Sunday, February 8, 2015

Holy Hang Ten: It's Surfer Batman!

Last Sunday I went to Walmart to do some shopping for the week (I know, shopping on Super Bowl Sunday? I'm nuts) and since I was alone I decided to wander around the toy section for a bit. And guys, I found the best thing!

This:
I started cracking up!
They also had the Joker with a surfboard and a Catwoman without one. I guess I was laughing pretty hard because this older gentleman came over to see what I was giggling about. We had a little conversation about how amazing these were. I remember telling him I was actually impressed with the face paint and we talked about the show for a little bit. Eventually he walked away with a Joker and the only Catwoman and I walked away with Batman obviously.

I've done a little research and it appears that this particular Batman (and the Joker and Catwoman)  is part of series 2. Series 1 had a regular Batman, the Riddler and the Penguin for sure but no Robin has been in either. I think there is supposed to be a series 3 but I haven't found much about it yet. These are made by Mattel and go for about $25 online. I got mine for around $15 at Walmart so if you're interested I would check there first!

Now I'm a sucker for box art. All of the boxes on the shelf were pretty beat up, but still it's a really cool box so I took a lot of pictures. The box is pretty much a punch to the eyes in terms of color, but in a good way. Batman and Robin are scaling a purple building with two orange buildings, a yellow sky in the background and the Batsignal in the right-hand corner. The Batman tv series logo is the opposite corner:

 There is also a speech bubble belonging to non-other than Robin:
  This "Holy ______" is pretty good but my favorite one belonged on the Joker's box:

In the bottom corner is a neat little graphic telling us that this is Surf's Up! Batman and that there is a collector card inside:
And in the other corner is one of my favorite parts of this box!

There are three onomatopoeias molded into the plastic! There is this whamm!!:
 And then a BAM! in the upper corner:
 And finally a POW!! right over Batman's shorts:
(An onomatopoeia is basically a word that's a sound. So the word moo is an onomatopoeia.)

My favorite part of the box is this:
The picture of the Dynamic Duo scaling the building continues behind the actual action figure and shows off Robin's ~shapely legs. Also Batman's cape makes up the side of the box. That's really my favorite part!

The back of the box is almost as cool as the front:

 The top has the logo for the series and the words Surf's Up! Batman:
It also has a summary of what I'm assuming is this episode of the series. I mean I don't know what other episode those shorts would come from! Seriously youtube the words Surf's Up! Joker's Under! and watch the hilarity. I think I might need to buy this show.

The middle has a cool surfing Batman graphic:

And the bottom shows the other characters they've made figures of in little screens:
Come on Mattel; make me a Robin!

And now at last we can get the opening! Here he is in the box one more time:
 And here is everything that came out of the box:
We have the collectors card, a stand, Batman and a surfboard.

The collectors card is an image of the Joker and Batman surfing on the front:

And the back has part of what appears to be a larger image of the Batcave:
I'm thinking if I get more the collector's cards might make a big picture?

The stand is neat:
But kind of useless? It's a half circle, with a groove in the back (front? I'm not sure) and one peg. It's covered by a red sticker that says BIFF!!! I thought that the groove maybe held the end of the board when Batman holds it, but it doesn't really work well. Nor does the collector's card fit in it? The side with the cave fits but I want the other side and it's too wide. I really can't tell which side is suppose to be the front either. It's still pretty cool though.

The surfboard is awesome:
It's made out of thick yellow plastic, with a bat and two pegs on the top. The bottom is slightly concave and has a little fin.

Here is a better picture of the fin and the pegs:

And here is the Batman himself:
He is six inches tall. He's wearing a batsuit with yellow board-shorts and a cloth cape. The cape is really nice. It's attached at the neck and made out of a fairly thick, navy blue material. It falls past the back of his knees and has a jagged bottom edge.

The cowl is made of two different plastics. The face-mask is black with white eyebrows and nose square and the back and neck-piece are made of a sparkly, navy blue plastic. It also has two small molded ears on either side. You can also see how the cape attaches better here:

His face is amazing! The face-mask has no lenses so you can see his awesome blue/green eyes. I love the detail around his mouth and cheeks too. He even has subtle smile lines and definition to his cheekbones!

The board-shorts are yellow plastic with a splotchy design I'm sure is supposed to be floral. His utility belt (where he keeps his shark repellant ;) ) sits on top and has a gold buckle. It's hard to see but there is a metallic orange-ish bat on the buckle:
His gloves/gauntlets are made of the same sparkly navy plastic as the back of his cowl.

They have three spikes on the back of each:
And his hands are curved to grip his surfboard!

His boots are the same blue sparkly plastic as the gloves/gauntlets.
They come up to a point about mid calf. He also has one hole in bottom of each foot to accommodate the various pegs.


Okay now I have done something super dorky. I'm sorry I'm inflicting this on you. He has some really kick butt articulation (21 points!!) and so I made a video to show you:
Is it over? Oh good....

Here are a few more pictures of his articulation up close:

He can do okay side splits:

And front to back:

His head articulation is super cool like I said in the video:
When he twists his head to the sides it does go up a little and he really can't tilt his head back. But those are the only negative things I can say about his articulation.

Here are some sassy head angles:
I really do like that he can tilt his head. I think it adds so much expressiveness to his face!

For comparison, here he is next to all my other Batman related figures/statues:
He's closest in size to the Red Hood action figure but he's much wider all around.

And finally here is the part where I had a lot of fun:
That is my best attempt at recreating the pose on the back of the box. I think I did pretty good!

A random surfing pose:

And Batman standing stiffly with his board:
I really love this guy! I don't usually buy action figures (Not because I don't' like them! I just try to limit the things I collect.) but I'm so glad I got him! He was totally worth the $15 and I am so impressed. His articulation is CRAZY cool and I couldn't find one paint defect! Amazing quality for that price and I have had SO MUCH fun playing with him!

I'm really curious about the other action figures in this line. Really regretting letting that guy get away with Catwoman now! I think I might actually go back and see if they have anymore this weekend. I want to see what the articulation is like on a figure that isn't supposed to surf!

I hope you enjoyed this look at Surf's Up! Batman! Next time we'll get back to our regular doll related things. Till then!

4 comments:

  1. He's really neat looking! The video is cool too!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I really dig him! And thanks....now let's never talk about that video again :P

      Delete
  2. This is ridiculously awesome!

    I hope you do manage to find some of the other figures, I'd be curious to know if they're as well articulated.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Right?! I'm going to go look for more this week! Hopefully they got another Catwoman in! I'm glad you liked him!

      Delete