New from Kenner, it’s Robin from the Super Powers collection. Wait that’s not right.
What I meant to say was, “New from Charan Toys, it’s Robin from the DC Comics Superheroes!” That’s also a stretch.
How about “From Charan Toys-slash-Toy Biz, it’s Robin from the DC Comics Superheroes from the Super Powers collection!”
That’s about as close to accurate as I can get when discussing this short-lived toyline from 1989-90.
The company behind the series started out as Charan Toys, later became Toy Biz, and is now Marvel Toys.
Charan first released a line of action figures from Tim Burton’s Batman (remember Bob the Goon?) and expanded with other characters from the DC universe.
That’s where Robin comes from, and my figure is in surprisingly good shape for a 22-year-old.
It’s no secret that the DC Comics Superheroes were not well-received, even Wikipedia notes that the figures had “unusually bad sculpts and unworkable action features.”
Many of them (Robin included) were created using the same molds from Kenner’s hugely popular Super Powers line.
That’s why I steered clear of most of them and only bought the ones I didn’t already have from the Super Powers.
Around this time I was also consumed with all things Batman, and it was great that a couple of the figures produced for this line were Rogues Gallery villains making their first appearances as action figures.
Unfortunately, Charan Toys didn’t reproduce the internal (i.e., hidden) mechanisms that activated each figure’s “super power.”
So to get Robin’s “karate chop” you had to flip the lever sticking out of his back. At least his cape covered the lever, wait until you see what some of the other figures looked like.
We’ll find out in Wednesday’s post!
