Batman Animated Batman Back in Black

This black and grey Batman Animated re-paint was released with a Toys R Us exclusive repainted Batmobile in dark blue with red trim a few years into the line. It was long after the original Batmobile was unavailable at retail, but I really wanted one so I settled for the red trimmed Batmobile because I could get it at retail - It was not the best looking re-paint of the original Batman Animated Batmobile and not the worst, but this is a gorgeous action figure re-paint to be sure and helped me take the plunge on a not perfect Batmobile.

This Batman is the same sculpt as the original 'Combat Belt' Batman, but with black and darker grey and a black bat symbol sans yellow oval. One of my favorite Batman looks of all time!

I had actually forgotten that I owned this Batman action figure. It wasn't until I started down this rabbit hole of looking at my Batman Animated toys again here on the blog that I came across a photo I took years ago which included this Batman. I then had to dig through a couple boxes to find him and through the internet to remind myself how he was released. I knew I owned the Batmobile he came with, I had just forgotten that the Batmobile came with a Batman at all! And since this Batman had essentially spent 99% of his life in the cockpit of said Batmobile (both on display and for the past few years in storage) his existence had completely slipped my mind.

I'd still like to own a Combat Belt Batman with his toon accurate costume colors, but lacking him in my collection hurts less knowing I own this guy. This figure reminds me of the scene in the cartoon where Bruce first dons the cape and cowl and Alfred reacts with a gasp, which is pretty much what I did when I found him again after all those years boxed away.