Show and Tell > Paul’s Batmania

After doing my Robocop Show and Tell the discussion seemed to focus more on Batman than Robocop. Well, here’s my Batman collection Show and Tell inspired by that conversation. For my Show and Tell, I’m going to do something a bit different. I’m going to show and tell as usual, but there’s a little bit more to the story than what I’ve got here. For the rest of the story, head on over to my blog Toy Bender to get the rest of the scoop. Think of it as the director’s commentary over there.

Okay, first up is the world’s most pathetic Batman from Superpowers. He’s one of the first figures I remember owning, so I’ve had him a very long time and played with him a lot. I must have been rough on him, because I can’t figure out how his cowl is missing one of it’s points…

And here’s the Batman from the movie inspired line:

What was interesting is that the Toy Biz Batman was impossible to find and when I did get a hold of him he was kind of disappointing. It wasn’t until Kenner got their paws back onto the license did things really get cooking again. Gone was the knee articulation, but back was a much better sculpt. The Batman figures by Kenner looked very close to their Super Powers Batman’s body with a slightly more Michael Keaton like head on top. Even better was the fact they had all kinds of cool gimmicky accessories, like jet packs and what not. Now I want you to take a look at this picture.

Do you notice something? There’s not a single villain or supporting player in the bunch. I want you to think about that the next time you complain about there being endless variations of Spider-Man or there being too many different Storm Shadows. Kids really do eat this stuff up, including most of us when we were kids. Okay, to be fair I did have a Penguin, a Mr. Freeze, and a Robin to go along with my Batmen, but the variations of Batman still out numbered the unique characters. Also on a sad note, the zip line Batman accessory no longer works. Talk about a disappointing revelation that I came across when I started writing this post.

One of the last Batman figures I ever got (including up to today) was a Bruce Wayne that could be dressed up to be Batman:

While the costume once put on was pretty lame (and now I’m missing most of it), I still really enjoy this figure for it’s fairly decent looking likeness of Michael Keaton. Come on Mattel, give us a Michael Keaton Batman!

My biggest prize out of the Batman line is the Batplane from the ’89 movie. No matter how disappointing the Toybiz Batman was, they really hit the jackpot in capturing the coolness of the jet from that film.

Not only does it look boss, but it has some features that really put it over the top. The main feature is the “Villain Cruncher” which mimicked the cutting device the jet from the ’89 film. You could attach a grip that made it easier to fly the jet around and use the Cruncher, but I never installed it because I was more into “realism”. Finally, the Batplane shoots suction cups which may sound dumb on the surface, but they shoot much farther and much harder than any spring loaded missile I’ve ever seen.

Also worthy of note that on my beat up box the price was reduced to $11.98. Can you imagine a vehicle of this size and one that’s this cool being put on clearance down to the cost of a single six inch figure today?