Tag Archives: DC

#4041: The Ventriloquist with Scarface

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

THE VENTRILOQUIST with SCARFACE

BATMAN (HASBRO)

“When paired with the puppet known as SCARFACE, mild-mannered ARNOLD WESKER becomes THE VENTRILOQUIST—one of Batman’s greatest criminal foes.  Wesker channels his dark side through his crime lord style dummy.  When the two are together, Scarface’s evil influence over his partner in crime is absolute.”

Since Batman: The Animated Series needed to fill out a syndication order’s worth of episodes, and its producers didn’t want to get too repetitive with the same few rogues, they had to delve into some of the lesser known villains.  In addition to revamping older villains (most famously Mr. Freeze), they also brought in a smaller number of newer foes.  One of the most recent choices at the time was The Ventriloquist, chosen because the producers felt he fit well with the pseudo period piece vibe of BTAS.  It aided the character’s recognition, and helped him become a rather memorable second tier rogue, appearing in multiple shows since BTAS wrapped up.  While not the most prevalent sort of character in terms of toys, he was one of the small handful of new characters introduced during Hasbro’s run with the license.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Ventriloquist with Scarface was released as part of the “Puppets of Crime” boxed set, released under Hasbro’s generic Batman line in 2002.  Arnold was noteworthy for being the only new figure in the set, which was otherwise re-packs.  The figure is just under 5 inches tall and has 4 points of articulation.  His articulation is really, really restricted, to the point that he’s effectively just kind of a statue.  There’s no movement in the legs, instead just a waist swivel, and while he’s got shoulder swivels, the posing of the arms means they get very little play.  You can sort of move his head back and forth, so that’s cool.  Also, without any leg movement, it can be a little tricky to find that sweet spot for keeping him standing.  His sculpt is based on his BTAS design, which is his more conventionally approachable look.  Generally speaking, it’s a good take on the look.  The head in particular is pretty on the mark, capturing Arnold’s reserved expression well.  The body sculpt’s got the crazy pre-posing going on which is odd.  I mean, the arms are sensible enough, since they’re meant for holding the Scarface puppet.  The legs, though, are weird in their wide stance and inward-pointing feet.  Maybe it’s supposed to be a balance thing, but it doesn’t quite work out.  In the show, he just stood with his legs together.  That, with maybe a display stand, would have gone a long way.  Also an odd is the coloring, which for some reason gives him a tan suit.  Why tan?  It’s not like it’s a particularly exciting color to shift to.  Maybe the tan plastic was cheaper.    The Ventriloquist was packed with Scarface, the most sensible possible accessory for him.  It’s a pretty good piece, nicely scaled to the main figure, and matching the show model.  Even the coloring’s not as wonky on him.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I somehow managed to miss all of the Ventriloquist and Scarface episodes of Batman when they aired, so I didn’t have much of an attachment to the character.  After the fact, I did find particular enjoyment in his lone TNBA appearance.  This figure (and the rest of the set he came from) actually was a Christmas gift to my brother in 2002, not me.  But, as a three-year-old, he had minimal interest in a guy in a suit, so this guy found his way into my collection.  He’s not the most play-worthy figure, but he’s still pretty cool, and surprisingly on the mark for a figure of this era for Hasbro.

#4037: Catwoman

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

CATWOMAN

BATMAN (HASBRO

“SELINA KYLE is a daring and strong-minded woman with a passion for cats.  As Catwoman, her headstrong ways often tempt her into reckless criminal behavior, but her morals have brought her into close cooperation with BATMAN more than once.  Knowing that her cat-like grace makes her the ideal burglar, Catwoman can’t turn down The Penguin’s challenge to purloin the prized Crest of Gotham City.  Catwoman’s weapons, a powerful whip and claw gauntlets, also serve as escape tools—but can they help her escape the Penguin’s insidious trap?”

When she first appeared as “The Cat” in Batman #1, Selina Kyle was unquestionably a villain, and would remain so for a good many decades after that, though she always maintained a flirtatious relationship with Batman, in the comics and other media.  By the ‘90s, the comics had started presenting Catwoman as more of an anti-hero, so in Batman: The Animated Series, Selina never serves as a proper antagonist to the heroes, more often then not an ally, at worst an unwitting pawn in a larger villain’s game.  It’s become kind of the defining take on the character, and honestly, good for her.  Selina’s no stranger to the toy game, but ultimately only got one proper figure during the Animated run, which I’m looking at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Catwoman was, like last week’s Robin, released in the 2001 “Revenge of the Penguin” boxed set, under Hasbro’s wider Batman banner.  She’s effectively just a re-release of Kenner’s original Animated tie-in figure from 1992, and she would see an additional (and truly identical) release from Hasbro in 2003’s “Girls of Gotham City” boxed set.  The figure stands 4 1/4 inches tall and has 5 points of articulation…or close to it.  She’s got a spring-loaded feature in her right shoulder, which brings it back down when you raise it, meant for use in conjunction with her included whip.  While visually unobtrusive, it means the shoulder doesn’t actually hold any poses, which is a bit of a bummer.  Beyond that, she’s got v-hips, which are never my favorite, and result in the figure being rather hard to pose.  The sculpt is the one originated by Kenner in 1992, and it’s…fine.  It’s not bad, but it’s a little more pre-posed than other figures from the same line, a little hard to get standing, and also she’s got a very stubby neck.  Stubby is honestly just a pretty good descriptor for her in general, and it’s not quite in keeping with her more slender frame from the show.  That said, all of the figures in the early run were a little stubby, so she’s not in the worst of company.  Catwoman’s paint work is a decent match for how she looked on the show, and unlike the Robin from the same set, she doesn’t get saddled with any really out there shades or color replacements.  The only notable thing here is that she’s a bit wall-eyed, which can look rather silly.  Her eyes are a darker shade of green than the original figure, one of two notable changes on this release.  Like her original release, Catwoman includes her whip, a pair off claw gauntlets, and a small figurine of her cat Isis.  Isis is black for this release, in contrast to the grey of the original.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The original animated Catwoman was totally gone from shelves when I started collecting, so my default version of her for many years was the Legends of Batman version, until I got this set for Christmas in 2001.  Robin was my main focus, but I remember being quite pleased to get a proper Catwoman figure as well.  She’s far from perfect, but she’s also far from bad, and I think there’s more to like than to dislike, whichever version of her you might get.

#4033: Robin

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

ROBIN

BATMAN (HASBRO)

“The son of gifted circus acrobats, DICK GRAYSON was left an orphan when a two-bit extortionist sabotaged his parents’ high-wire act.  Bruce Wayne, who lost his own family to a senseless crime, felt an instant connection to the boy and took him in.  Eventually, Wayne revealed his secret identity to the talented young man and made him his crime-fighting apprentice.  Now, as Robin, Grayson is a skilled and quick-minded fighter in his own right, and Batman’s most trusted comrade in justice.”

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve reviewed a proper figure of Dick Grayson as Robin.  Nightwing sure, but for Robin, we’re going back to 2021.  Heck of a jump.  For specifically the animated version, we’re talking about 2016.  Whole decade.  Anyway, 15 years before *that*, the DC license was still held by Hasbro, who were really just largely running on the remnants of what Kenner had done before, more or less just focussing on the Batman side of things until handing off the license to Mattel.  On the animated side, they did a lot of boxed sets, revisiting old molds and themes.  While predominantly focussed on the New Adventures era, there were a few The Animated Series figure mixed in as well, including today’s Robin figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Robin was released in the 2001 “Revenge of the Penguin” boxed set, under Hasbro’s wider Batman banner.  At this point, the bulk of the line was Mission Masters, but the boxed sets didn’t sport that title, rather just sticking with a rather generic “Batman.”  “Revenge of the Penguin” was a totally BTAS themed set, which was rare, sporting Robin, a Penguin I previously reviewed, Catwoman, and a wonky Batman variant.  The figure stands 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  He’s a total mold re-use of the Kenner animated Robin from 1992 (which had previously been used by Hasbro a year prior in their Spectrum of the Bat line), itself a neck-down re-use of the Batman Returns Robin figure from 1991.  At the time of this release, most of the mold was a decade old, which, honestly?  It’s not bad.  In part, it fits in fine due to how much Hasbro stagnated with the license, of course.  When you’re aiming to do as few new molds as possible, you aim to make them work match the ones you’ve already got.  It’s…well, it’s fine for its original intended use, as a realistic take on what would become the comics Tim Drake costume. It’s less ideal for an animated Dick Grayson, whose outfit was streamlined a bit, and who never sported anything close to the musculature detailed on this figure.  The head was at least an okay take on Dick’s original animation model, if perhaps a bit flattened and soft on detailing.  It did fit well with the other figures from the Kenner line, though.  He keeps the original’s two-tone cloth cape, which remains a pretty impressive piece for the scale.  A little unnatural in how it hangs, but generally very cool.  His paint marks the main change-up here.  In a general sense, it’s not drastically different, but the colors lean more toward the Mission Masters palette, where the flesh tones were very pale, the greens were more neon, and the “warm” colors were colder.  The actual application’s generally fine (though the black paint was really prone to wear), and he even gets an additional paint app on the neck, under the cape.  There’s a sculpted spot there that’s clearly meant to be a different shade than the rest of the torso, and the original just left it red.  This one…makes it green?  Still not a match for the cape, but points for effort.  Robin was packed with a missile launcher and missile.  It was originally packed with the Legends of Batman Crusader Batman, and it was one of Hasbro’s favorite accessories of this era, no matter how illogical or ill-suited it was to the figure it was packed with.  At least it’s in colors that match?

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Since I missed the main runs of the Animated figures, the boxed sets were really my personal jumping on point for the style, and served as my earliest versions of a lot of the characters.  They were almost always birthday or Christmas gift fodder from family members, and this particular set was the latter, given to me by my Nanna.  Robin was my main interest.  I’d been making do with the Total Justice Robin as a stand-in for this look for far too long at this point, and was happy to get a better approximation.  He’s got some quirks of this era, but given how lazy and odd most of the late-run Hasbro DC product was, he’s honestly not bad.  He may be little more than a re-issue, but he was at least a decent choice for one, and one I definitely was glad to have then, and am still glad to have now.

#4029: Hawkman

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

HAWKMAN

TOTAL JUSTICE (KENNER)

“Born Katar Hol on the planet Thanagar, Hawkman escaped his oppresssive native world and made his new home on Earth, where he vowed to fight against injustice. He is equipped with an anti-gravity belt and enormous wings that give him the power of flight and allow him to launch aerial attacks against villains, swooping down and snatching them up in massive grip talons.”

Hey, it’s Hawkman.  When did I last talk about Hawkman?  …ah, yes, Black Adam tie-in.  Yikes.  Well it could be worse.  For instance, I could be talking about the absolute nightmare that was Hawkman’s backstory post-Crisis!  See, where most of the overlapping Golden and Silver Age incarnations were either similar enough to merge (Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman) or distinct enough to co-exist (Flash, Green Lantern, Atom), Hawkman got to be in the weird middle-ground where his two incarnations were far too different to be the same person (or even connected, really), but also way too similar to both exist.  So, there was sort of this grey area for a while, where everyone just pretended not to notice the issues, until Hawkworld came along and revamped the Silver Age incarnation of the character for the ‘90s, establishing along the way that he was new to Earth, making the prior appearances post-Crisis confusing to say the least.  It was quite a mess, eventually leading to DC just outright ditching the character for a bit, because they viewed him as “too confusing.”  (Grant Morison created Zauriel during their tenure on JLA in part because of Hawkman being off limits).  He would eventually get reworked a few more times, ultimately streamlining things a bit and making him more workable, but it was real touch and go there.  In the midst of the touch and go, we did get an action figure of the ill-fated Hawkworld version of the character, for better or for worse.  Let’s look at that now!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Hawkman was released as part of the second series of Kenner’s Total Justice line.  It was his third figure, after the Super Powers and Toy Biz figures, and the first to be based on something other than his Silver Age design.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  Unlike others in the line, Hawkman lacked neck movement, presumably due to the hair. There’s still a peg, it’s just at the middle of his head, where his mask meets his face, and it’s really odd and definitely not meant to move.  Beyond that, he does get the standard shoulder and hip movement, as well as additional movement for the wings.  Most of his sculpt would remain unique to him, as he was one of the few characters not to have any equal in the JLA line.  The wings got re-used for Zauriel, though, which makes sense, because they’re decent basic wings.  His sculpt is based on Katar’s Earth attire from Hawkworld and the bit of time that followed.  At it’s core, it keeps the general set-up of his original design, but definitely ‘90s-izes it.  There’s extra straps, and fingerless gloves, and, of course, the super long hair.  We had three rounds of that long hair thing in Total Justice, which is a pretty dense packing in of it all.  The sculpt is at least pretty good at what it’s doing.  It’s one of the absolute least pre-posed of the Total Justice sculpts, looking borderline like a normal person.  The musculature is still kind of nuts, but it’s the style, so we’re just finding it charming.  The wings and helmet are definitely the best part.  His paint work is fine enough.  It does a halfway decent job with the colors, but ultimately misses a bunch of details on the legs, which is kind of a bummer.  He gets no actual character-specific accessories, but does get the ever-so-present Fractal armor, which in his case is a big ol’ honking set of talons that mount to the shoulders of his chest plate.  It’s…it’s odd.  But, it’s there.  At least it doesn’t impact the core figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

In the ‘90s, I was still a child, living the simple life of someone who didn’t know anything about the madness going on with Hawkman.  I just knew there was a Hawkman, mostly from Super Friends and old back-issues my Dad read to me.  So, I saw this guy at Another Universe, the comic shop in the mall my Grandmother always took me to, and I wanted him, because he was Hawkman, and Hawkman was a simple, not convoluted character, right?  And I showed him to my dad, who liked Hawkman, and he was…well, it’s not to say he wasn’t glad I had a Hawkman figure, but there was certainly some discussion about *what* Hawkman I’d just brought into the house (in a joking, sort of nurturing manner, of course).  Not so simple anymore.  Well, he remained simple and un-convoluted for me, at least until I had the Super Powers figure to swap in for him, so I consider all that a win.  Over the years, I lost some of his parts, but I slowly rebuilt him, and here he is, all complete.  As messed up as this period of time is for the character, the figure’s cool.  I’m not taking that away from him.

#4025: Robin

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

ROBIN

TOTAL JUSTICE (KENNER)

“As the third person to don the guise of Robin, Tim Drake trained under the watchful eye of Bruce Wayne to become Batman’s crimefighting partner. Using finely-honed martial arts and acrobatic skills, along with a razor-sharp intellect, Robin proves himself an even greater threat to villains with his Fractal Techgear spinning razor disc and battle staff.”

Do you ever find yourself settling for less than the amount of Justice you’d prefer?  Why settle, when you could have Total Justice instead!  It’s all the justice you could ever want!  It’s total!  …Right?  Man, I could go for some actual “total” Justice right about now, but I’m just gonna have to hold myself over with the best thing I can approximate, which is a ‘90s Kenner DC line.  Admittedly, that’s still pretty well up my alley, so I can’t say I’m *unhappy*.  Just, you know, I could be happier.  Ah well.  Let’s look at today’s figure, a Robin who could have none more Justice, for his level of Justice is Total.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Robin was released in Series 1 of Kenner’s Total Justice line in 1996.  Robin was no stranger to action figures at this point, and certainly not from Kenner.  That said, at this point Robin figures that were specifically Tim Drake were still rare, with the only prior one being the odd one from the Batman Returns tie-in line.  He was oddly absent from the Legends of Batman line, despite its mainstream figures all being based on the “Knightfall” storyline, in which Tim was a notable player, so this figure sort of filled in there.  The figure is about 5 inches tall (though a bit shorter depending on how deep you go when posing that lunge) and he’s got 5 points of articulation.  His sculpt is…well it’s a Total Justice sculpt, so it’s kind of intense in every regard.  Posing, expression, musculature.  It’s all very intense.  That’s how we did it in the ‘90s.  I suppose, compared to others in the line, the posing is at least a bit more mild and standard, and he’s without any screaming or major grimacing, so it certainly could be worse.  His costume follows the original Neal Adams design pretty closely, including all of the smaller details, like the ribbing on the sleeves and gloves, and the extra piping on the boot cuffs.  Robin gets a separate piece for his cape (unlike some *other* caped crusader’s in the line), which is…well, it feels a bit like it’s meant for a different figure, if I’m honest.  It doesn’t really have the same flow as the rest of the posing, and it has some trouble staying in place.  Robin’s color work is basic stuff, really, but does alright.  All the standard colors.  The most notable omission is the interior of the cape being black, rather than yellow, as it was in the comics.  That was ultimately fixed when he was rereleased in the JLA line at the end of the decade.  In terms of extras, he gets the standard Total Justice set-up, which is Fractal armor.  In his case, the actual armor is limited to a chest plate, which is honestly a lot less silly than some of the others.  He also gets a rather involved staff with some blades on the edge (making it a spear, I guess?  Or maybe a scythe?), as well as a disc launcher.  The blades could be removed from the staff, allowing for something closer to Tim’s usual collapsible staff from the comics.  The JLA re-release dropped everything but the main staff, and swapped in a display stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When I was first entering into the world of action figures, I found myself seeking out figures that looked the most like the characters from the source material.  I remember specially wanting a more accurate Robin (notably one with black hair, which was tricky in a post-Chris O’Donnell world), which was a quest I undertook with my Grandmother.  This was attempt number two (Legends of Batman Crusader Robin was attempt the first, but, while cool, just wasn’t quite it) and he pretty much did what he needed to.  He was my main go-to Robin for a while, and lost a bunch of his parts over the years.  Thankfully, I was able to get myself some replacement gear for him, and here he is, in all his Total Justice-y glory once again.

#4017: The Creeper

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

THE CREEPER

THE NEW BATMAN ADVENTURES (KENNER)

You know, I can’t believe this, but going back to double-check some numbers, I realized that this will be the third time I’ve talked about the Creeper here on the site, which feels like a really high number.  Sure, I like the Creeper fine, but three times?  When he’s only got six figures total?  Weird.  Am I gonna have to track down those other three Creepers now?  No, I really can’t.  I can’t do it, guys.  Right, so today, I’m looking back at the Creeper, a very rare instance of Steve Ditko (of Spider-Man and Doctor Strange fame) creating a character for DC outright, rather than creating it for someone else and then just having them purchase it later.  Originally, he had no notable ties to any other major DC heroes, but in the ‘90s, he inexplicably showed up in The New Batman Adventures, getting his own focus episode “Beware the Creeper,” which re-worked his origin story to include Batman and the Joker.  And he also got his first action figure* that way!  Yay!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Creeper was released as part of Kenner’s The New Batman Adventures tie-in line, hitting with the second push of product in 1998.  He was one of two notable “new” figures, the other being Bruce Wayne.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  He had an all-new sculpt, based on his design from the show.  In terms of accuracy, this one’s pretty good.  I mean, in general, TNBA’s tie-in figures were more on-model than earlier Kenner offerings, but Creeper in particular sticks very close to his animated counterpart.  While he’s still doing the line’s general “just standing there” posing, he’s got a lot of character in his stance, with crazed hands, and a notable hunch, which his neck extended forward.  His head sculpt matches well with the character’s on-screen likeness, translating his pretty nicely into three dimensions.  His signature boa is a separate piece here, which is sort of an odd choice, but to their credit, it’s molded to his torso in such a way that it actually stays in place pretty well.  His paint work is generally very basic, but it does well.  Mine’s taken a bit of wear over the years, but not tremendously so, so he ultimately looks pretty good even now.  It’s interesting that his hair is black, rather than having any sort of green to it, but that’s the approach they took with this line’s Joker as well, so it’s not too out there.  Creeper was packed with a television camera, referencing Jack Ryder’s role as a reporter on the show.  The plate on the back can be slid to show Jack, or flipped over to reveal Creeper.  The whole thing also turns into a bit cannon of some sort, because why not?  I do quite like that the missile is designed to resemble a microphone.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I saw this figure a great many times when he was new, and did *not* buy him…largely because I was really looking for that Bruce Wayne, who was more desirable at the time, meaning every store had not Bruce, and a whole peg of Creeper.  I caught his episode of the show after he’d disappeared from retail, so when I wanted one, I had to get a little help from Cosmic Comix.  He’s easily one of the best figures from this line.  He’s on model, he’s unique, and he’s got a gimmicky accessory that’s on brand and also not intrusive, which is all super cool.

*Though it almost wasn’t his first; Creeper was on the shortlist of figures had Kenner’s Super Powers continued in the ‘80s, and would have made his debut there.

#4013: Metallo

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

METALLO

SUPERMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (KENNER)

Early in the production of Batman: The Animated Series, the producers realized that, if they intended for the show to have a long run, they’d need to rely on a deeper stable of foes than just the heavy hitters from Batman’s rogues gallery.  To help with this, they put effort into rebuilding some of the more obscure characters into antagonists of depth equal to their more popular counterparts (with their revamp of Mr. Freeze serving as perhaps the most successful case of this).  When the same team moved onto Superman: The Animated Series, they took a similar approach to Superman’s rogues.  One of the beneficiaries was Metallo, who was granted a new design and a revamped and more streamlined origin story, resulting in a fan-favorite, who also got an action figure along the way.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Metallo was released in Series 4 of Kenner’s Superman: The Animated Series line.  As with the rest of the assortment, his domestic release was handled by Diamond Distributors, as US retailers had bailed on the line after Series 2.  He was re-released with a slight paint tweak as part of a four-pack, which also included Supergirl and Bizarro from the same assortment.  The figure seen here is the original single release.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  He’s got the standard movement for the line, which is the usual Kenner 5 POA, plus a waist swivel.  Metallo’s sculpt was all-new to him, and would remain unique, apart from the previously mentioned boxed set version.  It’s generally a pretty good one.  The STAS figures were all a slight departure from the show designs, but Metallo sticks closer than most.  His legs are maybe a little bulky, but that’s really it.  Otherwise, he recreates the show’s updated design for the character nicely.  The strongest parts are the exposed portions of his robotic skeleton, which sticks very close to the animation model.  The human portion of the head is a little more detailed than the animation model, but feels consistent with the character, enough that it’s pretty clearly the same guy.  The rest of the sculpt is clean and basic, which is what it needs to be.  His chest features the cavity that holds his Kryptonite heart; the cover is on a hinge, and pushing the button on his back pushes the heart forward, making it “beat” and opening the cover to reveal it.  It’s not quite the way it works on the show, but it’s a cool enough gimmick to feel worth it.  Metallo’s paint work is generally on point.  The general color work is basic, but matches his coloring from the show well.  The robotic side gets some really nice accenting, with the only small slip-up being that they didn’t paint the remnant of his shirt cuff the correct tan color.  Otherwise, it looks really cool.  Metallo was packed with a somewhat goofy hover bike thing, which also doubles as a really big shoulder cannon thing.  Either way, it’s got a missile that it can launch, which is silly, but fun.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As a kid, I remember how hard this assortment was to get, Metallo especially.  A friend of my parents had a display in his house with all of his DCAU figures, and Metallo was one of them, and one that I was always particularly fascinated by.  At some point, my dad took note of this fascination, and tracked one down on eBay, and thus I had my own Metallo.  This guy got a lot of play time when I was a kid, and remained one of my favorites.  Revisiting him, I still very much like him.  There were a lot of compromises made on these figures, but Metallo has very few of them, and it results in a fairly accurate figure, which is also just quite a bit of fun.

#4009: Dr. Polaris

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

DR. POLARIS

DC SUPER HEROES (HASBRO)

“Doctor Polaris’s electromagnetic powers were recently boosted by the mysterious entity known as Neron.  These powers, which are now part of Polaris’s body instead of being generated by weapons, provide the evildoer with forcefield protection as well as staggering strength.”

Interspersed with their overabundance of Batman-centric lines in the ‘90s, Kenner did try a few not-Batman DC lines, to mixed results.  There was a larger focus one, Total Justice, which only made it three series, each one a smaller run than the last.  There was a fourth assortment, which got pretty far in the process before being scrapped.  So far that there were molds to be used later, when Hasbro decided to revisit them as a run of two-packs for their direct market line.  Each series of Total Justice had one token villain, which, had the line continued, would have been today’s focus, Doctor Polaris, who had just gotten a major overhaul during the “Unleashed” storyline.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Dr. Polaris (as it’s written on the name part of the box, even though it’s spelled out in his bio on the back) was one half of a two-pack from Hasbro’s DC Super Heroes line.  The other half was a Kyle Rayner variant, which would have been in the assortment.  It’s a pretty solid pairing, since Polaris is a GL villain, and had just been re-established with Kyle in the comics.  The figure stands almost 6 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  He was quite sizable, which was kind of odd, since he wasn’t usually that large in the comics.  The update to his powers had made things a little bit nebulous, though, and they liked to have a larger villain figure, so I guess it wasn’t the worst thing.  The sculpt was all-new to this guy, based on Polaris’s updated design from the ‘90s.  I’m a sucker for this look, as tied to that decade as it may be.  It’s goofy, but when is Polaris *not* goofy?  His sculpt is slightly pre-posed, but certainly on the more minor side for Total Justice.  Mostly, it’s just sort of an idle stance, and I think it works.  His cape is quite dynamic in its flow, and that’s also quite nice; gotta love those arching shoulders.  Doctor Polaris’s color work is a good match for his comics look at the time.  He’s got a lot of metallic finish, which gives him an armored appearance that works well for the character.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This was the second of these two-packs I got (after the Superboy & King Shark set), picked up from Cosmic Comix back when it was still new.  I think I bought the set more for the GL at the time, but he wound up being sort of “meh” for me, ultimately, while I found myself rather quickly attached to Polaris here.  It was my first introduction to the character, and I’ve ultimately always thought of this look first and foremost because of it.  I think it’s just a solid, fun figure. 

#4005: Impulse

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

IMPULSE

JLA (HASBRO)

“Bart Allen, the 30th century grandson of The Flash, Barry Allen, inherited his bloodline’s powers but no ability to control his super-speed. After reaching the age of 14 in only two years, he was brought to the 20th century. Having been raised in an artificial environment, Bart is just learning the ways of the real world as he attends Junior High School in Smalltown Alabama.”

While the Golden Age Flash didn’t have a sidekick in the traditional sense (though he did have a trio of comedic “sidekicks” for a little while, much like Plastic Man, Alan Scott, and Wonder Woman did during the same period), Barry Allen got one relatively quickly in the form of Wally West, aka Kid Flash.  Wally remained in the role until Barry’s death in Crisis, at which point Wally got promoted to just “Flash.”  It was almost a decade before Wally would get his own sidekick, a revamp of the Kid Flash idea, Bart Allen, aka Impulse.  Bart wound up rather successful in his own right, eventually taking on both the Kid Flash and Flash monickers.  But Impulse was always his coolest, and it got him the action figures first.  Let’s take a look at one of those!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Impulse was released in the third series of Hasbro’s JLA line in 1999.  Like Superboy, he was also available in the fourth boxed set, released through comic book stores and the like, along with Robin, the other piece of the “Young Justice” trio from the assortment.  This was Bart’s first figure, albeit only by a slight bit, as DC Direct also released one very close behind.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  As with the rest of the line, he’s heavy on the re-use.  He gets a new head, but his torso is the frequently re-used retool of Superman’s, and he’s also got the arms from Black Lightning and the legs from the Flash.  The head is sort of an attempt at approximating a few different artist’s looks for Bart into one, along with folding him into the general line aesthetic, and it’s not awful, but it does feel a little small.  The Black Lightning arms are a little long for the body, but the gloves at least match pretty well with Impulse’s design.  The legs have a good running sort of pose to them, but the boots are definitely *not* Bart’s from the comics.  To be fair, they really weren’t Wally’s either, so it’s kind of whatever.  In general, like Superboy, the figure is really bulky for Bart, who was always pretty skinny and appropriately teen (in fact even pre-teen) like in the comics at the time.  This appears to be some sort of imaginary older Bart as Impulse sort of figure.  His color work is decent enough, but the biggest issue is definitely that the orange of the outer portions of his lightning bolts is too close to the red, so the distinction is largely lost.  Also, he’s got no pupils for some reason.  Beyond that, the application is pretty clean, so there’s at least that.  Impulse is packed with a display stand, this time in white.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My first exposure to Impulse was an issue of his solo series, which got handed to me as a free give-away at an early Baltimore Comic-Con I attended, more than likely *in* 1999.  I loved the issue, and it got me into the whole series (which I had a subscription to until its cancellation years later).  I developed a particular attachment to the character, and ended up getting this figure, I feel almost confident at the same time as Superboy.  He’s never been a perfect figure, but he’s always been one I very much appreciated.

#4002: Elongated Man

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

ELONGATED MAN

DC MULTIVERSE (McFARLANE TOYS)

There’s a shortlist of characters that I own every version of in action figure form, and one of the earliest additions to that list is one of my very favorite comic characters (and probably my favorite super hero in general), Ralph Dibney, aka the Elongated Man.  Ralph’s in that interesting spot, where he does have a decent number of figures, but it’s not so many that you can’t keep up with it.  It’s also usually a bit of a stretch (heh) of time between them, so you have this nice little breather period to catch up.  The last break was over a decade long, but we’ve finally gotten to the other side, with not one, but two new Elongated Man figures!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Elongated Man is figure 50 in the Collector Edition sub-line of McFarlane’s DC Multiverse.  He’s part of the six-figure drop that hit in January, which looks to be the last big push for these guys from McFarlane, although we’re still not totally certain.  All of the Collector Edition figures get a standard release and a one-per-case Platinum Edition, and Ralph is no exception.  His classic black and red suit serves as the standard, while his ‘80s lavender and white number is the Platinum.  The figure stands 7 inches tall and he has 35 points of articulation.  Ralph’s starting point is the Blue Beetle/Booster Gold base body, which isn’t a huge shock.  It continues to be a solid base body, with a nice balanced set of proportions, which works well for a variety of characters.  For Ralph in particular, it feels like a good match for his usual build in the comics, and the only sculpted element, the boot cuffs, works fine with his costume design.  Ralph gets a new head sculpt, which is leaning more into the Infantino solo feature appearances than other figures have done, with perhaps a touch of the Alex Ross take, and I’m honestly here for it.  I didn’t know how I felt about it in the prototype shots, but in person, I like the quirkiness behind it, and I think it feels pretty in keeping with Ralph’s usual characterization in the comics.  It’s a sculpt that is definitely more intended for the classic costume than the ‘80s one, but it’s not a terrible fit either way.  Ralph also gets a pair of cuff pieces for his wrists which, in contrast to the head, are very much meant for the Platinum, not the standard.  Thankfully, they’re easily removed from the standard, so there’s no issues there.  The difference between the two figures is one of paint, so let’s talk about that now.  The standard’s got that red and black, accented by gold, in place of the yellow he usually gets.  It works well, and it’s pretty slick looking.  All of the black sections get some blue drybrushing, which gives him a nice illustrative quality. The variant keeps the same general set-up on the gloves and boots, but then gets the adjusted lavender and white.  The paint feels a little fuzzier on this one, but the shades on the colors are a good match for the comics coloring.  Both versions of Elongated Man are packed with six different hands (right fist, left grip, right pointing, left relaxed, and right and left open gesture), Plastic Man’s stretched arms repainted to match the respective figures, a display stand, and a collector card.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got in on collecting Elongated Man figures pretty much on the ground floor, and it’s just been a game of keeping up with the latest release since then.  Obviously, as soon as we knew these guys were coming, I knew I was getting them.  Of course, that meant having to make sure I got both versions, and most reliable way of doing that was really just buying a whole case, which is, in fact, what I went and did.  I’m crazy like that.  But really, is buying six Elongated Men all that crazy?  Yes.  Yes it is.  But it was worth it.  I do really, really like both of these.  At the outset of McFarlane’s run with the license, I would have never expected to get an Elongated Man figure from him at all, much less two of them that I really liked, so I’m honestly very happy about this particular turn of events.