2020 Killer Moth - Spinmaster Batman Line

 Growing up, I only read Marvel Comics.  I'm really not sure why this is.  I had cut my teeth on Superfriends in the late '70's and early '80's.  But, Marvel published G.I. Joe.  And, by buying that title monthly, I was exposed to the Marvel titles of the day.  So, I guess it was just destined that I'd eventually find my way to the Avengers (West Coast was preferred though!), Spider Man and a few other hero titles.  I simply never ventured into the DC side of the business.  I remember the kids around the block having an issue of Batman where a criminal falls/jumps off a building and dies.  He then goes to hell with a giant spider in it.  That fascinated me.  But, not enough to jump on the DC bandwagon.  I didn't hate DC.  I just was more comfortable with Marvel.  

Though the years, not much changed.  I left comic super hero books behind in the '80's.  (Aside from a short run of McFarlane Spider Man titles.)  I liked Marvel heroes.  But, not enough to actually get interested in any of the Marvel movies or TV shows.  My youngest son, though, eventually took a liking to Batman.  And, due to the Lego use of the Batman character, he was enthralled with Lego Batman toys.  Even this year, he got a large Lego Batman set that he put together first thing Christmas day.  

Early in 2020, though, I came across a new line of Batman action figures made by Spinmaster.  Slowly, I got slightly interested in them.  The articulation looked good.  And, there were enough characters in the first wave to make it interesting.  Plus, they were $8 each.  In this day and age, no quality 3 3/4 or 4 inch figure line is sold at that price.  I showed them to my son.  But, he had little interest.  Lego still dominated his world.  As the poo-storm that was 2020 raged on, the line felt like something I should introduce to my boys.  I bought a couple of figures over the summer, when the toy aisles were emptying in case there wasn't stock for Christmas.  Once I had the first couple of figures, I did some digging online and found the next wave of figures coming.  There was no Harley Quinn, Penguin, Two-Face or Bane.  Instead, there was a villain I'd never really heard of: Killer Moth.  The figure was a galling palette of bright colors...exactly the type of thing that I had to find.

If you follow this blog, you know that I enjoy neon G.I. Joe figures.  While they are seeing an uptick of interest these days from younger collectors, I've been on board the neon train since the figures were at retail.  All too many action figure lines for kids try to be "gritty and real!" and feature tons of dark, drab colors.  Even the Disney era Star Wars films fell into this trap.  This leads all the figures to appear the same at retail.  You buy the same boring thing over and over.  Even among the Batman line, you see the traditional greys, blues and blacks with sparing flashes of color.  That's why this Killer Moth so appealed to me.  The bright orange, purple, green and red all recalled the visually exciting action figures from my youth and the 1990's when I started collecting.  (Look at the both the vintage Joe and Kenner Star Wars line and you'll see lots of bright colors.  Way more than you probably remember.)  

In the end, 2020 turned into a nice Batman Christmas at our house.  I picked up about 20 figures from this line due to the availability and price point.  I really wanted to get the same number of Star Wars figures.  But, there simply were not that many to be had.  Even perusing Amazon and online versions of brick and mortar retailers, there were just a few figures from the Star Wars line that my kids had any interest in.  (One of them will appear on May 4th, though.)  The thing is, in that 20 figures, there were just 3 versions of Batman, two Jokers and three Robins (I liked the Robin releases and my kids like him from Teen Titans Go!.)  There was a nice cadre of lesser known Bat-Villains to serve as foils for the heros.  Killer Moth, Firefly and Talon are fun toys that, normally, would have only appeared as a line died it's death from obscurity.  Instead, my boys get to have fun with some adventures with lesser known characters.  And, in case they want something more traditional, there is still a Joker, Catwoman and Killer Croc to fill out their adventures.

Upon opening them, my boys loved them.  The figures moved easily, had vehicles with which to interact and were in scale with the cheap military and Star Wars figures they also received for Christmas.  The volume of Batman figures allowed each boy to have their own version or two of the titular character.  But, the quantity of villains also gave each of them several figures who could fight Batman, Robin and Batwoman.  I like the figures for the same reasons.  They are toys in ways that most other retail options for action figures are not.  Within minutes of opening their figures, my boys had already divided the Robins and Batmen into Batman 1, Batman 2, Robin 1, Robin 2, etc. and played with each other for hours.  They got a Batcave as well and they worked out elaborate scenarios where the supervillains defeated the military only to face Batman.  Fun, fun times.

In general, my kids haven't been into action figures.  Lego, of course, has dominated their childhood.  But, early in 2020, I let them play with my Star Wars figures from the mid 2000's.  If you know these figures, they are among the best Hasbro ever released.  I figured them a fad.  But, they kept playing with them, building bases and, generally, establishing stories and universes that reminded me of my childhood.  This Batman line allows me to bring some other elements into Star Wars play.  The figures are compatible.  And, while Batman fighting Darth Vader seems ridiculous to an adult like me, it gives my boys the world building possibilities that I often desired as a kid.  I'm glad to see the Batman line has plans through 2021 and hope it rivals the old Kenner line in terms of longevity.  (And, I want to see a Machine Gun Joker in Spinmaster form, too.)  So far, the line has some good vehicles, a playset and a bunch of cheaper vehicles that are really just forms to get deluxe style figures into the mix.  But, having items that can interact with figures really helps keep interest up.  So, I'm looking forward to the rest of what 2021 has to offer.

The Batman line is fun because it's somewhat collectible.  There is a companion line of DC Comics figures anchored by Superman.  But, Wal Mart didn't carry it in 2020, it only had a couple of waves and the ancillary characters were pretty hard to find.  Both lines are compatible.  Along with the standard releases, though, Spinmaster included notions of "Rare" figures and "Super Rare" figures.  These were a combination of repaints or special chase figures like all golden plastic variants.  These were shortpacked in cases.  But, due to the volume of figures that shipped, it wasn't impossible to find most of the variant figures in the Batman line.  Killer Moth didn't have a variant.  But, the variant figures from the wave were often there when I found Killer Moths at retail.  (I don't go to stores in the morning.  These were all after work finds implying they had been on the shelves for some time.)  The chase figures are fun when they are something you can find.  Most companies err by making the chase figures too hard to track down and they become scalper fodder.  When they are available enough, the resellers skip them and collectors have the joy of finding something oddball.

These figures are well articulated.  The move at the head, should, elbow, hip and knees.  They don't spin at the waist.  But, the increased aesthetic of that missing articulation works out well.  The figures are somewhat comical with large feet and hands.  But, that allows them to hold gear and also stand without too much trouble.  Even the flimsy sculpts of Catwoman and Batwoman move well and allow for full posability.  Modern Star Wars figures often have stiff joints and will break before some of them will move.  None of the Spinmaster figures I own have suffered from that and they seem like better toys, even if they are not better collectibles.

The Batman line includes, mostly, three accessories with each figure.  Several of the accessories are included among several figures, though often in different colors.  The 2020 Batman figures also had most figures as part of individual themes.  This means that most figures have an accessory color variant.  And, this variant is completely impossible to determine without opening the package.  This version of Killer Moth included an orange gun, blue money case and a dark blue batarang.  The alternate version lacks the batarang and the case is silver and the gun is green.  Both figures also have removable "moth wings".  The accessories, frankly, aren't great.  They are somewhat comical and oversized.  But, they also work because there are few action figure lines that have playful gear that's both bizarre and brightly colored.  The gun works well enough with Killer Moth.  The money case is interesting.  But, it's also kind of lame since it has bills flowing out of it.  In general, the gear with these figures is fun.  But, it's not the realistic type thing you see with Star Wars or G.I. Joe figures.  It's more like larger sized Imaginext gear.

So far, Killer Moth has only shipped in Wave 2 of the 2020 Batman releases.  It's possible he could reappear in a 2021 wave.  But, it's also likely that, if he does, he'll have at least a slight repaint.  If you were looking at retail stores during the time when Wave 2 was shipping, it wasn't hard to find a Killer Moth.  But, once that wave got through the system in the early fall, the figure has been absent from retail.  As such, you'll pay around $12-$15 for a carded Killer Moth today.  I have no insight into the long term collectibility of the Spinmaster line.  Personally, I hope it's wildly successful and goes on a run to rival the Kenner Batman lines from the late 1980's and early 1990's.  But, 30 years later, most of those figures are pretty much worthless.  But, $12 isn't a lot to pay for a high quality action figure made in 2020.  (Most retail figures of this scale are around that price.)  So, even at the higher pricing, this is a figure that's worthwhile.  He's visually fun and is a good toy.  As a parent, there aren't enough action figures that are good toys.  So, that just makes this Killer Moth all that much better.