After our look at the Super Powers Robin last week, let’s stick with the Batman theme, but this time take a look at one of his greatest enemies – the crime boss and terrifyingly insane Two-Face. As fans of DC Comics will know, once upon a time Two-Face was Harvey Dent, the District Attorney of Gotham City, and fought crime alongside Batman. The horrible disfigurement he suffered during a trial when acid was thrown over the left side of his face, however, pushed him over the edge, his schizophrenic personality further empathized by his constant flipping of a coin – heads or tails to Two-Face meant life or death, good or evil!
Recent cinema audiences, of course, will remember Aaron Eckhart’s sympathetic portrayal of Two-Face as a victim of terrible circumstances in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, or Tommy Lee Jones earlier version in Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever, although this particular figure is based on how he appeared in Batman: The Animated Series, where he was voiced by Richard Moll. Produced by Warner Bros. Animation and transmitted by Fox from 1992 to 1995, the cartoon series owed much to the success of Tim Burton’s films Batman (1989) and Batman Returns, which was released just months before the series was launched.
This Two-Face action figure is from the first wave of tie-in figures from the animated series and was issued in 1993 as part of a series that included Robin, two versions of Batman – combat belt and turbo – as well as Two-Face’s fellow villains the Penguin and the Riddler. Once again, Kenner did a great job with this 5-inch line. The usual five points of articulation – neck, shoulders and knees – seem limited by today’s standards, but the figures have clean sculpts and the paint scheme is very similar to the artwork in the cartoon. Unfortunately, my figure no longer has his spectacular accessory – a firing roulette reel gun – but is a very handsome vintage action figure for the collection all the same!