All but Superman and Batman, anyway. The two powerhouses of the DC world were tied up with various other companies, not the least of which was Hasbro. But with the changes in license holders for the Batman and Superman action figures, we have finally begun to see some DC Direct representations.

None of them have been the mainstream versions, or recent versions though. DC Direct has stuck with Silver- and Golden- Age stuff for the most part, and only Superman and related characters...until last week. The first set of Batman figures have finally been released by DC Direct, a silver age set of the caped crusader and the Boy Wonder, Robin.

These are comic shop figures, so you'll have to hunt your local store or resort to the on-line opportunities. You can expect to pay around $40 for the pair. DC Direct has plans for some other Bat-verse characters as well, including the Joker and Batgirl, and we'll see Batman (and Superman along with others) in their Kingdom Come line later this year.

If you have any question, comments or figures you'd like to suggest for reviews, you can always reach me at mwc@mwctoys.com. If you enjoy this review, take a minute to check out my other site at Michael's Review of the Week, and let me know what you think. Now on to the review!

"DC Direct Silver Age Batman and Robin"

If you read the comics back in the `60s and `70s, you'll recognize this dynamic duo right away. This is Batman in his blue and gray days, along with the Dick Grayson version of Robin.

Packaging - ***1/2

The box is attractive, with a nice retro feel to it. The box is designed to look like the comics of that period, with a similar type face and style. It works well, and looks great on the store shelf. It also has little text blurbs about both characters on the back, and does a good job of listing out all the accessories in a very "Pow! Bang!" way. It's even fairly collector friendly, and other than a few twisty ties, it's a breeze to get them out of (and back in to) the box.

Sculpting - ***1/2

The sculpts are solid on both, capturing the look and feel of the silver age. There's a smoothness to them that works nicely, and like the animated style, the very basic nature of the design is it's beauty. The scale fits in with the rest of the DC Direct line okay, but they seem a touch small. Still, these will look great on your shelf with your other DC heroes and villains.

Paint - ****

I really looked hard to find something wrong with the paint ops, but came up completely empty. They really couldn't be better, and that's something to say. DC Direct has had issues at times with paint applications, and maybe I just got lucky, but there wasn't any bleed, over spray, sloppy lines or even inconsistencies in the thickness or tone of the colors.

They did decide to use blue on Batman where the black of his cowl or shorts as a highlight color. This is very similar to the look right on the page of a comic, where blue is usually used as a highlight for black costumes. I think it works fine, but some folks might have an issue with it.

Articulation - ***
There is plenty of articulation, but the range of motion is fairly restricted due to the design of the joints. Also, there are a couple really necessary joints missing.

Both figures have neck, ball-jointed shoulders, elbows, hips, knees and ankles. But the shoulders, knees and elbows are all very restricted due to the style of joint, so you won't be able to do too much with them. I tried various climbing positions for both of them (since they come with a climbing rope), but the joints did little to help me out.

The big missing joint is at the wrist. Cut joints at the wrist, or better yet, right at the glove line would have really helped these figures, and given you a lot more possibilities with the accessories.

Accessories - ***
There's four accessories, all of them decent. There's the small roof top base, two batarangs, and the climbing rope.

The batarangs look fine, although they are made of a fairly soft plastic. Neither figure holds them particularly well, and the hand sculpts could have been improved for this purpose. The climbing rope is a string attached at one end to a nifty foot hold, and to a suction cup on the other end. You might have trouble finding a place that the suction cup will hold, but glass works great.

The big accessory is the display base, with several pegs and holes to place their feet. It's a decent sculpt, but fairly small, particularly considering the price of this set. There's also a cardboard backdrop with the bat signal, but I don't consider this an accessory, since it doesn't really work with the base or even the figures very well, and is more of a packaging decoration.

Value - *1/2
Ouch. That's what I felt when I paid for this. If I wasn't a huge Batman fan, there's no way I could see myself shelling out $40 for this pair. Are they nice? Absolutely. But the are two fairly basic action figures, with decent accessories. Even regular DC Direct figures only sell for around $12-$15 each at most. Why are you paying such a huge premium for this set? This is a $25 set at best, and at this price point only the die-hards will be buying.

Overall - **1/2
If the price for this set was in line with what you were getting, it would easily get another half star to even a star. But my overall impression after buying this was that I paid way too much. If the price doesn't bother you, than your overall score for this set is guaranteed to be higher.

Where to Buy -
Lots of on-line stores have these available:

- Boise River Collectibles has them in stock for $40 for the set.

- Entertainment Earth has them listed at $45 for the set.

I'm always looking for leads on new retailers on-line, so if you have suggestions please let me know!