Batman Action Figures

The Batman has largest collection of its action figures. Various toy companies are into the production of Batman action figures. From companies of 1960s like the Ideal and Mego, to the manufacturers of today like the Hasbro and Mattel, all have produced a vast collection of Batman action figures and it today has more number of action figures than any other character. The number goes beyond 400 and it still counts. Batman action figures have become popular not only among children but also among the adults.

The base for this innovation was laid by the toy company Ideal, when in 1966 it started the toy line of super hero dolls named Captain Action. It came with a costume, hat, ray gun, and a sword. The costume could be replaced with costume of different colors and make based on the character in the comic. In the arsenal same as that of the Captain Action, the Batman costume too was introduced. Among the Batman's accessories were the blue Batarang, flash light and a drill. Later, in 1967, Ideal launched a partner doll for Captain Action, which later became Robin, the Batman's sidekick. The pair of Batman and Robin went on becoming very much popular from then onwards.

In 1972, Mego Corporation released their line of DC comics and Marvel comics character dolls and named them The World's Greatest Superheroes. These dolls included many of the Batman characters like the Batman, Robin, Catwoman and The Joker. Later, in 90, Kenner got the rights and produced a line of Batman movie figures. And later in 1992, the first movie, Batman Returns was released. The movie had two villains, namely, the Catwoman and the Penguin.

An animated feature film named Batman: Mask of the Phantasm was released in 1993. Produced by Kenner, it featured a few new sculpts like the Jet Pack Joker and Phantasm. Val Kilmer featured as Dark Knight in the movie Batman Forever that was released in 1995. This movie too, was produced by Kenner and had introduced many new sculpts in it. In 1997, Kenner released the Batman and Robin figure line with the release of the movie, Batman and Robin, the last Batman movie of the 90s.

After many toy figures of the Batman series were launched, Mattel renamed its toy line to Batman EXP (Extreme Power). These figures come with a battery connected weapon revealing the extreme power feature. In 2007, Mattel released toys from the Batman toy line but these figures had some problem, as they were lead painted and contained small magnet parts that could choke the children.

On the animated lines, Cartoon Network's Justice League, also got their line of figures that too, were produced by Mattel. The line was renamed later as Justice League Unlimited and kept itself inline with the changes made in the cartoon series.

Of late, the figure line of DC comics was announced to be hitting the shelves by 2008 featuring characters like Red Tornado, Firestorm and Aquaman. With time ticking, there are many figure lines of the Batman eager to come, driving their fans into frenzy.
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