Toy Review: Mattel’s DC Comics Premier Robin Is A Great Start

Officially this past month, Mattel took over the master toy license for DC Comics. That means changes are coming for the world’s second biggest superhero brand, and it starts with a simple wave of four figures.

I’ve been talking a lot about Mattel’s recent moves, and this is a big one. In addition to revamping their flagship Masters of the Universe lines, they re-acquired the DC Comics master license over previous holder Spinmaster, as well as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. That takeover is complex, without a doubt. 

Spinmaster sub-licensed collector figures of McFarlane Toys, who is still releasing the DC Multiverse line through the end of the year. That means McFarlane is going to be releasing their 1:10 scale figures for several more months, completing teams and lines.

Meanwhile, Mattel is gearing up for this new era for their offerings. We’ve seen the foundations getting set with the MOTU movie lines. While the molds may not be totally 1:1 with what we see with MOTU Kid Core, Origins or Chronicles, there’s clear design and engineering that will carry over.

I ran into these figures the way they were meant to be found — on the hook at Target. The location I stopped at had the Flash, the Joker and Robin (I was frankly surprised there wasn’t a Batman, but we all know that will be remedied quickly). I was torn between what to grab, and ended up with Flash and Robin.

The first impression I had was great. The packaging was eye catching and I actually really dug that both figures were posed in the packaging (something rarely seen with non-collectors figures). I also really liked the packaging art. It is a little odd that the back of the packaging was labelled “DC Super-Villains” with only one villain in the wave, but maybe that will be made clear soon.

As far as design, this is a very classic Robin design. It takes elements from both Tim Drake and Dick Grayson to create a sort of timeless costume. It took me a minute to warm up to the yellow cape, until I realized that it was pulled directly from Dick’s DC Rebirth costume.

I was also impressed by the accessories. The figure featured a frame full of punch-out accessories, including bat-cuffs, batarangs, a knife (for if you want to pretend this is Damian, I guess) and two staves. Normally that glut of accessories is too much, but in this case, it also came with a weapon rack that all the accessories could snap onto.

I also really enjoyed posing this figure. After spending time with the Kid Core He-Man, I expected Robin to be very similar. In some important ways, he was, but I was surprised by the differences. While the ankles don’t have a full ball joint, they do have a swivel, allowing for a few more poses. Also, the figure’s knees were double jointed, allowing for a lot of flexibility.

Overall that meant that this is a figure that I could do a lot with, particularly with an acrobatic character like Robin. He posed really dynamically, with very little limitation. I only used the staff with the posing, but I think that the other accessories would look great as well.

So, for the first entry in a new line, it’s absolutely a win. If the kid-oriented figure is this good out of the gate, I cannot wait to see what the collector figures are like next year.