Recap / Superman: The Animated Series S1 E4 "Fun and Games"

Superman faces his first direct supervillain threat, as Winslow Scott Jr. seeks to exact revenge as the DCAU's reinterpretation of Toyman. The Toyman first comes to Superman's attention when he attacks Bruno Mannheim, a local gangster, but the situation soon escalates when he kidnaps Lois.

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This episode contains examples of the following tropes:

• Actually a Doombot: Likely how Toyman escaped the explosion (as he returns in another episode), seeing as the police found what appeared to be part of his face.
• Bait-and-Switch: The scene where Toyman describes what Mannheim did to his father initially seems like it's about Toyman himself before it's revealed that Winslow Schott Sr. is dead and that he has a son.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Bruno Mannheim makes his first appearance here as Toyman's Asshole Victim. He'll play a bigger role later on during the first part of the Darkseid arc.

• Damsel out of Distress: Lois, naturally. Of course, that doesn't mean she takes it lying down. She manages to knock down Toyman's firing squad and frees Manheim.
• Deal with the Devil: Toyman's father wanted to build a massive toy factory but had no money, so Mannheim offered him a deal: all the required funds in exchange for the factory being used as a front for one of his shady dealings. The police eventually found out; the elder Schott spent the rest of his life in prison, while Mannheim avoided punishment. Lampshaded by Toyman's pop-up book giving Mannheim red horns and other Devil features.
• The End... Or Is It?: A police officer reports no sign of a body, just Toyman's broken mask.
• Eviler than Thou: Toyman appears pretty goofy, but his advanced technology allows him to come this close to killing the city's top crime boss.
• Fall Guy: While Lois is forced to conduct an interview with Toyman, Clark and Jimmy research any connections between Manheim and Toyman, and it's revealed that years earlier, Manheim offered a toy maker named Winslow Schott a loan to set up a toy factory, but it was a secretly used as a front for a numbers racket run by Manheim. Although Manheim was implicated, there was no evidence to charge him any crimes and was allowed to go free, Schott on the other hand was found guilty of all charges and sentenced to prison, where he died shortly before he made parole.
• Fanservice: Lois Lane is subjected to Go-Go Enslavement by the Toyman and ends up dressed as a doll looking cute.
• Freudian Excuse: The Toyman spent most of his childhood going from foster home to foster home after his father took the fall for Mannheim.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Inverted. After all is said and done, Lois remarks on how messed up Toyman is, but nonetheless voices how she pities him for what he's been through ^note  having his father framed, said-father dying in prison before he could make parole, and going through many foster homes.
• Go-Go Enslavement: Toyman kidnaps Lois using sleeping gas, and when she wakes up, she's dressed like an old cupie doll. (Which is rather disturbing; Toyman had no henchmen in this episode, male or female, so he likely changed her clothes himself.)
• Hyper-Destructive Bouncing Ball: The Toyman creates one that can even damage steel.
• In Name Only: There have been three villains named Toyman in the comics, and while the name of the one here is the same as the first one, he has almost no resemblance to the comic book Winslow Schott. (The one in the comics was a British toymaker who was fired due to LexCorp interference, and sought revenge, although he did build a robot resembling the one here in Action Comics #837.)
• Innocuously Important Episode: First apperance of Toyman and, much more importantly, Bruno Manheim (for the reasons outlined under Chekhov's Gunman).
• Interrupted Bath: Lois is talking to her boss in the phone fresh from the shower in a bathrobe, implying this happened. Then her doorbell rings, interrupting the phone call.
• It's Personal: A variant with Lois; it turns out she wrote an article outlining how Manheim swindled Toyman's father, and how Winslow Scott was framed and imprisoned for the crime. Toyman kidnaps her, dresses her up as a doll, and politely asks her to serve witness to Manheim's execution to write "the real story". Justified as he is insane.
• Karma Houdini: Despite everything it's shown he'd done in the past, Mannheim's still free at the end of the episode because there still isn't any concrete evidence against him.
• Karmic Butt-Monkey: Though for what it's worth, Mannheim gets kidnapped, tied up, blindfolded, whacked by bombs, and singed by a fireball. It was not a proud day when Lois Lane in a doll costume had to save him.
• No Man Left Behind: When one of the Intergang goons is injured by Toyman's device in the opening scene, his friends carry him with them while fleeing for shelter.
• Offscreen Villain Dark Matter: Many of Toyman's weapons - like the huge duck - are at the level of military-grade munitions in terms of pure strength, making one wonder how he gets the funds to build them.
• Outrun the Fireball: Or in this case, out-fly. Supes takes Lois and Mannheim up the air conditioning shaft, just as the bombs go off.
• Psychopathic Man Child: Toyman. To quote his shrink, he's an "emotionally-stunted, amoral narcissist with paranoid delusions desperately seeking external validation through antisocial behavior".
• Revenge: "A childhood is a terrible thing to lose, Miss Lane, but I'm getting mine back with a vengeance."
• Save the Villain: Mannheim, on whom Toyman sought to exact revenge. Lois rescues him from the toy firing squad, and then Superman saves him and Lois.
• Sympathy for the Devil: Lois feels sorry for Toyman after hearing his backstory.
• Unwitting Pawn: As Jimmy observes, Mannheim played Toyman's father for a patsy.
• What You Are in the Dark: Lois is technically in no position to save Manheim, and only Toyman and Manheim would know if she attempted a rescue. So what does she do, when told to cover his execution? She knocks down the toy soldiers and frees Manheim at the first opportunity.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Toyman could have killed Manheim at any time after kidnapping him. He kidnaps Lois first, however, and asks her to cover the execution as a journalist. This leads to his undoing, as Lois is no passive damsel and Superman tracks him down.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Toyman's father was unjustly arrested, and the boy ended up neglected in unloving foster homes. Now he seeks revenge for his father and his lost childhood.
• You Killed My Father: Toyman's father was imprisoned, not killed, but he still passed before making parole.

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