Arkham City TALIA AL GHUL!

Talia Finally Arrives in Arkham City Series Four - from DC Collectibles 2013

My first exposure to Talia was a very startling experience.  For Christmas one year, my Aunt bought me the Batman: Son of the Demon TPB.  I was nine and way too young to see Batman getting it on.  In my young mind Talia was a homewrecker there to spoil the pristine bachelorhood of my favorite hero.  Since those early "ewwww"s, I've grown rather fond of this character.  From comics, to the cartoons, and finally to this past Summer's Dark Knight Rises, she has become an amazingly deep and provocative character (despite having no defined costume!).  Not to mention her role in the world of video games.  Talia has been one of those characters that the Batman collectors have been pleading for since the hobby market really took off in the late 90s.  Sure, we got an animated version, but that wasn't likely to satisfy everyone.  Even this figure may still be a far cry from the comic version many envision.   But I honestly think this figure is a great representation of all her many incarnations and I'm so glad to add her to my bat-shelf.  Let's check out the review!

Hasbro's GIRLS OF GOTHAM CITY 4-Pack!

Poison Ivy, Talia Al Ghul, Catwoman, and Batgirl from Hasbro 2003

This is one of those boxsets that I continually passed over at Toys'R'Us for years - only to go on a mad hunt for it after it disappeared from the shelves.  In my defense, I was not collecting animated figures at the time so this set seemed like a colossal waste of money.  In retrospect, I see that this set gave us the nicest Poison Ivy animated figure ever made, along with a long-overdue re-release of Talia Al Ghul (Originally in the Shadows of Gotham set).  The Catwoman was a straight re-release of an okay figure (but nothing to write home about), and quite possibly the worst Batgirl of all time.  Honestly though, the Poison Ivy is worth it - she's stunning (note: she also comes in the Frozen Assets box set).  This set was a Toys'R Us exclusive from Hasbro.  There aren't many DC figures out there under the Hasbro label, of course Kenner was fully merged into Hasbro by 2000, and Kenner ruled the DC licenses for many years leading up to that.  Anyway, let's check out the ladies!