Batman & Robin Merchandise Review - Ice Fortress playset by Kenner

This week we're looking at the Ice Fortress playset from Kenner.

"But Mr Freeze didn't have an Ice Fortress in the film!", I hear you say. Fair point, but I always love Kenner when they go off script and invent new stuff that wasn't in whatever film they're adapting. They were great at that sort of thing and it always made for great story telling adventures as a kid.

There's not a whole lot to the set. It's primarily a few bits of translucent blue plastic that click together. There's a disc firing cannon in the middle, a couple of white cannons that fire green missiles and some swivelling guns too.

I do love that they included a new backpack and hand missile for Batman - anticipating that kids who buy the set will likely have other figures already. 

I recognised the backpack thing from the Crime Squad Animated Series line (it even still has the logo on the picture on the front). The fire missile is from the Knightquest (aka Azrael) figure from the Legends of Batman line. Got to love how Kenner recycle things.

There's also some mines and grenades too (sorry, ice grenades and freeze mines). But to be honest, you'll probably lose them.

I don't mention in the review because it only got pointed out to me in the YouTube comments after posting. This whole playset is actually a complete lift of this Ice Station Zero playset from the 90s GI Joe Extreme line.

Now all the guns make sense.

Got to love it when Kenner dust something off and rebrands it for another toy line. This is not the first time I've spotted this. Famously their Robin Hood Prince of Thieves lines took bits of several other lines ranging from Return of the Jedi to Robocop!

Batman & Robin Merchandise Review - 1:3 Scale Clooney Cowl from McFarlane

After buying so many action figures - both new and vintage - it's fun to have something different to review. I've seen these McFarlane mini cowls before but it took until they brought out this George Clooney one until I got interested in them.

I've got to say, they're actually kind of awesome. For £20, I think it’s a reasonable price. It's only made out of plastic but it looks much higher quality. 

I would recommend these for any fans of this movie. It doesn't take up much space and looks cool mixed in with your figure collection or on it's own. Just hoping they get around to doing the Kilmer/Forever one soon.

Podcast: Episode 12 - Batman Returns commentary

With Christmas just around the corner, now seems as good a time as any to do a commentary for Batman Returns.

Of all the Batman movies, this is the one where my opinion has changed the most over the years. I used to like it quite a bit as a teenager but recently I've found more and more issues with it. I don't have any problem with Tim Burton changing the origins of Catwoman and Penguin - making them more animalistic - but I do find the tone very off putting and the story a bit of a jumble of ideas.

It's also a shame that Batman/Bruce Wayne has so little to do in the film. It's really Penguin's story - featuring Batman here and there.

Anyway, give the commentary a listen and... come what may... Merry Christmas.

If you want to just listen to the commentary without having YouTube open, here's a link to the mp3.

Batman & Robin Merchandise Review - Kids Colonel Meal toys from KFC

Sad to say the kids toys they gave away for Batman & Robin are not as cool as the Glass mugs they did at McDonalds for Batman Forever.

For the 1997 movie KFC had the fast food license (in the UK anyway) and offered a Kids Colonel Meal that had 1 of 4 tie-in toys depending on which week you bought the meal.

Weirdly only two are connected to the film - an inflatable bat symbol and a puzzle cube featuring some awesome artwork of the main characters.

The other two are a transforming batmobile and a squirting Mr Freeze statue based on the animated series designs. 

Not sure why they did this - one commenter on the video says that the animated ones were given away by Taco Bell in the US a year earlier and both companies have the same owner so maybe they just wanted to get rid of some extra stock. Who knows?

Podcast: Episode 11 - Batman Begins commentary

Well, we did audio commentaries for the two Schumacher Batman films so it made sense to keep going and do one for 2005's Batman Begins - a film that celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.

Both Drew are a little muted on our love for this film. Lots of complicated feelings. As much as we respect Christopher Nolan - we both find his movies a little robotic and cold at times.

One interesting thing I've never really talked about is how I actually got to go to the set of this film as an extra (sadly I didn't get in front of the camera) but I did get to have a good look at the sets contained inside Cardington Hangars. To hear more about this and other topics, go listen.

If you don't want to have youtube open while you watch, here's a link to the commentary as an mp3.

Batman & Robin Merchandise Review - Frostbite Batman & Robin figures from McFarlane

As McFarlane Toys begins it's winding down making DC action figures (they will lose the licence in 2026 as it moves back to Mattel) it's not surprising they want to squeeze out some quick easy ones to make a little extra cash. Repaints of existing figures, re-uses of bits and pieces of existing figures. 

It seems like a no-brainer to make an ice theme version of Batman & Robin - all they have to do is cast the same molds in a different sort of plastic. Initially I thought this was something they were only for the B&R movie line but it turns out there are lots of these "Frostbite editions" for their other comic book based Batman figures too.

Of the two, I really wanted to get the Robin figure as it sort of looks like the bit in the movie where he gets frozen. Sure the earlier figures had some clip on ice pieces which were a fun addition but I tend not to put those on him when he's in my cabinet.

As I say in the video these figures remind me of the old Star Wars: Power of the Force line from the 90s where they made translucent figures of Obi-Wan, Anakin and Yoda to make them look like force ghosts. Turns out these aren't quite as see through - there's a layer of "frosting" that's been added to the figure - which I guess is necessary as the internal workings are a little more on display than those earlier Star Wars figures.

I don't think these are necessarily an essential purchase but I'll take all the variations that McFarlane want to throw out.

Magazine article: Cinefex #71 part 3

 Here's the 3rd and final part of Cinefex's coverage.