MORRISON MONDAYS meets TOYHEM — once more! — Welcome to MORRISON MONDAYS and welcome to TOYHEM! For the sixth straight holiday season, we’re bringing you a series of features and columns celebrating the toys of our youth, which often made for the best memories this time of year. And Bill’s here for the festivities! Click here to check out the complete index of stories — and have a Merry Christmas, a Happy Chanukah and Happy Holidays! — Dan — By BILL MORRISON Even the most casual Batman fan knows that the Dark Knight doesn’t use guns. Sure, he was shown packing a pistol a handful of times in his first year. But DC’s editorial director Whitney Ellsworth is said to have laid down the law and forbade the Caped Crusader from carrying and using a firearm after seeing Batman exclaim, “Much as I hate to take human life, I’m afraid this time it’s necessary!” and then firing a machine gun at a truck carrying one of Dr. Hugo Strange’s monsters in Batman #1. In Batman #4, this edict was officially delivered to readers in a caption box that declared “The Batman never carries or kills with a gun!” The rule was bent or broken a few times over the years, such as on the wartime cover of Batman #15, which shows the Dynamic Duo operating a military machine gun, but in general the no-gun decree was codified as early as 1941 and became an integral part of Batman’s character. By 1966 when Batmania gripped the world and licensees lined up to produce a bat-zillion bat-toys, you would think that toy guns would have been banned from DC’s list of approved merchandise for kids, right? Well, such was not the case. Whoever was in charge of approving the plans of licensees at DC seems to have missed the memo about Batman’s aversion to guns, and several toy guns hit the market over the years, seemingly with the Caped Crusader’s seal of approval. And I’m not referring to gun-like gadgets such as grappling guns, Batarang blasters, or sonic neutralizers. I’m talking about toys that resemble hand-held lethal weapons! My fascination for the fact that these contradictory toys were actually made is endless! I have a handful of them in my collection, and even if it means putting off our kitchen remodel, I’ll continue...
MORRISON MONDAYS meets TOYHEM — again! — Welcome to MORRISON MONDAYS and welcome to TOYHEM! For the sixth straight holiday season, we’re bringing you a series of features and columns celebrating the toys of our youth, which often made for the best memories this time of year. And Bill’s here for the festivities! Click here to check out the complete index of stories — and have a Merry Christmas, a Happy Chanukah and Happy Holidays! — Dan — By BILL MORRISON In celebration of the new 1982 DC Comics Style Guide book, I decided to show some examples of Batman merchandise from the wild and wooly days before a standardized guide existed. This was a time when licensees were given access to existing art from comic books, but also allowed to create their own images with little to no approval process, especially for those outside the US. The result was a mix of Batman toys, apparel, books, and other items sporting images of the Dynamic Duo in three basic categories: exact reproductions of comic art, drawings from comics that were retraced by another artist and modified to suit the product, and images that were drawn from scratch, often by artists who were unfamiliar with the characters. It’s the third variety that I’m focusing on today, a subset category of my collection that I fondly call “Batman’s Off-Model Merch! — Red Tin Batmobile. This tin litho and plastic Batmobile is from Taiwan and was made in the 1970s by Cien Ge. It features Bump-N-Go action, working pistons, and flashing lights. The car itself is spectacular, but the box graphics offer a wonderland of off-model, off-brand magic. The weirdly decorative fonts, star filter photography, badly drawn Dynamic Duo, and wrong costume colors are all working at peak efficiency to create a graphic mess-terpiece! — The Official Adventures of Batman and Robin Record. This is the Australian version of a US Batman and Robin record from 1966. The Batman and Robin poses are inspired by the Sheldon Moldoff cover to Batman Annual #1, but the artist has chosen to elongate the bodies, giving the Caped Crusaders legs that a super model would kill for! And if you think this is an example of a non-US licensee getting the colors wrong, look again. This is a great illustration of what happens when printing plates get...
MORRISON MONDAYS meets TOYHEM — once more!
MORRISON MONDAYS meets TOYHEM — again!
MORRISON MONDAYS meets TOYHEM!
