Tag Archives: DC

#3751: Superman – Our Worlds at War

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

SUPERMAN — OUR WORLDS AT WAR

DC MULTIVERSE (McFARLANE TOYS)

Man, the McFarlane DC toy reviews are becoming an almost monthly occurrence here on the site.  Am I okay?  I honestly don’t know, guys.  Look, I like DC, and my collecting options are limited there, and Todd’s made enough figures that even with a low percentage of hits, there’s still a fair amount of okay stuff.  That being said, one figure that seems to evade Todd is a solid, basic Superman.  There jus always seems to be something off.  At best, there are some very dialed-in and specific looks, which is kind of what we’re dealing with today.  Yes, today’s entry comes of the early ’00s crossover “Our Worlds At War,” a storyline that was a big deal at the time of its release, but has generally had minimal impact moving forward.  I mean, I guess in introduced Imperiex?  You know, that guy that everybody loves?  He was in the second season of the Legion of Super Heroes cartoon?  Another thing that people consistently talk about?  Right?  Well, if nothing else, they made a tweak to Superman’s logo for a bit, and the toy companies do like reminding us of that.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Superman is part of the second assortment of “Digital” figures from McFarlane’s DC Multiverse line, released under the DC Direct banner, alongside Atom and “Longbow Hunters” Green Arrow.  As noted in the intro, he’s patterned on “Our Worlds At War,” or more specifically Superman’s altered look from the year following the event’s conclusion.  The figure stands 7 1/4 inches tall and he has 35 points of articulation.  As with a lot of the McFarlane figures, the articulation count may be high, but actual range is rather restricted.  The elbows don’t get a full 90 degrees, and the neck and mid-torso are also very stiff, so he’s mostly gonna be doing standing around poses.  Superman is largely making use of the DKR Superman mold, which is one that they keep returning to for some reason.  It’s based on Miller’s very bulked-up Superman, so it’s a very specific sort of mold, that’s not as all-purpose as they seem to think it is.  All that said, the two primary artists for Superman’s post-OWAW look, Ed McGuinness and Mike Wieringo, both depicted him as rather bulked up, so it’s not terribly far off.  Chalk it up to all that extra energy he picked up when he flew through the sun.  He gets a new head sculpt, which appears to be sort of an averaging of McGuinness and Wieringo’s styles.  They’re not completely incompatible, so it’s alright.  It’s definitely got McGuinness hair (or at least the front of it) and a Wieringo chin, that’s for sure.  He also gets a modified insignia piece, making it a little more classic and all-purpose than the more Miller-inspired piece from the original mold.   In terms of color work, he’s got a lot of molded colors, but what paint’s there isn’t bad.  The logo gets the black background, so it’s proper to the source material, and they’ve also given him a more artistic take on the shorts, being black with a red highlight rather than just red.  It honestly looks pretty decent.  Superman is packed with two sets of hands, a display stand, and an eagle.  The eagle is a re-use of the one included with Beast Boy, and notably has no way of interacting with the included figure, so you just sort of have to set him somewhere and hope he doesn’t fall over, which is kinda weird.  The figure also includes the weird NFT thing, but I ain’t messin’ with that.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve been rather displeased with the McFarlane Superman figures up to this point, and have been looking for a good one.  This one didn’t look *awful* and was even better than I’d expected when I finally saw him in person.  Unfortunately, I hesitated on snagging him, and he sold, so I missed him.  At least, until I found him at Cosmic Comix while picking up my comics a month or so back.  My daughter Aubrey, still in the midst of her obsession with “Man” helped me open him, and she had a wonderful time flying him back and forth, which has certainly helped to cement him as one of my favorite Superman figures, even if he may not be strictly “standard.”

#3739: Mutiny in the Ranks

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

LEX LUTHOR, TALA, DEVIL RAY, DR POLARIS, GENTLEMAN GHOST, & PSYCHO PIRATE

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED (MATTEL)

Hey, ho, it’s off to more JLU reviews I go!  And, you guys didn’t have to even wait all that long for another one this time around.  Wasn’t that so very nice of me?  Heck, I’m gonna go the extra mile, and just review a whole pile of them all at once.  I mean, for a reason; I’m not just arbitrarily reviewing a bunch of them.  They’re, like, a set.  But what set?  I’ll tell you, but first, a bit of a side track!  I just finished a watch through of Justice League and Justice League Unlimited with my son Matty, which was a fun trek through memory lane.  The run notably has three effective finales, two of which were followed by there being more show.  “Starcrossed” leads into the Unlimited revamp, of course, which builds up to the finale of the Cadmus arc, a rather grounded and quite series look into the League, its enemies, and who gets caught in the crossfire.  How do you top that?  Well, you don’t even try, honestly.  Instead, the show revamped into something more akin to Challenge of the Super Friends for its final season (albeit still being more serious and thought out than anything Super Friends ever tackled), giving the expanded League roster a Legion of Doom to face off against.  The toyline ran with this as justification for doing more villains, who had been a rarity for most of the line’s run.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The “Mutiny in the Ranks” set was released as part of Mattel’s larger Justice League Unlimited line in the fall of 2009.  The pack was after the switch to the DC Universe banner, in the orange style packaging, and was part of the fourth wave of product in this packaging style.  There was a corresponding pack of heroes released at the same time, with both sets being based on the show’s final season.  All six figures included are exclusive to this set, which was quite rare for one of these bigger sets.

LEX LUTHOR

Luthor figures prominently into most of JLU, and is the central figure in the Legion of Doom storyline on the show, so he’s kind of a lock for this set, and also the real heavy hitter of the bunch.  He was no stranger to the line, being the first villain Mattel introduced into the animated style, and getting a few variants along the way.  This one…well, this one’s a bit odd.  I guess he’s meant to be based on the recolored version of Luthor’s tactical gear seen in the show’s final season, but there’s definitely been some *choices* made in the interpretation of that design.  I’ll get to that.  The figure is about 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  His sculpt is the same as the standard line release of the “Injustice For All” Luthor, so he’s the medium GL-based body, with a new head, harness, and legs with boots.  It’s not one of the line’s finer offerings.  The head’s a bit large, and just too bulbous for Luthor on the show.  His expression is also just too classically evil looking, and lacks the suave nature of the DCAU Luthor.  The harness is fine enough, though, and the booted legs do at least remove the odd uneven leg problem of the medium base mold.  The paint work is sort of there, I guess.  Like, the general colors are okay for the show design, but the layout doesn’t match at all, and ends up looking downright goofy.

TALA

Tala is a rather minor character in the comics, who initially appeared as part of Cadmus on the show, seemingly to just fill in the roster for table shots.  In the final season, she got an upgrade to full villain for unrevealed reasons in show, but in the real world seemed to be kept on because the producers liked Juliet Landau’s performance in the role.  No complaints from me on that.  The figure uses the standard female base body, which certainly has its issues.  Notably, it does feel a little short for Tala, who always appeared to be a bit on the taller side in the show.  Also, she was always barefoot, which the base is not, so it means she’s got shoes for whatever reason.  She does get a new head and skirt at least.  The head’s alright.  It’s a little too wide at the jaw, but there were certainly worse offerings in the line.  The skirt has the benefit of hiding her legs, which is a good thing when it comes to this mold.  Paint is minimal and basic.  There’s some definite slop on the edges, but it generally does what it’s supposed to.  She’s the only figure in the set to get an accessory, as she gets a display stand.

DEVIL RAY

With the Aquaman-centered Mercy Reef pilot floating around, JLU‘s final season was unable to use any Aqua-related characters, because of Warner Brothers’ rather reductive embargo set-up.  As such, the character intended to be Black Manta became “Devil Ray”, who is…well, he’s Black Manta with a different name.  Even his design works perfectly fine as an update to Manta.  Not being Manta, though, the writers didn’t need to get approval on what they did with him, so he’s a notable casualty within the show, which does up the ante a bit.  Devil Ray uses the medium male body again, with a new head and harness.  The new parts are quite nice, with the head in particular being a strong match for his show design.  He’s a little tricky to keep standing, but by this point in the line, all of the molds, especially the medium male, were degrading a bit, so weak ankles weren’t uncommon.  He relies on paint for a lot of his details, and it generally works, but the guns on his wrists do look a little silly just being flat painted on details.

DR POLARIS

Dr. Polaris continued the trend started by Star Sapphire of being a GL villain on the show who never got any real connection to GL or even any notable interactions.  He does get some decent focus after Luthor kicks Grodd out of the Legion, so good for him.  The show used the character’s original design, which is pretty goofy, but I suppose fits the tone alright.  The figure uses the medium base body, with a new head and overlay for the torso piece.  The head feels a little small, but it’s a solid, sharp sculpt that’s accurate to the show model.  The chest overlay is rather bulky and winds up making the whole figure look a little overstuffed.  There’s a weird mold error on mine that makes it look like one of his legs has snapped in half and been reglued, but beyond that, the color work is decent enough.

GENTLEMAN GHOST

Gentleman Ghost’s most notable turn on the show’s not actually with the Legion of Doom, and is instead in one of the Hawkman episodes.  However, by facing off against one of his actual foes, he does somewhat get a leg up on Dr. Polaris, so good for him.  He’s got a rather unique design, and this might have been his first figure?  I know the DCUC version came out right around the same time, so it’s a bit of a toss-up.  Still, pretty cool.  The figure uses a modified version of the two suited bodies, with a new cape piece that also had his hat and monocle mounted to the collar.  It’s not an exact science, and is only convincing from certain angles, but it’s about the best you’re going to get for ways to sell the “floating hat” look he had in the comics.  He’s got very minor paint work, since he’s largely just molded in white, but the light grey accenting’s pretty nice.

PSYCHO PIRATE

Psycho Pirate doesn’t get any focus on the show, serving just as background filler.  It does seem slightly odd for a character who’s had some very pivotal moments in the comics, but I suppose Crisis was a bit much for the show to handle.  I mean, they dedicated those three whole movies to it, and look how that turned out.  Or don’t.  Actually don’t, you guys.  It’s six hours you won’t get back.  Anyway, this guy uses the medium male body for the fourth time in this six figure set.  It seems rather bulky for Psycho Pirate, if I’m honest.  That said, it seems like parts re-use is really selling him, because he’s got Red Tornado’s cape, which they couldn’t do if he were on a different body.  He gets a new head, which is alright.  It’s got an odd shape, though, and seems too large, presumably to offset the size of the body.  It’s a shame there’s no medusa mask, but he never had it on the show, so that’s not really on Mattel.  The paint work is at least pretty nice, though.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I bought this set and the corresponding Heroes set at the same time, when they were still rather new.  I want to say they were on clearance post-2009 holidays, and I had some gift cards to spend.  Honestly, I was more invested in the heroes set at the time, and I don’t know that’s changed much in the years since.  It’s not all bad mind you.  While Luthor’s a definite weak point, the Devil Ray figure is quite cool, as is Gentleman Ghost.  And the others are decent middle of the road figures.  The set’s not super focused beyond “villains”, but that’s also not terrible focus.

#3737: Superman

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

SUPERMAN

SUPER POWERS (MCFARLANE)

You know what’s a line that I’m surprisingly excited to collect right now?  McFarlane’s Super Powers.  I did not see that coming.  I mean, sure, I’m a huge fan of the Kenner line, so I was an easy mark in that capacity, but McFarlane’s handling of DC has been pretty rocky, and I was really turned off by this particular set’s first few rounds of figures.  Of the earliest figures, his basic Superman and Batman were definitely some of the worst.  Batman got a ground up rework relatively quickly, but it’s been a wait for a corresponding Superman mold.  But, the wait’s finally over, and we’ve got another go at the Man of Steel!  Let’s check it out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Superman is part of the ninth series of McFarlane’s Super Powers, which is officially under the DC Direct banner.  This is the line’s seventh Superman, and the first to use anything other than the initial mold.  He’s also the line’s second “classic” Superman, following the first series release.  The figure stands just a bit over 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  He’s sporting a brand-new sculpt courtesy of Owen Oertling.  It’s patterned on the original, but not a direct copy, with some slight updates here and there.  The most notable change-up is the head, which gets a grinning expression, which works very well, and is still very much in keeping with the character.  In general, it’s a very strong update to the Kenner mold, which feels different enough to justify its existence, but also not so different as to feel out of place with the line.  I like that.  The only thing I don’t love is the cape, specifically the clip used to attach it to his neck.  It’s not a traditional C-clip, and is instead sort of oblong and flatter on one side.  It seems to be patterned to the necks of the earlier, more angular figures, and it doesn’t quite sit right on the new mold.  Todd’s gotta Todd in some way, I guess?  At least the cape doesn’t have a hole punched through it.  The color work on this guy’s not bad.  The colors aren’t far from vintage, which is good.  Application’s not bad.  There’s some smaller spots of slop, but I think it generally looks okay.  Superman doesn’t get any extras, but he’s at least got the cape, so it doesn’t feel too lacking.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

With the line sort of drying up at retail, pre-ordering seems to be my best option.  This round in particular seemed to sell out quickly at most online retailers, so I was back to ordering him on GameStop’s site.  He’s the first of the latest set I’ve gotten, which is honestly a nice little preview.  He’s quite fun.  And, as an added bonus, my daughter Aubrey, who’s been consuming a steady diet of Superman cartoons recently, got to help me open him, because she’s downright obsessed with “Man”, as she calls him.  We opened this one while watching the Filmation show, and she kept taking his cape off and swinging it around, which is really just too cute to contain.

#3734: The Riddler

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

THE RIDDLER

BATMAN: THE CLASSIC TV SERIES (MATTEL)

Okay, so let’s play a little game called “this makes Ethan feel old.”  In prep for writing today’s review of a Mattel Batman ’66 figure, I went back through the archives to see what other Mattel Batman ’66 figures I’d already reviewed, and discovered I’ve reviewed three.  The only one from the standard releases was the Catwoman figure I reviewed just over a month into the site, when she was a brand-new figure…over a decade ago.  My retro throwback reviews are now of items released the same year I started the site.  For reference, if I were reviewing a figure at the start of this site that were as old then as this figure is now, I’d have been looking at a figure from 2002.  That would be a figure that predates Mattel having the DC license.  Oh boy am I getting side tracked here.  Okay, so, yeah, let’s embrace the throwback and look at the 1966 Batman, which, amongst other things, really invigorated Batman’s rogues gallery.  Frank Gorshin’s turn as The Riddler in particular took the character from just one of the pack to one of the heavy hitters, and remains one of the show’s stand out villains.  Here’s an action figure of him!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Riddler was released in Series 1 of Mattel’s Batman: Classic TV Series line, alongside a standard Batman and the Penguin.  They hit in the late-summer/early-fall of 2013, right as all the ’66 licensing started hitting in full force.  The figure stands right at 6 inches tall and he has 23 points of articulation.  The line as a whole was a bit under-sized compared to other offerings, with it being closer to a true 1/12 scale than anything else Mattel offered, which made these guys all at least a half-inch shorter than all of the DCUC figures, and also so very much scrawnier.  Like, I know Gorshin was a skinny guy, but I feel this is excessive, to almost cartoonish levels, especially around the legs and hips.  The head sculpt doesn’t look *unlike* Gorshin, but neither is it a spot on likeness.  It’s certainly on the weaker end for this line, and I honestly get Matthew Lillard vibes off of it.  I think part of it’s the expression seeming too reserved for Gorshin; he brought a manic energy to the character that doesn’t really feel like it’s captured here.  It’s also kind of soft on the detailing.  The body, aside from it’s odd proportions, does at least get a little more detailing, especially with the wrinkles on the suit, which do at least set him apart from the painted on suits of the main DC line at the time.  His paint work was largely pretty basic, with the only notable shift being the accenting on his suit, which keeps it from being too much of a stretch of the same colors.  He was packed with a display stand with “Ka-Pow” written on it, as well as a card with part of the batcave on one side, and an illustration of the Riddler on the other.  Unfortunately, the Riddler illustration is landscape orientation, and the spot in the stand that holds the card only works for portrait orientation, so…not so much working for that set-up.  And, that’s all he got for extras.  No hat, or cane, or alternate unmasked head.  Not even some sound effects.  It’s exceedingly light.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was very, very excited for this line, and Gorshin’s Riddler in particular was very high on my list.  I went to the trouble of pre-ordering him and everything, and got him when he was brand new.  He’s actually in one of the last batches of figures I bought before new stuff was getting reviewed on the site as “new stuff.”  This line always so very greatly disappointed me.  I wanted to love it, but I couldn’t, and Riddler is kind of one of the worst offenders.  Ultimately, looking back on him, he’s fine, but not really any better than I’d remembered him being.

#3729: Darkseid

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

DARKSEID

JUSTICE LEAGUE (MATTEL)

Oh man, reviewing Justice League figures gives me major flashbacks to the months of pre-prepped reviews I worked on in advance of Aubrey being born.  I sure did write *a lot* of JLU reviews during that time.  And only a single one since.  That being said, the single one since the big batch of them was New Gods-themed, which is a solid theme that I’m jumping back into today.  I’m actually going back to the pre-JLU line, which I’ve not majorly explored here.  No time like the present, I suppose.  So, let’s look at a wacky-colored Darkseid, shall we?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Darkseid was released in the “Rise of Apokolips” four-pack from Mattel’s Justice League tie-in line. The set was released exclusively through Toys “R” Us in 2004, and also included metallic-colored variants of Superman, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman.  The figure stands 5 1/4 inches tall and he has 10 points of articulation.  Darkseid uses the same mold as his initial Series 5 “Mission Vision” release from earlier that same year, which was one of Mattel’s internal sculpts, rather than being provided by DCD sculptor Karen Palinko like the core seven.  It’s…well, it’s odd.  It’s a very stiff mold, with articulation not doing much for actually posing it; elbows and knees get less than a 90 degree bend, the shoulders only swivel at an angle, and the hips are greatly restricted by the skirt piece.  The proportions are very strange, and not really all that good a match for the Timm-aesthetic of the show’s design.  He’s broad across the shoulders, but pretty much nowhere else, and his head seems very narrow.  And, while he’s bigger than the other figures, he still feels a bit small for the character.  Just, generally, not one of Mattel’s best.  His color work marks the big change-up for this release.  Rather than his show colors, he’s now sporting a bright metallic blue for most of his outfit, making him a bit more in line with his earlier Kirby and Super Powers depictions.  He also appears to have no pants.  So, there’s that.  His only accessory was a lenticular card, which I no longer have.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Back in 2004, my brother Christian got the Mattel Watchtower playset for his birthday, and had wanted figures to go with it.  We decided to split the “Rise” four-pack, with him taking the three Leaguers, and me taking this guy.  I never did get the standard release version, so this remains to this day, my only JLU Darkseid.  He’s not really great, but that’s true of any release on this mold.  I do think the colors, while off-model and goofy, do give him a little more value than other versions, though, so that’s pretty nifty.

#3727: Blue Beetle

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

BLUE BEETLE

DC ICONS (DC COLLECTIBLES)

Oh, man, DC Icons.  It’s been, like, two years since I talked about that one, and even then, it was a one-off, generally retrospective review.  It’s unfortunate that the line was as short-lived as it was, especially given the number of late-run figures that got cancelled before the end.  To this day, the death of the Blue Beetle and Booster Gold set still haunts me.  It’s just out there, waiting.  Watching.  Waiting, but again.  At the very least, on the Blue Beetle front, while we may not have gotten Ted Kord, we did get his successor Jaime Reyes, which isn’t so bad a consolation prize.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Blue Beetle was figure 06 in the DC Icons line-up.  He was part of the second round of figures, wedged in between Flash and Black Adam in the numbering. The figure stands just shy of 6 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  The articulation on the line’s earlier figures was a bit tricky, but by the second round they’d started fixing things up.  Beetle’s set-up was honestly amongst the best, especially when it came to the hip articulation.  The only drawback is the shoulder set-up, which, due to the armor, are a bit stiff, but certainly still workable.  The design for this figure was done by Ivan Reis, as were pretty much all of the line, specifically cued in on his Infinite Crisis design, though it’s worth noting that’s effectively the same general look he’s had since his original appearances.  The sculpt proper was handled by Paul Harding, and it’s truly one of the best for the line.  It’s a very sleek recreation of his armored appearance, not terribly far removed from the DCUC figure, I suppose, but certainly sharper and with more depth to the assembly, thanks to some of the armored pieces being overlayed pieces on the core body.  The color work for Beetle is a little different from other Jaime figures in that it’s not directly metallic.  Rather, it’s a flatter coloring, but with a minor metallic sheen, which reads closer to how he presents on the printed page.  Jaime is packed with his wings, which are pretty much a standard, as well as two different gun attachments, which swap out at the forearms.  It’s a slightly lighter selection compared to others in the line, but it’s not bare minimum.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I wanted one of these when they were first released, but as the most desired figure in the second set, he was honestly never super plentiful.  When I got back into the line a little later, he was still no easier to get, so I’ve just been keeping my eye out for a while.  Thankfully, one turned up at All Time, so I got a chance to finally snag one.  He’s a solid, pretty fun figure, and another strong Jaime Reyes figure.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3724: Kilowog – Max Charge

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

KILOWOG — MAX CHARGE

GREEN LANTERN (MATTEL)

Oh, man, Green Lantern stuff?  Like, from the movie?  I must be getting desperate for review subjects, huh?  Or, you know, just trying to mix it up with the back catalogue items I review.  So, here we are, with a Green Lantern movie review, I guess.  I haven’t really discussed the movie since way back in 2016, and at that time, I looked at Kilowog, whose Michael Clarke Duncan performance I noted was one of the better aspects of the film.  I guess it was good enough to justify me talking about it again, because I’ve got another Kilowog.  Yay for variants!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Max Charge Kilowog was part of Mattel’s basic small-scale Green Lantern movie tie-in line.  There weren’t really strict assortments, so to speak, or at least none that were really advertised, but I recall this particular figure was of a later run than others, and I believe he hit after the movie’s release.  The figure stands about 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 8 points of articulation.  Structurally, he’s the same as the basic Kilowog, for all the good and bad that brings.  His articulation’s still sub-par for the era, and I’m still not the biggest fan of the movie Kilowog design.  That said, the sculpt itself isn’t a bad one, and I can get the desire to re-use it.  Prior to this figure, there was a “Max Charge” Hal Jordan, who took the basic Hal mold and did it in translucent green, with only some white for the eyes and his insignia.  This figure does the same with the Kilowog mold, and it honestly is a pretty fun look.  It does sort of make him look like a construct, though.  Speaking of constructs, like the first figure, this one gets the larger hand construct adapter piece, as well as a wearable Green Lantern ring.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This isn’t the sort of figure that I needed or anything, but in 2011, I was still very excited about all things Green Lantern, and I did still get pretty hyped about the movie release and its tie-ins.  I snagged a bunch of them new, for full price no less.  This one wasn’t one of those, though.  A bunch of the late run stuff was unloaded to Five Below pretty quickly, and I stumbled on them and did a pretty decent clean-up of them, including this guy.  He’s goofy and non-essential, and very much like the rest of the line.  That being said, he could certainly be a lot worse, and the fully transparent look certainly has a charm about it.

#3720: Ambush Bug

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

AMBUSH BUG

DC MULTIVERSE (McFARLANE)

There are three acceptable (and honestly expected) responses to finding out I’m reviewing Ambush Bug.  The most common is “Who’s Ambush Bug?”  Fair.  Second is “Why Ambush Bug?” Unfair.  And the third is “Hey, cool, Ambush Bug!”  To answer the “who,” Ambush Bug is a fourth-wall-breaking, intentionally silly DC comics character created by the late Keith Giffen, who was, amongst other things, voiced by Henry Winkler in Batman: Brave and the Bold (making it the first of the two times Winkler’s played a DC character).  To answer the “why,” because I want to, that’s why.  And to respond to the “hey, cool,” thank you.  Anyway, Ambush Bug’s pretty rare when it comes to figures, previously having only a Minimate, but he somehow made it into McFarlane’s line-up, so here we go!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ambush Bug is a 2024 addition to the DC Multiverse line, in an assortment that also sported paint variants on Booster Gold and Mr. Freeze.  Kind of an odd line-up, but Ambush Bug’s an odd guy.  The figure stands 7 inches tall and he has 37 points of articulation.  I was kind of expecting another re-use of the Blue Beetle/Booster mold, but I suppose that was deemed to bulky for Bug.  Instead, he’s using an altered version of the Jon Kent Superman body.  Generally, it’s not bad, especially since it’s a good match for his build, and it’s got a respectable articulation set-up.  What’s sort of weird is that, while the front’s been tweaked to remove the logo, the sculpted collar and the detailing on his back remain, which looks a little odd.  It’s also not as wrinkly as Bug is usually depicted as being, but that’s not terribly surprising.  He gets a brand new head sculpt, which is quite a nice piece.  It’s definitely a more recent take on the character, but it’s very sharp and I love the expression they’ve given him.  Ambush Bug is almost entirely colored via molded plastic, which is fair, since he’s supposed to be all green.  He gets paint for his face, which is well-handled and clean in its application.  The pattern on the eyes in particular is quite impressive.  Ambush Bug is packed with an alternate gripping hand for his left side, his “sidekick” Cheeks The Toy Wonder, a display stand, and a collector’s card.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Honestly, I never expected to see a figure like this.  Back during the DCUC days, I was always pulling for him, especially given how deep the line went, but tooling always seemed to hold him back.  Once that line ended, and DC Direct fell off, I figured that was kind of it for his chances.  I was definitely surprised when this one was shown off.  Of course, it would have to be after most retailers have given up on consistently stocking the McFarlane DC stuff, wouldn’t it?  Fortunately, when I went in to get my comics a few weeks ago, Cosmic Comix had one hanging there, and that made the whole endeavor that much easier.  He’s a surprisingly good figure.  He’s got the issue with the weird extra details on the upper torso, but beyond that, he’s really good, and I’m very happy to have him.  And, since I already reviewed the Minimate, I’ve reviewed 100% of the Ambush Bug action figures!  Oh yeah!

#3717: Nightwing

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

NIGHTWING

BATMAN: THE CAPED CRUSADER (SPIN MASTER)

It’s been a good long while since I’ve looked at anything from Spin Master’s run with the DC license. The last things I looked at were from Black Adam. Man, my decidedly checked optimism didn’t pay off, did it? There were a handful of other movie lines from Spin Master, which I largely wound up skipping, but they’ve also been keeping their Batman comic line running steady the whole time. My main focus there is and always has been the Nightwings, and there’s a new one!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Nightwing is part of Spin Master’s on-going Batman: The Caped Crusader line.  I’ve fallen behind on the exact assortment breakdowns at this point, but his copyright info says 2023.  There was an Amazon 4-pack which had him packed with a Batman, Joker, and Robin variant, and this appears to be a single carded release of that same figure, which I’ve only just recently seen popping up.  The figure stands about 4 inches tall and he has 17 points of articulation.  The articulation scheme is the same one we’ve been seeing since Spin Master took over the license, and it’s honestly not a bad set-up, so why fix what’s not broken?   While the first few Spin Master Nightwings were all built from the same parts, this one has an all-new sculpt, which is based on Dick’s look from the “Future State” event.  It’s actually a pretty fun tweak on his classic blue and black design, and certainly a very toyetic choice.  The sculpt itself is a lot more refined than the prior Nightwing piece, with sharper details and more balanced proportions than earlier figures, more like the movie figures I looked at.  Nightwing’s paint is rather basic.  His boots (and entire lower leg, for that matter) are just molded in blue, which isn’t right, and there are definitely some other sculpted elements that go unpainted, but he’s generally not a bad set-up, given the style and price point.  One noted change-up from earlier Nightwings is that Spin Master’s cut the basic accessory count down from three to two.  He gets one escrima stick and one night-a-rang.  Honestly, I’d have preferred to loose the night-a-rang for a second stick, since he’s oddly balanced with just the one.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve generally fallen out of the Spin Master stuff, especially with the trend more towards just Batman and movie stuff.  That said, I did see the four pack with this guy on Amazon, and passed because I just didn’t really want the other three.  I was pleasantly surprised to happen upon the single release while out running errands.  He’s a very cool little Nightwing figure.  He’s basic, but as with the other Spin Master figures, he’s very fun.

#3699: Blue Beetle

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

BLUE BEETLE

DC SUPER HEROES (HASBRO)

For years, Blue Beetle was theorized to be in the unproduced fourth wave of Kenner’s Super Powers, but when the full line-up was finally found, this was proven untrue. What *was* true, however, was that Blue Beetle was meant to be in the unproduced fourth wave of *another* Kenner DC line, namely Total Justice. Our first hint of this was his appearance in several pages of the Total Justice coloring book, eventually followed up by shots of the prototype. While Kenner themselves would never produce a Blue Beetle figure, their successors at Hasbro would eventually put out Kenner’s scrapped one, giving Ted his very first action figure in the process.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Blue Beetle was released as part of one of the four DC Super Heroes two-packs released via HasbroCollectors.com in 1999. He was packed alongside a Flash variant and a tiny version of the Atom wearing his Teen Titans costume. The figure is about 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation. Beetle’s sculpt was new to him, but, like a lot of the Total Justice sculpts, parts were reused in the JLA line. In particular, his legs were used by Red Tornado. The sculpt is…well, let’s call it interesting. It’s hands down one of the most preposed and hardest to get standing sculpts of the TJ era. As you can see, I actually had to use a Protech stand to keep him upright for the photos. He’s also exceptionally skinny, made even more egregious because Ted’s usually a slightly stockier guy. Here, he looks like a swimmer, and a particularly skinny one at that.  That said, I do quite like the etched-in details for the costume, something that most of the JLA fill-in figures wound up lacking.  His head uses a multi-part assembly for the googles, which allows them to be clear plastic.  Unfortunately, there’s no actual light piping or anything, so the ultimate result is kind of a muddy amber appearance.  In terms of the rest of coloring, he’s decent enough.  A little on the dark side, and while I’m never one to complain about metallic blue, I don’t know that it quite feels right for Ted as a character.  Application is at least pretty cleanly handled, though.  Despite having a left hand clearly molded to hold something, Ted was without any accessories of his own.  Presumably, had he been released single, there would have been some sort of fractal armor accessory, which we see a little more of in those coloring book pages.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I don’t recall the exact circumstances that lead to me getting this figure.  I know I owned the whole boxed set he came from, and I know I got them from my parents for some sort of occasion.  Maybe Valentines Day?  I remember that Cosmic Comix had all four of the sets in stock, and I’d gotten the Green Lantern/Doctor Polaris and Superboy/King Shark sets already, and I’d looked at this one a bunch of times, so I’d wager my dad probably caught me eying it and bought it for later.  This was my first real exposure to Blue Beetle, and it’s admittedly not all that great a figure.  I do really appreciate the quaintness of him, though.