Rockin Robin

I had done an art trade a while back to get the bulk of the Walmart exclusive "Mallah's Revenge" DC Infinite Heroes figure set. I didn't get the whole set in the trade, and the only figure I still needed was Robin. I just recently found a guy on a toy forum who was selling his for a very fair price (thanks Larry) so I jumped, and now I have my DCIH Robin!

This is of course Tim Drake as Robin in his later costume, right before Damian Wayne took over as Robin and Tim adopted the guise of Red Robin.

I don't know if, after the return of Bruce Wayne, this costume will come back or if it will never be seen again, but it is one of my favorite looks for Robin. It's simple and streamlined, and reminiscent of the Batman Animated Tim Drake.

The best part about this Robin is that he is scaled to appear young. He looks real good next to the DCIH Batman, youthful without looking like a shrunken adult.

Maybe too youthful, as this costume appeared in Drake's later years as Robin, but I will take a Robin looking too youthful than a Robin looking like a man in his twenties any day.

In fact, Robin looks great next to any DCIH figure -- including his predecessor Jason Todd.

It's a shame this figure is only available in the Mallah's Revenge set. In many cases the best figures in this line have been in multi-pack exclusives, which has done nothing to help the popularity of the line - not to mention the poor distribution and high price point. Target still seems to sell singles for $4.99 (if they have any) which is fair. Walmart has the singles up over $6 I think, which is not. I think Walmart's six figure exclusive sets run about $35 - pretty high for what you get, especially if the set isn't all new figures for your collection. Which is why I did not buy this set and instead opted to creatively complete it through trades etc.

The DC Infinite Heroes line is currently going through a re-vamp with some new articulation appearing on the newer figures. I am fine with them the way they are, and don't have any newly tooled figures to compare them to yet, so I can't say if it is an improvement or not.

But if the DCIH line continues, availability becomes more regular, and prices stay low, I will stay on as a fan and collector. I may even shift my DC collecting more towards DCIH and away from DCUC (not entirely by choice - thanks to very poor availability - thank Mattel!)

But that's all up to the toy Gods and what they have in store for 2010.

At least I have a cool DCIH Robin.

Now if I could only find a DCIH Nightwing!

Robin swings into the DCIH tally bringing it to:

DC Infinite Heroes: 17

DC Infinite Villains: 15