Batman Forever DC Multiverse action figure

[The Laughing Fish]

This is the first official merchandise tie-in to the movie I've seen in decades, on the same toyline that has figures based on other movies, comics and video games.



Source: https://shop.mattel.com/shop/en-us/ms/dc-universe-toys/dc-comics-multiverse-signature-collection-batman-forever-batman-figure-fpc16

This would never have happened years ago. Might be another indication the film's reception has improved?

[thecolorsblend]

Awesome!

[Furstmobile]

I'm highly disturbed they attempted this before trying a Returns suit figure. I'm sure the lack of nipples is intentional.

[The Laughing Fish]

I'm highly disturbed they attempted this before trying a Returns suit figure.

I don't see it as a big deal. They've already made the B89 suit action figure, and at least you can buy the BR Catwoman and Penguin figures. Given this toyline is honouring past and present live action adaptations, I see a BF action figure here to be very appropriate.

[Furstmobile]

Don't get me wrong, objectively the panther is a far superior version of what Keaton wore in the original. But that's the thing, it's just another generic sculpted muscle body batsuit like most Batman figures. I'd much rather see Kilmer represented with the sonar suit, which is actually supposed to be nipple free. Even when Returns came out Kenner didn't bother updating the toy molds to have ab plates and thigh seams. What is this fear of the more amor-like costume from Returns? Or is it laziness? I'm sick of Mattel and NECA just putting out Catwoman and Penguin. Hot Toys only put out their figure after damn near a decade of fans twisting their arm with daily hate mail and memes after they initially abandoned the idea.

[The Laughing Fish]

Don't get me wrong, objectively the panther is a far superior version of what Keaton wore in the original.

I disagree, I prefer the Burton suits, particularly the Returns one. Call me biased, but I prefer the suit to look less shiny, and a gold utility belt is a good colour contrast and breaks the costume's blackness.

I think Kenner were too lazy to update the Batsuit designs when they released the BR toyline, but maybe it was a financial reason too. In their mind, why spend the time and budget on creating totally new Batman toys when the toyline from the first movie sold so well? Nonetheless, compared to BF's toyline, the BR one looks pretty unimaginative by comparison.

[thecolorsblend]

The Kenner Batman Returns toy line will always be a disappointment for me. Penguin and Batman were both recycled from previous designs. The characters didn't resemble their movie counterparts, and in the case of the Penguin it's a pretty glaring difference.

The reason this is so bothersome is because it's not like this was beyond Kenner's capabilities. Their Batmobile, Batwing, Batcave, etc, playsets resembled the movie versions. Catwoman generally resembled the movie version. In Batman and Penguin's case, it's like the thinking went "Eh, f**k it, the designs we created back in the 80's are still good enough now".

The end result is Kenner added these Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez designs for Batman and Penguin into settings crafted by Bob Ringwood, Anton Furst, Bo Welch, etc, and they clash with one another.

It didn't bother me much when I was a kid. But looking back at it now as an an adult, it's a bit annoying.

Back to topic, I rather love the panther suit. To me, it felt like the panther suit's relatively lighter weight and greater mobility was closer to what Ringwood wanted from the original B89 suit. I love the B89 suit but considering how much Ringwood had changed the designs by the time of B&R, I've often assumed that he wasn't overly fond of how bulky and cumbersome the B89 suit was and spent the rest of his time on Batman movies trying to improve on the aesthetics and mobility of that original bulky costume.

By the time of B&R, the suit had a shinier polish, overall better mobility, lighter weight overall and so forth. I wouldn't be surprised if Ringwood holds the panther suit and the Clooney suit in overall higher regard than the B89 costume.

[The Laughing Fish]

The Kenner Batman Returns toy line will always be a disappointment for me. Penguin and Batman were both recycled from previous designs. The characters didn't resemble their movie counterparts, and in the case of the Penguin it's a pretty glaring difference.

The Penguin BR action figure is the same one from the Super Powers toyline, but painted with different colours.





It could be possible that Kenner found the movie's Penguin to be too grotesque and scary for kids, in addition to their laziness and trying to save money. Maybe by the time BF came out, the budget for the merchandise and the lighter tone of the movie made Kenner more comfortable to be more creative in their toy designs.

[thecolorsblend]

I've always wondered if one reason the BF figures were so radically different from everything that came before is because McFarlane Toys really did up the ante with what action figures should be. Spawn might be kind of a joke these days but back in the 90's it was all the rage. Those toys had a level of detail and quality that action figures weren't really known for up to then. And other toy companies would've obviously felt the urge to compete with McFarlane Toys.

As to the BR line, one thing I've wondered is what behind the scenes drama was going on. The toy license started with Toy Biz and they released a pretty lackluster line of toys to tie in with B89. It didn't last long. By 1990, a new deal had been made with Kenner. I guess Kenner figured there wasn't much to be gained in marketing a toy line visibly tied in with B89 so they called their line The Dark Knight Collection... which still featured tons of merch connected with B89.

I've also wondered if starting as late as they did with the DKC put them behind the 8-ball with the BR collection so maybe they decided to recycle the Batman and Penguin figures from previous molds to save time.

Either way, as much as I love the BR collection, the lack of movie-inspired Batman and Penguin figures were pretty glaring omissions.