“Holy Cow!”– Robin, The New Adventures of Batman, S2E2 “Critters” (1998)

Thankfully, tonight’s World Series game was much less nerve-wracking and I can actually get some work done. I’ll try to not let Baseball screw up the schedule too much (I’m in a good groove after that long absence), but I’m a born & blue Kansas City Royals fan and they haven’t won a World Series since I was in Kindergarten… I’ll try to stay focused!

If there’s any one thing I could impart to my fellow toy collectors about toy collecting it’s to keep an open mind. I’m all for finding reasons to turn down stuff, to save money & stay on a budget, but if I’ve learned one thing over and over it’s that you just can’t judge most figures until you have them in hand.

I’m struggling to keep up with this DC Collectibles Animated glut at the end of the year. Don’t get me wrong, DCC was aces to push things back and get the figures done right (& they have). But after six figures, Roxy Rocket, & the Batmobile in the last five weeks, I think I’m up over $300 and that’s not including what I’ve spent on diapers. Also, there’s still six more figures due out in the next few weeks. They’re great figures, so I’m stoked, but let’s just say that I hope my wife doesn’t read this paragraph.

Anyway, as I’m working to keep up, these little budget questions pop up. The obvious one for this line is choosing between BTAS & TNBA designs (I can’t), or between heroes & villains (I can’t), or just cherry-picking favorites (I can’t). There is still low-hanging fruit, based on decades old likes & dislikes that you think maybe you can skip. TNBA Robin was supposed to be one of those.

I haven’t skipped anything yet though, so I dutifully picked up Robin yesterday. It wasn’t easy. He’s such a little guy for $25, but I reminded myself that I also paid $25 for Man-Bat, so I figure DCC and I are square. Also, funny sidenote, I also didn’t buy hi because I thought his accessories were missing due to some packaging error. You can’t really tell in the packaged shot, but they’re tiny, they’re black, and they’re packaged against a black background. It’s pretty good camouflage. Luckily, I turned it to the right angle and all was revealed, enabling my purchase.

Once I got him out of the box and took a few pictures, any qualms I had about buying him disappeared. The Robin redesign is still among my least favorite and I’ve never liked the all-red look, but playing around and photographing the figure just revealed this ineffable quality. He’s just a fun toy. I haven’t opened all of the DCC Animated figures yet, but this one feels like he’s the most benefitted from the early issues. He feels like a toy. He doesn’t feel delicate, none of the joints are stiff; he’s just fun to have. Continue to Page 2…