Batman Forever Merchandise Review: Album Standee and Soundtrack Collection

This week I'm looking at a couple of soundtrack and score related bits.

Batman Forever Merchandise Review - Bubble Bath bottles

This time, we're diving into the two Bubble Bath bottles they made. As I say in the review my parents never bought me a proper Batmobile so I had to make do with the bubble bath bottle (I know, I know, break out the violin). I would totally recommend either of these if you can find them cheaply on eBay.

Miscellaneous Content: Schumacher talks to Vulture and Schumacast recommendation

Quick post here to recommend some Joel Schumacher stuff I've been digging this week.

First up, Schumacher gives a fascinating and super honest interview to Vulture about his life and career. It's an odd mix of questions - some tough digs about his past association with Michael Jackson (The Wiz) and Woody Allen - but he come across as brutally honest and utterly comfortable with film making legacy. At 79 and being seemingly retired from directing I guess he doesn't need to care much about burning any bridges.

There's not a whole lot of Batman Forever content - it mostly revolves around the difficulty of Val Kilmer and Tommy Lee Jones on set. It was fascinating though to read about how he's dealt with negative reviews through the years. He's clearly grown very thick skin though there's something to be said about how well he remembers things like Siskel and Ebert's review of St Elmo's Fire.

https://www.vulture.com/2019/08/joel-schumacher-in-conversation.html

And my other discovery was a podcast called Schumacast hosted by Noel Thingvall and Angie Tusa where they go through Joel Schumacher's filmography in great detail - covering one film every episode. It's exhaustive, insightful and very well researched. I'm only a few episodes in but it's already pushed me to check out Flatliners (1990) which has a lot in common with Batman Forever in terms of production design.

Anyway, they are currently up to Dying Young (1991) so I'll give a heads up when they get to Batman Forever because I'm sure it will be great.

https://schumacast.blogspot.com/

Cards: Metal Fleer Batman Forever cards 66-70

Much like eating your vegetables, we have to return to the Fleer metal cards. Not long to go now. Mostly Robin ones here and for once nothing too embarrassing.

Batman Forever Merchandise Review - Double Dose of Doom handheld game by Tiger

Hey remember those terrible handheld games by Tiger? I sure do, because I recently picked this up. Here's my review.

Batman Forever Merchandise Review - Batmobile model from Eaglemoss

Next up we've got a look at the recent Eaglemoss Batmobile model that was released in the UK. It’s a pretty neat figure with a nicely designed magazine to accompany it.

Behind the Scenes: Batman Forever B-Roll Footage

And now for something a little different. Here's a montage I put together of all the b-roll (behind the scenes) footage I could find. Hopefully it should make an interesting watch. The miniature Gotham in particular is fascinating to see.

Magazine article: Imagi-Movies Vol 3 No 1 - Part 2

More Bat interviews from Imagi-Movies bumper issue including why Billy Dee Williams was dropped from the Harvey Dent role and whether Chris O'Donnell would ever upgrade to Nightwing. We'll we got the costume in the next film...

Magazine article: Imagi-Movies Vol 3 No 1 - Part 1

Imagi-Movies talks to Joel Schumacher and Akiva Goldsman about the new movie with a particular focus on how less murderous Batman is compared to previous films. Uh oh, Joel also reminds the interviewer that they are "comic books" not "tragic books." Oh Joel.

Cards: Metal Fleer Batman Forever cards 61-65

Back to the Metal Fleer cards. Not a bad selection here - characters aren't droopy or weirdly drawn. The Two-Face/Riddler card in particular looks kind of awesome. Shame they didn't try to make a whole set of cards like that.

Hot Toys Chris O'Donnell Robin unveiled at SDCC 2019

I anticipated with the 25th anniversary next year that some toy companies would look to tap into the nostalgia and release some figures. I had predicted it would be NECA or MacFarlane but I was really surprised to see this morning that Hot Toys unveiled a Chris O'Donnell Robin figure at San Diego Comic Con. As expected with Hot Toys the detail is fantastic and the figure looks excellent. Going to need to start saving now. Expect it to be released next year.

No word on if they'll be doing any other figures but I'd be surprised if we don't at least get a Batman too.

Miscellaneous Content: the Blinko logo

While looking at a scan of some old production documents for Batman Forever I came across this logo in the bottom corner of one of the pages. It was tiny and when I blew it up it was pretty pixellated.

Now "Blinko" was the codename that was used while Batman Forever was in production. The name Batman Forever didn't come along until (I think) the later drafts of the screenplay (it was possibly Akiva Goldsman's choice but I can't verify that). The Batchler's first draft was simply titled Batman III.

Anyway, I was fascinated with this logo. I love how the question mark is neatly incorporated into the text to hint at the Riddler's inclusion. It's a nice little piece of Batman Forever history that's been basically lost and I wanted to preserve it for future fans.

I don't own any production documents for the movie (just the press kit) so I couldn't rescan it but I set about using my limited photoshop knowledge to recreate it. So here it is at a higher resolution.

And here's my final version that softens the edges and gives a bit of texture to the picture.

Batman Forever Merchandise Review - Candy Heads

Remember these candy heads? I sure do.

Batman Forever Merchandise Review - Bruce Wayne figure by Kenner

And now here's the one I've been waiting to show for ages. My video review of the Bruce Wayne figure by Kenner. Hope you enjoy it. Will be getting through more figures in the line soon.

Video Advertisements: Toys

I'll be getting around to reviewing some of these in the near future. In the meantime, here's a selection of adverts for the Batman Forever toy line.

Batman Forever Action Figures

Batman Armor Set

Toys R Us

Microplayset