Billed as "the sensational character find of 1940," Robin has long been a part of the Batman universe. He was first "discovered" by the Batman when he was simply Dick Grayson, a young circus performer. When his parents were killed in a trapeeze accident caused by Boss Zucco, Bruce Wayne took the lad under his wing, and the Batman created Robin.

As Dick grew up, he and Bruce had many differences of opinion and, trying to assert his independance (and adulthood), Dick finally left Bruce and helped found and lead the Teen Titans. Teased merciless for wearing "short pants," and still trying to find his own identity, Dick eventually became Nightwing, a tribute both to the Batman and to Superman as well.

Two other teens have worn the Robin costume, Jason Todd and Tim Drake. Jason was an orphaned street rat that Bruce Wayne adopted. This was a sore point for Dick in many ways since Bruce had never adopted him. Jason was killed by the Joker and his own overzealous and reckless nature. Tim, the current Robin, is unlike the other two in that his father is still alive. He doesn't live with Bruce, but instead must sneak out at night to patrol Gotham with the Batman. Dick and Tim seem to get along quite well and have occasionally partnered together.

A close up of the "elfin" shoes.

I took a touch of artistic license in making this version of Robin. While I wanted the elf shoes as I certainly remember those well, I didn't give them quite the exaggerated flare that you can see in the comic version to the left. I also fondly recall the yellow strips across the chest to close his tunic, so I used those rather than the close-stitching seen in this pciture.

The costume I've depicted above is really an amalgam of his first costume and his teen costume. The collar on his later costume is yellow, suggesting that Robin wore not only a green leotard and a red tunic, but that he also wore some kind of yellow collared shirt underneath all of that. (You can see this costume in the SuperPowers version of Robin, and I believe, in most of the Teen Titans issues when Dick is wearing the Robin costume.)

After looking at the re-release of Detective 38, I noticed that his collar was red and a part of the tunic, so I kept that aspect. The yellow closures of the tunic, however, are from the later costume.

Robin was made from an Arctic Blast Robin figure. His hair was sanded down on the top and some off the face. The lines where his orignal boots end are filled in with SuperSculpey and the edges and backs of the elf shoes are also made from SuperSculpey. The little flare "skirt" to his tunic was also sculpted from Sculpey as were the "bangs" and front of his hairline. The little edges to his belt (on either side of the round buckle) are cut plastic.

The figure was painted with Citadel Colours paints and then sprayed with Testor's gloss coat. All details are painted on freehand (including the R symbol).

While I have been planning this figure for some time, I finally got around to it after being "scooped" by Scott Rogers' version of the same character.