Imaginext Man-Bat

The Imaginext Man-Bat is on store shelves now! Man-Bat is one of Imaginext's larger figures, like Solomon Grundy and Clayface. I found him at Wal-Mart, but have already seen him at Target as well, so he's clearly not a retailer exclusive or anything. He shouldn't be too hard to find.

Like Solomon Grundy, Man-Bat has a button on his back to make his arms move (or in Man-Bat's case, 'flap.') Also like Solomon Grundy, Man-Bat can hold on to an average sized Imaginext figure with his 'hands.'

Man-Bat is nice and solid, his feet are large enough to support him and his wings in pretty much any pose. His arms have multiple points of articulation for many batty poses. I especially like how he can envelop a figure like those weird bat creatures in Beastmaster.

Here's Man-Bat next to Killer Croc for size comparison. Man-Bat doesn't come with an accessory which is kind of disappointing (even Grundy came with a piece of lead pipe to kill Mr. Mustard in the study!) but don't let that stop you from picking him up! He's great and really reminiscent of the Batman Animated Man-Bat action figure from the nineties. Which also came with an accessory, now that I think about it. Oh well, no accessory is better than a cheesy accessory!

Imaginext Bat-Family Foil Packed Figures :: A Christmas Miracle!

Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus...and he got my wishlist! Hot off the digital presses, Imaginext.com just released images of a new wave of foil packed single bagged (possibly blind bagged) Batman themed figures! No word yet on a release date, but the website gives these figures a suggested retail price point of $4.00 each. GOTTA HAVE THEM ALL!

 The most shocking addition to the Imaginext Gothamite collection is Red Hood. Hokey smokes!

Maskless Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke. This is a fun one although I do already own a masked Deathstroke. If I could pass on any of these, this would be the one.

New 52 Nightwing. I never liked the red Nightwing symbol, but this one will look cool next to my other Imaginext Nightwing. I suppose I could pass on this one too but it's always tough to pass up any version of the original sidekick Dick Grayson!

FORCED PERSPECTIVE! Purple Catwoman appears to be a straight repaint of the original Catwoman and also comes with the same cat her original version came with. Still, she's PURPLE so of course she's a must have.

Two-Face. Two-Face was one of the first Bat Villains Imaginext made, and he looks a little dated now that the series is so much slicker and more streamlined. So it's nice to see an updated version.

Batman unmasked! I love it!

Zero Year Batman. PURPLE GLOVES! This is a fun bat variant styled after Greg Capullo's Zero Year Batman. A definite must have.

Imaginext didn't have a single shot of Joker, but he appears to be a repaint of the modern Imaginext Joker with a giant wrench. Because reasons. I do like that they painted his saddle-shoes though. Classy!

Expect to hear more about these the second I or others start to find them at retail. Stay tuned!

Imaginext Red Tornado

I've always been a fan of Red Tornado. He's an awesome robot that hangs out with superheroes and as far as I am concerned Vision can f- the right off. I dig the whole Marvel movie situation that has permeated our American movie-going culture, but pretty much everything Marvel has done in the superhero department DC did first and better. Except, you know, when it comes to making them all into movies.

Anyways, at least DC has Marvel beat in the toy department. Case in point: can you get a pre-school aimed Vision action figure? CAN YOU?!?! The bastard was the McGuffin in a multi-bazillion-dollar making movie so IS THERE A TOY OF HIM BY PLAYSKOOL?!?!?!

No, there isn't. But you CAN get Red Tornado from Fisher-Price's Imaginext toyline. Because Fisher-Price has the balls to bust out the obscure! Playskool barely dares to make one of the Avenger movie's founding members (Black Widow) and only then in a K-Mart exclusive multi-pack! But hey, if you want 327 Spider-Men, they got yer back.

Okay, so Red Tornado is a Target exclusive, paired with Cyborg. But he's not that hard to get, honestly. I mean, he's Red Tornado, packed with Cyborg. People aren't lined up at midnight to get their hands on this set. Of all the Target exclusive Imaginext sets, I've seen the Red Tornado/Cyborg set hanging around the longest.

I actually got mine from the flea market. I try to avoid spending too much money on Imaginext toys that aren't specifically Batman related, at least at retail, so this set was one I begrudgingly passed on. But I couldn't pass on Red Tornado at flea market prices!

As always, I am so very impressed at the level of detail Fisher-Price adds to their figures. Red Tornado has all kinds of details all over his costume. Honestly, they could have taken their plain buck and painted it red, but Fisher-Price made a figure that had not one single piece that is not unique to this figure. A feat indeed considering Fisher-Price is owned by Mattel!

Red Tornado is set to make an appearance this season on the CBS TV series Supergirl (an amazing show - if you aren't watching it, you are probably a communist), so it's great that I have this Imaginext version...especially because I am hopeful enough to believe Imaginext has some Supergirl figures in store for us real soon!

BRING

IT

ON!

I've got BootLEGO bats in my belfry!

Looking at BootLEGOs on eBay the other day, I stumbled on to a brand new Bat-lot of Batmen with the new style cowl (I had yet to own any LEGO or BootLEGO Batmen with the new cowl style) and not only that, but the set included some great Batman variants. So even though I was as yet unfamiliar with the bootleg company that produces this lot (Duo Le Pin) I figured the pennies-on-the-dollar cost was worth the potential risk, so I ordered them...and man am I glad I did!

First up is Batfleck. I am pretty sure I will end up with an official LEGO set or two for the upcoming Batman v Superman movie, but BootLEGOS are so damn inexpensive and WHO CAN WAIT?!?! Also, thankfully I now know that Duo Le Pin is pretty high quality. These BootLEGOS are even closer to LEGO quality than the Sheng Yuan and Decool I have previous experience with! This set is just incredible. Don't get me wrong, they are still bootlegs and there are a couple flaws (one Batman head had the same no-emotion expression printed twice...ironic for Batman who isn't one to emote...and this Batfleck inexplicably has a scuba mask on the other side of his head) but...damn they are great. And they cost me less than 75 cents each with free shipping from China! And it only took less than a week for them to arrive! GOD BLESS AMERICA!

Up next: at first I wasn't sure if this were an 'official' Batman or not, it actually took me a minute to realize that this is the Batman: Arkham Knight Batman! How cool is that?!?!

This Batman even has printing on his arms and the sides of his legs! QUALITY! Another fun detail is that Arkham Batman has a calm expression without stubble while his angry expression has stubble. Like in the game, Batman gets angrier and less fresh as he battles throughout the night!

Next: Batman Begins. Each Batman minifigure comes with a batarang, a base and a bunch of pieces to make some little Batmobile/Batdrone or something. I left those out of the shoot because they are really just filler.

Next: Batman from The Dark Knight (in grey.) Some of the Batman minifigures came with plastic extended wings, and some came with cloth capes. I actually did a little mixing/matching to suit my desires, this one may have come with the cloth cape that I gave to Batfleck. Whatever, the whole point of these buildable minifigures is mixing and matching!

Batman Beyond. HOLY MOLEY! This guy alone is worth the low low price of admission! Other BootLEGOers have made half-assed attempts at Batman Beyond, but this is the first correct and screen accurate one I've ever seen. He came with a red cloth cape (another irony, THIS is one that should have the solid wings...in red) but Batman Beyond does not have a red cape, he has red retractable wings, so I left it off the minifigure.

Batman of Zur En Arrh! This is now the third BootLEGO Batman of Zur En Arrh I own (each from a different BootLEGO company. Wow!) We do indeed live in incredible times. I will have to do a side by side by side shoot of this version of Batman soon.

All these Batmen have back printing too, BTW. MOAR QUALITY!

Green Lantern Batman! Another wonderful and surprising addition. Now that I think about it, this guy had a cloth cape, so I switched it out with Batfleck. He looks better with solid wings (although they would look better still in green. GL Batman also came with flesh colored hands...weird...so I switched them with some spare black hands (BootLEGOS always seem to come with additional hands.)

Last but...well...least...is Space Batman! I think this Batman appeared in the LEGO Batman 3 video game. He has a normal face and a space face but the 'normal' face is weird because it is printed on the white plastic head. No skin tone. He looks more like Batzarro with the other face. So I'm sticking with space face!

Man, what a set! The quality of Duo Le Pin is incredible, even the cloth capes are better than anything I've experienced from BootLEGOS to date (while still falling short of LEGO quality...but not by much.) The unique characters and the use of the new style cowl makes this set a must have for anyone who likes to dip their toes in the BootLEGO pool from time to time.