The Mattel 6" DC Super Heroes Comic Con2007 Exclusive
By: Daniel "Julius Marx" Pickett
The gang at Mattel continues to up the ante on specialty packaging on Comic Con exclusives. The blind boxed 6" Batman unmasking himself was fun, then we had an animated Catwoman with a rainbow of different idol accessories. Last year we had the award winning JLU Solomon Grundy packaging that had a vibrating feature and a cool manhole cover window light.
The Mattel team had been telling me for two months that the packaging for Man-Bat this year was going to blow them all away. They were right there’s a lot going on with this one.
As you saw on the previous page the outer box is made to look like a crate for a dangerous animal. There are all sorts of die-cut slashes in the outer box, more on those in just a second. Another important detail is that the outer box is much more collector friendly this year as with years past where the top and bottom flaps of the outer box were glued shut thereby making you have to damage the flaps to get them open. This year they are taped shut.
I usually make it a point not to show my big, harry package on the web site, but now Mattel has made that quite impossible as the box for Man-Bat is…well… hairy. It’s sort of appoholstered for lack of a better word. When I took my first look at it, I could see through the "tears" in the outer box that there was something… fuzzy inside. Before I got it open I thought it might just be some kind of protective sheet inside that protected the inner box from the outer box. It wasn’t until I got it open that if all became clear.
And a word of warning- it sheds a bit.
So then it’s time to open it and see the figure inside. There are two front flaps that look like bat wings covering the figure so you cannot see it. Inside the flaps you will see some handsome graphics of the Batman and Batgirl figures, but that won’t be the first thing you notice about the package when you open it. Nor will the face that the figure is hanging upside down in the box be the first thin on your mind when you open the box.
No the first thing you will notice is that when you open that second flap, the inside of the box will light up red, and Man-Bat with shriek at you with one of 2 sounds. And it’s loud!
That mini-fax from Lucious Fox (shown on the last page) is in the the outer box when you first open it, along with a sheet about the batteries in the inner box.
Man Bat is articulated at the neck, shoulders (ball jointed), biceps swivel, elbows, wrist swivels, mid torso, waist swivel., hips, knees and upper ankles. His jaw is not articulated, and his wings are made of a very soft, rubbery plastic.
In another surprising move, the tuft of hair on his back is actually flocked. It’s an interesting detail that I didn’t notice on my first inspection of the figure.
Here is a comparison shot of Man-Bat with the series 3 Batman as well as a comparison with a couple of other recent Man-Bat figures.
As you recall the first time we saw the Four Horseman sculpted Man-Bat sculpt was the 2-up shown at Toy Fair back in February. Back then he was sporting a brown fur paint job. If you need a refresher on what he looked like back then you can see him in our Mattel Toy Fair coverage.
Just like like at previous Summer con exclusives there will be a chase variant. I have heard this year’s variant described as "Transformation Man-Bat" and while i have not yet seen him I understand that the figure is either partially or fully transparent.
Now the bad news. I’ve read the threads of people saying they aren’t going to sweat trying to pick up the Comic Con version of Man-Bat because they believe he will also be available later in the year as the brown repaint that is now shown on the card back of the current Batman wave of figures now hitting stores. At this time this is the ONLY version of Man-Bat that Mattel has planed to release this year. That’s not to say he couldn’t show up at some time in the future, but as of this writing he is not on the schedule for this year despite being on the card back.
