Stealth Strike Deluxe Knight Battle Batman

Toy companies can get a lot of mileage off a Batman sculpt, for example Kenner, then Hasbro's enormous reuse of  Batman the Animated toys, featuring Batmen of every color of in the spectrum. While I used to find that distasteful, I'm now somewhat fascinated by it, such is the case with the dozens of Batmen within the Brave & The Bold series by Mattel. If you've read this blog for some time, you are familiar with my obsession of these variant Dark Knight Detectives, sporting more outfits than Tony Stark has Iron Man armors.

While Batman in black & red generally interests me, this 5" Knight Battle deluxe figure is of note in that a very similar Batman was sold in the Action League line, which I scored some time ago, coupled with Etrigan the Demon in a B&TB 2-pack. By the time we got to this deluxe version, the Brave & The Bold TV show had been cancelled, and Mattel re-categorized the line under the Stealth Strike banner. While I reluctantly passed on this figure a few times, I was lucky enough to find him later online for about  six bucks- that's four dollars below what he went for retail, and with free shipping. The card backer was slightly mangled, but I was gonna crack him open any way.

The design looks great! The dark red on black is sinister looking, especially with the helmet on, thankfully made of a soft rubber, which stays on and doesn't rub Batman's nose abrasively. He's nothing new in the sculpt department, just a fun redeco in a color scheme I enjoy on this DC character. His vinyl cape is cut from translucent red vinyl- we've seen this treatment in a couple other Batmen from this line, and while I like it aesthetically, it's durability seems dubious to the touch. The winged armor attaches to the hexagonal accessory slot in his back, a feature repeated at the joints of his appendages, the design hallmark of this 5" line by of Mattel figures. The wings are engaged with the "key" included through a hole at the top. It's not my favorite action feature, the payoff not as climactic as a projectile, but at least the key/truncheon fits into the into the accessory slots with it's hexagonal billy-club handle.

Knight Battle makes a nice addition with my black & red Batman sub-collection! Here he is with my Brave & The Bold Cyber-Tank and Stealth Blast Rocket Batman ...

I have the black & red Total Armor Superman from this series as well....!

Another fun black & red Batman from my Brave & The Bold collection is the Aqua Attack Batman, which shoots water from the tank on his back- now THAT is a great action feature...!

The use of black & red throughout recent Batman mythology likely stems from the '66 TV Batmobile (a '55 Lincoln Futura customized by George Barris), but the Batman's mythical associations with Dracula make the colors seem appropriate as well. I have Justice League Armored Batman in these colors also that really pulls elements from Barris' Batmobile, and a 13" Batman Beyond dolly I love in his sinister looking black & red outfit!  See my posts on the B&TB Batmobile and Proto Bat-Bot!

More Later- Make It FUN!