Welcome back to our series of in-depth looks at the Toy Biz DC Superheroes action figure line. This week we’ll be looking at Batman’s archenemy, the villain of the Tim Burton Batman movie, the one, the only…The Joker!

Mr. J had had a few figures prior to this one – a couple of entries from Mego, and of course the Kenner Super Powers figure – so he was no stranger to toy aisle shelves. How did the Toy Biz entry stack up to his predecessors? Read on…

(Click on any of the images for full-size views)

The Joker’s cardback is one of three in the line that bears the logo for the Batman film rather than the standard DC Superheroes logo.

The art features The Joker squirting poison gas from his deadly corsage. Naturally he’s using his cane to steady himself while he does this. I know whenever I think of The Joker, I think of a guy who carries a cane while he’s poisoning people.

The figure comes packed with the aforementioned cane (which is almost as tall as he is, so maybe it’s more of a hiking stick), as well as a hat and plastic bulb/tube for use in the squirting flower feature.

There were two variations on The Joker figure, and as with Batman they were head variations. One had a curl of hair on his forehead, while the other did not. Shown here is the forehead curl version. At the time this one was harder to find, so lucky us!

As you can see, the vast majority of the Toy Biz Joker is a straight re-use of the Super Powers Joker figure – the only new features are the lapel flower and the head sculpt. The purple on the TB Joker is a much darker than it is on his Kenner counterpart. Props to the Toy Biz Joker for including a hat, though – he’s shown with one on the Super Powers card art but the figure doesn’t include one. How am I supposed to accurately recreate The Killing Joke if The Joker doesn’t have his hat, Kenner?

The cardback is exactly the same as it was for Batman, but with instructions for how Joker’s feature works, and a Joker-centric newspaper article.

As with Batman, the figure shown here is clearly a repainted Super Powers Joker, right down to the head. It looks like they sculpted off the points of the SP Joker’s hair to make him look a bit more distinct, but the facial sculpt is the same. They also added a huge lapel flower, and what looks like a piece of cellophane sticking out of the flower to illustrate how the squirting feature works.

According to this article, The Joker is “The most dangerous madman on the face of the Earth”. On Earth. ON EARTH. Really? I don’t dispute that The Joker is really dangerous, but is he the most dangerous man on Earth? He’s a guy with a joy buzzer and some acid. Most dangerous man in Gotham? Absolutely. On the whole planet, though…

That’s it for The Joker! Thanks for reading! I’ll be back soon with another figure spotlight!