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!

Deathstroke :: Imaginext Target Exclusive

 By all accounts the assassin Deathstroke (referred to by Fisher-Price by his given name of Slade) is an odd choice for a pre-school line like Imaginext. But here he is, by way of the Target exclusive Nightwing/Slade two figure set. As mentioned yesterday in my Nightwing review, the set also includes two weapons. The sword is the obvious choice for Slade, although the bo staff would work for him too.

The details on Deathstroke are once again incredible. There are even mask details on his head!

It makes sense to include Deathstroke alongside Nightwing, due to their Teen Titans connection, but it does seem odd to include a master assassin in a pre-school line. But I guess the same could be said about all the villains, really, which is part of why I love Imaginext so much.

Deathstroke isn't one of my favorite villains, so had he not been included with Nightwing I probably wouldn't have sought him out. But I can't help but admire the figure's design, and even though the set is an exclusive it's nice to see Fisher-Price went the distance on both figures (instead of packing Nightwing with a re-colored Batman etc like Mattel is prone to do). The set is worth picking up for sure!

Imaginext Nightwing, Ace the Bat Hound, and other Toy Fair reveals!

Aw yeah! Fisher-Price's Imaginext line continues to hit them out of the park, starting with this upcoming Nightwing and Ace the Bat Hound! FINALLY my Imaginext Krypto will have someone to fight crime with!

An Imaginext Deathstroke (who will probably not be called 'Deathstroke' on the package...remember 'K. Croc'?) is also coming soon!

And speaking of 'K. Croc', it looks like Fisher-Price is putting out a mostly new Imaginext Killer Croc. He looks a lot like the existing Imaginext Killer Croc, but he appears to be wearing some sort of chain/moss/cuff apparatus, which is probably removable. And if you look closer, he also appears to have a steel jaw, like the recent Swamp Raider Killer Croc action figure version. This new version also comes with a jet-ski and a harpoon.

A skateboarding Batman. What, no street-luge?

And finally, this RC Bat-Tank that transforms into a Bat-Bot. Fun!

No word yet on release dates or how these will be sold/packaged/paired up, but I reckon we'll see them all in stores by the end of 2014.

sadly no female DC Imaginext figures revealed, but these things have a way of popping up under the radar, so I won't give up hope of seeing more than just Poison Ivy this year.

All pics via Figures.com

Upcoming Batman Action Figure Wants!

Mattel's basic 'evergreen' Batman line (Batman, Killer Croc, Joker) appears to have permanently shrunk from around 5" to around 3.75" in 2014, and the new smaller line will include an Azrael Batman!

Dubbed Action Wing Batman, this is the gaudy ridiculous literal killer Batman from the nineties you either love or love to hate.

Personally, I'm a sucker for Azrael Batman (see here, here, and here) and while I wish this figure was in the same scale as the handful of figures I 've already picked up in this style are in, I'll be hunting this one down for sure!

Azrael Batman will also be available in red and yellow in this seven figure set:

I can't say that I'll be getting this set, unless I get it as a birthday present this November or something. I don't really want everyone here - If I could cherry pick, I'd only get Azrael, maybe Robin...

...and Clayface. I like the extra gaping maw in his chest. Nice touch!

Deathstroke looks kind of cool, but I have a few good versions of Deathstroke and don't really care for the character enough to need to add more at this juncture.

Green Arrow is pretty cool in this style too. I do wish these were all available in the 6" size, but it is easier to build up a large set at this smaller scale, and hopefully they take advantage of the size and release some keen  newplaysets and vehicles!

My future's so bright, I gotta blog Slade

The cartoon Teen Titans featured a lot of colorful antagonists for our youthful heroes to do battle with, but Deathstroke was always the team's primary threat. Funny thing though, they couldn't call him Deathstroke on the show. Too violent? Sissies!

The show worked around the issue and Deathstroke ended up going by his real first name: Slade.

Clever? No.

An acceptable alternative to mommy-appeasing alternatives (Hurtslice? Blackeyeslash? Bellyacheswing?)

Yes.

Moving on...

Slade's look in Teen Titans is much more militaristic than his comic book counterpart. His costume does share some of the traits of his original look though, including the bandoleer and the pouch-belt.

Sadly those bitchin' buccaneer boots didn't make the cut! Oh well.

Slade's mask is more like a helmet here, not the cloth mask he wears in the comics. He still only has one good eye.

The only color on Slade's costume is the orange half of his mask. It's very striking in contrast to the gray and black of the rest of his outfit, which taken all together is a really cool character re-design.

The first TT figures were all stuck in very static straight-up poses, and the scale was all over the place; you can see in Red X that as the line continued the poses became more dynamic. Slade also looks like a midget next to the teenaged Red X.

Unfortunately the Teen Titans toys started weak, and as the toys got better, the line faded away. I may not have been a huge fan of the cartoon, but the character designs were neat and the toys had huge potential.

Even Slade has a lot of charm, for all his faults. He's pretty darn puny compared to his compadres, and he's standing stiff-as-a-board, but he's still a neat little Deathstroke.

First Whiplash...and now a Stroke!

Deathstroke, that is.

This is "Blade Attack Deathstroke" from the Dark Knight movie action figure line by Mattel.



Deathstroke, like Firefly, did not actually appear in the movie. But the toymakers decided he'd make a cool "realistic" villain for your Batman action figure to do battle with, and I must concur.

This guy is clearly an assassin. And a well armed one at that. There is little to connect this figure to Deathstroke's comic counterpart besides the the orange and blue hood, but for some reason it really works, and he actually comes across as much more mysterious and threatening than the comic book Slade Wilson.



You can see his "action feature" button on his back, which is rather large but darkly colored so as not to "stick out" too much. It becomes slightly less obtrusive when he has his sheath attached too.



Oh yeah, and there's the "one eye" thing going on too. Cool.



Slade here is, as always, well armed. However his pistol, bandoleer and knife are not removable. That's fine - less pieces to lose. They are well sculpted and nicely painted and stand out well on the figure, as do his shiny leather gloves and boots.



The sword (and sheath) are removable, and the button I mentioned earler makes Mr. Wilson's sword-holding arm flail in a hacking motion.



Ree! Ree! Ree! Ree! Cha! Cha! Cha! Cha!

Deathstroke of Genius

I was able to add another elusive DC Universe Classics figure to my collection on my birthday, thanks to my daughters who got me Deathstroke!


Deathstroke is from DCUC's Series three. I am now only two figures away from completing this wave (Nightwing and Sinestro) and once I have them all I will also have all the components of the Collect-and-Connect Solomon Grundy!

And to think, some people are already finished finding series four and (the Wal-Mart exclusive) five! Sheesh - I am so behind!


Deathstroke is extremely well armed, which is apropos of his full moniker - Deathstroke: The Terminator!

With a name like that, you can be sure this guy doesn't groom poodles.


Deathstroke comes with a large assault rifle, a staff, a sword and a handgun. The rifle has a strap so it can be slung over his shoulder, the staff can be locked into place on his removable bandoleer, his sword has a sheath connected to his belt (which may or may not be removable, I didn't want to risk breaking it,) and his pistol can be slipped into a holster which can actually be snapped closed!

This guy means business! Yet he's predominantly a villain for the Teen Titans. All that firepower and he can't take down a bunch of kids? Okay, so they're all superpowered kids (except the one or two who were trained by none other than Batman!) so I guess we'll let that slide.


Deathstroke is one of those comic book creations you just can't help but love - due to the "11" he registers on the Goof-Factor. The colors, those boots, the Rambo-envy - and he does it all with only one good eye!