12 inch Batman and Robin
All Photos provided by Andrew Murray. Big thanks to you, Andrew. Nice shots!
The Dynamic Duo came in two different twelve inch forms, the best known stateside being the Magnetic Batman and Robin. The head sculpt on the Magnetic Batman is especially cool and severe and the grimmest visage of the man Mego made. Robin looks all grown up here and is actually a reused sculpt from the Gabriel Lone Ranger line, I guess once you've seen one masked man in Hong Kong......
Recently Non Magnetic versions of these figures have emerged in completely different boxes, these are later foreign releases as the "Fly Away Action" logo is printed on the box.
With magnetic hands and feet, these hefty Megos have built-in play appeal. Batman comes with the buff stocky body, while Robin has a skinny one. Both are 12 inches tall. Note the cuffed gloves and boots to enable totally mobility in the hands and feet. Batman's logo is fused plastic, while Robin's is a sticker.
The first versions of Batman and Robin were the Canadian exclusive Verisons. Found commonly due to a mid eighties warehouse find and their subsequent distribution through Diamon Comics Distributors, these are often NRFB as store stock. This is especially true of 12 inch Comic Batman and Spiderman, but the 9 1/2 inch version of Robin below is a different story.
Easily the rarest large-size Mego, 9 1/2 inch Robin and 12 inch Batman represent the only time Mego ever addressed the scale issue with the Dynamic Duo.The President of Parkdale Novelty was not particularly happy with a small Robin advertised as 12, he believed it to be "false advertising"
Burbank Toys sounds American but it's a European Company.
Of note on the back of the boxes is that the standard Mego clip-art is used for the Heroes on the flap, but the box back has new artwork. The art is quite cool, click here for close-ups.
This 12 inch Batman comes courtesy of Paul Hougland, note the Italian WGSH logo and cooler revised art that came with the second release of the 12 inch heroes.
Scott Arendsen provides us with a very cool shot of 3 different kinds of Mego Robin, from left to right 8" Robin, 9.5" verion (Foreign only) and the 12" Non Megnetic version.
Here courtesy of Scott Arendsen are the three different kinds of Robin shoes from top to bottom : 12" non Megnetic (note Magnetic Robin shoes are attached to the body) , 9" Robin and the standard WGSH 8" Robin.
US released 12" Magnetic Batman has a very striking box, typical of some of the late seventies releases.
The US Magnetic Robin Box has some really beautiful artwork on the back, a real pinnacle for Mego. It's interesting to note that a great number of Mego's 12" releases in the US used white packaging.
This item is signed by Burt Ward, which some believe actually devalues an item such as this.
Early Canadian boxed 9" Robin (Courtesy of Palitoy) and UK Magnetic Robin MIB
Above is the boxed Non Magnetic Batman, courtesy of Mark.While the Robin is spotted from time to time, these Batman figures are almost never seen. Possibly one of the rarest Mego Batman items produced due to it's "end run" nature.
A side view allows for a good shot of the figures non magnetic colored hands (courtesy of Mark).
Above is the boxed Non Magnetic Robin, Mego used artwork from the 1977 Style guide for the front and reused the art from the Wayne Foundation for the back. These were likely released around 1980 and are extremely diffucult to find.
Evolution of a headsculpt The Mego magnetic Robin headsculpt got around, it was originally sculpted by Freelance Sculptor Bill Lemon (who also sculpted Marx's Johnny West) for the Gabriel Lone Ranger series (where it no doubt originated) and then by Mego for the Denys Fisher Angels series before ending up as the Boy Wonder's visage (Thanks to Chris Franklin for help in this one) UPDATE Laurie Halbritter was nice enough to point out that the Lone Ranger's head surfaced as Hasbro's Super Joe as well, man that's one busy man of action!
The Mego licensed Ensueno Batman 12" doll, found only in Mexico.