Christmas Comic Cavalcade: The Batman Adventures Holiday Special (DC Comics, 1995)

This week, we’re looking at The Batman Adventures Holiday Special, published by DC Comics in 1995. Cover price was $2.95. I picked this up for $5 dollars at a comic convention this past April.

When I would shop for presents for my family as a teenager, I’d often treat myself to a comic book from the spinner rack at Waldenbooks. If possible, I would try to find a comic that was reflective of the holiday season. Indeed, some of my favorite comics of all time are collections of yuletide stories featuring superheroes (I’ve talked about many of these books before here on the Cavalcade). This comic was one of those purchases and it’s a great one.

Island of Misfit Toys: Batman: The Animated Series (McDonald’s Happy Meal Premium, 1993)

A rather cool and simple find this week, we’ll be looking at a fast food premium given away by McDonald’s restaurants during 1993 in conjunction with the premiere of Batman: The Animated Series. I picked this up at a thrift store for $2 bucks.

One of my favorite quotes about McDonald’s was something Graham Linehan, the writer and producer of (among many things) the British sit-com The IT Crowd, said a few years ago. “Every time you have McDonald’s as a kid, it’s a victory. Every time you have it as an adult, it’s a defeat.” This is absolutely true and captures something I was thinking about when I found this Happy Meal toy. During most of the 1980’s, I loved Mickey D’s and would beg my parents to take us there for lunch or… dare I hope… DINNER. My order was always the same: The Chicken McNuggets Happy Meal.

By 1993, I had pretty much aged out of Happy Meals… but I was a tremendous fan of Batman: The Animated Series. Simply put, it’s the best version of the Caped Crusader ever captured in any medium and I watched B:TAS faithfully every weekday at 4:30 on FOX5 out of New York City.

I was excited to find one of these fast food premiums… and arguably the best from the B:TAS Happy Meal promotion. McDonalds offered eight toys in all during this giveaway.

Four of them were Hot Wheels style vehicles featuring Robin, Poison Ivy, Two-Face, and The Joker. The other four Happy Meal toys were essentially small action figures, based on Catwoman, The Riddler, Batgirl, and the toy we’ll be looking at today, Batman himself.

thrift store finds: viewmaster and VM reels (part one!)

For the next two weeks, we’re looking at a View-Master and a random assortment of View-Master reels. I found this “collection” at our local New 2 You store while I was waiting for my oil to be changed. I paid around $3 dollars for everything you see below.

summer journal comics: heart of ice

…so here we go! I have a couple of final thoughts on teaching the journalism class; they will make their way here… eventually. I’m not rushing it.

In the meantime, I thought I’d start posting my summer journal comics. I’m trying something slightly different with this run of strips. I’m not sure if it’ll be a success, but so far I’m liking what I’m putting in my sketchbook. Since that is not always the case, I’ll just run with it and see where it goes.

Today’s comic features Elliot and I watching THE best episode of Batman: The Animated Series…

The animated introduction of Mister Freeze, if you’ve never seen Heart of Ice… or you only know the Bat-villain from his horrible outing in that awful Batman and Robin flick with Ah-nuld… do yourself a favor and seek it out. It’s fantastic and surprisingly moving. Here’s a link to the final, heartbreaking minute of the episode, but watching the whole thing is highly recommended.

island of misfit toys: my two favorite DCAU figures

I was digging around in the garage last week and I came across one of my boxes of old toys. I was quite a toy collector in my teens and I’ve held onto a lot of of my stuff. Unfortunately I was a HORRIBLE toy collector, from a monetary standpoint- I either collected toy lines that EVERY other person collected in the ’90’s (Star Wars) or I would collect toy lines and rip the toys out of their packages the moment I got them, effectively ruining their value on the secondary market.

Anyhow, I decided that it was time to pass some of the stuff to the next generation and gave the lot to Elliot and Henry.

This is my collection of DC Animated Universe action figures. The line was started by Kenner in 1992-93 to coincide with the premiere of Batman: The Animated Series and toy companies one after another have been making figures and vehicles of the various DC superhero characters in their streamlined, cartoony style ever since.

I collected these toys mainly during my high school years and they were a fun, inexpensive hobby for me, as I was only interested in the screen-accurate sculpts. By that I mean… I would by the Superman action figure that looked like the character from the animated series. I’d skip the 30 variant Superman toys that were created (as all toys should be!) with kids in mind.

Kenner were somewhat stingy in their choices for which characters received action figures and which did not. For every one Robin action figure, they’d make 20 Arctic Blast Batman toys or whatever crazy costume and gimmick they thought would sell.

The line continues to this day, with nearly every DCAU character getting the toy treatment, with a shift in focus from being a toy line directed toward children to a line being targeted at toy collectors. I can see the appeal – I did love collecting these toys back in high school.

That being said… although I’m all for handing these toys off to my boys for some good ol’ fun, there were two DCAU action figures I just couldn’t bear to part with. Sue me!