Welcome back to AFi’s 11th anniversary “Scoop Week” part 2.   It was my intention to post this reveal last week with the others, butas usually happens life gets in the way (as some of you know I have a newborn) and you have to move something around.  I didn’t get half of the stuff I wanted to post posted last week so the celebration will continue this week as well!!  This second week we will see this figure reveal, some new products you will get an early look at and we have a series of articles where we will show you some toys that you never got that you have never even seen!

Today our reveal is from Mattel, and it solves a mystery.

FYI – From here on out *SPOILER ALERT* for Batman v. Superman. 

For anyone that has picked up either the first or second wave of Mattel’s DC Multiverse Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice action figure line you know that on both versions of the cardback feature figure #7 blacked out.   This has lead to a lot of speculation on who it might be in the collector community.  A lot of people think it might be Doomsday, however many also think that figure/character would have to be too large for the current packaging.   Some people have speculated that it might be The Flash or a different Lex Luthor, but then we learned at Toy Fair that we would be getting bald, prison jumpsuit Lex in a later wave.

Who could it be?

I don’t think anyone will actually guess because the character as he doesn’t have very much screen time in the current theatrical edit of the movie….

I present you the last figure in the second assortment of the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice DC Multiverse line – The Bat Creature:

Some of you might be thinking “That’s what the Parademons look like up close?   I thought they were black?”

This is not a Parademon, this is from a different scene/vision in the film.  This is the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it creature that gives audiences a jump-scare when it suddenly pops out of Martha Wayne’s tomb in one of Bruce’s early visions.

Now why the Bat-Creature instead of a prominent villain such as Doomsday?  I suspect that Doomsday would have been a “holdback character” from Warner Brothers, probably not wanting to reveal that character too early in something like a toy line which would need to be in stores months before a film’s release date.   I do know that the the Bat Creature was a “Day and Date” hold back, meaning he could not be revealed until after the film’s release, which is why he is in the last assortment of characters to be released.

The Bat Creature was designed by Production Designer Patrick Tatopoulos and his crew.   While he didn’t play a major role in the theatrical cut of the movie he’s an interesting design and he breaks up a line of just human characters.

Also keep in mind that if you are building the Collect and Connect Grapnel Blaster you will need the Bat Creature to complete it as he comes with the main barrel.

One other tidbit of information on the DC Multiverse Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice line.   There is a running change on the Aquaman figure.  The original release of Aquaman came with a silver trident and no waist articulation.  Mattel made a running change and the newer, corrected version ships with a gold trident and has the waist articulation added back in.

Thank you to the team at Mattel for letting us reveal the Bat Creature and solve this mystery.  The Bat Creature should be shipping in cases and arriving at retail soon!