R.I.P. Adam West

Darn. I knew this day would eventually come, but it still hurts. Adam West, TV's Batman, died Friday at age eighty eight. Sad, but I guess that's a pretty good run.

For an entire generation, West was Batman. The 1966 show might have been campy fun, but he took the role seriously, and played it absolutely straight. There've been a host actors who played the role in later years, but West's version remains the most iconic.

I vividly remember sitting on the floor in front of the TV twice a week, dutifully watching Batman. Yes, twice a week. The producers wanted it to be a sixty minute show, but ABC didn't have any hour long timeslots available. So they split the episodes in two and aired them on Wednesday and Thursday nights. 

The first part of each story would always end on a cliffhanger, with Batman and Robin stuck in a villain's trap. I remember these endings always caused me great distress. Being a kid, I didn't understand that this was just a cheap way to get the audience to tune in the next day, and was honestly worried that Batman was gonna die!

The Batman TV show is likely what jump-started my interest in Marvel and DC comics (I read comics before then, but they were generally the funny animal kind), so thanks to Adam West for that. He provided me with many hours of colorful entertainment as a kid, as well as into adulthood as I continued to watch the series he made famous.

R.I.P., old chum!

Now who's gonna save us from that bomb?

Happy Belated 50th Anniversary To Batman!

Happy Belated Anniversary to the Batman TV show, which premiered FIFTY YEARS ago on January 12, 1966. Fifty years! Can you believe it? 

I can vividly recall watching the show as a kid. Twice a week I'd park myself in front of the TV and all activity in the house had to cease while the show was on. Add to that The Munsters and Lost In Space, and it was an amazing time to be a kid in the 1960s!

As a kid I loved the comic book action of Batman— especially the BIFF! and POW! captions that would fill the screen when Batman and Robin would fight the villain of the week. The colorful villains, the pop art design, the various bat-gadgets and the catchy theme song were awesome as well.

Happily adults can also enjoy the show's campiness and the deadly seriousness the actors bring to their roles. I don't know if the producers intentionally planned it that way, but if they did, kudos to them.

Adam West gave us the ultimate Batman-- he played the role perfectly straight, even when he was being dangled over an alligator pit. Burt Ward was also great, as he brought a youthful earnestness to Robin. In fact the entire cast was pitch perfect-- I can't think of any other actorsvwho could play the roles. 

One thing the actors all did right— they played their parts completely deadpan. No matter how outrageous the plots were, they delivered their lines with the utmost seriousness. I think that's why the show's lasted so long— if the cast had been winking at the audience the entire time, it would have been insufferable.

A few Bat-Facts:

• Even though the series only ran for three seasons, it gave us a whopping 120 episodes! Man, actors really earned their pay back in the 1960s!

• Batman was originally intended as a one hour show, but ABC only had two half hour time slots available— on different nights! So the show was split in half, airing twice a week in half hour installments. 

The first episode of the week ended in a cliffhanger, which was resolved the next night. I think that probably helped the popularity of the show— kids watching at home HAD to tune in to see how Batman would get out of the Joker's latest trap!

• Lyle Waggoner was originally considered for the part of Batman.

• Five different Batmobiles were created for the series. The Batmobile was a highly customized 1955 Lincoln Futura. It was built by famed film car customizer George Barris. 

• Today Batman is one of DC Comics' most popular characters, but it wasn't always so. Believe it or not, in the early 1960s the comic was on the verge of cancellation, due to poor sales. The massive success of the TV series renewed interest in the comic.

• Burt Ward earned a meager $350 a week during the first season! 

• Burgess Meredith, who played the Penguin, was always seen with a cigarette holder in his mouth. He claimed the smoke irritated his throat, which is why he always uttered his trademark "Quack, quack, quack" to mask his coughing fits.

• Bruce Wayne's faithful butler Alfred was a character in the comic, but had been killed off a year or so before the show began. When the show began using him, the comic followed suit and resurrected him.

• Many fans believe the Aunt Harriet character was added to the show to prevent viewers from thinking Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson were gay. According to the producers that's an urban legend.

Even if it was true, why would the presence of an addled old maiden aunt scramble anyone's gaydar?

• Supposedly Robin says his catchphrase "Holy (insert word here), Batman!" 352 times over the course of the series.

• When actor Caesar Romero was cast as the Joker, the producers told him he'd have to shave his mustache. Romero was famous for playing Latin lovers in the movies, and refused to shave his trademark. So the makeup man simply slathered white greasepaint over his mustache, as well as the rest of his face.

In the 1960s viewers never noticed this, because everyone was watching TV sets with about 250 scan lines of resolution. With the advent of HDTV, Romero's poorly hidden mustache is quite obvious.

• The various villain's hideouts were always filmed at a "dutch angle" to subliminally suggest they were "crooked."

• There were supposedly eighty four different sound effect words (such as POW!) used in the fight scenes over the course of the series.

• William Dozier, the producer of the series, was also the narrator.

• There was never an origin episode of Batman; the series begins with the Caped Crusaders as already established crime fighters. I'm guessing this was because the show was for kids, and the producers didn't want to deal with the young Bruce Wayne seeing his parents murdered in cold blood before his very eyes, or with Robin's acrobat parents falling to their deaths from a trapeze.

Bruce Wayne has a brief line in the very first episode referencing his parents' death, but it's never mentioned again.

• Two Face was one of Batman's major foes from the comics, and was briefly considered for the show. The producers ultimately decided his appearance would be too gruesome for a kid's series.

• Batman was actually quite a forward thinking show. In the third season, Julie Newmar, who played Catwoman, was filming a movie and was unavailable. The producers recast the part with actress/singer Ertha Kitt. She was one of the very few black actresses on TV at the time (Star Trek's Nichelle Nichols being the other). She broke additional racial boundaries by actually flirting with Batman!

• After ABC canceled the series in 1969, the producers hoped another network might pick it up. They eventually realized that wasn't going to happen, and bulldozed the set. Two weeks later, NBC offered to pick up the series! When they heard the sets had been dismantled, they were unwilling to splurge to have them rebuilt, and the deal was off. 

• Amazingly after five decades people are still referencing the series (despite the fact that some have probably never even seen it!). "Holy Blank, Batman!" and "Same Bat-Time, Same Bat-Channel" are still being quoted to this day!

• Despite the popularity of the series, it was never released on home video until 2014. Various rights issues and legal entanglements were the culprit. It's now finally available on DVD and glorious blu ray, and no doubt looks even better than it did in 1966.

Art Imitating Art

So a few days ago I'm watching the 1966 Batman series, spefically the episode Pop Goes The Joker. In this particular episode, the Joker, played to perfection by Caesar Romero, enters a Gotham City museum and starts defacing the priceless art by spraying paint all over it. 

Of course since this is Batman and it was the 1960s, when abstract art was still new and misunderstood by the mainstream, the damaged paintings actually go up in value. Com-O-Dee!

Anyway... the Joker vandalizing art inside a museum. That seems... familiar somehow. Where have I seen something like that before?

 Ah. Got it. Jack Nicholson did the exact same thing in the 1989 Batman movie.

Caesar Romero (grease painted mustache and all) did it first way back in 1967! And better! AND he didn't force us to listen to a Prince song while he did it!

I'm A Grown Man And I Bought This: Catwoman Classic Batman Action FIgure

It's been nearly five decades since the Batman TV series premiered on ABC in 1966, and toys based on the show are just now starting to trickle out.

Several companies have begun releasing Batman action figures in various scales. Neca got the rights to make 18" figures and Hot Toys is releasing high end 12" figures later this year (huzzah!). 

Mattel secured the 6" license. Last year they released several Batman TV Series figures, including Batman, The Joker, The Riddler, The Penguin and Surf's Up Batman, which I reviewed here. They also made a Robin figure, that you can only get in a special two pack with Batman (a blatant marketing move) and a pretty nice Batmobile scaled to the figures.

And now finally they've released the much anticipated Catwoman figure, to complete the line. Why Catwoman wasn't released with the rest of the figures, I have no idea.

At first I thought maybe they were planning to produce less of her to artificially drive up demand so they could charge more for her (which toy companies do all the time), but she cost the same as the other figures. It's a mystery.

Obviously this is the Julie Newmar version of Catwoman, from the first two seasons of the series. As likenesses go, this is a pretty good one. It's definitely Julie Newmar we're looking at here. They even got her odd trifurcated eyebrows down (Really, spell check? You don't flag "trifurcated?"). 

By the way, Lee Meriwether portrayed Catwoman in the Batman movie, and Earth Kitt played her in the show's third season.

I remember watching the show back in the day and absolutely hating Eartha Kitt. Not because she was black, mind you, but simply because she wasn't Julie Newmar. I was a kid and didn't cotton to change. As an adult I've come to appreciate Kitt's performance though.

Actually the show was pretty progressive and probably quite provocative for the 1960s. There was always a degree of sexual tension between Catwoman and Batman, and I'll bet the sight of a black woman aggressively flirting with a white man-- on a kid's show yet-- raised more than a few eyebrows (trifurcated as well as normal).

Catwoman comes dressed in her traditional slinky, form-hugging suit, which in reality was quite a feat of engineering. Kudos to whoever designed it. I have a feeling the amount of dads who watched the show increased dramatically when Catwoman guest-starred.

Her necklace is sculpted into her body rather than being a separate piece, which is probably a good idea. It won't get lost in the shag carpeting that way.

Note that she's also wearing her cat ears, as is only natural for someone who calls herself "Catwoman." You hear that, Christopher Nolan, and your movie in which your no-fun version of Catwoman doesn't wear cat ears, and you don't even call her "Catwoman" in dialog?

I don't really have anything to say about this photo. Let's just sit quietly and enjoy the view, shall we?

I naturally assumed that since Catwoman's wearing heels that she'd never be able to stand by herself. Imagine my surprise when I found out she not only can stand, but is pretty darned stable. It's like a miracle.

Female action figures are typically shorter than their male counterparts, but Catwoman appears to be the same height as Batman. I don't think that's a mistake on Mattel's part. Adam West is reportedly 6' 2," while Newmar is a whopping 5' 11!" Now that's a big gal!

Catwoman is quite flexible and posable, just like the real thing.

Like all the figures in the line, Catwoman comes with a stand featuring one of the sound effect title screens from the show.

And now we come to the mystery of the cards. Each figure came with a photo card, which when laid out formed an image of the Batcave. 

Unfortunately I couldn't figure out how the cards from the first five figures were supposed to line up.

No matter how I arranged them, they just didn't work.

I finally figured out why. I was missing the Catwoman card. Derp! Once she was finally released, the cards fit together perfectly. Mystery solved!

Here's the other side of the cards, featuring paintings of each of the characters. It was nice of Mattel to include these I supposed, but I have no idea what to do with them and honestly they're probably going to go in a drawer.

I'm very happy Mattel gave us a Catwoman-- many times toy companies skip the female characters, as they think young boys won't want to play with a dumb ol' girl toy. I think they realized that this line was only going to appeal to people "of a certain age" though, and that's no doubt why they included her.

And it only took fifty years to get a line of decent Batman TV toys. Bring on Wave 2!

Holy Bat News!

Yesterday Warner Bros. announced that at long, long, LONG last, the 1966 Batman TV series is finally coming to DVD! The timing of this release couldn't be more perfect, as the DVD format is long past its prime and the series' target demographic is starting to die off.

For decades now the Batman series has been tied up in a Gordian knot of legal problems involving guest stars, music rights and the fact that 20th Century Fox owned the show, but Warner Bros. owned the characters.

But it looks like those problems have finally been worked out, and a home video release is imminent. Warner Bros. confirmed that a complete series box set will be released sometime this year.

I'm happy to hear this of course, but... this is a song I've heard many, many times over the past twenty years and every time it seems like it's going to happen, the deal falls through at the last minute. I've had my hopes cruelly dashed one too many times to allow myself to get too awfully excited about it. 

But it seems like it's probably really going to happen though this time. In the past year we've seen at least four different companies get the rights to make Batman '66 toys (at different scales), there's been a ton of other merchandise released, and DC is even publishing a comic based on the show. Something on the legal front has obviously changed to allow all this, so maybe this time the DVD news is true as well.

I hope it's really true this time, but I'm not gonna start dancing the Batusi just yet. I'll believe it when I'm holding the box set in my sweaty little paws.

I'm A Grown Man And I Bought This: Batman Classic TV Series Batman And Robin

It's been nearly five decades since the Batman TV series premiered on ABC in 1966, and toys based on the show are just now starting to trickle out

Several companies have begun releasing Batman action figures in various scales. Mattel's the first out of the gate with their new 6 inch line. Last month they released their first wave of figures, consisting of Batman, The Joker, The Riddler, The Penguin and Surf's Up Batman.

The Julie Newmar version of Catwoman was supposed to be included in the wave, but at the last minute Mattel decided to pull her so they can sell her separately and charge more.

But on to the review at hand, the Batman And Robin Two Pack. Mattel, in their infinite wisdom, decided that Robin would only be available in a special (read expensive) two pack of figures. So if you already bought the Batman figure from the regular line, you've gotta buy another in order to get Robin. Nice of them, eh?

The figures are packaged to resemble the famous "scaling the side of a building" scenes from Batman.

Here's the set out of the box. You could probably display the figures this way, as the inner lining forms a nice backdrop, but that's no fun. Take your figures out of the box! Otherwise you might as just well own a photo of them! 

Here's the Dynamic Duo freed from their packaging prison (which took some doing, let me tell you!).

This is the exact same Batman figure that's sold separately in the regular line, with a couple of exceptions. First of all Mattel finally gave him a Batarang accessory, something the original figure sorely lacked and absolutely should have had.

Right now the Batarang is tied to his hand with a clear rubber band. I'm afraid to untie it for fear he won't be able to hold it on his own. His hands are sculpted to hold something much bigger than the tiny little Batarang.

The second difference is the two wires sewn into each side of his cape, to help pose it. The wires don't work all that well and frankly just get in the way. Robin has the wires in his cape as well.

The wires are so you can pose the capes horizontally as they did on the show. Smart cookie that you are, you no doubt know that whenever Batman and Robin would climb up the side of a building they were very obviously walking horizontally along the floor while the camera was turned 90 degrees. When viewed from the proper angle, it looked (sort of) like they were climbing vertically. To help sell the illusion, Batman and Robin's capes stuck out horizontally with the aid of wires, so they'd appear to be hanging straight down when viewed on TV.

One last thing about the capes-- they both came with an enormous and obnoxious copyright tag sewn into them. Seriously, these tags were an inch wide and a good two and a half inches long. None of the figures in the regular line had these tags, so I'm not sure why they were included in this set. The first thing you'll want to do is cut the ridiculous things off. Be careful though, as you could easily cut into the fabric of the cape if you're not careful.

This is a nicely done Robin figure. His costume is accurate, he has realistic proportions and is actually a bit shorter than the Batman figure, as he should be.

Robin's quite well articulated too. He has a ball jointed head and shoulders, cut bicep, wrist, waist and thigh joints and elbow, knee and ankle joints. Unfortunately he also has that ugly "ab-crunch" joint that plagues the Batman figure.There are better, less obvious ways to include that joint than what they went with here.

Here's a rear view of Robin. Still not a fan of cloth capes, but whaddya gonna do? If you look closely you'll see two small holes in the fabric of his cape. That's where he was lashed down in the package in his climbing pose. They actually punctured his cape to secure him in the box! Stupid, stupid Mattel!

Be very careful when removing the figure from the package or you could very easily rip the cape to shreds.

Sculpting-wise Robin looks pretty good. I can definitely see Burt Ward in there. The paint job's very well done, especially for a figure of this scale. Remember he's blown up quite a bit here, so any imperfections you see in this photo won't be evident in person.

If you look closely you can see that Robin's legs have a definite grayish cast to them, especially when compared to the flesh tone of his forearms. At first I chalked this up to a painting mistake on Mattel's part (like The Riddler's color-mismatched limbs in the regular line).

But the more I think about it the more I;m convinced that this color difference was intentional. On the TV show Burt Ward wore flesh colored tights as part of his costume (can't have a Robin with hairy legs, after all). I think they deliberately painted the figure's legs a slightly different color to simulate the tights! Well done, Mattel!

Here's the climbing wall and rope accessories. Note that the box says "Use Base On Shelf Or Wall!" Whoever wrote that was a lying liar who lies.

You can indeed hang the base from a wall, but there's absolutely no way to use it vertically on a shelf. In fact I had to prop it up with something just to get this shot.

The only way to use it on a shelf is to lay it down horizontally like this. Is that what the box meant when it said "use base on shelf?" Would it have killed them to have included some kind of stand to hold the wall up vertically, so you could pose the figures like they're actually climbing it? 

The rope fits into the figures' hands OK, but tends to plop out if you look at it too hard. It's also impossible to get rid of the copious slack in the rope too. I kind of wish they'd just skipped the whole wall climbing theme and given us a plain two pack of figures. It'd no doubt have been cheaper that way as well.
 

I'm also curious as to why the wall isn't just a simple rectangle. Why all the indentions in both sides? Did cutting out those sections in the sides save money on plastic?

Why didn't they make it a rectangle, put both windows on the right side and then have the figures stick to the left side, just like on the show?

Surprisingly the windows actually open up (with quite a bit of fiddling), which is a nice touch. Now you can have your other action figures stick their heads out the windows to recreate the cameos in the climbing scenes from the TV show!

Speaking of the celebrity window cameos: amazingly there were only fourteen of them over the course of the series. It seemed like there were a lot more than that though. Most of the celebrities are still recognizable today, but a few of them you'd only recognize if you were a child of the 1960s. The cameos in order:

• Jerry Lewis as himself.

• Dick Clark as himself.

• Van Williams and Bruce Lee as the Green Hornet and Kato, from The Green Hornet show of course.

• Sammy Davis Jr. as himself.

• Bill Dana as Jose Jimenez from The Bill Dana Show (definitely a product of the 1960s).

• Howard Duff as Sam Stone from the TV show Felony Squad (I'm betting his show needed the ratings boost a cameo on Batman would provide, since it doesn't seem like the type of show a kid would watch).

• Warner Klemperer as Colonel Klink from Hogan's Heroes (no explanation as to why the Colonel appeared to be the same age as he was back in WWII).

• Ted Cassidy as Lurch from The Addams Family.

• Don Ho, perennially popular Hawaiian entertainer.

• Andy Devine as Santa Claus (!).

• Art Linkletter, famous 1960s TV host.

• Edward G. Robinson (who ironically was famous for playing gangsters in the movies).

• Susie Knickerbocker (definitely a product of the 1960s! Apparently she was a gossip columnist and member of the jet set back in the day).

• Cyril Lord as The Carpet King. Who the hell's that, you ask? Good question. Although he sounds like he could be a Bat-villain, he was supposedly a well known businessman who sold expensive carpets in England in the 1960s. William Dozier, producer of Batman, bought a fancy carpet from him and paid him with a cameo on the show! So because William Dozier's wife wanted a Persian rug we had to look at Cyril Lord and act like we knew who he was.

There was only one cameo appeared in Season One (Jerry Lewis). The rest were all from Season Two. There were no cameos in Season Three.

So what's the verdict? Is the set worth buying or should you give it a pass? The figures are fairly well done, but the wall and rope are pretty much wastes of plastic and time. 

But don't let that stop you from buying it. If you're a fan of the TV show or you've already bought the regular line, then definitely buy the set, as this is the only way to get Robin. As I said in my review of the original line, it's taken fifty years to get figures based on the show. You can either buy these or wait another fifty!

Read all about the first wave of Classic Batman figures here.

I'm A Grown Man And I Bought This: Batman Classic TV Series Action Figures

It's hard to believe, but the Batman TV series-- starring Adam West-- premiered on ABC way back in 1966. For you non-math majors, that's forty seven years ago! Forty seven!
 
Fans of the show have been hoping for a proper action figure line based on the series since the show first aired. Oh sure, there've been plenty of Batman figures released over the decades. Hundreds, maybe even thousands, but they've always been based on the comics or movies, never the versions from the TV series.

The reason for the lack of product? As always, legal woes. The show's rights have been tied up in a bureaucratic Gordian knot for over four decades.

But it looks like there's finally a light at the end of the long, dark tunnel. Merchandise is finally beginning to trickle out and DC is even publishing a monthly comic based on the show. Hopefully a proper release of the TV series on DVD is imminent, but I ain't holding my breath (the various parties had better hurry up and settle their differences and start selling DVDs before their core demographic dies off!).

And at long last, Mattel's finally released a wave of figures based on the Classic TV series.

So what's the verdict? Was it worth the wait? Read on, McDuff!

This wave consists of Batman, The Joker, The Penguin, The Riddler and Surf's Up Batman (from the Surf's Up, Joker's Under episode).

You may have noticed the absence of Batman's partner Robin in this wave; a seemingly huge omission. He is available, but only in an exclusive (another word for expensive) two pack with Batman. Most people won't need a second Batman, but they'll buy the set anyway just to get Robin, since you kind of need him to round out the Dynamic Duo. Well done, Mattel Marketing Department.

In a similar move, Catwoman was supposed to be part of this wave as well, but she was pulled at the last minute so that Mattel could underproduce her, making her more valuable and desirable. They can then sell her separately and charge more for her. You think I'm kidding, but I've seen it happen many, many times with female figures over the years.

There's also a Classic Batmobile available, scaled just for these figures. Supposedly it's a Toys R Us exclusive and is about as rare as hen's teeth right now. If anybody sees one out there for a reasonable price, let me know!

The packaging is colorful and fairly well designed, echoing the look of the show's opening credits, including the familiar and beloved Batman TV show logo.

The cards were obviously designed with the "mint-on-card-never-open-their-figures" collector crowd. For the record, I open all of my figures. If you're not going to open them then why buy 'em? You might as well just own a photo of them.

Each card features a different "Holy Blank" saying by Robin, which is surprising. Usually they just print one generic card for an entire wave of figures. I'm impressed that they went to the trouble to print (slightly) different versions for each figure.

That said, none of Robin's sayings seem to have anything to do with the figures and appear to have been chosen at random (with the exception of Surf's Up Batman). "Holy Forecast, Batman?" What the heck does that mean in regard to this figure? Maybe "Holy Non Sequitur, Batman" would have been more apt.

As the cards helpfully inform you, these toys are for the discriminating adult collector. Any time I see "adult collector" on anything, I hear "bowm chikka bowm bown" porn music in my head. I know, I'm fourteen years old.

"Holy Interplanetary Yardstick?" You got me what that one means. Maybe Robin said that in an episode starring the Joker?

Each of the cards also features an insert at the bottom of the plastic blister as well, emblazoned with the name of the character.

It's tough to see here, but the plastic blister on all the figures is embossed with a large "POW!" like that used in the fight scenes in the TV series. A nice touch, if you're the type to keep the packaging intact.

Whoops! "Holy KNICK Of Time?" Someone get DC and Mattel on the horn and tell them that the phrase is "Nick Of Time." "Knick" isn't even a word! 

This is the only card back in which Robin's catchphrase makes any sense.

Finally, here's Batman freed from his plastic prison in all his 1960s glory.

Sculpt-wise it looks like they're going for a normal everyday person's proportions rather than the usual overdeveloped superhero physique. I think that's a good idea, since these characters were all played by doughy actors rather than body builders with huge muscles.

At first though I thought they might have gone overboard and made Batman a little too thin, but after comparing the figure to the real deal I think he looks about right.

Sculpting-wise he looks OK. It's definitely Adam West-- the eyes behind the cowl look right, and they captured his lips and lower jaw pretty well. The bat ears on his cowl look a little stubby though, especially when compared to photos of the actual costume.

One big complaint-- the detailing on the figure looks very soft to me. Look at his ears and the folds of the cowl around his neck. There's no sharpness or crispness to it. It's almost like all the detail's melted.

It's entirely possible to have sharp details on a six inch figure like this. Take a look at this Arnold figure from NECA's Predator line. It's the same size as the Batman figure, but see how well defined the details are in his hair and clothing? That's the way all these figures ought to look. I'll be honest here-- I wish NECA had got the 6" figure license rather than Mattel.

Batman's almost, but not quite articulated enough to do the Batusi. So close, and yet so far.

Actually Mattel released a special San Diego ComicCon Exclusive Batusi Batman figure earlier in the year, which actually can do the Batusi move. It comes in a special box adorned with art by Shag and costs way more than it ought to.

This Batman might not be able to do the Batusi, but he can replicate Burt Reynold's infamous Playgirl centerfold pose from the 1970s. Rowrrr!

Batman's pretty well articulated. He's got elbow, knee and ankle joints, ball jointed shoulders and cut bicep, waist, neck and thigh joints.

I wish he didn't have that ugly "ab crunch" joint in the middle of his gut though. There are ways to include that bit of articulation without being so obvious. Plus it's virtually useless here. The ab joint allows his upper body to bend forward a whopping 1/8 inch at most. I honestly don't know why they even bothered. 

Here's Batman in his obligatory Bigfoot walking pose (sort of). 

Here's a rear view of Batman. I have never been a fan of cloth capes on action figures. I know there are a lot of people out there who like them, but I'm not one of 'em. It's all about scale. There's no way to make a tiny piece of cloth like this drape and fall like a five foot long cape. It makes the figure look exactly like what it is-- a toy.

This one's especially bad, as they tried to recreate the scalloped bottom of Batman's cape with less than acceptable results. Look how the ends are curling up. Sloppy, Mattel.

Molded plastic capes don't have this problem and look more realistic to my eyes. Of course there's a down side to plastic capes-- they make it impossible to pose a character in a sitting position.

I'm afraid this will always be one of those polarizing issues, like Coke vs. Pespi, Mac vs. PC and Ginger vs. Mary Ann.

At first I was going to complain that the colors of his suit are way off, but after looking him over I don't think they are. His suit has always varied wildly in color depending on the source material. Sometimes it looked gray and dark blue as it does here, other times it looked lavender and dark purple, depending on the lighting and film stock. I'm pretty sure these are the actual colors of the suit. 

Batman comes with exactly zero accessories. Not even one lousy little Batarang. Mattel's been making Batman figures for years so I know they have to have tons of them lying around; would it have killed them to have spent an extra half penny and thrown in a couple? Apparently so.

The only thing he comes with, and I do not count this as an accessory, is a stand with a background card. The figures all come with these stands and each is adorned with one of the sound effects used in the fight scenes on the show, which is a nice touch.

The background cards all feature images that when placed side by side form a panorama of the Batcave (sort of). More on these in a bit.

Next up is The Riddler. He's got the same slender build as Batman and it would not surprise me if they had some body parts in common.

You know, I've never understood The Riddler as a character. Sure I liked Frank Gorshin's manic portrayal of him, but he always seemed superfluous to me. He's pretty much a poor man's Joker. They both hop around and laugh maniacally, they both tell awful jokes, both wear humor themed costumes... they're the same damn character!

I guess we should count ourselves lucky they didn't give us The Jester, The Punner, The Wisecracker and The Amusing Anecdoter.

Poor Riddler here suffers from some severely mismatched colors. Take a look at the sea green thigh and chest pieces and how far off they are from the rest of his yellowish-green body. Again, sloppy, Mattel. Very sloppy.

Like Batman he also comes with absolutely zero accessories. For the price Mattel is charging for these things, this is unacceptable. The least they could have done is give him a cane with a question mark-shaped handle. He carried one like that on the show sometimes, didn't he?

Sculpt-wise he definitely looks like Frank Gorshin, but it's more of a stylized or cartoonish look rather than a photo-realistic likeness.

The Riddler has the same ugly and obvious ab crunch joint as Batman.

The Riddler's one of the more articulated figures of the bunch, as he's seen here practicing his yoga positions.

"So, I'm a cheap rip-off of The Joker, eh, Caped Clod?"

Next we have the Burgess Meredith version of The Penguin.

Something about this figure seems very familiar. Maybe I'm just imagining it, but Mattel's made Penguin figures before and it would not surprise me to find they're reusing parts here. Unfortunately I don't have any of my Penguin figures handy to check. If anyone out there can shed any light on this, let me know.

The Penguin's a little less articulated than the other figures, as he lacks the mid thigh cut joints, meaning he'll never be able to cross his legs.

He is the only figure though to come with an accessory. He comes with his trademark umbrella weapon, that's made out of extremely soft and limp plastic. Sadly, he cannot hold his umbrella. If you look closely you'll see I had to tie it to his hand with a clear elastic band. Once again Mattel, sloppy. Damn sloppy.

It would have been nice if they'd included two umbrellas, one closed and one open. That he could actually hold.

The Penquin definitely looks like actor Burgess Meredith, and is probably the best likeness in the whole wave. The sculpted monocle is a nice touch too, even though it's barely painted and is largely flesh colored. Sloppy!

Let's talk about that cigarette holder for a minute, shall we? First of all I'm stunned that they even included it in this day and age. Cigarettes, cigars and pipes are normally absolutely verboten in the world of action figures. Because you know, if a kid sees a toy that smokes, they'll immediately run out and get hooked on coffin nails themselves. It only makes sense. I guess these figures really are for the adult collector.

All that said... that has got to be the biggest cigarette holder I've ever seen in my life. Look at that thing! If this were a real person that holder would be two inches thick! I suppose they made it as thin as they could given the scale, but still... Also note that they cheaped out and didn't paint the cigarette on the end white. Cheap!

Maybe one of these days when I'm feeling brave I'll try to slice that hunk of beef jerky off his face and replace it with something a little thinner and more in scale.

Up next is The Joker. No, not the Heath Ledger version, the Caesar Romero one.

Like The Penguin, something about this figure seems familiar to me, like they're reusing parts. There've been a ton of various Joker figures made over the years though, so I can't be sure.

Surprisingly The Joker is quite well articulated, considering he's wearing a tux. He's even got the mid thigh cut joints that The Penguin lacks (making me wonder why he doesn't have them).

Unfortunately poor Joker suffers from the same color mismatching as his brother-in-crime The Riddler. Note how his lower legs are a paler purple than his upper thighs. Sloppy!

The tuxedo jacket is molded from a thin soft plastic and fits over the figure just like a real coat would. I'm amazed that it doesn't seem to restrict his movement in any way. Well done, Mattel. See, you can do a good job when you want to!

Something about his hunched shoulders here reminds me a lot of the Heath Ledger version.

The Joker can do the centerfold pose too. Sort of.

So what's up with The Joker's outstretched index finger? Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe it's so he can play a rousing game of "Pull My Finger" with Batman.

Likeness-wise, The Joker's not bad. That's definitely Caesar Romero there.

I don't know about anyone else, but the first thing I did when I took this figure out of the package was look for the mustache. And god bless Mattel, they actually added it! Woohoo! Twenty points for Gryffindor, er, I mean Mattel!

See, back in the day Caesar Romero was famous for playing Latin lovers in films and TV and he always sported a suave and sexy little mustache. When he was cast as the Joker, the makeup department told him he'd have to shave it off. He flat out refused to do so. The makeup man shrugged and just slathered the greasepaint right over the mustache!

I have to admit I never noticed this when I watched the show as a kid. I suspect it was due to the fact that back then TV sets had 25" screens and about 120 scan lines. Details like that just didn't show up. Nowadays though it's quite easy to see that he's got a mustache underneath his makeup, which is pretty darned odd.

Anyhoo, as I said they actually simulated his greasepaint-smeared mustache on the action figure! It's not molded onto his face, but they did go to the trouble of painting a slightly darker mustache-like shape above his upper lip! Kudos, Mattel!

Lastly we have Surf's Up Batman from Surf's Up, Joker's Under, the only episode-specific figure in the wave. In the episode The Joker plans to become "king of surfing" and Batman challenges him to a surfing contest. Yeah, you read that right. I'm assuming surfing was all the rage when this episode aired in 1967 and they were trying to be "hip" and "with it"in order to attract college age viewers. A lot of shows back then featured such episodes.

As near as I can tell Surf's Up Batman is identical to regular Batman with the exception of the thigh pieces, which form his board shorts. I'm impressed that they went to the trouble to sculpt and mold extra pieces instead of just painting the shorts onto his legs.

Surf's Up Batman is the only other figure in the line (apart from The Penguin of course) to come with an accessory. And brother, what an accessory-- his surfboard!

Best of all, if you fit Batman's feet onto the two pegs on the board, he can actually surf! Well, he can't really surf, but you know what I mean.

Earlier I mentioned the background cards that come with each figure (in lieu of a proper accessory). If you line them up side by side, they form an image of the Batcave-- sort of! For some reason The Riddler's card (seen here on the far right) doesn't seem to have anything to do with the others. I can't figure out any way to get it to line up, no matter how it's placed or turned.

More sloppiness on Mattel's part, or is this like some kind of very subtle in-joke? It is The Riddler's card after all. Is it messed up on purpose, like his idea of a joke?

Here are the various stands that come with each figure, each emblazoned with one of the sound effects from the ubiquitous fight scenes seen in each episode. Best of all it looks like they used the actual lettering from the title cards on the show. A nice touch.

It's fine that they included stands I suppose, but you shouldn't need them. All the figures stand under their own power with no trouble (a rarity in the world of action figures these days). 

And of course here's Batman next to a can of Pepsi Throwback (no high fructose corn syrup allowed in my house, thanks!) for scale. Batman clocks in at a hair under six inches high, so that puts him at 1/12 scale.

Now your TV Batman can fit in and party with all your other 1/12 scale toys.

You've probably noticed that I've been pretty hard on this toy line all through this review. That's because this is probably our one shot at ever getting Batman TV series action figures and they're not as good as they could be. They're not terrible, but they definitely could have been better.

The soft detailing, the mismatched colors and the near total lack of accessories-- there's no excuse for any of that, especially at the price Mattel is charging. I kind of wish anyone but Mattel would have made these.

On the other hand if a company like NECA had made them they'd definitely have looked better, but they'd also cost at least five dollars more apiece, and nobody wants or needs that. It's a toss up.

So what's the verdict? Should you buy them or not? If you're a fan of the show as I am, then I say go for it. They're far from perfect, but it's either these or wait another fifty years or so until another company comes along and makes them again.

Read all about the Batman And Robin Two Pack here!