animated Series. It occurred during season one, in the episode "Joker's Favor" and it was, for me and millions of Bat-fans the world over, love at first sight.

So what better way to honor Harley Qwednesday on this blog but by re viewing and then reviewing the episode Joker's Favor?

Okay, I'm glad we all agree. So without further ado, here it is:

The episode Joker's Favor begins with your regular Joe Nobody, Charles Collins, who ends up cussing out the wrong driver on the freeway... namely the Joker!

The Joker then decides to...hey, who cares about all that jazz - this is Harley Qwednesday, not MonJokerDay; let's get to the meat (or should I say cheesecake) of the episode - Harley Quinn!

We first glimpse Harley sitting on the edge of a desk painting her nails, as the Joker threatens to destroy the Commissioner or some other nonsense. But we aren't paying attention anymore to his old song and dance, because we are in love.

In this first scene Harley acts as little more than a brightly clad goon cheerleader; we next see her cutting Joker's hair as he calls on Charles Collins for some reason or another, completely irrelevant to our dollface Harley.

Harley's value as more than just another goon is then evidenced briefly as she is seen sans make-up/costume, dressed as a limo driver in order to pick up Charles Collins from the airport. We also discover at this moment that Harley is a blonde. Rawr.

Harley continues to pretty up the background as Joker unveils his nefarious scheme. Which includes stuffing Harley in a hot cop outfit and infiltrating Jim Gordon's award ceremony. Her personality shines early on as she is stopped by Bullock, who asks her to read him his rights. Spinning her billy club, Harley responds "You have the right to remain silent" before cracking Harvey on the shin and sashaying away, muttering "jerk" under her breath as she continues on. Rawr again!



Paralyzing gas freezes everyone in their place, Joker pops out of the cake, and Harley plants a bomb on the Commissioner (and a kiss on each cheek too - Rawr again again!) Batman saves the day (yawn) Harley gets a couple good lines (Joker: "Looks like I need a new hobby." Harley: "Macrame's nice." Batman handcuffs Harl to a pipe (Rawr rawr rawr rawr!) Batman stops the Joker. The end.

The amazing thing about Harley Quinn's debut is the subtlety with which it happened. No huge fanfare or origin story (although that did come later.) Just a deranged cutie in a costume and domino mask with some great lines and a very distinct and lovable voice characterization by Arleen Sorkin. And ironically she spends more screen time dressed in civilian clothes than in her now legendary harlequin get-up.

So there you have it. The debut of Harley Quinn. The rest, as they say, is history.

Beware the Gray Ghost!

New animated style toys coming out! One of my, and I'm sure many others, favorite BTAS episodes involved the Gray Ghost. While I was running around in San Diego a week or so ago I snapped this picture for our readers. It looks like it's part of a three pack including a Batman and the Joker, which I have a ton of, but of course I will think about grabbing one of these for the Gray Ghost. Makes me wish I would have picked up the last BTAS three pack with Batgirl, Penguin and Nightwing. Maybe I'll see it out again next time I'm at a Target. That reminds me, has anyone ever seen the Batman Beyond three pack? I missed that one as well.

Now I'm looking at this a little closer and just noticed the standard JLU Batman has the yellow oval Bat Symbol, sweet!

Woman Driver

Back in 1993 McDonalds released a set of toys based on the Batman: Animated Series. The set was really well excecuted and included a few "action figures" as well as a few characters in vehicles themed after their personalities. When properly executed, I really dig that sort of thing. And these were properly executed.

I'm sure between Charles and I we will cover all the toys from the McDonalds series over time; today we take a look at Poison Ivy in her plantmobile.

Ivy's driving a plant based vehicle (natch,) with a huge gaping venus flytrap maw at the front that opens and closes as the vehicle is rolled forward.

The toy is very cutely designed. Reminiscent of the Wacky Racers, I can really see Poison Ivy scooting around Gotham City in a "little spruce coupe" like this.

"Feed me!"

Ivy herself is simple but cute and really looks like her cartoon counterpart. Not bad for a McDonald's freebie!

Now get out of the road, there's a sale on roses at the nursery!

My Blood Runs Cold...

Today we take a look at the second character design of Mr. Freeze in Batman: Animated continuity, which first appeared in the re-christened "The New Batman Adventures" episode Cold Comfort. To be fair, I'll post a spoiler warning here if you haven't watched the episode. And if you haven't watched the episode WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?!?!

Ahem.

Now that that is over with.

Mr. Freeze was given a much more Grand Moff Tarkin/Nazi General look for his redesign in the updated cartoon, and the action figure looks like it literally stepped straight off the screen. This is one action figure that delivers!

Dubbed "Insect-Body Mr. Freeze," (the reason why is the "big reveal" of the episode,) Freeze appeared in the Mission Masters sub-set of The New Batman Adventures action figure line, released by Kenner in 1998.

Click the picture to look closely at the cardback, for all of you who are into that sort of thing.

The card art on the front shows you what old Freezy has been up to since we last saw him. Yipes - spidery upgrades!

The absolute beauty of Insect Body Mr. Freeze is the fact that his "action feature" in no way detracts from his figure's look and form. You want a solid Mr. Freeze figure, you got it. But you also get the spidery goodness of his new form. Wow, the toy designer who got this one past his superior will forever have my gratitude!

His head and face sculpt are also spot-on to the cartoon.

"You would prefer another target, a military target? Then name the system!

err...umm..I mean...

Revenge is a dish best served...cold."

Mr. Freeze comes with a simple black plastic Freeze gun.

"Hold it right there, you!"

Of course the part that shoots this action figure over the top is the "Insect Body" feature, which Freeze's head can be attached to after detaching it from his "human" body.

Creepy and cool, Insect Body Mr. Freeze is one of the only characters from the redesigned New Batman Adventures to see plastic during the cartoon's time. The cartoon, the toys and the era were heading towards an end, or an evolution if you consider the Justice League and JLU cartoons...


...but what an era it was!

Quick to the Batcycle!

Finally a post of my very own! Thought I would start with something I had passed on back in 1992, The Batcycle. In the early days I would pass on stuff like this because the figure would not come off the vehicle, now I love these for what they are. The shows influence can be seen all over this Bat vehicle, from the front fender to the sloped windscreen and the Bat wing rear fender.

A great example of packaging, all the selling points front and center, a great piece of art for that action feel and the shows logo! I really love the look of this card.

The back of the card featuring some cross sell items, one that inspired this site, and a great set of photo instructions.

A great art deco front end on this cycle, I would love to have a bike like this Batman should be proud. This cycle always reminds me of a scene in the Batman: Mask of the Phantasm Movie where Bruce Wayne takes a motor cycle to apprehend a street gang. More on that movie later.

Batman does sit up so you can rev the cycle. This is some sort of switch to allow you to rev the bike safely with out damaging the motor.

When you have it ready to go you push him forward and let her rip! I have yet to make a successful run, but he supposedly can ride wheelie. I don't doubt Batman can do this, he has skills.

Cool feature is the cycle is wide enough to just sit and it looks like Batman is taking a corner.

The head on Batman does move and he comes with a cloth cape to flap in the breeze.

Has some detail on the controls, a gas cap and the head lamp is a sticker.

Another great view of that front fender, I love the silver fin detail on the front.

A parting shot of the rear wheel detail.

All and all I'm pretty happy with this little side purchase. I actually have a nice packaged one since I was trying at one time to get a set of the first series or so of BTAS figures in packages. This one was an impulse buy at a really, really low price and I couldn't pass on it again. Now I'm off to rid the streets of Gotham City of crime!

New Face

One of the most amazing aspects of Batman Animated inspired toys is their staying power. The toys have long outlived the cartoon that spawned them, and even today one can walk into a local pharmacy and walk out with a toy from the toon!

Case in point; I found this Two-Face hanging on the pegs at a CVS Pharmacy (previously Longs) a couple months ago here in California. Only three figures comprise this new "line," (a Batman and a Joker in addition to Two Face) and the other two aren't the best repaints ever, but Two-Face here is a great addition to any Batman Animated collection.

I know this particular figure has been released a few times before, but I think this is one of the best detailed versions yet. Dent's suit is the perfect match between chaos...

...and sanity.

My only gripe is that his coin is a gold color, and we all know Harvey Dent's double-headed coin is a silver dollar. This is certainly an easy fix for anyone who is so inclined, so it isn't anything that should make one avoid the figure. I don't know if these guys are showing up anywhere besides the pharmacy/drug store circuit, but he was somewhere around $7.99 or so at CVS. Toys are always more at stores like that, so it's no surprise, but I didn't already have a Batman Animated Two-Face, so I snagged him. Should you try to track one down yourself? I don't know, why don't you flip a coin.

"Call it!"

Batman (the Animated Toys Blog) Begins

Welcome to Batman the Animated Toys blog!

This blog was the brainchild of Charles, best known for his pop culture and toy blog Eclectorama. Charles approached me a long time ago about collaborating with him here, due to our similar interest in Batman and Batman the Animated Series. Apparently Charles and I also share a deep interest in procrastination, as it has taken many many months for a post to appear here.

Well, the wait is over true believers! For the first (and long overdue) official toy post on this blog, I'm reaching back to 1995 and that immortal villain, Ra's Al Ghul!

Long time readers of my personal toy blog Toyriffic may know that I have a funny habit of shunning a character's action figure until I get a certain iconic look. I may love a character, but if the figures released don't do him justice, I'll pass and wait until one comes along that fits my world-view of how that character should be represented.

Which is why in 1995 I shunned this figure. In my mind, a Batman Animated inspired Ra's Al Ghul should be sporting his more conservative suit and cape (which was finally released in the Shadows of Gotham box set many years later.)

But in 1995 all we got was this armor clad Ra's in the retitled "The Adventures of Batman and Robin" line. Now don't get me wrong, this is actually a really good figure. I just have that OCD about getting a "proper" figure first. By the time I did, this guy was long gone from store shelves.

But as luck and patience would have it, I finally came across an armored Ra's at the Swap Meet last weekend. So after fourteen years in limbo, let's bust this guy out of his packaging and have a look, shall we?

Ra's has his iconic green and yellow colors, and his armor is actually pretty cool. It's not over-done (especially considering how a lot of the Batman variants that Kenner was pumping out at the time looked!)

Ra's Al Ghul came with a few accessories as well. He has a cool sword...

...and a demon looking helmet (get it - Demon's Head!)

The helmet is easily slipped on and off and fits quite well. Ra's head sculpt is pretty cartoon accurate as well. His armored chest also sports a demon looking symbol. Cool.

He's a simple figure and time-period appropriately articulated. His sword fits in his hand nicely and Ra's looks quite regal and kingly holding it.


Finally, Ra's came with a silly projectile shooter (again, a sign of the times.) But this piece is easy to throw in a drawer and ignore (or keep by your desk to shoot at cats and others who may wander too closely while you are blogging about toys.)

All in all Ra's Al Ghul is a great figure and a good toy for any Batman Animated collection. I'm glad I have him in his suit so I could finally add this version to my collection.