Character Figures

Batman Action Figures are manufactured by various toy companies. more...

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Captain Action

In 1966, the Ideal Toy Company launched a line of super hero dolls called Captain Action in response to Hasbro's popular G.I. Joe line. The Captain Action doll came dressed with a cloth super hero costume, hat, ray gun, and sword, ready for kids to enjoy. But parents could also buy additional super hero costumes that were sold separately. Kids could take Captain Action's costume off and replace it with one of several super hero costumes based on famous comic book characters.

A Batman costume was included in Captain Action's arsenal. This Batman costume was detailed with a horizontally striped cape as well as a black and gold chest emblem (the costume set was available with both metal and decal chest emblems). Batman's accessories included a blue Batarang, flash light, and drill which could attach to the utility belt.

In 1967, the Ideal Toy Company released a partner doll for Captain Action, his youthful sidekick, Action Boy. Ideal Toy's released only three costumes for Action Boy to change into, one of them being Robin, Batman's sidekick.

Mego

In 1972, The Mego Corporation released their own line of DC Comics character and Marvel Comics character dolls called The World's Greatest Super Heroes!. This line of 8" dolls featured many Batman characters, including Batman, Robin, Catwoman, and The Joker. Like Ideal Toy's Captain Action line, these figures featured cloth costumes that fans could remove. Unlike Ideal Toy's Captain Action line, however, the costumes came with the figure, and were not sold separately.

Realizing the success of the 8" line of dolls, and wanting to offer fans more for less, Mego Corp. released a smaller plastic line of action toys called Comic Action Heroes! in 1975. The Comic Action Heroes did not have any moving parts, like small plastic statues. The line featured several Batman characters as well as other DC Comics characters. Later, in 1979, Mego re-released the line under the new name Pocket Super Heroes, a name that would return more than 20 years later as part of DC Direct's super hero line of figures (see below).

The Super Powers Collection

In 1984, the Kenner toy company was granted the rights to produce DC Comics character figures, and soon after, the Super Powers Collection of action figures hit toy shelves. Each figure, as the name implies, had a secret super power that would trigger when the figure's arms or legs were squeezed. Kenner produced Super Powers figures for 3 years, ending production of the line before such rumored Batman character figures as Catwoman and Man-Bat were produced.

Read more at Wikipedia.org