It’s hard for me to imagine what the 1966 Batman series must seem like to people who didn’t grow up watching it. But I sure as hell did and I loved it. My brother has always been the furthest thing from a comic book or sci-fi nerd as you can get, but two things we could always bond over was watching the original Star Trek series, and 1966 Batman. And maybe that’s why I still have so much love for this wacky series. I collected the Mattel line that was issued sometime around 2013, and it looks like now I’m collecting McFarlane’s line too. I’ve been playing a lot of catch up, since I literally only started collecting it once McFarlane opened pre-orders for re-issues of the first Batman and Robin figures, but I’ve been buying a lot of toys to make up for lost time. Anyway, today I’m kicking it off with the boxer versions of Batman and the Riddler.

It probably seems strange to start with variants, especially since the excessive number of variants in this line ha been garnering its share of criticism, but it’s hard for me to nitpick when I see how deep the line is going on characters, vehicles and playsets. Plus, there’s the old adage, if you don’t like them don’t buy them. I’m not buying all of them, but I was pretty excited to get this pair from the Season 3 episode Ring Around The Riddler, where The Riddler tried to take control of the Gotham Boxing racket and the episode culminated in a boxing match between Batman and the Riddler. As far as goofiness goes, it’s par for the course, and as a kid the idea of seeing Batman box The Riddler was almost too much for my little brain to process. What’s that? Talk about the packaging? Oh yeah… these figures come on colorful cards with the Batman Classic TV Series logo. They kind of look a little like rack toy packaging, which might have been intentional, I don’t know. It’s charming to be sure, but nothing outrageously special. Still, I bought a double of Boxer Batman to keep sealed, so let’s rip these guys open.

As you can imagine, these are cheap ways to reuse a lot of parts from the original releases of these characters, but to be fair there’s some nice new sculpting here too. Batman dons his usual costume but happens to be wearing a large pair of yellow boxing trunks over it. You also get a much exaggerated version of his belt with the gold buckle on the front. The boxer motif is rounded out by a pair of boxing gloves that he’s wearing over his regular bat gauntlets. Everything about this figure is deliciously ridiculous and honestly, if you wanted to buy just one figure that best sums up this show, I think this one would be a good choice. Apart from the boxing paraphernalia, the costume sculpt is pretty clean and simple, epitomizing the on-screen costume. The pale gray and blue really look good as does the yellow and black bat symbol printed on his chest. The softgoods cape looks pretty good from the front, but maybe not so much from the back.

I think the head sculpt is fine for a retro-style figure, but I don’t see a lot of Adam West in it. The cowl does look very nice right down to the linework on the eyebrows and nose.

As with Batman, The Riddler is wearing his regular villain costume with the boxing trunks and gloves on top. His trunks are kind of mauve, which looks pretty snappy against his bright green outfit. I really love the giant RIDDLER belt buckle. The costume itself has very little in the way of sculpted detail, although I absolutely love how he’s just wearing a pair of regular loafers painted green. The printed question marks are all pretty crisp.

As for Riddler’s head sculpt, I think this is a better likeness than what we saw on Batman. Frank Gorshin will forever be The Riddler to me and I’d easily put him on par with Romero’s Joker in the series. He had a manic energy that was just wonderful to watch. I like the flash of teeth here and that the mask is sculpted rather than just painted on.

The fact that McFarlane calls this a Retro line probably refers to the articulation more than anything. It’s not as limited as it could have been, but it certainly has its limits when compared to the DC Multiverse series. Actually what’s most limiting is the use of the t-crotch, which doesn’t allow for any lateral movement in the hips and is definitely what feels most retro here. You do, however get rotating hinges in the elbows and knees, which is fairly modern. The head is ball jointed, the waist will swivel as will the wrists, but there’s no ankle or chest articulation. Nonetheless, I found these to still be pretty fun to play around with, especially when adding a figure stands to help them out in action poses.

The only accessories included here are plastic versions of the comic-style exposition balloons that would appear on the screen during the fights. Batman comes with BIFF and THUNK while Riddler comes with WHAMM and OUCH. The have rings so you can clip them onto the figures’ wrists. These are OK, but I really want to like these more than I do. It’s a very nice effort, but in execution I think it falls kind of short. I actually wouldn’t be critical of them here as they don’t feel like they are replacing actual accessories, but that was the case with other figures, as we’ll see in the weeks ahead.

I really love these figures and I had a lot of fun opening them and playing around with them. I don’t know that the whole retro vibe is really there. Back in the day we had Mego Batman figures and some Corgi cars, but nothing like these. Honestly, the Retro tag is probably just to separate them from the DC Multiverse level of articulation. Either way, I’m really glad I finally plunged into this line and when I next visit with it we’ll be checking out an exclusive lunchbox full of figures!