TOYHEM! gives you what you really want for the holidays…
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Welcome to TOYHEM! For the seventh 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. Click here to check out the complete index of stories — and have a Merry Christmas, a Happy Chanukah and Happy Holidays!
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Over the years, I’ve swooned every time a company dips into the Filmation DC Comics cartoons for inspiration. Figures Toys Company gave us a few Batman figures some years ago, and then, more recently, McFarlane Toys gave us a wave based on the 1977 New Adventures of Batman:
Well, the other day, I was scrolling through Facebook and I saw that Super Friends expert Will Rodgers posted this lineup of imaginary McFarlane Filmation DC action figures, with the comment that he didn’t know who created it:
The resolution wasn’t great and so I did some digging and found a treasure trove of higher-res images of each set, which were posted to the Toy News International forums in March 2024, by someone known only as “Ron”:
“I recently purchased the complete line of McFarlane Toys figures based on the 1977 ‘New Adventures of Batman’ in the style of the Filmation animated series,” Ben wrote. “My only mild disappointment is that I preferred that they would have been based on the original 1968 version, that the hips would also have had sideway joints for better articulation and that the capes would have been plastic instead of cloth.
“However, this retro line, based on the vintage DC Filmation cartoons that I grew up with, inspired me to create a set of ‘wish list’ renditions of more DC characters in the same style from the other series, such as the 1966 ‘New Adventures of Superman,’ the 1967 ‘Aquaman’ (with Justice League and Teen Titans), and the 1968 ‘Batman with Robin, the Boy Wonder’ series. I hope folks like them and who knows? If McFarlane Toys sees this, perhaps they’ll make them a reality!”
Ron — and if you’re reading us, tell us who you are in the comments — is 100 percent on the money. While the 1977 Filmation Batman series is fine, it’s the 1968 The Adventures of Batman that’s far superior. And, while I know this is sacrilege, I prefer the Filmation designs to the Super Friends, which McFarlane is currently producing.
(Side note: Ron’s Batgirl and Joker are essentially the same ones produced by McFarlane. Batman, Robin, Riddler and Gordon are too, but with the proper tweaks to make them ’68 accurate. You can also tell what figs others are based on, if you look carefully.)
It’s too bad that McFarlane is losing the DC license. It makes the chances of these ever happening as remote as the Fortress of Solitude — and it was highly unlikely anyway.
But the holiday season is one for dreaming, and man, I gotta say, I’d buy every single one of these. Every. Single. One.
Nice work, Ron. (UPDATED: Full name, Ron Lopez!)
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MORE
— The Complete TOYHEM INDEX of Stories and Features. Click here.
— MUSICAL ADVENTURES AT 45 RPM: The Ginchy DC COMICS Records of the 1960s, by MARK WAID. Click here.
December 16, 2025
>> It’s too bad that McFarlane is losing the DC license.
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What happened? Is someone else picking things up? I’ve enjoyed a number of his old school characters especially the JSA.
December 16, 2025
Mattel is getting the license back for play line and collector figures at retail, which is ending the Spinmasters and McFarlane DC lines currently available. But McFarlane apparently still has until the end of 2026 to produce new figures.
These are really fun! I’m not as big on the Filmation shows as some others (I’m much more of an HB/Super Friends guy), but I would also buy most if not all of these!
December 16, 2025
I would buy these in a minute.
December 16, 2025
RE: I prefer the Filmation designs to the Super Friends, which McFarlane is currently producing.
This includes cartoon watching. Back in the kiddie and adolescent days, I’d take Filmation any day over Hanna-Barbera.
December 16, 2025
Hi, my name is Ron (not Ben), I’m a big fan of 13D and Filmation and I created these renditions shortly after McFarlane Toys released the 1977 Batman set. (I tried to submit them to 13D but didn’t know how.) If I remember correctly, I posted them on a commentary I made on the Batman 77 release at Toy News International – from there I don’t know who else picked up on my imaginary renditions and I laughed when I saw them posted here. As you can probably figure out, I made them by using the other pre-existing figures as templates – not too different from what the toy companies do. I made them to hopefully inspire McF to create them however, McF went the Super Friends route, so I am now working on actually customizing the Super Friends figures into Filmation versions though it will take some time. Well, I’m happy to learn that other fans like them and that they ultimately found their way to the 13th Dimension!
December 16, 2025
Dan, can you please update your article and correct the name “Ben” to my name: Ron? I would appreciate it. Thanks.
December 16, 2025
Ron! Yes! I’m sorry!
December 16, 2025
What, No “Simon, The Pieman” for Batman ’68?
December 16, 2025
These look amazing and I want them to be real soooooo badly!
December 16, 2025
Love it but I wish Ron had used a Silver Age version of Superman’s \S/ and not the “corporate” version.
December 17, 2025
This is along with the ‘67 Spider-Man are my childhood come to life! Someone make it happen!