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Battle Gear Batman - Batman Begins, Mattel Meat and Potatoes; 4.7 Perks; 4.6 Homer Factor; 4.8
					Description; Batman is back, and baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad! Battle Gear Batman is approximately 5" tall and decked out in the new suit from 'Batman Begins'.  The suite is jet-black with the only colors being flesh-tones around the mouth and gold for the utility belt.  The figure is well articulated in the arms, elbows, hips, knees, and waist.  Batman comes with an 'attache case' packed with a batarang, bat-grappling gun, and head-gear with goggles.
	To this day, 'Batman and Robin' is burned in my brain... kinda like my first root canal; certainly survivable, but not something I plan on repeating.  I saw 'B and R' on a VHS tape I borrowed from the library, and I remember thinking 'It's a good thing I didn't spend money on seeing this.'  Ok, enough bashing. GOOD NEWS... 'Batman Begins' is only months away!  No campy villains, no neon sets, just a simple film-noir inspired story!  Sweet!  Naturally, you gotta have wonderful toys to go with the movie! (Sorry, I couldn't help it!)  And as the Marketing Gods requested... the figure are out almost two months before the movie.  Sigh.  So, now that the new gun Mattel has the license, how are these?  Well... it's not bad, but... Meat and potatoes are a huge improvement even over the first Batman figures, BUT... The sculpting on the piece is a re-creation of the latest Batman suit, which looks more like battle-armor this time.  Like the new Batman figures, the cape is nylon but is connected to the figure so that it drapes, rather then bunching together older figure.  Over all this works well on the figure.  It doesn't have the same billowing effect that a molded, plastic cape would have, but it's much more flexible.  Articulation isn't bad, but it should be better.  The figure has shoulder, knee, hips, and a mid-torso joint.  Over all, not bad, but Keep in mind the ton o' joints on ToyBiz figures, and the fact this piece isn't that much smaller.  It shouldn't be that hard to have ball-joints on the shoulders and hips, and mid-thigh and mid-bicep joints for better fighting poses. The perks aren't bad, however the word BUT comes up again.  Batman comes with a Wayne Enterprises brief-case that contains a gun with spring-loaded repelling line, a batarang, and an odd looking, head-mounted microscope thing like what Johnny Depp wore for 'Sleepy Hollow'.  It's a nice assortment of goodies to have.  BUT, the batarang can't be held in Batman's hand, the case doesn't close completely when everything is loaded, and why not have the stuff to scale so that they could be attached to Batman's belt?  It was done with Combat Belt Batman for TAS figures, so why not on this one?  Homer factor?  Hey, I'm a Batman fan, so I couldn't stay away!  And considering the over-all good work Mattel does, I hoped for something pretty dang impressive. And the figure comes VERY close!  The workmanship on the figure and accessories is impressive.  Unfortunately, there's just enough going RIGHT with the figure, that you realize that it could have been so much BETTER.  In light of the work ToyBiz and Hasbro have done, keeping up isn't easy.  It's no longer a matter of coming up with the next gimmick.  Now a piece has to be something that comes pretty close to duplicating what happens on screen for a movie figure, not just creating figures that come with a ton o' silly gadgets and missile-launching thing.  In the end, this figure is a good  figure.  However, it should have been a great one.  Sigh.