The second wave is here and that means new toy reviews. We’ll start with #6 in the series since I’ve had some trouble with acquiring a decent Joker sample to discuss. If you missed the reviews for the first wave you can find links to those articles here:
The Batman: The Animated Series Robin figure by DC Collectibles is modeled after the character’s appearance in the fan-favorite two-parter “Robin’s Reckoning” that featured Dick Grayson’s origin story as well as a harrowing present day confrontation with Tony Zucco. While the episode itself was one of the series’ most dramatic, the toy we have here pays greater tribute to Robin’s more cheerful nature by giving his sculpt that famous Dick Grayson smile.
For nostalgia’s sake and as an excuse to make this review a little more unique, I thought it would be fun to start off my slideshow of this brand-new collectible by showing it side-by-side with the original action figure from the early 90s.
I don’t know if that resonated with the rest of you, but it was thunderous for me. When I first got my hands on this collectible my first thought was “Yeah, this is cool, but it doesn’t look much better than the toy I had when I was a kid.” Boy, was I wrong, and that’s not a knock against the retro toy, but just a fine example of how funny our memory works when remembering something so cherished from childhood.
As you can see, the figure has a great sculpt that perfectly brings the cartoon character’s facial structure and hairstyle into the third dimension and the paint job is clean and blemish-free. There’s no chipping or sloppy overlap from the green of the gloves to the skin or across finer points like the detail of the Boy Wonder’s tunic.
Robin features 22 points of articulation, but probably could have been a bit more limber for such an acrobatic character– The Joker figure performs the splits better and Robin can’t kick very high either. A detail sure to be noticeable by collectors of the first wave, the pegs of the hip joint are no longer visible. Besides the fragility of some limbs, the blatant hip pegs were a big complaint many fans had with Batman, Catwoman, Freeze, and Two-Face, especially since those joints were hidden in all promotional material. Thankfully, Robin’s pegs go unseen and his construction feels noticeably hardier so you won’t have to worry about snapping off any of his appendages when posing him. Mine does possess a somewhat wonky right ankle, but it’s nothing I’m too upset about.
Now, when you stand Robin next to Batman, you’ll quickly notice that he’s quite a bit shorter than his mentor. Robin measures 5.25-inches in height and it makes it all the more evident that he’s just a boy next to the Dark Knight. It was also another instance of me recalling Dick Grayson being much taller but as you can see by the screenshot that kicked off this article, Robin was clearly about a foot shorter than Batman. Remember the Hugo Strange episode where Dick had to wear stilts to impersonate Bruce? Yeah, 5.25″ for the figure is probably about right.
Robin’s accessories look good, but aren’t terribly exciting. The biggest are his capes, each made from soft rubber material. He has one cape that falls behind each shoulder and a replacement that’s draped over a single shoulder. You’ll have to remove the head from its ball joint to swap between the two.
The collectible also includes a bolo rope of flexible rubber, but it’s too short to wrap around anything so there isn’t much you can do with it. It’s kind of pointless. Then there’s the grapple gun which can fit into one of the included hands or you can just insert one of the hands that has a grapple gun molded directly into its grip. There are a variety of hands to sort through to achieve the presentation you desire: two fists, two gripping hands, two flat hands, and the grapple-hand I mentioned just a moment ago. They all look good and can be equipped with ease. He also has a plastic stand with the original character design printed on the base.
Big thanks to DC Collectibles for sending this figure for review!
I think the level of quality you get for just around $25 bucks is excellent and any fan of the Animated Series that’s looking to add to- or start a collection of collectible figures shouldn’t hesitate to pick up this Robin.
Sometimes you gotta give the fans what they really came here for…
Overall
It’s a beautiful sculpt with a smooth, vibrant paint job that does justice to the original character design from The Animated Series. I wish the accessories were a little more exciting and he may come off as a little smaller than you remember him being on the show, but ultimately I think it’s a pretty fantastic collectible for the price.
