I picked this up last year but never got around to doing a write-up about it. I absolutely love it when companies do holiday-specific exclusives (for example, the Christmas-themed S.L.U.G. Zombies, Santa Gizmo, or the Playmobil Santa set). There was a couple of years where Target had a lot of these, maybe about 4-5 years ago, but they don’t seem to have as many nowadays. However, they did have this one last year.
Tag: Dark Knight Rises
Superheroden.com has kindly donated a Dark Knight Rises Funko POP! figure for a contest here on PGPoA. Make your other Funko POP! figures swear to him by filling in the blanks in our second “Bat-Libs” contest!
Here’s how to enter: I’ve written a small paragraph about Batman and Robin engaging in their usual heroic derring-do. (To avoid any accusations of having tailored the paragraph to a particular entry, I’m sending it to the Power Pals ahead of time.)
This paragraph has a few blanks – blanks YOU must fill. In the comments below, provide the following:
- An adjective
- A plural animal/person noun (cows, punks, etc.)
- A transitive verb (i.e., a verb in which you do something to something else – push, kiss, kill, etc.)
- A person’s name
Entries are due by 11:59pm Monday, December 17. The winning entry will be selected by me and will be announced by the end of next week. Good luck, and be sure to visit Superhero Den for more great Batman and superhero merchandise!
Rules:
- Winner must have a U.S. shipping address for the prize to be mailed to.
- PGPoA Power Pals and Poe’s friends and family not eligible.

When did the toy world get to busy that I’m completely out of the loop half the time? Anyway, Square Enix’s Play Arts Kai line, which up to know has generally featured videogame-based characters, is expanding into movies and comics, evidently – specifically, The Dark Knight Rises and The Dark Knight Returns.
Oddly enough, the live-action-based Rises figure looks pretty good, but I’m not so sure the PAK aesthetic works for the Dark Knight Returns. And while the pinhead made sense for the Arkham videogame figures, since Bats does have a pinhead in those games, it looks wrong on the DKR figure.
Thanks to Toyark via Battlegrip for the tip.

Note: The movie’s been out for nearly a month now, so I’m not going to bother worrying about spoilers. If you haven’t seen the movie, don’t click on the jump. You’ve been warned. –PG
- I finally subscribed to 2013 Club Eternia, for two primary reasons. The first is I found out that those vehicle-themed chestplates on the Fighting Foe Men can be removed – I wasn’t aware of this fact, and I really disliked those. I just thought they were too cheesy. Without them, the figures look much better. The second reason is that I’ve found my MOTUC reviews are one of the main sources of traffic I get here on PGPoA; and especially since so many of you may not be subscribing this year, I’ll be providing more of an actual service by reviewing them so you can decide whether they’re worth tracking down on the secondary market.
- Speaking of Club Eternia, NoisyDvL5 over at IAT has written an editorial on the topic. It’s the kind of editorial I might have written four years ago before I got so old and jaded and lazy.
- Speaking of lazy, it never even occurred to me to get an interview with the creator of Castle Grayskullman like Pixel Dan did. I do have some other interviews coming, though.
- I’ve been wondering whether S.H.MonsterArts would continue past King Ghidorah. The answer appears to be yes; Godzilla Jr. and Burning Godzilla (both from Godzilla vs. Destroyah) are coming. The Burning Godzilla appears to be a new mold, or at least have some newly-molded parts.
- I will be reviewing The Dark Knight Rises eventually. Hopefully this week, if I can carve out the time.
- Because I forgot to change my address on my specific Club Infinite Earths order that I made last year, my CIE order for this month was sent back undelivered. This despite the fact that I did change my address on the main Mattycollector site – which, as we all know, does not change your address for existing orders, only future orders. To change the address for existing orders, a feature found on almost every modern retail website, is apparently far beyond the capabilities of Digital River. How I loathe that company. Why, why would you go with a company best known for delivering digital product fulfillment rather than physical? I’m guessing the answer is contained in two words: lowest bidder. You get what you pay for. Anyway, theoretically I’ll be refunded for my two CIE items and I don’t plan on fighting to get them back. I’d rather have the money.
- Notable reviews: Fox Sports Baseball Robot (Dayraven), Spikor (Michael Crawford), 3.75″ Brock Samson (Michael Crawford), Funko Exclusive Batman Vinyl Invader (Battlegrip), Fall of Cybertron Jazz (OAFE)
- Mattel revealed two new Dark Knight Rises Movie Masters figures: Alfred and Officer Blake. I remember being very excited for the MM line in 2008, but I’m not quite as enthused this time around – maybe because I’m just not as into Batman at the moment, maybe because an action figure of Joseph Gordon-Levitt wearing a cop outfit just isn’t that exciting. It’s great that we’re getting Alfred, though, and the new packaging looks a lot more dynamic than the DKMM stuff.
- It seems the Flash and Larfleeze have been removed from DC All Stars Wave 1 and the new lineup is JLA Superman, JLA Batman, Red Robin, and Superboy Prime. No word on why this has happened; perhaps they’re just shuffling around the lineups.
- On a related note, you may or may not have noticed that Hot Toys is doing Arkham City figures. Given that I can’t think of a single Hot Toys figure that wasn’t based on a movie character, I’ll be interested to see how these turn out. I won’t be getting them, though, because I don’t make enough money. Or collect 12″ figures.
- I didn’t put up a post about the passing of Ralph McQuarrie, mostly because better tributes have been posted elsewhere and this isn’t really a Star Wars site. But it definitely deserves to be noted, given the legacy Mr. McQuarrie’s designs have had for all of us, especially toy collectors.
- This somehow flew under my radar until now, but C.S. Moore is apparently getting back into the action figure business. First up is a line of articulated 6″ figures based on the Zenescope comic Jurassic Strike Force. You can see in-design pics here and preorder them from BBTS here. They’re also making articulated Monster Hunter figures from the Monster Hunter Survival Guide.  I am all aboard for a 6″ articulated Sasquatch. ALL aboard.
- Weekly Roundup: This week in PGPoA, Doc Thomas reviewed the Star Sisters, Poe reviewed Hurricane Hordak, Shadow Weaver and the Mutant Gorilla from Papo, and discussed the bios of Megator and Leech. Toy Aisle Trolls here and here, Odds ‘n Ends here, and Figure It Out here.
- Mattel has posted pics and bios of Kobra Khan and Draego-Man on their Facebook page. Who’s the Great Black Wizard…? Scott also added this commentary: Draego-Man really filled out the package. The wings are detached as is the tail to fit inside the blister, but they all easily snap in. He comes with the flame on sword. We are working on finding a home for the unreleased sword and whip accessories, perhapes with a future figure. The massive wing span and all the deco hits he needed forced us to reduce a few accessories to keep him as a $20.00 figure. We would rather remove the shield than have to remove the wings or tail! The all new bio [is] based on the Horsemen’s backstory! The shield art was also supplied by the Horsemen from their concept sketch sent to our design team! Draego ships in April as part of the 30th sub (not the main Club Eternia Cub) with some limited day-of stock for non sub holders.
- Bandai Japan’s S.H.MonsterArts line is my new obsession, so I was happy to hear the latest news that Moguera will be released in late May, and the SpaceGodzilla special effects pack featuring crystals and an articulated Baby Godzilla will ship in June. The Moguera will cost $87, which is more expensive than any SHM figure to date (lots of theories as to why, but it’s probably just due to all the accessories). Given this line’s obsession with accuracy and devotion to depicting these kaiju as fully as possible, I strongly suspect it will be able to split, especially since, to the best of my knowledge, no previous Moguera toy has been able to do that. The crystal/Baby Godzilla set will cost $44, which is actually cheaper than any accessory kit thus far. The better news is that there may be a U.S. distribution for one or both items, which should bring the prices down.
- DC Direct is doing 6″ Dark Knight Rises figures, meaning that they will once again be competing directly with Mattel; first the Arkham games, now DKR. DCD pretty decisively won the Arkham battle, but if the Four Horsemen are behind the DKR Movie Masters and Mattel actually puts a little money into the production side of things (a big if there), they could win this battle…especially since the DCD figures appear to be pre-posed a la DC’s World of Warcraft and God of War figures. (Via Toynewsi)
- In the same article, DC also announced series 3 of Arkham City, due in September 2012 and consisting of a regular Batman, Ra’s Al Ghul, Clown Thug, Azrael, and the Penguin.
- CoolToyReview has posted what it says are details regarding Mattel’s plans for the Dark Knight Rises. There are no pics and they don’t cite a source, but there will be a 6″ Movie Masters line that will feature a Build-a-Batsignal.
- Idle Hands is running a few Toy Fair 2012 previews, including NECA’s E.T. line. Unlike Rob at Topless Robot, I actually like E.T., and am probably on board for at least the standard figure.
- Avengers movie toys are already popping up. Looks like a lot of reuse, which I guess is fair.
- Don’t forget, my Odds ‘n Ends contest ends this Sunday at midnight.