Thursday, February 11, 2010

Man-Bat by Mattel

Another villain to appear in "The Batman" animated series was Man-Bat. In an effort to become the ultimate "Bat" in Gotham, Dr Kirk Langstrom began working on a mutative serum that would transform him into the extremely powerful and evil Man-Bat.

I've always been intrigued by Man-Bat as an opposing force to Batman and one of the reasons that attracted me to the original "Batman: The Animated Series" action figures was Man-Bat, which in turn kick-started my toy collecting hobby ;)

This new Man-Bat is white because Langstrom (voiced by Peter MacNicol) was apparently afflicted with albinism. The design and sculpting of this creature is simply amazing and I really like how the new animated look got translated into its current 3-D form. Now here's a face even a mother would find hard to love.



The packaging was equally impressive. They were able to fit the Man-Bat figure with his expansive wingspan into the standard carded figure packaging.

And here's Man-Bat out of his cage, ready to strike terror in Gotham City. Click on the pictures below for a bigger and better view.


I really like the articulation of Man-Bat. He has a ball jointed neck, which allows him to look good be it in a standing position or flying pose. He also has ball jointed shoulders, cut biceps and wrists, even a joint at the front of the 'wing bone', a ball jointed chest which works very well for various poses, and hips.




And here are more close-ups



While there was the Lizard (Dr Curt Connors ingesting an experimental serum taken from reptilian DNA) in the Spider-Man storyline, we have Man-Bat in Batman's. Always interesting to find similarities between DC and Marvel. For example, Marvel's Avengers (coming to a theatre near you soon) and DC's Justice League, Hawkeye and Green Arrow, Namor the sub-mariner and Aquaman, just to name a few.

What I've covered thus far:
The Batman by Mattel, Mattel Bruce Wayne to Batman transformation, Mattel The Joker... more to come.

1 comment:

NOLLAN OBENA said...

That's a good one. The best one designed by Jose for the show.