Here is a goofy interview with Alicia Silverstone by Nickelodeon magazine - some real hard-hitting questions. I thought it was also worth preserving the Pop Tarts advert at the back.
If you want to read this as a higher res PDF, there's a link to the Internet archive here.
Sorry, I've neglected this site a little in the last few months. I just found myself wanting to escape the routine of alternating posts between Batman Forever and Batman & Robin for a little bit.
Anyway, I picked up this on eBay recently. I only have a 4-5 Batman & Robin figures to get now but these last few are a pain and only show up sporadically. I don't know how long it's going to take me to get a full collection without breaking the bank.
Jet Wing Mr Freeze is one I really wanted because it's actually accurate to the movie (or close enough). I thought something was off about the wings and a viewer on YouTube pointed out the backpack is actually a reuse of the accessory from Glider Robin from the Batman: The Animated Series line.
I've got to call Kenner out on being really cheap with this one. Not only are the wings reused, the basic figure and the gun are too. They are completely reused from the earlier Mr Freeze figure and they didn't even have the decency to keep the missile firing feature. They just made a solid mold of the gun.
Oh well, the little red goggles are a very cool but miniscule addition. That's actually a really great look for the character. I wish Arnie had kept the goggles on a little more in the movie.
I recently picked up quite a few more soundtrack albums and singles on various formats for Batman Forever and Batman & Robin so I thought it time to do a little special episode. It's really fun collecting all these formats and I am particularly glad to have picked up a cheap vinyl player as I'm really loving the format.
Turns out I still have a couple more things to get including The Flaming Lips - "Bad Days" single which although wasn't branded as a movie tie-in (it came out in December 1995) but has a cool novelty CD sleeve with green goo inside it.
Another CD a commentator pointed out is something called "Batman Forever - Gotham City Radio" which is an 11 minute non-stop compilation of the songs from the film mixed with audio clips of all the main characters. If anyone has a copy of this or know where it's been ripped, please let me know.
I previously covered the Observatory Playset for Kenner's Microverse line a few years back. I noted at the time that it was a little sad they only included two figures with the set - Batman and Mr Freeze. They actually released this set of all the heroes and villains as 1.5cm tall figures (sadly no Gordon or Alfred!).
At this scale, the paint work and sculpting is extremely tiny and limited. I'm kind of annoyed at them bulking out the box to make it look like you're buying something bigger.
It is still fun though to see how they translated them down to this scale. I feel they maybe went a little too small - this is the kind of thing you'd have lost in seconds if you were a young kid.
I have some similar set for Star Wars and Star Trek and those figures and playsets are much larger and substantial. Oh well, at least my Observatory set is more fuller now. I just wish Kenner had stuffer the playset with these figures to start with rather than making you buy them separately.
As well as the smaller 5 inch figures, Kenner also produced these larger 12 inch figures for the Batman & Robin movie that were aimed at a very young market. The Batgirl one feels like it was even maybe aimed at young girls who liked Barbie dolls.
I don't have complete or boxed versions of these but I felt there was enough to do a review.
I particularly wanted to show the custom Clooney figure at the end. It makes you realise that these weren't a million miles away from the high end 1/6 scale figures of today from Hot Toys and the like.
Kenner were some cheap and cheerful toy makers at times. There a lot of examples if you go looking where they repurposed some of their own figures and vehicles. The Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves line was a classic example - using
For Batman & Robin they repurposed this NightSphere vehicle from the Animated series which on the one hand was great as it's a really unique and fun vehicle incorporating a gyroscope that allows Batman to remain upright no matter what angle you flip him in.
The downside is that the Animated series has slightly smaller proportioned figures and the exclusive one they packaged for this iteration CANNOT FIT without some extraordinary jamming. Also the exclusive figure is basically just the Heat Scan Batman with some slightly yellower arms and legs. They could have done something a bit more unique if they wanted.
All in all, fun vehicle, useless figure. Just get the Animated version instead.
Taking a quick break from figures to look at the one and only board game for the Batman & Robin movie. Unlike the previous three movies, this wasn't based around the plot of the movie but rather a licensed version of Monopoly - the classic property building game. So your enjoyment is entirely dependent on how fun you find that game.
On the plus side, there's some cool metal counters featuring the Batmobile, Redbird cycle, Bathammer and symbols of the various heroes and villains. I also really enjoyed the cards which had some funny bits like "Batmobile needs repairs. Pay $75".
But the movie is a ill fit for the games. There aren't really many locations to fill all the spaces so you end up having locations like "Alfred's Pantry"... which you then end up building multiple houses on!
And the whole Batman-ness of it is very thin - it mostly uses just stock portraits of all the actors. I would have preferred more shots of the locations - maybe using the excellent concept art.
Oh well, still a bit of fun to bring out every now and then.
