I was caught by surprise this past weekend by these 1.75" die-cast figurines by Jada Toys! Among the different character themes covering Suicide Squad, Batman v Superman, and others, this Batman is officially the animated Justice League Batman, but that's essentially Batman the Animated with Kevin Conroy doing the voice work. Check out the video:
The 18th episode of Batman: The Animated Series featured the voice acting of recently departed star of the beloved '66 Batman TV series, Adam West. Airing in November of 1992, the actor voiced the character of the Simon Trent, a washed up TV actor who portrayed crime fighter Gray Ghost, idolized by a young Bruce Wayne. Ultimately, Trent must don his costume to save Batman, becoming a hero and reviving public interest in the character, and replenishing Trent's career and finances.
Batman: Gotham Adventures #3 from August of '98 doesn't tell the story from the '92 Animated Series episode, but instead of an imaginative boy obsessed with Batman, who must come to the rescue of the Caped Crusader and his team mates during a bank heist by Scarecrow. When the villain sets off a sonic pitch that makes all fear Batman, including himself, young Justin slips Batman a Gray Ghost outfit kept in the boy's backpack with his action figures, breaking the spell of fear. Now vindicated, Justin is hailed as a hero, and his mother comes to better appreciate the boy's fascination with Batman.
I love the cover of this issue, Batman and Gray ghost drawn as packaged action figures, a concept repeated later by other artists. Sorting some comics this weekend after West passed away, I came across this issue, reminding me of the late actor's connection to Batman: The Animated Series, like one final goodbye from my childhood hero. Watching the syndicated reruns as a boy in the '70s, the camp was lost on me, seeing only the colorful adventures of my favorite heroes, the Dynamic Duo. I'm sure I can speak for Bubba & Chunky B when I say that while I was a big fan of multiple incarnations of the character, Adam West was my first Batman.
DC Collectibles just released to the media a sneak peek at all of their 2014 releases, and probably the biggest surprise is the following two action figure reveals:
Holy in my wallet that pours my money directly into DC Collectibles' bank account, Batman! In 2014 DC Collectibles will be releasing all new action figures based on the preeminent in Batman on screen: Batman Animated action figures with multiple points of articulation and screen accurate sculpts! This Batman Animated Catwoman action figure WILL BE MINE...
...as will this GORGEOUS The New Batman Adventures Batman action figure. These are simply incredible looking action figures - no word yet on scale (I dare assume 6") or price etc. etc. but I will update you as soon as I find out because I am buying these on day one! And according to MTV.com Two-Face and Mr. Freeze have also been announced! To see more DC Collectibles reveals, check out my other blog Toyriffic.
The Penguin was one of the first villains I picked up when the Batman the Animated Series figures were released. That is saying something, as the Penguin is probably one of my least favorite of Batman's Rouges Gallery.
Sure, I like the character and the actors that have portrayed him over the years, but he never really was that cool of a villain, in my opinion anyway. I will say that out of all the different versions I do like this first attempt at the character for the Animated Series the best.
Penguin here is sort of a cleaner version of the Danny De Vito version of the character from Batman Returns film. I believe that the Animated Series was airing about the same time as the Tim Burton Batman films. So, it would make sense that some of the characters share similar attributes. Say, like Penguin's flippers, heavy coats, and longer hair.
One thing that I did always sort of dig is that the Penguin had crazy Umbrella Weapons. This Penguin came with a Hypno-Spin Umbrella Launcher to shoot at Batman and his friends. It works pretty well meaning it will shoot off and knock things down, or even function as a spinning top.
The only draw back is the size of the launcher. You can't see in the picture, but you pretty much have to hold him up when it's snapped on his arm. The figure will not stand with all the weight of the luncher. I am sure you could get him to stand in a sort of un-natural looking pose if you were patient enough.
There is a feature I pretty much just discovered when shooting pictures, once you remove the coat, Penguin has a hole in his back that the peg on top of the launcher can fit, making a pretty nifty little (or large) Umbrella Jet Pack. look out Joker, you might have some competition flying around for the Batman's attention.
Back when these were released I had only seen one Penguin on the pegs, they must have just stocked him, because I never saw another one. Back then I realized he was sort of a rare figure, but I opened him anyway. The loose Penguin is that same figure. I was pretty proud that I had one. When I was preparing for this post, I cracked open my tote of carded BTAS figures only to discover I did have a carded version too. I remember buying a lot of carded figures years ago, just could not remember if I had a Penguin or not. At one time I was trying to put together a carded collection of the first few series of BTAS figures, so it was a nice surprise to find him to shoot a group photo.
Hope you enjoyed this look at the Penguin, he's slowly becoming one of my favorites of the BTAS figure collection.
What's up next from me? Here's a little sneak peek, I cannot make any promises that this will be my next post, but it will be a future post...
One of the best character designs and re-imagined origins for the Batman: The Animated Series was Mr. Freeze. I love the old-school sci-fi/spacesuit look and the 'glass' dome helmet, not to mention the red-lensed goggles.
Mr. Freeze is a delight to the eyes!
The funny thing about his re-written and often lauded origin for the animated series: It was kind of a fluke. I mean, they re-wrote almost every character's origin story! No one sings the praises of the Harvey Dent explosion on the walkway or the Joker's gangster origins (although that one was inspired by the '89 movie for sure.) But oh my, what a brilliant re-imagining for Mr. Freeze!
I kid. It was a brilliant re-imagining. My point is just that with all those re-imaginings, they were bound for a base hit at least once!
Ahem, back to the toy. Mr. Freeze comes, as Mr. Freeze toys often do, with a water shooting weapon. This one is a little different in that the water pressure will toss out an' ice-missile,' which is neat in action and in display. And more relevant to Mr. Freeze than plain water.
However I prefer Freeze's gun to be deceptively unarmed, and the design allows for you to display it that way as well.
His 'backpack' serves as the water receptacle and is made of a soft plastic/rubber material. It was a bit sticky when I released Freeze from his plastic prison, but considering he sat in there for 19 years, it was not a surprise and a little soap washed the sticky right off. I have not tested it for leaks yet, but I'm not going to be squirting Batman with him much anyways.
It would be neat and probably pretty easy to customize a single blue cylinder to be more in keeping with his animated appearance, and I may attempt such a thing someday.
In the meantime, here's the cardback showing all the other cool Batman Animated toys you could get back in 1993.
And apparently so is acquiring the original Batman Animated Mr. Freeze action figure - it only took me nineteen years to finally get around to owning this one!
I'll crack him open and blog about him all proper like real soon, but I just couldn't wait to show him off!
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!
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!
As Bubbashelby would put it, this is a "cheat post" since it was ran on my other blog sometime ago here. Though I think it was time to migrate it since it was the inspiration for this blog. I had enjoyed photographing this toy so much that I took one of the images and made a header, then that lead to setting up a little blog for fun and then contacting my blog buddy and brother from another mother Bubbashelby to see if he was game to talk about some BTAS stuff. Here we are, so I hope you enjoy this post and I look forward to more.
Back when Hasbro held the Batman license a little cartoon made a debut called Batman the Animated Series. Hasbro not missing a beat released some of the best all around Batman figures ever. These things were spot on to the cartoon, well with the exception of all the multi colored bat suits with skis and jet packs and the like. Combat Belt Batman was the only way you were getting a "regular" looking Batman from the cartoon in the sea of goofy Suit Batmans.
This Batman not only combines the look of the show, but has a pretty cool play feature, that actually makes sense, the utility belt! If you didn't feel like wearing the Combat Belt, you could remove it and not ruin the look of the figure.
So what comes on a Combat Belt. You get the standard issue humongous grappling launcher with rope and hook, you also get a bat-a-rang that fits into the launcher and has a storage loop on the belt, plus you get a neat little set of Bat-Cuffs for apprehending Gotham City's Goons.
Combat Belt Batman is by far my most treasured Batman in my collection. You know that question people ask, what is the one item you would grab in an emergency? Well besides the Family and Pets, Vintage Boba Fett, and the family pictures. Combat Belt Batman is right there with them. Of coarse I might have to grab his Batmobile as well, especially if that's were he is at at the time, no time to stop and think about these things...
I'm kind of cheating here by re-posting old pictures and articles from my Toyriffic blog but 1) I had a better picture taking set-up back then and 2) you probably didn't read Toyriffic in 2008 anyways (if you even do now ;) )
So today let's take a look at the Jim Gordon action figure from the year two thousaaaaaand!
I love James Gordon. So in 2000, when another Batman Animated themed box set was released - The Gotham City Enforcement Team - with an exclusive James Gordon action figure, I was all over it like guano on a cave floor.
Jim Gordon is the closest thing to a father (besides Alfred, who could be argued to be the closest thing to a mother) Bruce Wayne has. His character is pivotal to a complete understanding of Batman. His character was handled extremely well in the animated series (as was everything about that now classic cartoon,) and he was voiced with strength and heart by Bob Hastings.
Gordon is lacking his trademark overcoat, and came with two ridiculously over sized handguns as accessories. That's fine...it was clear that these sets, with "exclusive, never before seen" figures were akin to Hasbro-house cleaning. They were most likely popping together prototypes and other pieces that had been acquired over the years and trying to get them out while the fire was still hot, or at least lukewarm. Purely business, I'm sure, but as a fan, how can one complain? They were giving us stuff that we would never have seen otherwise.
Gordon is right on target to his animated series look. He also uncannily resembles my grandfather.
He has a shoulder holster molded to his side...which makes up for a lack of a decent gun...although I did give him a gun from a Playmobil cowboy. I cut the barrel down to give it more of a police issued look.
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.
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!
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!
Not meant to be a comprehensive Batman: The Animated Series toy resource, but rather an exploration of the toys and other merchandise that were available during the era of Batman: The Animated Series and The New Batman Adventures.
This tribute is meant to be a pool of collections and stories about the fun, memories, and joy of the toys, trinkets, and tidbits that make up this wonderful animated universe of the Dark Knight.
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