Review: Batman Classic 60s TV Batman & Robin

Ask someone to sing the Batman theme. Without a doubt they'll start humming the tune from the 60s TV series. Despite the Nolan trilogy, the Burton duo and all the other incarnations, it's the Adam West version that remains the most famous in popular culture. Why? It's hard to put a finger on. It's very much a product of the 60s, with limited special effects and high amounts of cheese, but despite this it's remembered with a fondness that none of the others have managed to capture.

Due to a convoluted rights situation, a DVD release has never happened. TV repeats still occur sporadically - we had a joyous time not so long ago watching episodes on ITV4 in a morning - but it's not been exactly 'high profile' for a long, long time. And yet not so long ago, somehow, a deal was struck and brand new merchandise has begun to appear.

Amongst this merchandise is a 6" line of action figures from Mattel. The first (only?) wave contains Batman, the Joker, Riddler, Penguin, Catwoman, and...Surf's Up Batman? I can only guess this came from the mind of the Mattel employee who came up with Disco Skeletor.

Bizarrely, the only way to get Robin is in a Batman-Robin two pack which is the subject of this review (I get round to the subject matter in this reviews eventually).

Review: Masterpiece Bluestreak

Bluestreak, eh? The unloved brother of police car Prowl and racing car Smokescreen. While Bluestreak is...well, he's not even blue. He's a dull grey and black combination. Odd hint of silver, but mostly he's a boring grey car. Sometimes a slightly 'meh' character can be saved by a cool back story, but he's never really gotten one of those.

Three Masterpiece Transformers are being released by Takara to round off the year, all slight remoulds of each other. Prowl, the most famous, arrived last month; Smokescreen, the cool one, is released at the end of November; and in the middle...well, there's Bluestreak.

There's hardly going to be fights in the toy aisles to get hold of this one.