NEW FRONTIER Aquaman figure!

Darwyn Cooke wrote a pitch-perfect tribute to the Silver Age of comic books with the NEW FRONTIER series.  At the center of the story was the origin of the Justice League of America.  DC Comics grabbed on to the popularity of the book and released seven figures of the JLA "big" eight members.

They forgot Aquaman.

After recently re-reading the book, I was inspired to right this wrong:

NEW FRONTIER Aquaman!

I had seen a similar figure on the net and used a NEW GODS Metron body with the Hal Jordan head that came with my NEW FRONTIER Green Lantern figure.  I sculpted gloves on the body and added calf fins.  In the NEW FRONTIER, Aquaman doesn't have the black trunks, but I think they add great contrast.  

The Justice League of America, Darwyn Cooke style!

A great book and a fun animated movie, now the team is complete!

New BRAVE AND BOLD Figures: Friends Like These...

Batman team-up comics were a sure hit with me as a kid.  My favorites were likely popular with many, as Batman had a short list of recurrent guest stars.  We've already featured Aquaman and Plastic Man "upgrade" figures, so today we focus on three more characters that often appeared in the Brave & Bold comic and made it to the show!

Some of the best Brave and Bold comics featured these Bat-friends!

Deadman

Neal Adams was on fire when he drew these features and Batman teaming up with a ghost to solve his murder is the perfect B&B story.  I made this figure for last Halloween and had to bring him back out for this.

Arnold Drake and Carmine Infantino's DEADMAN

A Plastic Man figure with custom head sculpt

Green Arrow
 What's there not to love about a guy who copied both Batman and Robin Hood?  Green Arrow has a playful rivalry with Batman in the Brave and Bold TV show.  The idea that Batman has friends would make WB film execs cringe...

Weisinger and Papp's GREEN ARROW

Green Arrow was heavily modified from the MATTEL toy.  After removing the hex bolt holes, I sculpted his shirt sleeves and added boot cuffs.  A section of quiver from a DC DIRECT Red Arrow figure was added and the bow is the one from the GA figure, although significantly redone.  His quiver strap is now a separate belt, as opposed to a paint application.

With apologies to Sir Neal, I still love this costume...

Wildcat

I am a huge Wildcat fan and his Brave and Bold comic appearances need a little explaining.

Wildcat was created in 1942 by Batman co-creator Bill Finger and illustrated by cartoonist Irwin Hansen (DONDI).  He is a prize fighter.  His super power is that he puts on a cat costume and hits people.  He was a some-what popular feature and eventually joined the Justice Society of America, making two-appearances before the end of the Golden Age of comics.

When Sixties comic writer Gardner Fox brought back the WWII-era Golden Age characters, he went to great lengths to describe the science fiction basis for how these characters lived in a another universe "Earth Two" and how they weren't from Batman's world "Earth One" and how they could visit each other, etc.  These appearances were popular and became a summertime tradition, with each publication repeating this bizarre elaboration...

... except for the Brave and Bold issues.  Wildcat would just show up and Batman would act like he was always there and off they would go to have an adventure.  THIS WOULD FREAK OUT THE READERS!  They would write in and demand explanations, insisting that these issues were "existing" on some "new world".  It was very troubling to comic book readers of the Seventies.  

The comic book company pretty much ignored them.  Good thinking.

WILDCAT, by Batman-co-creator Bill Finger, drawn by Irwin Hasen!

A modified Batman figure, with a modified Sportsmaster head

 Join us next episode when we examine the color... of evil!

Choose your ride

DC Direct (2012)

BRAVE AND BOLD needs women!!

It wasn't lost to any of the caballeros at the Flying Batmobile Ranch that the BATMAN BRAVE AND BOLD action figure line was a little .... lonely.  Sure, there were plenty of bad guys to punch and cool gadgets to stick where ever, but that's not the end-all be-all of two-fisted crime fighting.


Crime fighting is also about them women.

That's why the eggheads in the labs miles below our ranch came to their conclusion:  If MATTEL wasn't going to make Female Action Figures (and they weren't), we were.

And we did.

We began with our mission statement:  To make a woman that would fit the scale and spirit of our modified BRAVE AND BOLD show male figures.   That meant:

1) Scale wise, the female figure had to look proportionate to the male figures in height and size.
2) The figure would need to be a standard "buck" that could be slightly modified for different female characters, similar to the method MATTEL used for the male figures.
3) No damn hex plugs!

Next, we began searching the pegs and the internet to see if there was anything out there that could give us a leg up.  After months of poking around, we finally found her:

Our Patron Figure

She wasn't cheap, but The Batman Selina Kyle figure had minimal detailing in the sculpt, allowing for a generic body type that could be modified to fit most of the B&B characters we wanted.

Our next step was to carefully remove the sculpted collar from the figure and create a series of molds:

Boxing Selina (someone call Fred Hembeck!)

With about 30 fl oz of rubber, we made everything we needed to populate Gotham.

Get Ready,

Get Set,

Batusi.

The Batmen of All Nations: El Gaucho of Argentina

Don Santiago Vargas! 

Extravagante!

Irresponsable!

Enigmatico!

One Bad-ass Action Figure!

El Gaucho de Argentina

Man, that Grant Morrison can spin a good yarn.  All the cowpokes here at the Flying Batmobile Ranch finish their daily chores and settle 'round the campfire for a reading of BATMAN INC.  One of the reasons his books are so popular with the boys is the fact that it includes one of our all-time favorite Batman stories, "The Batmen of All Nations".  Basically, the conceit of the Fifties Batman story was that Batman inspired crimefighters world wide to adopt similar methods.  Great Britain was protected by The Knight, Italy had The Legionary, etc.  On two occasions, these crime busters gathered with Batman to tear it up internationally.  Grant Morrison recently revisited this idea, expanding upon the team by adding the Native American Batman and Robin, and having them all represent Batman in his BATMAN, INC. concept.

Chief Man-of-Bats, El Gaucho, and The Knight

DC Direct definitely stepped up to the plate and delivered an impressive first wave of BATMAN INC figures.  Sadly, DC Direct is also known for dropping concepts after a first run and no future releases are expected for BATMAN INC figures.  We've come to the table with Hong Kong's very own Batgirl, Black Bat, and we now turn to this Cowboy Crimefighter to step it up.

Two great MATTEL action figures were used to make one great El Gaucho!

 Just as Black Bat was an easy modification of a MATTEL DC UNIVERSE CLASSICS figure, we went back to MATTEL for outstanding sculpts of street clothes.  Our design goal was Yanick Paquette's depiction of El Gaucho from BATMAN INC #3.  Other artists had given El Gaucho a deisgn similar to El Mariachi, which is from Mexico.  We really liked the rugged look of Paquette's figure: Wealthy Don Santiago would shrug off his finery for a leather jacket, work boots, and a simple mask to kick some Sombrero ass.  Our figure is the MATTEL Jack Knight Starman with the sleeves and modified jacket of the Mister Terrific figure.

Who should be the next member to join the team?

  Our dear friend from across the pond also decided to declare a love for all things super Argentina by creating Los Super Malon, the Justice League of Argentina, if you will.  We think she did a bang-up job with such a wild bunch!  Read about it here!

We salute the Batmen of All Nations!  Who should be the next member to join?  Sidekicks?

GIVEAWAY: And The Winner Is...

CATWOMAN!

as requested by "TotalToyz" 

The buckaroos here at the Flying Batmobile Ranch received 20 valid ballots for the Custom Brave and Bold Female Figure Giveaway.

Hands down, the most requested character was Catwoman (5 total unique votes).

Second place was Batwoman with four unique votes.  Huntress and Black Canary tied for Third with two unique votes each.

Votes were also placed for a great variety of DC's Super Ladies, Mera, Platinum, Phantom Lady, and Black Orchid.

The twenty ballots were placed into a cowl so that one lucky winner could be selected.

Each week, we will post progress notes with the creation of this super-awesome action figure!

Batteries to power,

Turbines to speed!

Happy Valentine's Day, Batmobile!

Finally, the world has come to it's senses and released Batmobile Valentines!

That's sixty years worth of Bat-car love!

Two of my favorites.

The biggest card goes to the current movie Batmobile

On the back of each card has this extra from Shawn Martinbrough

It probably isn't hard to guess my favorite, but can you identify them all?

Tomorrow we announce the winner of the Brave and Bold Female Figure Giveaway!

Same Bat Time,

Same Bat Channel