Apparently it’s ROBIN Week
The great original designs of Mego ™ Toys Batman and Robin figures complete with removable masks.
In 1972, my mom took me shopping at Denholms Department Store. As we rode down the escalator to the Toy Department, I spotted a display of brightly colored boxes featuring Batman, Robin, Superman, and Aquaman. These solid boxes had no windows, so you had to open them to discover the superhero action figures inside. It’s hard for today’s toy collectors to imagine a time without superhero toys. Before Mego™ revolutionized the toy aisle, Ideal Toys released Captain Action in 1966, allowing kids to dress him up as characters like Superman and Batman—an arrangement that felt too close to dolls for many boys. I mention this because it’s Robin Week, celebrating the debut of Robin as the first kid sidekick in comic book history in Detective Comics #38 from 1940. Before Robin, Batman was a lone avenger, inspired by The Shadow.
Robin was introduced to soften Batman’s character, making him more of an older brother or father figure, a role that continued for decades. While I’m not a fan of Robin in general, I’m particularly not a fan of this version.
Burt Ward as TV’s Robin from 1966
Burt Ward’s frequent use of “holy” phrases on the BATMAN TV series annoyed me when I watched it in the 1970s, and it still annoys me today. While I think "hate" is a very strong word—I don’t hate anyone—I do actively dislike both the character as portrayed in the show and the actor himself. From the beginning, Ward made absurd claims, like saying the Catholic League of Decency forced the show's producers to give him pills to hide certain parts of his anatomy and that he missed out on the role in THE GRADUATE to Dustin Hoffman (which I find hard to believe).
When he published a scandalous biography following Adam West’s humorous one, I tossed it in the trash after merely reading the back cover. While Burt and his wife currently run a rescue mission for Great Danes, which I think is commendable, I didn’t return their calls when his representatives contacted me while I was working as a graphic designer for Adam West. I don’t hate Burt—I just dislike him. Robin as a character can be portrayed well; for instance, in Frank Miller’s seminal DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, a young woman with a neglectful family takes on the Robin role when Batman comes out of retirement. It’s extremely well done, and I highly recommend it—just be careful not to buy the sequel, THE DARK KNIGHT STRIKES AGAIN, which is nowhere near as good and not worth recommending.
Many people mistakenly believe Burt Ward was the first live-action Robin; that's incorrect. He was actually the third actor to play the role. The first was 14-year-old Douglas Croft in the 1943 film THE BATMAN (Columbia Pictures, directed by Lambert Hillyer). Croft is the only actor to date who played the character at the correct age; his successor, John Duncan, was 26 when he portrayed Robin in the 1949 series NEW ADVENTURES OF BATMAN AND ROBIN (Columbia Pictures, directed by Sam Katzman). Burt Ward was 19 when he played Robin, while Chris O'Donnell was nearly 40 when he took on the role in BATMAN FOREVER (1995, directed by Joel Schumacher). So, it’s Robin Week—hooray! I don’t understand why Batman only gets one day, but I think all of these celebrations are pretty much arbitrary anyway.
