Questions about Batman toys

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Warcry
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Questions about Batman toys

Post by Warcry »

Does anyone here collect Batman figures, or DC stuff in general? If so I could use a bit of help.

I've been thinking about getting a Batman figure ever since I rewatched TAS last year, but the last time I bought Batman toys I was a kid and they were clearing out Batman Returns figures at the local discount store. I've tried looking at online retailers like BBTS, but whenever I try I wind up lost and confused. The impression I've got is that there are something like twenty different toylines, ranging from absurdly detailed and expensive collector-oriented stuff to simple kid-friendly figures with big, spring-loaded accessories. And while I haven't look too, too hard, on the occasions that I've glanced at the superhero pegs most of the Batmen I've seen have been comedy repaints that presumably have names like "Lava Power Batman" or "Forest Camo Batman". I've chalked that up to the fact that, unlike Transformers, parents know Batman well enough that they're buying up the ones that, you know, actually look like Batman for their kids' birthday presents...

Of course, now it's summer movie season so the shelves are probably going to be overflowing with Dark Knight Rises merchandise. I'm not a huge fan of the all-black batsuits that they favour for big-screen Batmen, though, so I'm not sure that really helps me any.

What I'm hoping for is a Batman figure approximately the size of a Deluxe transformer, with good articulation and a traditional costume. I'd prefer black-and-grey over blue-and-grey because as someone whose exposure to Batman has come mainly through TV shows rather than comics I've always associated the blue outfit with the campy Adam West Batman. But if the figure is good enough I'm sure I'd get over it. I dunno if I'd be interested in getting a villain or two to pose with him, but it would be nice to have the option at least.

What are my options? Am I going to be able to find something I'll like easily at retail, or am I going to end up needing to order online? Since I'm doing this on a whim I'd rather not spend much more than $20 on a figure.

Thanks in advance if any of you guys can help me out. :)
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Skyquake87
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Post by Skyquake87 »

The current Batman Legacy stuff might be worth looking into, they seem reasonable.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

The DKR selection at work has the main Batman toy in three colours: Movie accurate, lime green and in the comic (as it is now, with actual black rather than blue for black) design. The later may well be what you're after (though they're fairly tiny toys).
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Warcry
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Post by Warcry »

Thanks for the help, guys.
Skyquake87 wrote:The current Batman Legacy stuff might be worth looking into, they seem reasonable.
Nothing but Silver Age Catwoman as far as the eye can see. :(

Thanks for cluing me into that line, though. Between Legacy and the various DCUC releases there are about six different releases with something very close to my favoured comic/animation batsuit as well as a version that features the suit from the Burton movies (the only big-screen Batman I really liked the look of). I suspect it'll take some digging on the secondary market to find what I want, but the prices for these lines don't seem too crazy.
inflatable dalek wrote:The DKR selection at work has the main Batman toy in three colours: Movie accurate, lime green and in the comic (as it is now, with actual black rather than blue for black) design. The later may well be what you're after (though they're fairly tiny toys).
Are these the more-or-less G.I. Joe sized ones? Sadly, everything I've been able to find out about them tells me that they're just not very good. It doesn't sound like they've improved on the Batman toys I was getting in the 80s and early 90s, unfortunately, and...well, there's a very good reason why my nephew has all of them now.
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Skyquake87
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Post by Skyquake87 »

It's the designs taking from the Arkham Asylum game that caught my eye in the Legacy line, particularly the excellent Harley Quinn figure.

There was a line of Alex Ross inspired Batman figures, but I can't for the life of me remember what that line was called. Those were pretty good too.
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Warcry
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Post by Warcry »

As someone who grew up on TAS, Slutty Harley Quinn just feels wrong. Although I'm not a big fan of the absurdly grim and gritty Arkham character designs, I do have to admit that they did a very good job of translating the designs into toy form. None of them really appeal to me other than the Arkham City version of Robin, though.
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Warcry
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Post by Warcry »

Grabbed this from a local shop today:

Image

It's a great toy with wonderful poseability and my favourite version of the batsuit, so I'm pretty happy. I'm pretty sure it's meant to represent his current look in the comics, but I'm not 100% sure. There are a lot of DCUC Batman toys with this general design, and I don't follow the line closely enough to know which one is which. It's pretty much exactly what I was hoping for, and the only complaint I've got is that if I'd started looking a few months earlier I probably could have bought him at retail for a few bucks less than what I paid at a comic shop.

Now I've just got to find a few villains for him to beat up on...
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Skyquake87
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Post by Skyquake87 »

He looks pretty good :)

I ended up buying the Arkham Asylum Harley Quinn figure. She's awesome (and quite sexy, in a dead eyed clearly on drugs kind of way) and has some excellent detailing, including a cute tatoo and a big baseball bat. Brilliant.

I'd still really like an Azrael Batman figure, but I'm looking at £50 minimum for an import, so that'll remain a pipe dream for now...
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Warcry
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Post by Warcry »

Really? I've never looked for Azbats, but they've made a couple figures of him now. I'm surprised he's so pricey, because it doesn't seem like DC figures see the same sort of insane price inflation in the aftermarket that some Transformers lines do. Then again, in the DC lines characters like Batman and Superman sell no matter how many new variants get produced while the third-tier characters who would wind up scalper fodder in Transformers lines line warm shelves for years, and collector-oriented stuff has less articulation than the normal retail main-lines, get completely new molds and often sell for the same price as a retail figure. Or at least that's the impression I get from a few weeks of online hunting and visits to local stores in my area, where characters I've never heard of from waves released in 2010 are still to be found at my local Walmart. The whole thing is quite surreal compared to collecting Transformers or Lego.

How is Harley in terms of poseability? A few of the female DC figures I've seen don't have the ability to move their legs to the side. Black Canary was especially disappointing when I saw her, since if anyone should be able to do dynamic kick poses you'd think it'd be her...
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Skyquake87
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Post by Skyquake87 »

Yeah, Harley has pish all leg articulation, but I don't mind. I don't like action figures to have an insane amount of joints or you end up with messes like Toy Biz's Marvel figures. I have a Spider Woman toy and she just looks ugly because she just a pile of joints. She looks like one of those wooden artists macquettes painted up.

Azrael's just expensive because he was in a later wave of the DCU line that, unfortunately, doesn't have appeared to have made it to the UK and the after market prices seem to have him pegged around the £20 - £30 mark and then there's shipping on top of that.
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