Tag Archives: DC

#4153: Batman

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

BATMAN

SUPER POWERS (McFARLANE)

“As a child, Bruce Wayne watched as his parents were brutally killed in Gotham City’s Crime Alley. Traumatized by their deaths, he devoted his life to becoming the world’s greatest weapon against crime– the Batman.”

As prevalent as the character may be in toy form, I don’t actually review *a ton* of Batman figures around here, mostly because I think I’m just largely tapped out on buying new Batman figures these days?  McFarlane’s tenure with the DC license has had a lot of Batman figures, and their Super Powers line has Batman as its recurrent character.  Despite that, I’ve only thus far picked up and reviewed a single Super Powers Batman (I guess technically reviewed a Batman Beyond as well, but I feel like that’s different).  Well, they’re selling the figures in sets now, so I can’t avoid it if there’s a Batman variant, and if I’m gonna buy him, I guess I might as well review him.  So, here’s this Batman.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Batman is the first figure in Series 15 of McFarlane’s Super Powers line, where he’s officially numbered 73 in the overall line-up.  He’s the 12th Batman released in the line.  The figure is just the tiniest bit over 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  This Batman marks the seventh use of the updated classic Batman mold, which was the only other Batman I’ve looked at from this line.  It’s clearly aiming to be a pretty close replica of the original Kenner mold, and it’s a good one at that.  I get why they keep using it.  What makes this release special?  The coloring.  The first release of the mold went for a pretty straight classic Batman blue and grey color palette, and subsequent uses have all tweaked it in some way.  We’ve gotten one subsequent take on that scheme through the crowd funded release, which was darker than the first version, and now we’ve got this one, which is…also darker?  Its aim is to be an early ‘90s Batman, per the naming, and I guess it does that fine, but it’s also not super different, aside from just being different.  It’s definitely a bit of different for different’s sake.  I know the Series 4 release was pretty hard to get, so I can’t say I fault McFarlane for wanting to put out another go at the mold with the blue and grey, but I also can’t say it’s terribly exciting.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was very excited by the reveals of 13 and 14 of this line, but 15 was the first one where I just felt largely underwhelmed, and this Batman is certainly a large piece of that.  Maybe I’d feel different if I hadn’t gotten the Series 4 figure? I don’t know.  I do know I only have this one because I wanted the set.  He’s…fine.  Like, not bad, but just not anything to really give any much thought to.

#4149: Dr. Mid-Nite

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

DR. MID-NITE

SUPER POWERS (McFARLANE)

“The original Doctor Mid-Nite, Dr. Charles McNider, lost his sight to a grenade, and fought crime alongside the original Justice Society of America.”

Before Matt Murdock’s debut as Daredevil in 1964, the premier visually impaired vigilante was Dr. Mid-Nite, a golden age DC hero who first appeared in 1941.  In contrast to Murdock, who was truly blind (albeit with greatly increased senses otherwise), McNider’s vision returned in the dark, allowing him to still see at night or through use of special darkened lenses.  What does that mean?  Mostly, it means that sick-ass goggles were a standard part of his costume design, and who doesn’t love that?  Toy makers certainly do, if the decent number of Dr. Mid-Nite figures out there is anything to go by.  Here’s another one!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Dr. Mid-Nite is the final figure in the 14th assortment of McFarlane’s Super Powers line, where he’s figure 72 in the overall line-up.  He’s the third of three JSA members in this set, seen here in his classic costume.  The figure stands just under 4 3/4 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  Mid-Nite is built on the line’s original Superman base body, admittedly not one of my favorites, mostly due to the kind of oversized nature of it.  McNider was classically shown to be of a more average build, so I’d have more expected the Flash-style build.  It seems to have been largely chosen because they had the cuffed boots for it, used by Black Adam in this same assortment.  It’s worth noting that the Starman from the three pack was on the same mold, and McNider did pass himself off as Ted in-universe for a while, so there’s at least some internal consistency there.  He gets a new head sculpt and a belt add-on piece.  Sizing aside, it all fits together pretty well, and I do especially like the head sculpt, which manages to get Mid-Nite’s classic look down pretty great.  It’s all topped off with a cloth cape piece, and its honestly one of the best capes in this last run of figures.  There’s just something about the particular material that hangs really well on the figure.  The color work on this figure is appropriately bright and eye catching, which I always do like.  The paint application’s generally okay, though there’s some notable slop and bleed over around the goggles on the head, which I don’t love.  Otherwise, though, it all works out okay.  Mid-Nite includes no accessories, which isn’t all that odd for the line, but I do kind of wish they’d included his pet owl Hooty.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I quite like the JSA in general, but Dr. Mid-Nite’s always been a particular favorite of mine, going back to the old DC Direct PVC collection figurine.  I’ve picked up a few of his other figures over the years, but, with the advent of adding more JSA members to the Super Powers line-up, he’s certainly been high on my list.  He was by far the figure in this set I was most looking forward to.  While I’m not crazy about the choice of base body, I do still love the final product, and he’s absolutely my favorite of the set.

#4145: Wildcat

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

WILDCAT

SUPER POWERS (McFARLANE)

“In 1941, boxer Ted Grant was framed for murder and on the run when a comic book inspired him to don a costume and track down the real killer. As Wildcat, Ted cleared his name and, loving the double life, kept going.”

Ted Grant’s adoption of the Wildcat identity wasn’t all that removed from most costumed heroes of the Golden Age.  Guy has run-in with crime, wants to solve crime, puts on mask and adopts vaguely-themed supranym.  He didn’t really have any notable gimmicks, aside from being a boxer, which did at least make more sense for the line to crime fighting career than the myriad of scientists and doctors that got into it most frequently in the Golden Age.  When Earths 1 and 2 merged following Crisis on Infinite Earths, Wildcat’s background as a boxer and as one of the old guard super heroes led to him being the guy that trained a lot of the current generation of heroes, which was a pretty good touch, and gave him a solid footing and connection to the modern heroes.  He’s remained a fan favorite, which is pretty great for a guy whose first appearance had him playing second fiddle to Wonder Woman.  Wildcat has been no stranger to action figures over the years, and his latest comes in the form of Super Powers! 

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Wildcat is the second to last figure in the 14th assortment of McFarlane’s Super Powers line, where he’s figure 71 in the overall line-up.  He’s the second of the three JSA figures in this round, sort of serving as a bridge between the more modern (Black Adam) and classic (Dr. Mid-Nite) memberships.  He’s using a more classic version of his costume, pre-hand wrappings and more defined mask, which fits better with the usual Super Powers period, as well as most of the other JSA-ers featured in McFarlane’s updated line.  The figure stands just under 4 3/4 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  Wildcat is using the modified Wave 10 version of the newer Superman mold as his base.  It’s got some plusses and minuses.  I think the general stocky build is certainly a good match for the character, and most of the costume details have been cleared, to better align with Ted’s costume.  That said, I’m not much of a fan of the gripping right hand in place of a fist, and the mold has a belt, which is also wrong for Ted.  He gets a new head sculpt, and it’s a little softer on the detailing, but I do particularly like that it’s clearly more defined than “slightly rounder ears on a Batman.”  His color work is very basic.  He’s predominantly just a very dark shade of blue, almost entirely molded plastic, with just a little bit of paint on his face and eyes.  It’s very basic, and like I said above, not really the more modern take on his costume, but it does work for the general style.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I knew Wildcat as a kid from his presence in the JLA/JSA crossovers mostly, but my first distinct memory of the character really was his original DC Direct figure from 2001.  He’s got that understated, but still very cool look, that works really well as an action figure, and fills out the JSA line-up nicely.  I’ve been loving the building up of the JSA that’s been running through McFarlane’s Super Powers, and so I’m happy to have Ted to add to the crowd there.  The figure isn’t without its flaws, but I think he sells the look well, and I’m happy to have him.

Incidentally, my daughter Aubrey, who’s been insisting on helping me open all of these Super Powers figures as they arrive, was immediately enamored with this guy, who she’s taken to calling “Kitty Cat,” and whom she pulls off of my shelf every time she sees him.

#4141: Black Adam

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

BLACK ADAM

SUPER POWERS (McFARLANE)

“One of the world’s foremost wielders of magic, Black Adam has been both hero and villain over a life that’s spanned thousands of years.”

The hierarchy of Super Powers in the DC Universe has changed?  No, wait, that’s not quite right.  I mean, you know, I guess it was never right, in the context of the whole Black Adam thing, but it’s especially not right here.  Right?  Right.  What am I getting at here?  Well, mostly that I don’t really have much to say about Black Adam.  Much like Deathstroke before him, he’s one of those villains that I liked well enough before they got really popular, went through an anti-hero phase, and then got really over-used.  He’s had a handful of figures from McFarlane, both movie and comic based, but despite Shazam’s presence in the original Kenner line, there’s been no Super Powers Black Adam up to this point.  But, the hierarchy of the line-up has changed.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Black Adam is part of Series 14 of McFarlane’s Super Powers line, and is figure 70 in the line-up.  He’s the first of three JSA-themed figures in the line-up, as well as having the tie to the vintage line’s Shazam figure.  The figure stands just shy of 5 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  Black Adam is built on the line’s first Superman base body.  Not exactly one of my favorites, but its larger stature does make more sense for Black Adam than it did for Superman or some of the others it’s been used for.  He makes use of a pair of lower legs with cuffed boots, which I think might be new here, but I’m not certain about that.  He’s also got a basic belt piece, as well as a brand-new head sculpt.  The head’s definitely the star work here, and very much feels like a good translation of Black Adam’s rather arch features from the comics.  The figure’s color work is decent, but does have a slight caveat.  While all the paint work is clean, and I do like the slightly darker skin tone, which is appropriate to the character, the decision to use gold to accent the black, rather than yellow, makes him stand out as not really feeling quite vintage.  It’s an issue that’s bugged me with a few of these end of the line offerings, in that it just gets them so close, only to miss that one small detail, and it’s especially egregious on Black Adam, who only has the vintage Shazam to pair off against, which makes the change-up more obvious.  Black Adam has no accessories, which, given he also lacks any sort of cape or other notable attachment, and is also one of the heaviest “old tooling” figures in the set, makes him feel rather light.  That said, I don’t know what exactly you’d give him.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I can’t say that I’ve ever had much of an attachment to this guy, but more recent years have definitely strained that for me.  That being said, given Shazam’s presence in the original line, I don’t feel like this guy is exactly out of place in the line-up here.  I think he misses a bit on the color scheme, which results in a sort of muddy looking figure, but beyond that, he’s perfectly serviceable, and he slots alright into the original run.

#4137: Raven

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

RAVEN

SUPER POWERS (McFARLANE)

“A founding member of the New Teen Titans, Raven, the Daughter of Darkness, fights for a world to which she fears she can never truly belong.”

One of the three original creations added to the line-up when Teen Titans became New Teen Titans, Raven was actually the whole impetus of the team forming in the first place.  When the JLA turned down her request for help dealing with her demonic father’s arrival, she found a team of younger heroes to help her, and that’s how we got the New Teen Titans.  She’s been sort of a revolving door of good and bad over the years, as she’s dealt with her demonic parentage and its affects on her general well-being.  She had neither a figure nor a planned figure during the Kenner Super Powers days, and would eventually show up with the rest of the team during the early DC Direct days, with more figures following after the Teen Titans cartoon raised her profile.  These days, Raven figures aren’t quite a rarity, but it’s still cool when she gets one.  And now she’s got a Super Powers one, though not from Kenner.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Raven is part of Series 14 of McFarlane’s Super Powers line, where she’s figure 69, the third of the six figures included numerically.  As with the rest of the assortment, she’s an Entertainment Earth exclusive, sold only as part of the full set of six.  While Starfire and Cyborg stuck to their original costume designs, Raven breaks from that.  She’s using her design from the 2008 Titans re-launch, which was more or less just a tweak on the 2003 Teen Titans re-launch design, itself a tweak on her original Perez look.  The main change-up on this particular design is the presence of a belt, something the character hadn’t really had until her cartoon design added it, and the comics followed suit with her “One Year Later” design after Infinite Crisis.  I’d wager a guess that this design was chosen for its closeness to the classic look, but also its inclusion of a belt, allowing for a point to attach her “skirt” piece.  I can’t say it’s a favorite look of mine, but I think piecing together the “why” of it at least makes me feel a little better about the choice.  The figure stands 4 5/8 inches tall and she has 7 points of articulation.  She’s predominantly using the standard female body introduced with the last round of figures, which makes sense.  It’s a good all purpose sort of sculpt, so I can’t fault it.  She gets a new head sculpt and…I don’t love it  The permanently attached hood is always a tricky shot, but I think it’s really the face beneath it that doesn’t work.  It just doesn’t look much like Raven, who’s typically been depicted as rather thin-faced, with more pronounced cheek bones.  This one’s very round faced, which doesn’t seem right for Raven, and really doesn’t work with the sculpted hood.  It just throws the whole thing off, and makes the hood seem really small by comparison.  Raven also gets a sculpted belt piece, and there’s a skirt attached to it.  Okay, so there’s a really thin piece of fabric hanging from the front of it.  Only the front, not the back, which is odd.  And, because it’s so thin, it’s already curling, which looks a bit silly.  There’s also a cloth cape piece, which is pretty much in line with the other cloth capes, so generally not terrible.  Her color work is fine but also has a fairly notable issue in that she’s just simply the wrong color.  In the comics, Raven’s usually a dark blue, and that’s true of this design as well.  But, for whatever reason (I’m assuming related to the cartoon, honestly), they made her purple, and I just don’t think it works as well, especially because the cape, the paint, and the molded plastic are all distinctly different shades, so nothing really matches.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

With Starfire’s inclusion, Raven’s a natural choice.  I’d be lying if I said I was excited for Raven, because I’m honestly not a huge Raven fan in the first place, but I can appreciate her importance.  I didn’t love the figure’s look when the prototypes were shown, but I was holding judgement until I had her in hand.  I honestly like her even less in hand.  She’s not awful, but she definitely feels a lot more like the earlier offerings in the line.  Odd costume choice, a head sculpt that feels out of place both for the character and line’s style in general, and poor decisions on the color palette make this one a weaker offering than the others around her.  I don’t hate her, and I’ll stick her on the shelf with the rest of the team without issue, but she definitely could have been better.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0093: Tomar Re

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Flashback Friday Figure Addendum and tagged with , , ,

TOMAR RE

GREEN LANTERN (MATTEL)

Hello and welcome to Friday!  It’s a great day for a Friday.  Or, at least, it’s Friday, which is, let’s face it, the day for Friday.  It’s also the Friday before the finale of Lanterns, and I marked the Friday before the premier with a throwback to a movie GL review, so I’m gonna mark the finale with another one of those.  So, let’s return back to one of my very favorite Green Lanterns, Tomar Re!

The 2011 Green Lantern was certainly not the greatest thing to be shown on the silver screen. That being said it’s far from the worst, and I personally found it to be about on par with the Tim Burton Batman films, which suited me just fine. One of the nice things about one of your favorite characters getting a movie is all the toys that are bound to be released to coincide. Sadly, while I found the Green Lantern movie to be inoffensive, the same can’t be said for the vast majority of the toys released for it. One of the few figures from the line I didn’t hate is Tomar Re, the subject of today’s review.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Tomar Re was technically part of the first series of Green Lantern figures, but he was not amongst the initial assortment of figures. I think he came in the second wave of product. The figure is about 3 ¾ inches tall and he features 8 points of articulation. The articulation is one of the most annoying parts of this line, because it was about 10 years out of date at the time of release. It’s completely useless for anything outside of a standing pose, and in some cases it couldn’t even do that. Case in point, Tomar’s right leg is slightly warped, and the articulation is such that standing is not a thing that happens. Tomar’s sculpt is fine. There was a deluxe Tomar in wonky colors that was released first, so technically this one’s a re-use of that one. There’s some okay texture work on the body, which is nice, I suppose. However, the head is rather smooth, and definitely too squat for the character. In fact, the whole body is off when compared to the on screen character. He’s just too bulky. Were this figure 10-15 years older, the scale might be excusable, but come on, Hasbro’s Battle Droids from 1999 looked better than this. The paintwork is rather vaguely handled. In some places, lines are very sharp, but in others, everything just sort of runs together. That’s sort of what they looked like in the movie, but it wasn’t this bad. He just ends up being a bit of a mush of colors. Tomar included a construct of some sort, but I threw all the constructs together, so I don’t remember which was his.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got Tomar from a Walmart near where I was vacationing the year these were released. This was notably two days AFTER I broke down and bought the wonky colored deluxe Tomar because I hadn’t been able to find this one. Yay. It’s hard to say much about this figure that isn’t negative. I honestly don’t hate it, and I really think it was one of the better small scale figures Mattel offered in this line, but that isn’t saying much. There’s a reason this line didn’t sell well, and it wasn’t the poor performance of the movie.

Tomar here ran about a month into my second year here on the site, and would have been one of my “pull from the randomized list” reviews, which I actually did quite a bit of at the time.  He was my third review from the movie line, and I was definitely wearing a bit thin on the line already.  I was pretty fresh off of its initial release, and the disappointment the line brought me was immense.  I think I maybe took that out on this figure in particular more than maybe others, which isn’t quite so fair, because, yes, he’s got the flaws of the rest of the line, but he ultimately holds up alright.  When I reviewed him, I noted that I had thrown all the constructs together and couldn’t recall which one was his.  Apparently, the idea of, oh, I don’t know, looking it up was a foreign one for past me.  It’s actually some sort of a harpoon launcher looking thing?  It’s weird, but not awful.  He also included one of those wearable rings that were super small.  Tomar Re is my favorite of the alien Green Lanterns, and also my favorite part of the 2011 movie, and I think maybe my high expectations came down on him in my original review.  Upon revisiting, he’s one of the figures from the line I don’t mind so much.  He’s even, dare I say, kind of fun.

#4133: Starfire

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

STARFIRE

SUPER POWERS (McFARLANE)

“As brilliant as the sun from which she derives her powers, Koriand’r of Tamaran has refused to let the torments she’s suffered crush her spirit.”

During the original Kenner Super Powers run, the line only just barely touched on the Teen Titans.  Obviously, Robin was there from the start, but he wouldn’t be joined by any additional members until Cyborg showed up at the very end of the line, in a notoriously difficult to get release.  Up til now, the McFarlane line has really just retreaded on the Titans, with an assortment of Dick Graysons, as well as an updated Cyborg, but, after four decades, we’re finally up to three whole Teen Titans, thanks to today’s figure, Koriand’r of Tamaran, aka Starfire!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Starfire is the second figure in Series 14 of McFarlane’s Super Powers continuation, where she is numbered 68.  Though Starfire wasn’t amongst the figures planned for Kenner’s original line, she is nevertheless a rather spot-on choice of character for the line, as a central part of one of DC’s top books at the time.  She’s seen here sporting her original Perez design, which is likewise perfect for her inclusion in the line.  The figure stands just shy of 4 3/4 inches tall and she has 7 points of articulation.  The sizable hair somewhat restricts her neck movement, as well as making her *slightly* difficult to balance when standing.  Structurally, she’s using the new female base body built on the updated Wonder Woman mold, used thus far for both Supergirl and Power Girl.  She gets a new head sculpt, which is, honestly, one of the line’s nicest.  It feels very much authentic to how Kenner might have done the figure, with a sufficient amount of Perez’s style present, while still keeping her in line with the overall Garcia-Lopez stylings of the original run.  The hair is big and very present, but it’s got a nice dynamic flow about it, and looks like hair, while also being slightly simplified.  The base body is without any adornments or extra sculpted pieces, which isn’t really how Kenner would have done it (her outfit would have almost certainly been sculpted on), but is what we’ve come to expect from Kenner.  The use of the generic body means the torso is definitely meant to be clothed, so there’s no cleavage to speak of, which is sort of an issue when it comes to Kori’s classic design.  That being said, they’ve spaced her top in such a way that it’s not too obvious, and it’s certainly a better look than the DCUC Starfire, which had a similar issue.  Given the bank of parts they’re working with here, I think it works out alright.  The paint work does the heavy lifting on the outfit, and generally does it well.  I like the shades chosen for sure, and the line work is nice and clean.  I do sort of wish the line work covered all of the outfit, rather than just parts of it, though.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Of the figures in this particular set, Starfire was probably at the top of my list.  Once it was confirmed that the EE waves would be adding a female base body into the mix, I was really hoping she might be one of them, so it was nice to see her crop up so quickly.  In a perfect world, she’d get a unique sculpt with her outfit as a proper raised element, but this works well in a pinch, and it really helps that the head sculpt is so nice.  She’s one of the McFarlane figures that really does slot in almost seamlessly with the original run.

#4129: Batman Beyond

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

BATMAN BEYOND

SUPER POWERS (McFARLANE)

“Batman Beyond – Decades into the future, Gotham City has evolved into Neo-Gotham, a metropolis of tremendous skyscrapers, flying cars, and sleek technology. In that brave new world, a new kind of Batman is required to keep the peace.”

Since Kenner’s Super Powers ended in 1986, the line was pretty locked into characters and concepts that already existed at that time, and in fact, just a little before then, what with the necessary timelines for toy production and all that.  The proposed waves that might have been carry things forward a little bit, but not by much, again, pretty well locking the idea into a specific timeline.  A continuation that picks up four decades later is, obviously, going to be in an interesting spot, since you’re trying to hold to an aesthetic from the ‘80s, but there’s been a lot of ground covered since then.  What do you do?  Well, the McFarlane approach, especially at the start, was just to do characters and looks that didn’t exist in the ‘80s when they felt like it.  It’s become far more restrained later in the line, but we do still get the occasional oddball, like today’s entry, Batman Beyond.  He’s a character first introduced in 1999, thirteen years after the vintage line ended…which is actually less than half the time between his introduction and his inclusion in McFarlane’s Super Powers, 27 years later.  Maybe vintage is just a little bit relative.  Let’s take a look at the figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Batman Beyond is the first figure in Series 14 of McFarlane’s Super Powers.  He’s figure 67, which, I assure you, brought some amusement to my 10-year old.  Well, it’s possible it brought me more amusement bringing it up to him than it actually brought to him directly.  The figure stands 4 5/8 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  Terry is built on the smaller male body, based on the Flash mold.  It’s a good fit for him, as he’s usually depicted as being a fair bit smaller than Bruce, more comparable to Dick Grayson, who used this base body in the last assortment.  He gets a new head, arms, and belt.  The head leans more into his animation model than it does the line’s overall aesthetic, but I feel that’s the right way to go; attempts at making more realistic versions of Terry’s masked face always look a little bit weird to me, and I don’t think the animated design is too far out of place to work with the rest of the line.  The only slightly odd part of the sculpt is the way it sits on the neck; it’s a bit too thin at the back, so there’s a notable gap where the neck from the body overhangs the head sculpt.  I have to wonder if this sculpt might be left over from some sort of more direct animated figure that got scrapped along the way.  The arms aren’t much different from the standard pieces, just adding the arm spikes at the back.  I’m a little surprised they did them at all, since they’re not super visible from the front, but I certainly don’t mind them.  Finishing out his distinctive silhouette is the belt piece, which is simple, but gets the job done.  Terry’s color work is generally simple, but the application of what paint is there is rather clean and adds some nice pop to the figure.  He’s sans accessories.  The solicitation mentions a cloth case, but I have to imagine that was a copy error, rather than an actual scrapped part.  I suppose a pair of cloth wings wouldn’t have been too out of place, but as it is, I think he’s fine without extras.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When they teased the silhouettes of Series 14, I figured this guy out right away, which I think is actually a testament to how good a job they did getting down perhaps the most important part of Batman Beyond: the silhouette.  I can’t say Terry was on my list for characters to be added to this line, but I also can’t say I’m unhappy with the choice.  He’s hardly the most modern character included in Todd’s run with the line, and I think he translates really well to the aesthetic, resulting in a figure that was quite a pleasant surprise when this set arrived at my door.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0091: Batgirl & Bane

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Flashback Friday Figure Addendum and tagged with , , , , ,

BATGIRL & BANE

DC MINIMATES (DC DIRECT)

Well, it’s Friday again.  So, you know, there’s that.  Here it is.  We made it?  Yeah, let’s go with that.  Let’s try to liven stuff up a bit here, with a Flashback Friday Figure Addendum!  Today, we’re flashing back to some Minimates, but not just any Minimates, DC Minimates!  Let’s take a second look at Batgirl & Bane!

One of the great tragedies for many Minimates collectors was the cancellation of DC Direct’s DC Minimates after only eight series. Not only did the line present us with definitive versions of many of DC’s top characters, it also gave us some wacky side characters like Ambush Bug and Ma Hunkel, and it was the first Minimate line to push the envelope in terms of sculpting. However, the line was met with its fair share of difficulties, most notably hitting shelves when Minimates were at a low point and being gone just before they hit it big. Still, we got a decent 64 figure run, and that’s certainly better than nothing. Today I’ll be looking at two figures from the Batman side of things, Batgirl and Bane.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Batgirl and Bane were released as part of the fourth series of DC Minimates. They’re an odd pair, seing as the two have never actually met. Heck, they didn’t even exist at the same time! Anyway, they’re both Batman characters, I guess.

BATGIRL

Batgirl is built on the basic Minimate body, so she stands about 2 ½ inches tall and features 14 points of articulation. She’s based on the Barbra Gordon version of the character, in her second costume. She features a sculpted mask, cape, belt and gloves. The cape and gloves were previously used on both the series one and series three Batmen, as well as being used before that in the DC C3 line. The mask and belt are new, so as to properly depict her exposed hair and more elaborate belt design. The paint work is pretty clean on Batgirl, with no real slop, and some very sharp line work on all the transitions. This set was released during the period of time when Minimates were using full slip over masks for everyone, even characters that only had half masks, so Batgirl got a full face mask. Some figures took advantage of this and gave the figure a different facial expression on the unmasked head. Sadly, Batgirl didn’t do this, which is a shame, as it would have the unmasked face be Barbra in full librarian mode. Batgirl includes a pair of bat-cuffs and a spare hair piece to display her unmasked.

BANE

Bane demonstrates one of the unique traits of the DC Minimates line: use of the larger Minimate body. The body features the same articulation and relative proportions, but is about a half an inch taller than the basic body. So, DC used it for larger characters such as Bane here. Bane features three sculpted parts: mask, belt, and wrist gauntlet with tube that plugs into the mask. All of these pieces are new to Bane, mostly due to his use of the larger body. All of the pieces accurately capture Bane’s look from the comics, so kudos to them on that. The paint work is pretty good overall, though there a few issues. The shirt features black detailing with gray highlights, but on the edges of the torso, the gray highlights have been missed, leaving their spots flesh-toned. Also, the sides of the shirt don’t quite line up with the front. Finally, the mask, while well detailed, seems to sit a bit too low, which gives him an abnormally large head. Under the mask, there’s a fully detailed face with hair, which Is a nice touch I suppose, though I hardly see anyone displaying him this way.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As with the rest of the DC Minimates line, I purchased these two as soon as they were released. While I think they’re both well done figures, I remember being disappointed in general by the lineup for Series Four, as well as baffled by the choice to pack these two together. It’s a cool set, but it’s hard to tell what audience they were aiming for, as the two figures present appeal to two different sensibilities.

This review was from my first year, at about the 3/4 mark for the year, and boy was that first year a heavy one for Minimates.  This was my 58th Minimate review, meaning almost a quarter of my reviews at the time were Minimates.  I mean, it makes sense, but it’s crazy to think about it these days, when they’re such a rarity.

I think the actual review holds up well for the most part, but I did make an error.  Batgirl did *not* include the bat cuffs, just the alternate hairpiece.  I didn’t have a photo of that, or of Bane’s alternate unmasked look, in the original review, so I’ve included those, as well as some turnarounds, because why not?

#4125: Robin

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

ROBIN

SUPER POWERS (McFARLANE)

“Robin was the sidekick of Batman and a member of the Justice Society Infinity”

In 1961, Flash #123, a story titled “Flash of Two Worlds,” reintroduced the original Flash, Jay Garrick, by showing his exploits as having taken place on a parallel Earth to that of Barry Allen, the then current Flash.  The story’s success led to follow-ups, reviving other Golden Age DC heroes, and placing them on this newly created “Earth 2.”  Since Earth 2 had allowed the characters to age more or less in real time from where they’d been left off in the ‘40s, when the “original” Dick Grayson reappeared six years later in 1967, he wasn’t a teen sidekick anymore, but rather an adult member of the Justice Society.  But, where his Earth 1 counterpart would take up the monicker “Nightwing,” Earth 2 Dick maintained the “Robin” name.  While the Earth 1 Dick gets most of the toy coverage, Earth 2’s version gets a lot of coverage himself, and he’s even joined the Earth 1 version’s four Super Powers figures with one of his own.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Robin is the final figure in Wave 13 of McFarlane’s Super Powers, numbered 66 in the overall line-up.  He’s not specifically denoted “Earth 2” anywhere on the packaging, but the bio on the back indicates it, though the call-out of Justice Society Infinity is a really specific post-Infinite Crisis reference.  When Earth 2 Dick Grayson first reappeared, he was sporting a costume heavily inspired by Batman’s, rather than his own Robin costume.  This figure is based instead on his second, more on brand costume, which, it should be noted, was actually worn by Earth 1 Dick Grayson first, during one of of the JLA/JSA crossovers.  Earth 2 Dick had full possession of it after that, though, and he kept the look until his demise during Crisis on Infinite Earths.  The figure stands 4 5/8 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  He’s using the standard male body that’s based on the Flash mold, a first for any version of Dick in the line.  That said, it’s a far better match than the rather large base body of the first two Nightwings, and means he scales far better next to the various basic Batmen, so I certainly don’t mind it.  He gets a modified version of the Gold Label Nightwing head sculpt, with the hair removed on the sides and the lines of the mask removed, so that his wrap-around mask can be properly displayed.  I like that they keep that bit of consistency between the two.  He also gets a new belt piece, which matches well to his unique belt design as seen in the comics.  It’s all topped off with a cloth cape, which I think is actually a little nicer than a lot of the others from this line.  His color work is very bright and colorful, and the paint application is mostly pretty clean, and without any real slop or bleed over.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When McFarlane’s Super Powers started, we got a modern Nightwing, and I figured that was the only Dick Grayson we’d get.  Then we got ‘90s Nightwing, and I was like, wow, I guess we’re getting two, but that’s got to be it, right.  Then we got ‘80s Nightwing, and I was really happy, but also 100% sure there was no way there could possibly be another Dick Grayson.  So this guy?  Totally out of left field.  Am I shocked?  A bit.  Am I unhappy?  Not in the slightest.  He turned out really well.  It’s a design that translates really well to the aesthetic, and it just makes for an incredibly fun figure.  And, sure, I’m now thinking it’d be great to *also* have his first costume, but you know what, I’m okay with just this one.