Tag Archives: Justice League Unlimited

#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.

#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.

#3606: Mr. Miracle

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

MR MIRACLE

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED (MATTEL)

Fun FiQ Fact #0085: Mr. Miracle is voiced in Justice League Unlimited by Ioan Gruffud, who that same year played another super-heroic “Mr” as Mr. Fantastic in Marvel’s Fantastic Four.

The New Gods play a rather pivotal role in the DC Animated Universe, with each of the pivotal players getting their own focus.  Though largely in the background, Mr. Miracle gets his one focus episode, “The Ties That Bind,” which is a fun little summation of Scott’s comics background.  The comics adaptations were even kinder to Scott, as he got several appearances in Superman Adventures, which actually served as my introduction to the character, and which cemented my love of him.  How thankful I was that his JLU appearance got him a figure in the animated style!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mr. Miracle was released as part of Mattel’s Justice League Unlimited line, first arriving in 2007 as part of a three-pack with Orion and Darkseid, and then again in 2008 in a larger New Gods-themed six-pack, and once more in 2009 in a pack with Plastic Man and Cyborg.  None of them were super easy to find, so he remained a tricky one for most of the line’s run.  The figure stands 4 3/4 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Mr. Miracle is built on the larger male base body (retooled from the original Superman mold), which seems a little too large for Scott, honestly.  I feel like the medium/GL-retool body might have been better, especially since it would have kept him shorter, thus working a bit better with the line’s take on Barda.  Perhaps they felt that base was getting a little over-used?  I don’t know.  It’s not terrible, so I won’t harp too much.  He gets a new head and a cape add-on piece, which work well.  The head’s a little larger, which keeps the internal scaling better, but looks a little strange next to the rest of the figures.  It’s a good rendition of his animation model, though, which is a plus.  The cape is thick and stiff, but it’s a solid sculpt, and it’s got a nice flow about it.  Mr. Miracle’s paint work is doing the heavy lifting, as was the case for most of this line.  It’s generally decent, with the proper colors and the like.  The application’s a little fuzzy on some of the edges, especially on the greens.  Also, the paint is rather susceptible to chipping, hence the missing chunk of green on his foot.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

Despite my love of Mr. Miracle, this was one of those figures I was unable to get during the original run of the line.  He just never landed in front of me, I guess.  You know, until it did, and, well, I bought it.  Yeah, there was one at the bottom of a shopping bag of otherwise junk that got traded into All Time, and, when you get a sign, you take it.  He’s not the best Mr. Miracle figure, or the best JLU figure, but at least I have him, right?

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.

#3390: Star Sapphire

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STAR SAPPHIRE

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED (MATTEL)

Outside of DC’s main trinity of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, when the shift from Golden Age to Silver Age occurred, most of the heroes rogues galleries were restarted completely from scratch.  Since a good number of the heroes were really just re-using the name, and applying it to a totally new character, there was very little reason to carry anything else over.  One exception of note was Star Sapphire, a Golden Age Flash foe whose name would be re-used in the Silver Age as an antagonist for the new version of Green Lantern.*  Like GL, she got a re-work to update the concept.  She was now Hal Jordan’s love interest Carol Ferris, imbued with the powers of the Zamarons, who sought to prove that women were a superior force to men, by using their own Star Sapphire to bring down the male Green Lantern.  Carol held the title for a while, with the persona manifesting as a split personality that she retained no memories of, and after she was rid of it, others were granted the power as well, before it was ultimately re-worked into a parallel Lantern corps to the Green Lantern.  But, before they went that crazy with it, a version of the character was featured in Justice League and its follow-up Justice League Unlimited, where she’s just kind of a run of the mill villain with unexplored ties to Green Lantern.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Star Sapphire was added to Mattel’s Justice League Unlimited tie-in line in 2007.  She was part of the seventh series of three packs under the “DC Universe” branding, in a set that also included Sand and the extra articulation version of Superman.  She was subsequently re-released on her own in 2010.  Star Sapphire is, of course, based on her animated design, which marked a fair bit of a departure from her comics look.  It’s not a bad one, though, and certainly paired well with the redesign for GL.  The figure stands about 4 1/2 inches tall and she has 5 points of articulation.  None of that articulation’s particularly useful, mind you, since the neck is effectively rendered motionless by the hair, and the v-hips offer no practical movement of any sort.  She can move her arms up a bit, I suppose, so, you know, there’s that.  Star Sapphire is based on Mattel’s generic female body, which was never a particularly good one.  It’s got kind of funky proportions and an odd stance.  It also doesn’t really stand up well.  She got a new head sculpt, which is at least a pretty decent recreation of her appearances on the show.  Unfortunately, it’s not very well served by the paint work, which is thick, sloppy, and has a rather uneven texture.  I appreciate what they were going for with the gloss finish on the pink sections, but they don’t help with the odd texture, and the face is even worse.  She looks unwell.  Star Sapphire included a display stand with both releases (all the figures on this body did, since it was so poor at balancing on its own feet), and the single also added an effect piece.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While I’m certainly a GL fan, I’ll admit that the animated version of Star Sapphire never much clicked with me.  She always felt like more of a space filler than anything.  Even when it came to this line, that was kind of the case, since it’s not like there’s any sensible reason for packing her with the two characters she came with.  What’s more, the actual quality of the figure feels kind of lackluster, making her the weakest entry in a three pack where one figure was a total re-hash.  It’s kind of a shame, but at least she got a figure, I guess.

*The Golden Age Star Sapphire would also later be connected to the Zamarons, who created the Silver Age incarnation, via a retcon establishing her as a someone who was vying for the Zamaron throne and had been exiled.

#3385: Atom Smasher

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

ATOM SMASHER

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED (MATTEL)

When the titular team of Justice League expanded its roster for the follow-up Justice League Unlimited, they had to reach beyond just canon Leagers from the comics, including a number of other unaffiliated heroes, and, of course, rolling in some competing teams’ rosters as well.  Since the JLA’s predecessors the Justice Society had not been adapted into the earlier show (apart from their role in the comics being referenced by stand-ins the Justice Guild in “Legends”), a mix of their classic and modern rosters were added to the League.  From the modern side, there was Albert Rothstien, aka Atom Smasher.  Atom Smasher was never really more than a cameo role, with a few focuses during some of the more involved fight scenes, but never a speaking role.  Still, he did get included in the toyline, so he had that going for him.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Atom Smasher was first added to Mattel’s Justice League Unlimited tie-in line in the third assortment of three-packs, released in early 2005.  He was packed alongside re-packs of the more articulated Green Lantern and Flash figures.  He was re-released later that same year as a single release.  The figure stands about 4 3/4 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Atom Smasher is based on the larger male base body, based on tooling that originally belonged to the first Superman figure.  It’s the largest available base body, and one that matches respectably well with how Atom Smasher is depicted on the show, at least in terms of build.  He was, however, almost always shown as above average size, so he’s woefully short for Atom Smasher.  But, without the re-use, it’s not like he was going to get made.  His only new part is a head sculpt.  It’s a little on the small side, but that seems to match with his internal proportions alright.  It’s fully masked, so there’s not a ton of detailing, but it gets what it needs to.  The rest of the detailing is carried via paintwork, which is handled alright.  Not amazing, or anything.  Of note, the sections that should be blue are more of a purple.  That, coupled with the slightly darker shade of the gold for his belt, kind of muddies the overall look of his design.  At the very least, a little bit more actual line work may have helped to differentiate the costume elements just a bit more.  As it stands, it’s okay, but just sort of “meh.”  The three-pack version of Atom Smasher didn’t include any extras, which was honestly okay, since he doesn’t use much.  For the single release, he got an extra large hand clip-on piece.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This Atom Smasher didn’t start out as mine.  Back when the JLU line was running, there was a Walmart on the way home from where my family vacationed, which was out of the way enough to be the perfect spot to find new JLU figures.  On the trip that got me my Hawk and Dove figures, my brother got the set that included this guy.  He got out of action figure collecting for the most part a few years ago, and this figure was one of the ones I inherited when he purged a lot of his collection.  He’s not the line’s strongest offering, that’s for sure, but he does alright, given the confines of how these guys were made.

#3380: Kyle Rayner

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

KYLE RAYNER

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED (MATTEL)

When Green Lantern first appeared in the DC Animated Universe in Superman: The Animated Series, the producers opted to use the then-current holder of the title, Kyle Rayner, as their introductory Lantern.  Kyle gained a good portion of Hal Jordan’s origin, being the first Earth Lantern, having gotten the ring directly from Abin Sur, but he still retained Kyle’s personality and background as an artist.  When *a* Green Lantern reappeared in Justice League, it was not Kyle, but rather John Stewart, who was chosen not only to add a little more diversity to the titular team, but also to give the show a slightly less defined Lantern to work with for some of the show’s character arcs.  Rayner still existed within the narrative however, and was granted a couple of additional cameos, as well as a small speaking role in Justice League Unlimited‘s “The Return.”  It was this appearance that finally got animated Kyle some action figure treatment.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Kyle Rayner was initially released in 2006 during the second iteration of Mattel’s Justice League Unlimited tie-in line, under the orange packaging style, in a pack that also included fellow GLs Katma Tui and Arkkis Chummuck.  He was then re-released as a single the following year, and once more in a convention-exclusive pack with Evil Star and Goldface.  As noted in the intro, Kyle is based on his design from “The Return,” which was itself an adaptation of Kyle’s Jim Lee-designed costume update from the early ’00s.  The figure stands about 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  He’s based on the medium-sized male base body.  Rather fittingly, it started as a GL body, and it remains so here.  Kyle’s original build was a bit smaller, but by the time of “The Return,” he’d bulked up a bit, so it makes sense.  Kyle got a new head sculpt for this release, and it’s honestly a pretty good one.  We don’t see a ton of Kyle in the show, but this matches up pretty nicely with what we do see, while still being rather unique.  It’s sharp, clean, and pretty on point for the character.  Kyle’s paint work does most of the heavy lifting, as with most of these figures.  It does it well; his outfit’s detailing is pretty spot on.  The green’s a little prone to chipping, but not as bad as some figures from the line.  The head paint is alright, though a bit washed out; the brown for the hair feels a little light, as does the skin tone.  But, it still works well enough overall.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

“In Brightest Day” is far and away my favorite entry in the DCAU.  I was such a huge GL fan as a kid, and I excited recorded the episode on VHS when it aired back in the day.  The lack of a GL in the tie-in line always bummed me out.  When Kyle was replaced with John in JL, I obviously adjusted, and I was happy to get plenty of cool figures for John.  That said, I still hoped for Kyle.  Admittedly, this wasn’t the look I initially had in mind, and to this day, I still would love to get a STAS version of the character, but I do still really love this guy, too.  He honestly holds up pretty well.

#3375: Elongated Man

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

ELONGATED MAN

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED (MATTEL)

While I’ve up to this point only really mentioned him in passing here on the site, Ralph Dibney, aka the Elongated Man, is one of my favorite comic book characters, and certainly my favorite DC character. Though he’s been rattling around the DC universe since 1960, he spent his first 44 years strangely absent from other mediums, always playing second fiddle to Plastic Man. His lick finally changed in 2004, with first a DC Direct figure, and then a figure to correspond with his first animated appearance in Justice League Unlimited. I’m taking a look at the latter of those today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Elongated Man was released in the first assortment of Justice League Unlimited three-packs in 2004.  He was packed in a set which was supposedly based on “The Greatest Story Never Told.”  Given that the episode in question is honestly one of Elongated Man’s largest roles on the show, it made some degree of sense.  Of course, the fact that the set packed him with Batman and Hawkgirl (who, it should be noted, was not only not wearing her Thanagarian costume in JLU, but had also not yet returned after leaving in “Starcrossed”), and did *not* feature Booster Gold, who was, you know, the main character in the episode.  I mean, sure, I’m thrilled about the inclusion of Elongated Man and all, but still.  Elongated Man was also released single-careded, in both the orange and purple card styles, in 2006 and 2007.  The figure stands about 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  He’s built on the skinny male body (which was a tweaked Flash sculpt), which very definitely fits with the character’s depiction on the show.  He got a new head sculpt.  It’s an alright offering; not quite as spot-on as some of the others in the line, but certainly not bad.  The decision to go with the full grin doesn’t work out quite as well as they’d hoped, I feel; he didn’t really show his teeth much on the show, so it throws the likeness off just a little bit.  But, like I said, hardly a bad sculpt at all, and certainly one that made him unique from the other figures in the line.  The figure’s paint work followed the show’s lead, putting Ralph in his ’80s era purple and white costume.  It translates fairly well, and the application’s generally pretty clean.  It hasn’t held up the best on my copy, who has some chipping and wear, but that could just be a me thing.  The original three-pack release of Ralph had no accessories, but the two single releases added a weird grapple thing to clip onto his wrist.  It’s an odd piece.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The three-pack that Ralph was included in was one of the trickier ones to acquire early in the line’s run, and I don’t recall seeing one at retail during the original run.  I also missed out on his single releases.  Instead, I got my Elongated Man figure loose, in fact as one of my earliest purchases from All Time Toys way back in the day.  I recall being quite excited to find him, especially since it meant I didn’t get saddled with extras of the other two figures in the pack.  He’s not a perfect figure, but he *is* an Elongated Man figure, so that gives him quite a leg up in my book!

#3370: Red Tornado

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

RED TORNADO

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED (MATTEL)

Originally the costumed alter-ego of the humor-based Ma Hunkel in the Golden Age, the identity of Red Tornado was worked into the more serious side of DC in the ’60s, this time around as an android.  Built by T.O. Morrow to attack the JSA, Red Tornado would, unsurprisingly, turn on his creator, and join the team he was meant to destroy, before dying and then coming back and joining the JLA, and then dying some more, and then coming back some more.  Lotta dying and coming back for this guy.  Red Tornado’s first appearance in animation was as a background/cameo character in Justice League Unlimited, before getting up to a speaking role.  It wasn’t a ton, but it was a decent focus, and, most importantly, it meant toy coverage.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Red Tornado was initially released in the second round of Mattel’s Justice League Unlimited tie-in line in 2004, in a three pack that included the Flash and Green Lantern.  He then got a single release in 2005, and then another in 2010.  The figure stands about 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Red Tornado is built on the medium size male base body, which was originally Green Lantern.  It’s a good match for Tornado’s build on the show, so it’s a sensible choice for a starting point.  He got a re-worked set of legs featuring his boot cuffs, as well as a unique head sculpt and an add-on for his cape.  The new pieces do a respectable job of capturing his show design, especially the head, which feels especially true to that incarnation of the character.  Red Tornado winds up rather similar to Dr. Fate when it comes to the paint work, which is decent in terms of application, but misses the mark a bit in terms of accuracy.  He steers closer to Tornado’s classic color scheme, which means that his gloves are yellow and the boots are red, when they should both actually be blue.  Moreover, the blue on his cape is far brighter than it should be for proper show accuracy.  The 2010 release would correct the issues with the paint, but the 2004 and 2005 releases were both incorrect.  Ultimately, it’s really not the end of the world, and the application is at least still pretty nice.  The three-pack version (which I have) didn’t get any accessories, but the single versions both got a tornado effect piece.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I know I didn’t get Red Tornado brand new, but I know I also got him pretty new.  Like, line was still running, but it was probably in a different packaging style.  According to my records, he came from Cosmic Comix, which makes a degree of sense.  I remember being pretty happy to have gotten one.  Not a ton beyond that, but he’s definitely fun.

#3345: Dr. Fate

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

DR. FATE

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED (MATTEL)

Justice League Unlimited‘s expanded roster brought with it a mix of characters, some all-new, and some with prior DCAU appearances.  Dr. Fate had shown up a few times before, with a guest appearance on Superman: The Animated Series during the show’s second season, as well as on JLU‘s precursor Justice League, as part of the Defenders homage team in “The Terror Beyond.”  The character had only a few rather brief appearances during JLU‘s run, but it didn’t really take much to justify giving someone an action figure with that show.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Dr. Fate was part of Mattel’s launch line-up for their JLU tie-in line in 2004.  He was in a three-pack alongside Green Arrow and The Flash, in a pack specifically referencing the episode “Initiation.”  Fate’s not really much of a player in that episode, but neither is Flash, so the whole thing winds up a bit odd.  It was honestly a rather frequent occurrence in the early multi-packs for the line.  Fate wound up getting re-packed a good number of times, as a single in 2005, alongside Vixen and Hawkgirl in 2006, alongside Starman and Flash in 2007, and solo once more in 2009.  The figure stands about 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Fate was built on the skinny male base body, which was patterned on the original Flash figure.  It generally fits pretty well with Fate’s depiction on the show.  He gets a new head, cape, and arms to fully sell the look.  The head’s a pretty spot-on piece, as is the cape.  The arms add his gloves, and they’re not bad, but they are a touch too long for the base body, giving him something of a monkey arms set-up.  Dr. Fate’s paint work is okay in application, but not so great in accuracy.  His colors are definitely too bright for the animated Fate, and his neck and boots both wind up being done in yellow, instead of blue like they should be for proper accuracy.  The application was at least decent, and the slightly metallic finish for the yellow parts is at least a little more visual pop.  It’s worth noting that the 2009 release actually corrected the layout of the colors, though not the actual shades of them.  For his three-pack releases, Fate got no accessories, but his single releases both got a magic effect for him to hold.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I took a while to get the Dr. Fate figure from this line.  I don’t really know why, honestly.  It’s not like I dislike the character or anything.  In fact, I generally like him, and his animation design as a whole.  For whatever reason, I wound up waiting until his first solo release, which I more than likely got with a gift card after the holidays.  He’s got some issues with accuracy, and those monkey arms are a bit much, but he’s still a pretty fun figure, all things considered.

#3340: Nemesis

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

NEMESIS

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED (MATTEL)

Beginning as the star of a back-up feature running in Brave and the Bold (which was then serving as DC’s equivalent to Marvel’s Marvel Team-Up), Thomas Tresser aka Nemesis has never been a particularly high profile DC character, but he’s had a few notable moments over the years.  He’s certainly a different sort of character, especially for his era, being more of an espionage type of character who nevertheless still regularly interacts with the main DC heroes.  He’s kind of like a Black Widow type almost.  In this day and age of media, it’s honestly downright baffling that his only appearance outside of the comics is as a couple of cameos in Justice League Unlimited.  He did at least get a toy out of it, though.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Nemesis was released in 2007, under the third iteration of Mattel’s Justice League Unlimited line.  He was in the fifth series following the line’s move to the purple “DC Universe” branded packaging, and was available only in a three-pack alongside Lightray and a winged variant of Amazo.  The figure stands about 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Nemesis was built on the medium male body, which was reworked from the basic Green Lantern.  It’s a good, balanced build, and was very definitely the line’s best base body.  He got the new fancy-booted legs from the prior year’s Lex Luthor, as well as that figure’s shoulder harness add-on.  Those pieces, coupled with a brand-new head sculpt, made for a really solid recreation of Nemesis’s design as seen on the show.  The head sculpt is honestly one of the line’s best, and is just a great recreation of Nemesis not only from the show, but from the comics as well.  The paint work on this guy is very basic.  Largely, he’s just molded in black.  There’s a little bit of painted add-on work, and it does what needs to, and does it pretty well.  Nemesis was *technically* not packed with any accessories, but he’s a master of disguise and the other two figures in the pack were both built on the same base body, so maybe they’re just disguises?  Yeah, let’s spin it that way.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My knowledge of Nemesis really came from his stint as a supporting player in Wonder Woman.  I really dug the character there, and liked how they worked him into the overall story, fitting him loosely into that Steve Trevor role.  Beyond that, I’ve always thought he had a pretty cool look.  JLU was still very hard to find at retail when this set hit, but Cosmic Comix happened to get one in back when they were still relatively new, and I was enough of a fan of all the figures included to pick it up.  Nemesis is a great example of the line’s parts re-use really working well to give us characters we wouldn’t otherwise get.