Adult Nay buys themself the toys young Nay wished for, if they even had existed. I can only imagine what play scenarios would have sprung to life if I had had access to action figures like this during Batman 66’s initial run. As it was, myself and my friends ran around schoolyards and neighborhood playgrounds spinning dramas of capture and control, escape and rescue. Most kids wanted to be Batman or Robin in those games. Not me.

King Tut started in the tv show, not in the comics, which I wasn’t reading then anyway. He was fat, gaudy, imperious and used his hypnotic powers to break down Batman’s vaunted mental control until the hero vacantly intones “Your every wish is my command…”

I was in enthralled. Everyone called Tut king, but we know he was a Queen pure and simple. His bombast, as enacted by Victor Bouno, is delicious. Everyone in Batman 66 delivers their lines like they are in film by Jack Smith or John Waters, which is the gold standard of acting as far as I’m concerned. Last week I went with a friend to watch Desperate Living and minus a few profane elements, it plays like an episode of B66. King Tut and Queen Carlotta of Mortville are rulers cut from the same cloth.

Seeing “8 Inch Retro” Tut in my comic store brought many of those memories back, and I grabbed the one remaining figure from the rack without thought of cost or room in my overstuffed apartment. Kids find the signposts they need, to create their future selves. I need Tut to find my past. A konk on the noggin and once again I rule.