Oh, 1966 Batman line, we hardly knew you. After what seemed like an eternal build-up and celebrations over Mattel securing the rights to the franchise, it amounted to about one wave of figures, a two-pack, and a Batmobile that I never saw at retail. Reception of the line from collectors has been all over the place. It wasn’t perfect, NECA could have done it way better, but overall I was happy with what we got. I was, however, not happy that this is all there was, especially since Mattel seemed to be closing up shop on the line just as Yvonne Craig was signing away her likeness to merchandisers. What about Batgirl and King Tut and Egghead, and all the other awesome villains? Oh, well. While there was a “Surf’s Up” Joker slap in the face figure shown off recently, I’m going to count Catwoman here as the last entry in this flash-in-the-pan line. Let’s check her out.

While a late comer to the party, Catwoman comes on the same cardback as the other figures. Its easily bent die-cut edges should serve to irk mint-on-card collectors. The fronts of the cards have been generic with only Robin’s dopey speech bubble changing. The back shows the character in an animated style, which is no doubt meant to emulate the opening credits, but doesn’t really do that for me.

So, let’s deal with the elephant in the room first. Fans will remember that three lovely ladies played Catwoman in the Classic Batman series: You had Julie Newmar playing the role for the first two seasons and then being replaced in the third by Eartha Kitt, followed by Lee Meriweather in the movie. I have a feeling the younger crowd are most familiar with Meriweather in the role just because that movie has been more readily available. Personally, I think Eartha Kitt did the best job with the character, she absolutely nailed it and made it her own, but in terms of pure sex appeal, Ms. Newmar was clearly my favorite. I have no idea how likeness rights factored into the decision to go with Newmar, but I’m sure it did. In the end I’m fine with the choice they went with.

This is a tough figure for me to assess. There’s some stuff I like about it, and a couple things I don’t. The big sticking point for me is the arms, which are just too long, too thin, and rather angular at the elbows. She looks like a stick insect. The elbows are also way too far down on the arms.  How many people have elbows that start at their hips? She doesn’t look so bad with her arms at her sides, but bend them and you can’t deny that this kitty has a ridiculous amount of bicep. As a result, there are poses where I think she looks just fine, and others where she looks rather awkward. Also her feet look really small. They’re so small that she has a big problem standing up without being plugged into her stand. All this, plus her somewhat oversized noggin, conspires to make her look quite barbie-doll-ish. Nonetheless, all this gives the figure something of a stylized appearance, which kind of works for me.

How about the portrait? The likeness isn’t a hundred percent, but I still think the portrait is Ok. The paintwork on the face is excellent, and I can see Newmar’s likeness in there… maybe… a little bit. I’d say this is definitely one of the better head sculpts in this line, and no I don’t mean that as a left-handed compliment. In terms of likenesses for a mass retail line of figures, I think Mattel has delivered adequately on these, and with Catwoman, a little bit moreso. But no mask? In fairness, Newmar seemed to spend as much time without it as she did with it. An extra masked head would have been nice, but by now we all know that unless it’s a surfboard or an umbrella, extra accessories were too much to ask for in this line. In the end, I’m fine with a mask-less head.

The costume is pretty well represented here. There’s only so much you can do with a black leather catsuit in this scale and Mattel gets the job done with a little extra attention paid to the glossy paint and sculpt of the gloves and boots. Traditionally speaking, Mattel has saddled some of the poor ladies of the DC Universe with some serious granny shoes, so it’s nice to see them get the heels right. Catwoman also features a painted low hanging necklace and a belt slung low on her hips. Still… it’s hard not to keep staring at those spaghetti arms… WTF happened there, Mattel?

The articulation has been pretty consistent throughout this line, but toss in the first female buck and you can’t be quite sure what you’re going to get. As it turns out, it’s mostly the same. The arms are ball jointed at the shoulders, hinged at the elbows, and have swivels at the biceps and wrists. The legs feature the usual DCUC style hip joints, swivels in the thighs, hinged knees, and hinged ankles. The head is ball jointed and she can swivel just under her chest. The articulation is serviceable enough, but I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t prefer my Catwoman to be a little more flexible and agile. Meow!

In keeping with the rest of this line, you also get the figure stand and collector card. The card shows Catwoman having a little bondage fun with Batman and the flipside has another scene from the Batcave. I still like these cards a lot and the fact that they plug into the stand makes it easier for me to justify keeping them around and not sticking them into the back of a drawer. The stand reads, “CRRAACK!” otherwise it offers nothing that we haven’t seen before with the rest of the figures in the wave.

If you aren’t willing to give this line a pass by now, Catwoman here probably isn’t going to sway you. I’ll confess nostalgia has compelled me to be pretty forgiving and I’m still delighted to have these figures. And that folks is Mattel’s 1966 Batman line in the bag. If you’re out to be a completest, you can still hold out for the “Surf’s Up” Joker, but I’m prepared to call this line done. There’s always a chance I may yet pick up the Batman & Robin 2-pack, especially if I find it on clearance. As much as I want the Batmobile, I’m trying to exercise some self-control because I have no room to display it and so many other things now vying for my collecting dollars. Still, willpower has never been one of my strong suits, so it is possible that it’ll turn up featured here on FFZ one of these days.