When I discovered that NECA would be releasing this 7 inch Michael Keaton Batman figure along with the newly released 25th Anniversary blu ray, you can say I was beyond excited. Keaton has and will remain my favorite Batman. And NECA's idea to emulate the classic Toy Biz look and packaging from their '89 toy line got me even more excited. I mean, this is badass! For a number of reasons! Most notably the fact that there was always an issue with using Keaton's likeness for an action figure. It was a big deal, and I don't know the exact details of all that, but I do know it was an issue. Even when NECA first used this same exact mold for their ever popular 8 Bit Classic Video Game Appearance line, they seemed to have been able to get away with it because the coloring of the figure was blue and purple. But here, they seemed to have found a loophole, or worked out their license issues because it seemed out of nowhere, they surprised us all with the announcement of this particular figure, which sold out online immediately, but not before I was able to put my order in.
It was really weird too. You could only order this as part of the Blu Ray Anniversary combo pack, not just the figure alone. And you could only order it through their eBay store, which seemed rather suspicious to me right from the beginning. Apparently NECA set up this eBay store solely for the purpose of selling this Blu ray/Figure combo pack. So there was no feedback. And when I first saw the eBay store, shipping was cheap at $8 or something like that. Then when I went to place my order later in the day, shipping was hiked up to around $15 if I remember correctly. So I was concerned all around, but I placed my order anyway.
They sold out within a day. So then word came that Toys R Us and Toys R Us only was selling these, but only when you bought the Blu Ray. But fortunately for a lot of collectors and flippers, most employees were not aware of this, and were selling the figures by themselves. You can bet your ass that flippers grabbed every last one of them and immediately threw them on eBay for $50 and higher. I hate fucking flippers.
In the end, I got mine at retail price, along with that killer Blu Ray. It's a great figure, and NECA did a bangup job on Michael Keaton's likeness.
That's a nice figure. I love the fact the packaging emulates the old toy biz figure.
ReplyDeleteI picked up the larger NECA Keaton figure (only figure of that size that I've splashed out on). Such a cool figure - love that original Burton suit so much.
Oh man, I haven't gotten that one yet Jack. I WANT it sooooo BAD. But it's hard for me to shell out over $100 for something like that. LOL. I know I'll eventually do it, but I just haven't pulled the trigger on that yet. I love that design, and you'd think I woulda jumped all over it by now. It's such a badass figure, and it's huge! Soon. Very soon.
DeleteI know, I know. It's the only big figure purchase I've ever made. All my other collection is small 5" stuff. Definitely felt weird to spend so much money something like that. I'm trying to stop myself from buying a similarly sized Robocop to go with it.
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