Masterpiece Collection 1940's era Batman 8 inch doll by Hasbro

Nanananananananana Bat-find!

This is what I was seriously interested in at the 3 for $10 bin when I visited the Yancy Street Comic Con, a Batman doll from the Masterpiece edition book from roughly 2003. Even at $5 for him, he would have been a total steal considering how long I looked for it. I grabbed him and 2 carded figures and went about my business at the show, not even 5 minutes in the building and I'm already out $10 and have a bag full of toys. This definitely set the pace for the rest of the show.

The Masterpiece edition sets were popular but comic book nerds with the deepest pockets deemed the sets too expensive and they ended up on clearance shelves within a year. Each Masterpiece was impressively packaged in a sturdy, heavy gauge cardboard box trimmed in glossy read and yellow with a picture of the character in their golden age outfit; lifted right out of the comic book's pages. They made 3 masterpiece edition books; Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. Each book was a kind of chronicle of the character since their creation to current canon. Each book came with a keepsake piece; Superman came with a statue of him in his golden age outfit, Wonder Woman came with a barely poseable doll clothed in her golden age attire and Batman came with a really neat and sought after doll that was fully poseable in a cloth outfit with a cape that could hold any shape you bent it into.

(mine came without the book, just for reference only)

The figure is very well done with a nice range of articulation, similar to a Mego doll. The outfit is not removable. The figure is actually sewn into the costume, so be careful not to spill anything on him (if you are prone to having Cheeto fingers, you might want to invest in a Tide detergent stick). The  boots are actually part of the body, along with the cowl and gloves. The belt is a really strong yellow but feels a little too big compared to the scale of the figure, same goes with the batarang (which confuses me because it's not a toy meant for children, but I could see it eventually getting into a child's hands. But still, give the collectors what they want.). Best aspect of the figure is the ribbed cape. Each rib is bendable and holds whatever pose you give it so your Batman can be frozen in whatever cool action shot you'd like.

I also really dig the clear plastic cocoon it came in.