You might say I have a passing interest in Batman.  But I hadn't been paying attention to the upcoming Dark Knight Rises toyline, and so one day it was just there, in all stores everywhere.  I saw the "Movie Masters" stuff, a bunch of 6" Batmen and Banes, and I considered them.  Maybe get one, come back later.  And so I picked them up, looked at them, and put them back on the pegs.

And then I realized, oh, shit naw, if you buy all six figures across two waves, you can put together a friggin' working BAT SIGNAL?  Friggin' sold, man!  I walked out with Bane and Batman, and later that evening I scoured the city for Alfred, finally finding him at a Meijer after having no luck at half a dozen Targets and Walmarts.   Otherwise just Banes and Batmen as far as the eye could see.

But I have my Alfred now.  It's weird.  I'm certain he was available off MattyCollector.com or something before.  It wasn't worth it then.  I just really want that bat signal projector.  Guy's just gotta have some motive to drop some coin, y'know?  Sometimes I'm on the precipice of consumerism, and I just need a push.

(For what it's worth, Bane is a pretty awesome figure.  He's meticulously painted, especially for a retail release.  Dude's got the faintest hint of stubble on his bald head.  Sweet ass.)

Now the wait for Wave 2 and its final three bat signal pieces.

Very rarely do my DC Comics toy wants eclipse my Transformers toy wants.  I mean, I like me some Batman, but Batmen are Batmen.  I have a dozen, and they all do basically the same thing.  They articulate.  But Transformers at the top of my list are usually both characters that I adore and constructs which convert into other things.  I am spoiled by them.  Other toys seem dull.

But screw a Transformer when Catman is concerned.  Catman is just that awesome.  I hit every Kmart in the area once I heard he was showing up at them, and that's no small investment of time.  (Of course, I found this one unexpectedly at Walmart this morning.)

It's bizarre to think that Catman is that important to me.  I mean, dude.  He's Catman.  For the longest time he was most famous for being the guy who looks just like Batman but is evil and does cat-related crimes.  ...you know.  Catwoman with pecs.  And then he got fat and became a Green Arrow punchline and eaten by a gorilla.  When Green Arrow mocks you,  you know you're at the bottomest of your rope.

That's when Gail Simone put her boundless talent to work on him.  Catman somehow escaped being eaten and instead left America to go find himself in Africa.  He got back in shape and hung around naked with some lions he'd adopted.  Through a convoluted series of events (at least for this write-up) he joined the Secret Six and became more than a Silver Age-style cat-themed villain.   Catman sees himself as a good guy.  Mostly.  His problem is the heroes.  For some reason, he sees Batman as a privileged rich white dude who beats up poor people.  (I know, I know, that's crazytalk!)  Catman doesn't want to blow up the city, but he kind of resents it when Batman saves it.  He sees superheroes as incredibly self-righteous douchebags who think they're hot shit just 'cuz they can beat people up and get praised for it.

Oh, and he has some daddy issues, but that kind of goes with the territory.

His hard-to-define place in the hero/villain hierarchy is what makes him an important part of the Secret Six.  They're all would-be villains or anti-heroes who are pretty fine with doing good deeds even if (or especially if) there's a high body count and money involved.  And their roster includes Deadshot, who's Catman's hetero lifemate.  It's not quite guy love between two guys, but imagine two Dr. Coxes instead of Turk and J.D.

The toy itself is beyond anything I could have hoped for.  I'd been cheering for the possibility of a Catman for years, and mostly figgered it would happen only on the strength of being an easy Batman redeco.  That would have been super efficient, close enough, and it'd be hard to complain about.  I mean, it's just Catman.  But Mattel really surprised me.  A lot of Catman is new!  His head is new, of course.  It has sculpted stubble!  Ha ha ha.  Sweet.  But he also has a new cape with those straps that wrap around his shoulders, new gloves, and a new belt.  I am not sure if his boots are new.  He also comes with his claw-knuckles or whatever you call them.  That's also unexpected and totally welcome.

Mattel is totally rocking this Catman.

He also comes with a little poster.  Mine was ripped when I unrolled it.  That was kind of lame.  It's of Catman fighting Batman, probably the cover to an issue of Secret Six.  Oh well.  And finally, he comes with a stand.  Meh!

When "he comes with a stand I don't care for" and "his poster I was probably going to toss anyway was ripped" are absolutely the only complaints, I consider that a solid win.

So I snapped up this Mezco Scott Pilgrim toy at the comic book store on Wednesday.  There were two to choose from: this purple-shirted Scott with the open grin and a green-shirted Scott with a determined frown.  Otherwise they were identical.  I chose open grin!

The figure's okay and all.  It has articulation at the neck, waist, wrists, and biceps, with shallow universal joints at the shoulders.   Neither of the hands is pointing, which is kind of weird.  And he comes with a guitar and his testicle-sword.  It appears, when you hang his arms down at his sides best you can, that one arm is a smidge longer than the other.  I figgered this must be so he can hold his sword two-fisted.  Nnnnope!  He definitely can't do that.  I mean, he can hold it by the hilt and by the blade, but that's kind of weird.  So, uh, maybe one arm's longer so that it can hold the guitar better?  Or it's an optical illusion? I don't know.

Frankly, the best thing about this toy is the friggin' guitar.  It's amazing.  It has a real leather strap and it's sculpted and painted up real nice, and you can give it to other, better toys.  That's the real feature.  Besides, getting this thing over both Scott's big-ass head *and* one of his arms is a harrowing experience.  It's not a long strap.  It can't be, if it's gonna rest at proper length on his torso, and, again, Scott has a huge-ass head, unlike real human beings.  I'm afraid the leather strap is gonna snap.

So, yeah, I apparently just bought a $15 guitar accessory.  Not the worst of things, no.

I needed Bane because he fills an important slot in both of the arenas of DCUC I'm collecting: Batman villains and Secret Six dudes.  So far, there's been a 100% overlap!  It's a really uninteresting Venn diagram so far.  ...well, okay, I didn't pick up Parademon, but he really didn't look, y'know, proper.  Needed to be beefier and wear a fluffy vest or something.

If I ever do get a respectable Secret Six display, Bane may have to go through some minor changes.  See, in Secret Six, Bane has been off the Venom for quite a while, as he's decided it's a weakness and a crutch.  In fact, Bane is a very interesting character all around in Secret Six.  This should not really be possible, since he should be, by all rights, no more than that goofy muscle guy in the luchador mask who breaks Batman's back over his knee.  But under the insanely awesome care of Gail Simone, Bane is a compelling character in his own right.  Kinda weird in the head, but fascinating nonetheless.  And so I might have to get rid of that Venom tube that runs from his head to his arm.  It just wouldn't be proper!

But, hey.  Let's not delude ourselves.

I know why you're all here.  I know what the money shot is.

Let's do this.

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