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Friday, July 18, 2008

Dah Na Na Na, Dah Na Na Na Microman... Batman!



Batman Begins yielded some pretty cool merchandise when it came out and one of the coolest items was from Japan and is cousin to the Micronauts!

Takara Micromen are 3 3/4" super articulated figures that come with extra hands and all sorts of Bat-goodness. If your comic book shops are like the ones around my home town, you've seen the comic versions of Batman, Catwoman, and even a Batman / Batgirl set kicking around. These comic sets were imported by Diamond select. Batman Begins on the other hand you had to resort to a importer or eBay to get your hands on one.



So what does he come with? For starters you get a stand to pose him on (though he doesn't need it to stand up), a little sprue with extra hands in different poses, the Bat Grenade from the movie in it's deployed and storage form, the Batman Begins Bat-a-rang in a deployed and storage form, and a little iPod... okay it looks like an iPod, it's the cell phone he uses to call Alfred for help. And what is possibly the coolest feature, one huge freaking cape!



The cape has a wire in it so you can pose it, sort of like the Hasbro and DC Direct 1st Appearance Batmans. The idea being that the cape is this huge Spawn like monster in itself that flaps in the wind as Batman plays Gargoyle on a building. It really is a cool feature, thought it can get in the way. The cape is easily twice as tall (if not more) than the figure.

The figure itself is loaded with all sorts of crazy articulation, plus if you have a specific hand gesture (sorry the middle finger is not included) you just pop off the hands at the wrist and pop on a new hand. Seems that most Japanese toys are like this. I think this is kinda cool if you are posing the figure to sit on a shelf, but if you are a kid you are losing these things left and right.



I had hoped that Takara would get the Dark Knight license and we would get a Joker figure, but I haven't seen anything. The Batman Begins series not only had Batman here, but a Ras' al Ghul and a Samurai Batman, which is probably more of an else worlds sort of thing. Ras can still be picked up on line, and searching eBay turns up the others on occasion. Takara also makes blanks along with a few other licenses, so I guess if worst came to worst a custom Joker could be put together.

2 comments:

Bubbashelby said...

That's a pretty cool figure! Based on the size and articulation, I think you need to add a point to your "GI Joe" tally...and pretty much figure that Cobra is screwed now that Batman is in the house!

BTW I noticed you're planning a Batman Animated themed blog - LMK if you need any pics or specific figures/info. As you've noticed, I have a few of the figures lying around ;)

chunky B said...

You know Batman could take down Cobra by himself!

Yeah, I was inspired to do a Batman Animated Toy Blog from the comments in yesterday's post, that and looking at that first photo from the post.

I was going to hit you up for pictures and maybe to contribute. I'm still working it out...