Battle Beasts!
Battle Beasts were a late eighties toyline that, believe it or not, were originally created as an offshoot of Transformers.
Little anthropomorphic animal/robotic hybrid figurines, Battle Beasts were sold in the US in packs of two, each with a mystery rub sign that would reveal water, wood or fire. Kind of like a tiny figurine version of rock paper scissors. Fire obviously burns wood, and water has always been a well known fire-puter-outer. And wood, well, wood floats on water. See? Yeah, me neither. Whatever.
I had a bunch of these guys as a kid. Only one of these seven is a survivor of those times. Most of the rest have been found at garage sales or the swap meet and a couple I acquired through various trades. Battle Beasts are kind of hard to come by. They don't pop up all the time, and generally hold a decent value when someone knows what they have. Obviously condition of the figure, the rub sign still functioning, and whether or not they have their weapons determines value. None of mine have weapons and only a couple of them have functioning rub signs. But hey, I didn't spend much on any of them so I'm okay with that, and whenever I see one and I can get it for cheap I grab it!
Ironically, of all the Battle Beasts I've found in my travels, I have yet to come across any I had as a kid, which is a testament to how many different characters there were!
First up is Series 1 #14: Swiny Boar. My Swiny has a functioning rub sign and he represents water. I got this guy at a flea market a couple years back.
Next up is Series 2 #45: Slasher Seahorse. I found Slasher about 9 years ago at a garage sale. He was the first Battle Beast I had ever found since letting go of almost all of them in my youth. His rub sign no longer functions. He is the Darkness!
Next up is Series 2 #51: Bludgeoning Bulldog. Brutal name, which is pretty funny considering his tuxedo looking armor! Bludgeoning Bulldog is the lone survivor of the original Beast Battles (aka my childhood) and is therefore my favorite of all the Battle Beasts I now own. He survived not because i saved him, but because he was in the garage for all those years, eventually just ending up on one of my dad's workbench shelves. His rub sign is missing. He's a survivor, he don't need no stinkin' rub sign!
This guy is Series 1 #26: Bighorn Sheep. I think I got this guy in a trade of some sort a couple years ago. His rub sign does not work. More Darkness!
Series 2 #42: Miner Mole. I think I found this guy at a flea market too. His rub sign is wood.
Series 2 #49: Squire Squirrel. I found this guy this past weekend at the swap meet. Cost me a quarter. No rub sign, but he's otherwise in the best condition of any of my Battle Beasts thus far. Plus, he's a flying squirrel which is pretty badass.
Finally we have Series 2 #37: Wolfgang Walrus. I got this guy in a trade. His rub sign reveals water.
So there you have my meager and slowly growing Battle Beast collection. There are a couple from my childhood that I'd love to some day re-aquire, namely Crusty Crab, Webslinger Spider and Octillian Octopus. Those guys were my favorites! But I've yet to go out of my way for these guys, preferring them to just sort of find their way to me. Sometimes toy collecting is more fun that way.
Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, a direct to DVD standalone movie, first introduced a couple of Quinnesque twins known (both singularly and collectively) as 'Dee Dee.' The story goes on, and Harley appears in a flashback sequence where she apparently dies (of course no body is found) in a battle with Batgirl.
Blah blah blah lotsa story about non-Harley-individuals ensues.
Then at the end it is revealed that the Dee Dees' grandmother is Harley Quinn! She survived, and went on to breed as well! Which raises a whole lot more questions than it answers about Harley Quinn's future, but is awesome nonetheless.
