First Mate Robin

First Mate Robin



So I want to amend the Nightwing post, where I said that when Robin is concerned, that was it. Well, that was false...sort of. This line had two Robins, First Mate and Crusader Robins, both portrayed by red-haired fellas. First Mate Robin comes clad in pirate clothes down to the earring.



It's a rather nice figure. I think the white shirt looks good under the red vest.



He comes with a long sword and a huge hand held cannon with a cannonball missile. Sheesh. This is not a Robin you wanna mess with.



The cape is soft rubber. Overall a pretty cool pirate themed figure.



The Pirates line was the final sub wave this line had in a final attempt to gain relevance in the face of competing Batman lines Batman Forever and The Adventures of Batman and Robin, which were also at their tail-ends. They were the best of the best, in my opinion. Once '97 hit, Batman figures took a sort of...different tone.



Not today evildoers! Whatever happened to Pirate Bat-man? He's...he died. In lieu of his death, Buccaneer Batman ended up ending his days in a drunken stupor after being taken in by the East India Company, but First Mate Robin found luck as a silversmith and secretly trained wayward youths in matters of crime-fighting, believing that one has to take life by the cannonballs to fix all the wrongs in the world.

Buccaneer Batman

Buccaneer Batman



Arrr! Buccaneer Batman is actually a pirate hunter who dresses up like a Pirate Batman...um...what? Ok



This is actually a really nice figure. He's got a very dynamic force-choke pose, comes with a sword, a ball 'n chain and his cape. He's got a batarang tucked in his belt (molded on), and just looks like an angry rum drinkin' do-gooder. The colors look nice and when you push the button on his back his right arm goes up and down. Very nice. Sorry for the short review, I just don't have all that much to say. It is what it is. I highly recommend it though, one of my favorites from this line.



I always believed Pirate Batman to be Buccaneer Batman's wayward justice oriented kid, older brother of First Mate Robin. He's been kidnapped by Two-Face and Laughing Man, so now Buccaneer Batman and First Mate Robin must track him down across the Caribbean. Will they be successful? Avast ye (Wtf does that really mean?) and find out on the next bat-episode and stay glued on this bat-blog 'till this bat-conundrum hath been resolved!

Laughing Man Joker

Laughing Man Joker



This terrifying version of The Joker looks more like a crazy old lady than the Joker himself.



He comes with a cannon and missile so large it's difficult to put him where he belongs.



Not that he belong anywhere really, 'xcept the high seas murdering people while making them laugh.



I'd call him "the worst Joker of all time" if he didn't look so damn good.



Fortunately, he and Two-Face have challengers! Notice: I sort of customized his face a little bit by adding runny mascara. Looks a lot better now IMHO.

Pirate Batman Vs. Pirate Two Face

Pirate Batman Vs. Pirate Two Face



It's a Pirate's life for me! Today we begin a journey into the high seas, in a time where bandits ran amok, stealing and drinking lots of rum...and not taking a lot of showers. The Pirate edition figures came near the end of the line and even had an ad running on TV. I wish I could find it. All of the figures are new molds except for Pirate Batman, a re-deco of Power Guardian Batman...more on that later. We will pretend this time Pirate Batman is its own figure.



This is my favorite Two-Face of all time. It works him being a pirate because on one side he's a very good looking gentleman of the epoch in Captain's fatigues. The other half is a peg-legged swashbuckling monster of doom.



This figure is just awesome. The sword and hook hand is really cool. The hook can move sideways, and the sword spins with the thumbwheel on the back.



His right hand is sculpted as if he's supposed to be holding a weapon, or just flipping some scarred up doubloon. But lo and behold! That Playmobile pirate gun fits PERFECTLY in his hand! Definitely a keeper. I highly recommend this figure. Two-Face's had some great figures in the past, including the one where he's disguised as Batman and a similar color scheme. This one is definitely my favorite.



I'm gonna do a more in-depth review of this figure when I do Power Guardian Batman in a few days. I'll just comment on the colors and how they are different from Power Guardian's drag warm grey uniform. The light blue shirt vs the dark blue pants and the purplish mask and cape just works on this figure. I call it good taste. The lazy golden bat-symbol stamped on the figure's chest is lazy and is a trend in this line, but I'm sure there was a reason for it, and this is the only figure I think this works well on. He comes with cape and two rapiers, one which is more like a dagger. He spins them by moving the thumbwheel on its back, which is also a trend in this line if you haven't noticed. For such a posed bunch of figures they have more action features than most of Kenner's figures.



This is such a great set, I'd tell you to skip on Power Guardian Batman altogether and get this instead if you can. A little lame on accessories, but man, that two-face is just awesome, and this Batman mold looks better in those colors.



"You're in some deep barnacles, Bat-man!"



"Arrr! Did someone say BARNACLES?! WOAHAHAH!"

Samurai Batman

Samurai Batman



So Samurai Batman here is a very interesting figure. He's very imposing, comes with period armor and with a variety of weapons!



I must say that the dark lavender and dark gray colors work very well with this figure. The gold colored weapons are long and are to be held with both hands. His main feature is the whole pull the waist and let go slashing motion. It's not very effective with this figure because of his pose. The pose is kind of annoying. It's dynamic yeah, but limits playability.



He comes with three weapons: A longsword, a spiked club and a flag emblem that he can also hold. He can carry two weapons in his cape while holding one. I love it how some of these figures can carry their weapons on their cape, altough so far I've seen this on Samurai Batman and Dark Warrior Batman.



It's not hard to imagine Samurai Batman commanding a rebel army of Bat-themed or Robin themed ancient Japanese warriors galloping along a idyllic meadow ready to engage the forces of Luthor-san and the forces of evil in a Manga version of The Dark Knight Strikes again with this figure. It's not a bad figure, but the pose is really annoying.



There's other ancient themed Batmen, but these are inspired by truly ancient periods in time. The others are themed in more recent points in history such as the Middle Ages and the wild west. Oh yeah, and the times when the pirates roamed the seas upon the discovery of the New World. Nice bunch of figures, I love how unique this line is. Next time historical period themes would happen again was during the Return of Bruce Wayne era in the 2000's where they made a Caveman Batman, a Witch hunter Batman and so forth...Can't say I've been interested in both the storyline or the figures. But maybe someday I'll review them as well. There was also a Samurai themed Batman figure from the Japanese Microman line that I'm currently struggling to track down, but someday I'll find it...Oh and whatever happened to Cat-Patra aka Egyptian Catwoman?



Not an asp, but close enough. A broken heart is the worst pain in the world.