Mmmm..... Teen Bodies............

Just a funny way of saying that the new "Teen Body" for the DCD 13" (or I guess not quite 13"...) line is a winner with me. Of course it could be no one other than Robin to premiere this line, which is certainly very heavy on Batman and his supporting cast and villains!!!

Here's the rundown: The packaging art is the same ho-hum blandish stuff that alot of these boxes seem to have become. I'd really like to see a bit more done with these. Inclusions are fairly basic - the ever useful extra pairs of hands (I often wonder where mine are...), stand, a grappling hook, and two masks, one black and one green. The masks create a couple of gripes for me: firstly with two masks being provided, it would have been nice to have one with white-filled eye slits, which is how I would have preferred to display him. Secondly, Robin's bangs on the right side of his face come down just a fraction too far so that the mask doesn't sit quite straight on his face, creating an ongoing source of irritation for anal-retentive OCD-ish collectors like myself.

Robin's costume is well-done overall, although something like the scaled effect on Aquaman's top could have been used to get his briefs looking more like what we see in the comics. Nice detailing with hand-stitching on his tunic, and his boots are just great.

Due to Robin's bare legs, I expected the (in my opinion, unnecessary) thigh cuts to really bug me, but they stand out much less in flesh tones that they did on the green of the Martian Manhunter. Of course, it could be because the legs are skinnier - this is the Teen Sculpt after all!!

I am still working towards an enclosed display space so that I can have these on show out of the box, and I can't wait as they really do take on a life of their own once they're free from their little prisons. As soon as I got this guy out of the box he became one of my favourites in the line, and I was sad to have to put him back.

One would assume that the Teen Body Sculpt will be used again - while a SA Aqualad would be my dream, Kid Flash (Wally West SA version) would be my next realistic choice. Bring it on!!