Friday, January 17, 2025

New audiobook - Robin Facing the Enemy read by Drew Griffin

In the run up to the release of the Batman & Robin movie, two short books aimed at kids were released alongside Michael Jan Friedman's novelisation - "Batgirl To Dare the Darkness" by Doug Moench and "Robin Facing the Enemy" by Alan Grant. Both of whom were noted comic book writers at the time. 

While the Batgirl story is set after the 1997 movie and sees her going up against Black Mask, the Robin novel is set in between the two Schumacher films and sees him finding his feet as Batman sidekick (by going off on his own... again).

It's a short, fun read and I'll do a little video with more of my feelings on it at some point in the future. There's some references to the events of Batman Forever but they aren't huge. It's maybe a stretch to call it a full fledged interquel. More of a solo spin-off.

While the Batgirl novel received a short 30 minute "audio drama" in 1997, the Robin novel didn't receive anything. 

Thankfully that has now been corrected by our resident audiobook reader - Drew Griffin (so all thanks to him, not me!) - who has done another great job and brought this story to life. I hope you all enjoy it.

Have a listen to it in the link below. It's two hours of your time and it breezes by:-

Monday, January 6, 2025

Batman Forever Merchandise Review - Triple Action Vehicle Set from Kenner

I can't tell you how long I've waited to find this pretty rare vehicle set for the Batman Forever toy line. It's the last bit of the Kenner toy line - not counting the role play sets like the Combat Utility Belt - that I needed.

One slipped through my fingers on eBay three years ago and I've only ever seen about 3 or 4 for sale in my whole life. I don't know if they just weren't sold over here in the UK or they came so late in the toy line's shelf life that not many were sold/made.

Anyway, I had one shipped from the US which was expensive but it was definitely worth the cost. Bless the seller, he included a few Batman Returns Statues inside the package as a bonus. I think he thought I was nuts paying so much for shipping.

This is a really clever toy that allows you to recreate all 3 (or 4) vehicles from the film. Kudos to the designers at Kenner for thinking this up. 

You just know they knew that kids would "frankenstein" their own crazy vehicles with wings and wheels.