BRUCE WAYNE SOLDIERS ON...

I told all you cavortin' Crivvies a few years back (two or three times actually) about a swap I made with a now former pal back when we were kids.  The pal was the guy you've seen me refer to as 'Billy Liar', and who I usually call Adam Cowie as it's close enough to his real name for those who knew him to recognise who I'm talking about.  If he saw his real name here, he's conceited (and daft) enough to regard it as a badge of honour and I want to avoid giving him that pleasure should he chance upon the site.

However, first let me set the tale in its proper context.  In the '60s, Marx Toys made a poseable Batman figure, which really wasn't very poseable.  They also made a soldier figure which was even more bereft of points of articulation, and who had the exact same face as Batman.  One night, me and Billy/Adam swapped figures, only for Batman to come to a sad end when an older boy maliciously decided to see if he could fly (knowing full well he couldn't) and launched him across a playing field, where poor Bats came a cropper upon crash-landing.

Billy/Adam immediately wanted to annul the swap and get his soldier back, but I pointed out to him that it wasn't going to happen as he had been Bats' owner when the toy had met its inglorious end, so he'd have to live with the consequences.  We both went 'round to the boy's house and told his mother what he'd done, but apart from saying she'd have a word with him, she clearly wasn't interested.

Anyway, just consider the above a reminder for the purpose of setting the scene for the latest development in the saga.  Obviously I'd love to be able to replace the Batman figure (I had two of them at different times as a kid), but I've never yet seen one for sale anywhere.  However, only today I took possession of two replacement soldier figures, along with quite a few bits of accessories.  I wasn't looking for two, one would've been enough, but they were being sold as a pair so that's how I bought them.

Okay, they're both military men, but I think I'll regard one as a soldier and the other as Batman/Bruce Wayne dressed as a soldier.  After all, the Batman toy used the exact same head.  And so another old friend from childhood rejoins the merry throng, assembled to keep me company until I finally fall off the twig in another hundred years or so.  (Think positive is my motto.)

Posted in: Cartoons