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| "Good job, old chum!" |
After more than 40 years, action figures based on the classic 1966 Batman TV series have finally arrived. These are the toys I have been yearning for since I was four years old! Were they worth the wait? Read on to find out.
Mattel's Batman Classics 1966 TV Moments
Batman and Robin Action Figure 2-Pack
Today, I'll be looking at the Batman and Robin two-pack. It comes with two action figures (Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin, natch), a batarang that either figure can hold, a toy rope (I think), and a base designed to look like a wall, for the two figures to climb on.
It's important to note that although Batman is available separately, the Robin figure is ONLY available in this two-pack. So, if you want to get a Burt Ward as Robin action figure, and really, what kind of maniac would you be to
not want that, this is the way to get it.
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| American Badass |
What do I like about these figures? well obviously the fact they are Batman 1966 action figures alone is enough. they would have to screw these toys up really bad for me not to like them. Luckily they're
not bad.
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| The Dynamic Duo |
The sculpts are a
little soft, and the paint jobs aren't really as sharp and clean as I would like them to be. But overall, the likenesses are still very good. These are clearly figures of Adam West and Burt Ward, and not just a couple of generic dudes in Batman and Robin drag.
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| Adam West: The One True Batman |
They've got quite a bit of articulation, which is cool, I guess. As a kid, I would have been perfectly satisfied with these figures if they only had your basic 5 points of articulation. These guys have something like 20. The articulation does have it's downside, in that it makes them pretty hard to stand on their own. But it also allows them to sit naturally in their Batmobile (sold separately), which is AWESOME!
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| Striking Fear in to the Hearts of Criminals |
The toys do have some flaws beyond the slightly soft sculpts and imperfect paint jobs. To begin with, I think the paint on Robin's tights is a weird color. On the show, Robin was not bare-legged, but wore flesh-colored tights (apparently the TV censors thought bare legs would be indecent). Ideally, the color of his legs should be a little paler than the rest of his skin to indicate this. In fact, some Robin figures I've seen are painted this way, and it looks nice. But the one I have has his legs painted slightly darker than his regular fleshtone. I don't know why there is more than one paint scheme for these figures, but I'm a little disappointed that I got the inferior one.
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| The Boy Wonder |
There are also some issues with the figures' cloth capes. Cloth itself is not a problem for me, although I know some people would prefer a sculpted plastic cape. The cloth cape allows the figures to sit inside the Batmbobile, and that is important. But the capes have these giant white tags attached to them. I'm assuming there must be some weird government regulation that requires this, or something, so Mattel probably didn't have any choice about this. But still, they're ugly. I cut mine off as soon as I took some photos of them for this review. Worse, the capes were attached to the plastic with little plastic barbs, like the kind that attach price tags to clothes. And they leave little holes in the capes, so your figures are damaged, before you even take them out of the box.
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| The Caped Crusaders' Capes |
Another problem with the capes is the wires inside of them. In theory, I think they are there to put Batman and Robin in the same wall-climbing pose that they used on the TV show. On the show, , they just put the camera on it's side, and had Adam West and Burt Ward walk on a fake wall built on the floor,
pretending like they were climbing up it. Having their capes stick out straight behind them made them look like they were pointing towards the ground due to gravity. But the wires in these capes don't really work. The problem is that the wires are not attached to the collar or neck, they are just hanging loose inside the cape. So, no matter what position you put the wires in, the cape itself will still fold down at the neck and shoulders area, and hang to the floor.
A bigger problem is the wall prop that comes with these toys. With it, you're supposed to be able to recreate the wall-climbing scenes from the show. The windows even open up, so you could stick some celebrity's head through them. Maybe if we're lucky, this line of figures will come out with a celebrity cameo Jerry Lewis figure in a future wave, how cool (if unlikely) would that be? The wall prop has pegs on the wall, and the action figures have holes in their feet that should snap on to the pegs. This way, you could hang it on your wall, and make it look like Batman and Robin are climbing up on it. But, at least with my figures, their feet fit on the pegs
very loosely. It was hard for me to pose the figures on the wall just when it was sitting flat on my table... one false move and they would fall over. There is
no way the figures I have would stay on this thing if it was hanging on my wall, not unless I glued them down, or something. I've seen pictures online of other people who seem to be able to do it, though... so maybe I just got a bad set of figures, or a bad base? I don't know.
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| Batclimbing? |
The toy rope that comes with the figures is very low quality. It's basically a twist tie with no wire in it. In fact, it's so bad, that I'm not even sure if it is really supposed to be a toy rope. Maybe it's only purpose is to enhance the display while it's in the package?
Despite my criticisms, overall I really like these toys. It's great to have a whole line of action figures for Batman '66, and I hope it continues for years. In addition to Batman and Robin, I also have Surf's Up Batman, The Joker, The Batusi Batman, and The Batmobile, all of which I'll be reviewing this month. I plan on getting the rest of the figures in this line (The Riddler, The Penguin, and Catwoman) in the next few weeks, so hopefully I'll be reviewing them soon, as well. I also have a die-cast 1966 Batcycle that is to scale with these figures, as well as the Power Attack Batcave, which is not Classic TV Batman, but it does fit the Classic TV Batmobile. I'll be reviewing those this month as well.
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| Dark Detectives |
So I'll be seeing you soon, same
Bat-Time, same
Bat-Blog (not to be confused with the actual
Bat-Blog, which I'm assuming you already visit every day. Right?)!
BONUS! MUSIC VIDEO
Burt Ward - Orange Colored Sky (Produced by Frank Zappa!)
Click here to see Adam West perform the same song!
