DC Collectibles Red Robin - New 52: Teen Titans

I personally enjoy narratives where heroes either pass on the mantle to their children or heirs to lead a new generation of heroes. It shows a development, a passing of time and a fresh perspective on the abilities and backgrounds of those heroes and their families.

Teen Titans was one of those. First appearing in comics in 1964, the original team had three members: Robin (Dick Grayson), Kid Flash (Wally West) and Aqualad teamed up to defeat Mister Twister. Since that appearance, they have had nearly as large of a rotating roster as the Justice League. Though I am not a great comic book aficionado, a really good animated version of the Teen Titans is a show called Young Justice. Check it out! A third season is supposed to be on Netflix sometime this year or next.

Red Robin is technically named Tim Drake (but it turns out that's a pseudonym). He is called Red Robin as the character's way of leaving the Robin mantle behind after Jason Todd's death (who was the second Robin after Dick Grayson). From 2009 to 2016, he had a falling out with Batman and formed his own team of teen heroes, alongside Wonder Girl and Kid Flash.

I got this figure in the hopes of forming the entire Bat-family. It's an ongoing process, but I wanted to get this one to have another take on Robin that I thought was aesthetically interesting. He's got a lot of straps and bands and sports a mostly red and black flight suit, coupled with rocket-powered wings designed by a fellow Teen Titan, Static. The New 52 figures generally don't have great articulation, but they have a nice palette of bright colours and fairly good comic book looks.



Sculpt&Paint:5/10: So-so. The paint is pretty good on this one with attractive reds, golds and black colours. It isn't the cleanest though, and there are some ways it could have far more details in it. There isn't much shading on many new 52 figures I've seen. They could have done a better job making the wings sculpted at more of an angle to allow better leg movement during flight poses. Also, his hands are sculpted into a strange grabbing pose, for reasons I'm not clear on.

Articulation: 4/10:  17 Points. Not super poseable. The legs don't move very far, especially with the way the wings were designed. Speaking of wings, this figure would've been way better if they had either made another, open flight set of wing accessories, or just put two points of articulation on the existing wings to allow them to spread out. This is something I may customize in the future.

Price/Availability: 4/10 Not great. This figure is sold out on BBTS, outrageously expensive on amazon (140+ dollars), and about 50+ bucks on eBay. I guess others had the same idea I did about collecting the bat family in all possible versions!

Accessories: 1/5 His wings could be considered an accessory given they can be removed but...they're not great and the way it pegs in is fairly ugly!

Fun Factor: 1/5 You can't do too much except to make him stand in anything other than a vanilla pose or suspend him for flight. That's about it! He doesn't balance well with the wings since it makes him too top heavy.

Verdict: 15/40 Limited. This figure is neat to have for his looks, but given how little you can actually use him as an action figure, you'd be better off getting a statue as those are better painted and have nearly as much poseability! Sorry Red Robin, that's gotta sting.

Finally, a Robin that can fly!

Back of the Wings

If they had sculpted his hands differently, this wouldn't
look so much like pouncing on something! 

I'll just stab this huge brick into my back. 

Ok seriously, did they take a Catwomans
hands and put them on this figure?!

Robin needed balance assistance (Did not pass the one footed balance test)