For years, film and television studios have treated its major plot twists and surprise characters as closely-guarded secrets, hidden to even its licensing partners. In 2019, Hasbro was as surprised as any audience member to see “Baby Yoda” for the first time in the premiere episode of The Mandalorian and wouldn’t have product featuring the character until almost a year after the first season’s release. Other times, companies are given pre-production artwork or character designs to work off of — leading to gaffs like Marvel Legends’ notorious problem of <a href="https://bleedingcool.com/collectibles/marvel-legends-avengers-endgame-wave-review/” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>film-inaccurate MCU figures. Fans have long criticized this degree of secrecy as egregious. After all, these companies can be trusted not to give away the movie before people have had the chance to see it — can’t they? While this may be the case now, there was a time before studios seemed as invested as they are now, and when a tie-in toyline meant that the big twist ending of Batman: Mask of the Phantasmwas hanging on the pegs of stores like K.B Toys.
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Kenner took over the Batman master license in 1992, beginning with a line of figures for Batman Returns. The film’s dark tone and grotesque content meant the line was a poor seller with kids, but the burgeoning collector market helped salvage it. Kenner fared much better with their figures for the accompanying Batman: The Animated Series, and were all-in when a theatrical film based on the series was released the following year. In addition to the requisite figures of Batman and the Joker, Kenner’s Mask of the Phantasmline includes a figure of the villain complete with a removable cowl, revealing her secret identity. It isn’t even hidden by the packaging: mint-in-box, as with this sample on auction in a lot through Hakes, the figure is unmasked, making the major spoiler totally unavoidable.
What Makes Batman: Mask of the Phantasm‘s Twist Villain is the Most Memorable Part of the Movie
For much of its runtime, the central mystery facing the “World’s Greatest Detective” in Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is the identity of its titular villain. To many Batman fans, it’s this mystery that helps make Mask of the Phantasmso memorable, with some even calling it the best Batman movie ever made. It’s one of the few that manages to interweave the lives of Bruce Wayne and Batman, creating a narrative that challenges and changes both personas. At the heart of that character arc is Andrea Beaumont, Bruce Wayne’s lost love, and the daughter of mob affiliate Carl Beaumont. The couple is driven apart by Bruce’s commitment to his double life as Batman, and Andrea’s return is the first time audiences ever see this iteration of Batman seriously reconsider that life.
When Bruce discovers that Andrea is in truth the vengeful killer, Phantasm, that he’s been pursuing as Batman, the character and the audience alike are devastated. Andrea is a grim mirror of Batman / Bruce’s own choices, driven to murder by a desire to avenge her father’s death at the hands of the Gotham mob. She’s let herself be consumed by her need for revenge, and has tread past a line that Batman himself walks precariously. They’re driven apart once more by the spectres of their pasts, costumed identities only a reflection of their unresolved feelings toward that past. The film’s ending is one of the few instances where the audience can see a palpable change to Batman because of what he’s experienced; the confrontation with Andrea leaves him genuinely altered.
If the viewer goes in unspoiled, they’re processing this with Batman, finding out about Andrea’s alter-ego at the same time he does. Thanks to Kenner, whose Phantasm action figure was packaged with its Andrea Beaumont headsculpt on full display, many young viewers didn’t get to experience the film this way. The irony being, this had a disproportionate impact on dedicated Batman fans, the people most likely to be buying the action figures before seeing the film. Putting this aside, the figure is well-made, especially for its era. The action features are functionally implemented, including a removable scythe-arm and the much-aforementioned hood. The hood clips onto the figure well, and its large cape doesn’t interfere significantly with the figure’s posability. It’s also far more movie-accurate than the line’s Batman figures, which are bogged down by ludicrous action feature like “Tornado Batman with Whirling Weapon,” or “Total Armor Batman with Full-Body Armor and Shield!” Also striking a good balance is the line’s unique Joker variant, which comes with the Thunderball-inspired jet-pack the Ace of Knaves dons at one point in the film.
Why Kenner’s Batman: The Animated Series Line is Still the Gold Standard For Batman Toylines
Image Courtesy of Warner Bros
The Mask of the Phantasmline represents the best and worst things about Kenner’s Batman: The Animated Seriesfigures. At their best, Kenner offered a comprehensive line-up of the Caped Crusader’s friends and foes from the series, going into more depth than virtually any line before or since. As with Kenner’s Phantasm, the action features often enhanced the figure’s playability without spoiling it aesthetically, managing to strike the difficult balance between “toy” and “collectible.” At their worst, Kenner bogged down their line with an endless array of asinine Batman variants, best represented by their absolutely ridiculous “Slalom Racer Batman.” The line is well-loved by collectors in the same way as Toy Biz’s Marvel lines, representing a transitional period between kid and collector oriented toylines. Unlike Marvel and Hasbro’s Marvel Legends, the DC universe has gone without a comprehensive collector toyline, with Mattel’s DC Universe Classics cancelled too soon and McFarlane’s DC Multiverse too broadly encompassing to delve too deeply into the world of any DC character.
For that reason, as well as the virtually uncontested, best-ever adaptation status of Batman: The Animated Series, the Kenner line still has its dedicated collectors more than thirty years later. With the Mask of the Phantasmlot on auction at Hakes, one such collector has the chance not only to own the most infamous figure in the line, but three further figures that exemplify it at its best and worse. The Mask of the PhantasmJoker is a perfect combination of screen-accurate and kid-friendly, with the jet-pack faithfully recreated from its on-screen counterpart as a functional, playable action feature. The included “Decoy Batman” and “Total Armor Batman” are both deeply silly, but that silliness carries with it a charm, as they are emblematic of the garish fun of collecting kid-geared toylines. At this stage, the auction sits at a bid of fifteen dollars, though Hakes expects a finish between seventy five and one hundred and fifty. Hopefully, the winner has seen Mask of the Phantasm, and the figure’s identity won’t come as an unwelcome surprise.
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