Tag Archives: Mattel

#0957: Kang

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

KANG

MARVEL SUPER HEROES SECRET WARS (MATTEL)

KangSW1

Yesterday, I said that Doctor Doom was the greatest comicbook villain of all time. But, what about the second greatest comicbook villain? If I’m honest, I’d probably go with the focus of today’s review, Kang the Conqueror. Now, I’m sure at least some of my readers aren’t super familiar with Kang. Kang’s an old-school Avengers villain. He’s a guy from the future, who went all the way back to ancient Egypt, then decided to come to the present, and then eventually went back to the future, so that he could then come back to the present. It’s a little complicated. In his past he was both Rama Tut and Iron Lad, and in the future he becomes Immortus (another Avengers villain). The point is, he’s a lot of fun. He’s managed to get a surprising number of action figures over the years, but today I’ll be looking at his very first.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

KangSW2Kang is another figure from the first series of Mattel’s Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars line. He’s kind of an odd choice, truth be told. He’s not one of Marvel’s better known villains, and plays a very minor role in the tie-in comics. Still,I’m hardly going to complain about getting a Kang figure! He stands 4 ½ inches tall and has 5 points of articulation. Kang was built on the basic body for the line, with the arms from Iron Man (and Doctor Doom) and a unique head. The head is goofy, but not a terrible translation of his design from the comics. It’s not quite as good as some of the later Kang figures, but it doesn’t totally suck. It’s a little flat. The Iron Man arms are actually a pretty good fit, though Kang is usually depicted in a loose-fitting shirt in the comics. Kang also has an add-on piece for his belt/suspender thing, which works pretty decently for what it’s supposed to be. Kang’s paintwork isn’t super exciting. I mean, it’s accurate to his design, more or less, but it doesn’t do a whole lot to make it very exciting. The purple and green are both very dark and sort of run together. Also, the face is just straight light blue, with no variation, which looks kind of lazy. Kang included a blaster and yet another goofy lenticular shield.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got Kang at the same time as Doom (and, by extension, Bane), from a dealer at Balticon. My Dad actually bought a Kang about 15 years ago at a flea market, and I’ve sort of wanted my own ever since, though not enough to do any serious searching. But, for $2, he was definitely worth picking up. There have been better Kangs since this one, but this one’s still not bad!

#0956: Doctor Doom

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

DOCTOR DOOM

MARVEL SUPER HEROES SECRET WARS (MATTEL)

DoomSW1

If you asked me who I though the greatest super hero in comics was, I probably wouldn’t be able to give you a single answer. Maybe I could give like a list of five or so, but that’s the best I can do. The best super VILLAIN in comics, though? That’s easy. It’s Doctor Doom. No question. He’s as good as it gets, mostly because he doesn’t shy away from being an absurd comicbook caricature. He’s ridiculous, his plans are over the top and needlessly complicated, and he likes to speak in the third person a lot. He’s just a very fun character. Of course, movie makers decided that they could “improve” on that, resulting in two rather terrible live-action takes on the character, but I digress. Despite being the number one foe of the Fantasic Four, who were all represented in Mego’s World’s Greatest Super Heroes line, Victor Von Doom wouldn’t get his first action figure for another decade. I’ll be looking at that figure today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

DoomSW2Doctor Doom was released in the first series of Mattel’s Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars line. Doctor Doom has an interesting place in the line. He had a rather prominent role in the tie-in comic series produced by Marvel, but it’s worth noting that three of the four members of the Fantastic Four were also prominent in the series, yet Doom is the only FF-related character that the line released. Slightly odd if you ask me, but given how much of this line relied on using the same basic pieces for every figure, I guess Mattel just didn’t want to justify the costs of new molds for the likes of Sue or Ben.  Anyway, this figure stands 4 ½ inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation. Rather than going with the classic Doctor Doom design (because, hey, it had only been around for 20 years. Nobody was attached to it or anything), this figure gets a Mattel original design. It keeps a lot of the same basic cues as the usual Doom look, but gives him a more generic battle armor sort of look. To be fair, the design did appear in the comic tie-in towards the end, but I feel that was more to tie-in with the toy than working the other way around. Despite the line being mostly built on the same basic body, Doom actually uses none of the standard parts. That’s not to say he’s totally unique; he shares his arms and legs with Iron Man. Though Doom’s armor is usually not as sleek as Iron Man’s, but they’re close enough that it works alright. The right leg has been slightly tweaked to add a leg strap (apparently Doom was ahead of the ‘90s pouch craze), which works well enough. Doom has a unique head and torso, which are…decent? They don’t suck. There are even some fun little details, such as the jetpack on the back of the torso and the little rivets on the faceplate. Individually, they really aren’t bad, but they don’t work very together. The weirdest thing is the head, which has Doom’s signature hood, which ends rather abruptly. It’s almost as if it was sculpted to rest on top of some sort of cape piece, but no such piece was included. At one time, Doctor Doom had a rather complicated paint scheme on the torso, but Secret Wars figures are notorious for their paint wear, and this figure was no exception. As it stands, my figure’s only paint is on the head, for the eyes and mask, which are basic, but pretty well handled. Doctor Doom originally included two blasters and one of the wonky lenticular shields that all of the line’s figures had.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I picked up Doctor Doom last weekend at Balticon. I got him from the same vendor’s table where I got Bane, so he was another $2 figure. Secret Wars really isn’t a line I saw myself getting very invested in, but I keep finding them for pretty good deals. Doom is probably the weakest figure I’ve looked at so far. He really shows off a lot of the line’s flaws, especially with the toy-original design. Still, he’s not the worst figure I’ve ever owned, and I like having him for the novelty.

#0946: Green Lantern

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

GREEN LANTERN

JUSTICE LEAGUE (2013)

GLTarget1

Batman: Brave & the Bold is a show that really doesn’t get enough credit. It’s one of DC’s better outputs in recent years, giving us four seasons of episodes built around showcasing some of the more sidelined members of the DCU. While the show was great, the corresponding toyline was more than a little disappointing. Rather than focusing on the obscure characters the show had been designed to highlight, Mattel offered a litany of senseless Batman variants, with only the occasional non-Bat character. What’s more, the figures were plagued with rather pointless accessories, and every one of them had large, distracting plugs on their arms, legs, and backs, ruining the streamlined nature of the show’s designs. What does all this have to do with today’s review? Well, in 2013, after running the B:BatB line into the ground, Mattel decided to reuse some of the molds to create a line of figures based on the New 52 incarnation of the Justice League. While they were sticking more with heavy hitters, the line offered a few new faces, and, more importantly, removed the silly, gimmicky plugs. Today, I’ll be looking at the Green Lantern figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

GLTarget2Green Lantern was released in the first assortment of the Target-exclusive Justice League line, which hit in 2013. He’s patterned after Hal Jordan’s New 52 appearance, which kinda seems a little counter to Brave and the Bold’s more classical influences. Granted, the New 52 GL design was a less glaring departure than some of the others, so he doesn’t look super out of place. The figure stands 5 inches tall and has 8 points of articulation. That’s not a lot of movement. I mean, I get that the designs can be a little hard to articulate, but they didn’t even give him (or anyone else in the line) knee movement. That’s rather annoying. Structurally, he uses a slightly re-tooled version of the basic Brave and the Bold body, which removes the previously mentioned plugs. Brave and the Bold had a rather unique styling to it, which somewhat eschewed the proportions of the characters. It was one of those styles that looks pretty good in animation, but isn’t very easy to translate into three dimensions. This base body tries its best to make it work, but doesn’t really succeed. The biggest issue is that it’s just a lot more rigid and stiff than any of the characters on the show, which makes it look super off, and calls extra attention to the weird proportions. GL’s one new piece is his head. You would think they might base it on Hal’s Brave and the Bold appearance, so as to continue the styling started with the body, but instead, Mattel’s opted to go with their own, more realistic take on Hal. The more realistic styling only further pronounces the issues with the body, which is really unfortunate. Hal’s paint manages to be pretty decent. The colors are nice and vibrant, and the lines are all very clean. I wish the ring had a bit more to make it stand out, but at least it’s there. Hal included a construct accessory, which is nice in theory. In practice, it’s less nice, since it’s re-used from one of the JLU Lanterns, and therefore is nowhere near large enough to fit over tis figure’s hands.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Being the GL geek that I am, I was a bit letdown by the lack of a Hal Jordan in the Brave and the Bold line. When I found out about this line, I quite excitedly went out and tracked down this figure. The final product isn’t quite what I wanted. He’s far from terrible, but there’s definitely some room for improvement, and the overall effort feels rather lackluster.

#0939: Captain America

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA

MARVEL SUPER HEROES SECRET WARS (MATTEL)

CapSW1

For about a decade now, Hasbro has held the Marvel license. At the same time, Mattel has held the DC license. However, for a short period of time, the licenses were actually reversed. Well, sort of. In the ‘80s, Kenner Toys (who were later purchased by Hasbro) held the DC license and produced the popular DC Super Powers line. At about the same time, Mattel was given the Marvel license, and produced the Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars line. It was nowhere near as successful as Super Powers, but it did manage to produce a few Marvel mainstays, including Captain America, who I’ll be looking at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

CapSW2Captain America was part of Series 1 of the Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars line. As noted in my Wolverine review, the line was designed to tie-in with the Secret Wars maxi-series being published by Marvel Comics (a series that was itself being published because Mattel had requested a comic they could more easily produce a tie-in for). Cap was one of three Avengers produced by the line, with the other two slots being filled by Iron Man and Falcon. The figure is about 4 ½ inches tall and he’s got 5 points of articulation. The Secret Wars line was built pretty heavily on parts re-use, but Cap only used the standard torso. His head, arms, and legs were all unique pieces (though the legs would later be used for the Europe-exclusive Iceman figure). They do a decent enough job of capturing Cap’s look, though, like just about every figure in the line, he’s rather devoid of detail. The Secret Wars figures had a physique that, to quote my friend Jill, “looks like dough.” On the plus side, the gloves and boots do showcase a bit more detail than was often seen in this line. Cap’s face is also appropriately heroic. I do have to wonder where his ears have gotten to, though. Cap’s paintwork is certainly bold, with all the proper colors. It’s not particularly exciting, if I’m honest. There’s not much beyond the most basic work, and even then, some areas still feel a bit phoned in: the belt is only present at the very front, and he only gets two red stripes on each side. There are also sloppy edges all over the place, and all of the painted details are notoriously prone to paint wear. Cap’s lone accessory was a shield. That might seem appropriate, but it’s not; rather than give him his actual shield, Mattel instead gave him a wonky lenticular shield, with the same secret identity revealing gimmick as seen with the rest of the line. Yes, Mattel actually made a figure of Captain America and didn’t give him his mighty shield. They went there.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Despite being an older figure, Cap is a relatively new acquisition. I found him at a rather cool antique store that I went to with my parents, just two weeks ago. Secret Wars has never been my thing, but there are a few figures I have an appreciation for, and Cap was one of them. Is he a fantastic figure? No, he’s really not. He’s kinda dopey, and he’s several steps behind what Kenner was doing at the same time with Super Powers. However, I must admit having an affinity for sort of dopey figures, so I find myself quite liking this guy.

CapSW3

#0930: Waverider

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

WAVERIDER

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED

Waverider1Justice League Unlimited really pulled out all the stops when it came to obscure characters.  By most accounts, anytime they had a big crowd shot of heroes, they’d populate it by letting various crew members pick their favorite characters.  The end result was a rather eclectic selection of heroes, giving a brief spotlight to some of DC’s lowest tier characters.  And, thanks to Mattel’s corresponding line of tie-in figures, a lot of them lucked into their very first action figures.  One of those lucky guys was Waverider, whose big claim to fame is being the catalyst for DC’s “Armageddon 2001,” an event that was supposed to turn Captain Atom into one of the DCU’s big bads, but ended up going with Hawk instead.  To date, Waverider’s JLU figure is the only figure he’s received, but that’s not bad for a character that hasn’t been relevant since 1991.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Waverider2Waverider was released in the second series of Justice League Unlimited three-packs from Mattel.  He was packed with Flash and Hawkgirl, who were both re-releases of their single-release Justice League figures.  He also got a single release of his own later on in the line.  The figure stands just shy of 5 inches tall and has 4 points of articulation.  Technically, there’s a joint at the neck, but the way the hair is attached renders the joint motionless.  Waverider uses the mid-sized male body (used on figures such as Starman), with a unique head.  The head and hair are two separate pieces (allowing the flames of the hair to be molded in translucent plastic).  The head is fairly generic; he’s just a fairly average-looking bald guy, but he looks about like he should.  The hair is suitably energetic, and adds a nice bit of flair to him, though it always feels like it’s about to break off.  Paint always did the heavy lifting on the JLU line, and Waverider’s not an exception.  He’s honestly a bit drab.  In the comics, Waverider was always black and a yellow-ish gold, but here the gold has been swapped out for a washed-out yellow, that just doesn’t really pop.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The first series of JLU figures was rather difficult to find, so when I found the entire second series of them (Waverider included) while on vacation, my parents very kindly bought them for me (because they’re awesome like that).  At the time, I didn’t know the character at all, so it was fun getting to figure out who he was after the fact.  He’s not the most exciting figure of all time, but I have fond memories of getting him and his series mates.

#0910: Shade

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

SHADE

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED

Shade1

While DC’s Golden Age heroes have all more or less managed to stay in the spot light over the years, the foes that those heroes faced haven’t been quite so lucky. Even hardcore DC fans will struggle to name more than a handful. One of the few to not totally get lost in the shuffle between the various “ages” was the Shade, thanks in no small part to being included in James Robinson’s run on Starman. Shade’s had three action figures over the years. Today, I’ll be looking at the one based on his appearance in the Justice League cartoon.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Shade2Shade was part of Mattel’s Justice League Unlimited line. He was initially released as a solo figure in 2007, but he was also re-released later in a three-pack with Cheetah and Lex Luthor. The figure stands 5 ¼ inches tall counting the hat, and he has 5 points of articulation. JLU was Mattel’s first instance of applying the buck system to a DC line, and Shade was no exception. He was built on the skinny male body (a re-tooled version of the Flash). It’s a decent fit for Shade, though he should probably be a little taller and skinnier. He has a new head, which does a pretty awesome job of translating Shade’s look from the show. There’s no mistaking him for anyone else. Shade also has an add-on piece on his chest, to represent his jacket from the show, but it doesn’t work very well. It’s ill-fitting and overly bulky, and lacks any really defined details. A newly sculpted torso, or even just proper application of paint on the basic torso would have been much better. As it stands, the look of the figure is really off, which is a shame, given the quality of the head sculpt. The paint on Shade is pretty straight forward: white on the face, black everywhere else. It’s not particularly exciting, and it’s also not accurate; Shade on the show had a few different finishes on his outfit, and at least part of it was a dark grey. The single packed Shade included his cane (which he’s unable to hold), while the three-pack version was without any extras.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Shade was a rather rare figure back when he was new, so I never got one. Last November, while participating in Small Business Saturday, my brother and I were in a small nick-knack shop, where he happened upon a Secret Wars Wolverine in a small bin on a low-sitting shelf. A quick look through the rest of the surrounding bins found me this guy, for $1.99. This figure is a bit of a mixed bag, but for 2 bucks, I’m willing to let him slide.

#0892: Superman

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

SUPERMAN

DC COMICS MULTIVERSE (MATTEL)

DKRSuperman1

Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice was released last week to reviews that were…well, I’ll be generous and say “middling.” Though they tend to be presented as a more friendly pair, Superman vs Batman is not a new idea for the film. They’ve done battle a few times over the years. One of the better handled face-offs is in Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns. In the story, Batman’s gotten pretty far removed from his usual self, and becomes rather unhinged, prompting the US government to send Superman in to take him down if need be. Though Batman is technically the story’s hero, Superman isn’t portrayed as being in the wrong, just a guy looking for a glimpse of hope in the bleak, nihilistic future of DKR. Anyway, the story is celebrating its 30th Anniversary this year, and Mattel has done a small sub-set of figures based on it, including Superman.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

DKRSuperman2Superman is one of the three figures that make up the Walmart-exclusive Batman: The Dark Knight Returns series of the main DC Comics Multiverse line. The figure stands just shy of 7 inches tall and he has 25 points of articulation. Structurally, he has a very similar build to the figures in Mattel’s Masters of the Universe Classics line. He re-uses a lot of pieces from the prior DKR Batman released in the Batman Unlimited line. Mattel insists that the only pieces these two share with the MotUC figures are the shoulders. I can’t say that they have much incentive to lie about something like this, so I guess I’ll believe them, even if the parts do look really similar. Anyway, Superman uses the majority of the aforementioned Batman figure, with a unique head, forearms, shins, pelvis cover, and cape. The piece make him sufficiently different, while also keeping the similar build of the two characters, which makes sense, since Batman and Superman were portrayed as about the same size in the story. While he’s definitely put on some muscle mass in the story, Superman has aged far more gracefully than Batman. The figure does a pretty good job of replicating that in the head sculpt; he’s obviously a little older when you look at him closely, but he can pretty easily pass for a normal Superman, should you want him to. The rest of the new pieces are all pretty basic, but they capture the look of the character nicely, and they’re all pretty sharp sculpts. The paintwork on Superman is kind of a mix of good and bad. The overall look is definitely very good. The colors are nice and bold, and I absolutely love the larger “S” logo on his chest. He’s noticeably missing the symbol on the back of his cape, though, which is a bit of a shame. Also, the actual application of the paint is quite sloppy. In the store, I had to choose between sloppy belt and decent neckline or decent belt and atrocious neckline. That’s not a fun choice (I went with the former). Superman includes one of Green Arrow’s…uh, arrows, which has a kryptonite tip. It’s a nice piece, even if he does have a little trouble holding it. It sure would be nice if we got an Ollie to go with that arrow, though.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m at best a moderate fan of The Dark Knight Returns. I own exactly one issue of the series. Care to guess which one? Yeah, it’s the one where he fights Superman. I picked up the first DKR Batman when Mattel released him a few years back in hopes that it would eventually lead to this particular figure, and in a roundabout way, it did. Of course, actually finding him was no easy feat. I stopped at several Walmarts and was never able to find anything more than the Batman re-paint that accompanies this guy. However, at the last Walmart, after I admitted defeat, my good friend Jill noted a few items had been placed on the top shelf at the far end of the aisle. Sure enough, I spotted two Multiverse packages, and when I pulled them down, they were both Superman. Someone was hiding figures! I’m really happy to have this guy, and I think he turned out incredibly well. Were it not for the NECA Christopher Reeve Superman, this one would probably be my favorite Superman in my collection.

Well, here was the real review, but this was my April Fools day post for 2016.  Read the altered version here.

DKRSuperman3

#0891: Elasti-Girl

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

ELASTI-GIRL

DC UNIVERSE CLASSICS

Elastigirl1

I’ve had over a week of Marvel reviews; maybe I should give their distinguished competition a bit of focus. Of course, being me, I’m not gonna go with a heavy hitter or anything like that. No, no, I’m pulling out the stops, and looking at a member of one of my favorite DC teams, the Doom Patrol. The Doom Patrol were essentially DC’s equivalent of the X-Men (they actually premiered three months prior), but they’ve never been quite as successful. And I’m pretty sure that most of them don’t actually exist anymore. I’ve actually already looked at one of the three founding members, Negative Man, and today I’ll be looking at another: Elasti-Girl*. Despite what the name might imply, she didn’t have stretching powers, but instead could grow or shrink in size, similarly to Marvel’s Giant-Man. She’s also only ever had one action figure, which is the one I’ll be reviewing today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Elastigirl2Elasti-Girl was released in the first year of the Club Infinite Earths subscription, which continued the DC Universe Classics line. In the first year, they offered twelve main figures, plus four “oversized” figures. Elasti-Girl was the third oversized figure, and was released in October of 2012, alongside Poison Ivy. The figure stands roughly 10 inches tall (about 4 inches taller than her main line counterparts) and has 22 points of articulation. Elasti-Girl is built on a lot of the same pieces as Series 8’s Giganta Collect-N-Connect (rumor had it that Elasti-Girl would have been a CNC herself, had the DCUC line not failed at retail). She uses the arms, upper torso, and upper legs from that figure, along with a new head, hands, lower torso, and lower legs. The end result is really quite nice. The proportions are decently balanced, if a tiny bit stylized, and the detail work on the hands and boots is very strong. In addition, the head is one of the best sculpts to come out of DCUC; it’s not too big or too flat like so many of the others, and her expression avoids being dead or vapid. The only part I can really find any fault with is the torso section, which falls a bit more into comic book proportions than the rest of the sculpt. It’s not terrible, though, especially in light of the rest of the line. Elasti-Girl’s paintwork is pretty straight forward; the colors are nice and bright, and there’s some nice, subtle accent work, which gives her a more life-like appearance.  No DCUC figure was ever particularly plentiful in terms of accessories, so it’s not a huge surprise that Elasti-Girl only gets one. It’s a little, 1 inch version of her, to showcase her shrinking powers. It’s not anything amazing, but it’s nice that they gave her something.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t actually back the subscription service during its first year, so I had to contend with Matty Collector’s horrid “day of” sale. On the plus side, it wasn’t as terrible as other times, and I was even able to get a second Elasti-Girl for my Dad. Honestly, it’s figures like this that remind me of exactly why I collected DCUC in the first place. She’s a good, solid representation of a lower tier character, who makes use of just the right balance of re-use and unique parts. If the later sub figures had been able to stick to this kind of quality, maybe the line might have survived a bit longer.

*Not to be confused with Elastigirl from Pixar’s The Incredibles, who actually used the name with DC’s blessing, but had to be called “Mrs. Incredible” on all official merchandise.

Elastigirl3

#0867: Wonder Woman

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

WONDER WOMAN

DC COMICS MULTIVERSE (MATTEL)

WWDoJ1

March 25th will see the release of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. March 25th will also see me avoiding movie theatres like the plague, because I have no desire to see the movie (my scathing hatred of Man of Steel is the main reason, but there are a few others). For the most part, I’m also steering clear of the associated toys that go with said movie due to them a) being based on designs I’m not super thrilled by, and b) made by Mattel, who happen to be one of my least favorite toy makers. However, I’m a firm believer that a cool toy is a cool toy regardless of its source material or manufacturer. And that, dear readers, is why I’m reviewing today’s figure, Wonder Woman.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

WWDoJ2Wonder Woman is part of the first assortment of the Dawn of Justice series of DC Comics Multiverse. Multiverse has previously been a 3 ¾ inch line, but starting in 2016, Mattel is bumping the line back up to the more familiar 6-inch scale. Also, it should be noted that there are currently two different case pack-outs for this line, and Wonder Woman is only in one of them. That said, she doesn’t look to be all that hard to find right now. The figure stands just shy of 6 ½ inches tall and has 26 points of articulation. The articulation is overall fairly decent, but it seems a bit rudimentary when compared to, say, one of Hasbro’s Marvel Legends. The lack of any real movement on the head is a bit frustrating, but excusable. The height (well, the whole scale, really) of the figure is definitely a bit off; she’s the tallest of the four figures in the series, despite Gal Godot being the shortest of the three leads. She’s more scaled with something like a NECA figure than she is her fellow Multiverse figures. Her sculpt is all-new, and it’s generally pretty good. There’s definitely some oddities, such are the somewhat obvious joints in the arms and legs, or the strangely geometrical upper legs, but the overall proportions of the figure are surprisingly well done. She’s easily one of the most realistic female figures Mattel has ever produced. The details of the costume seem to pretty close to what we’ve seen of the movie’s design, and there’s some decent texture work. The head is pretty decent, if not amazing. I don’t immediately see Gadot’s likeness when looking at the figure, but it’s hard to say how much of that’s the sculpt and how much is paint. Speaking of paint, that’s where this figure takes a slight dive. On a whole, I actually like it, especially the choice to go a bit brighter with the colors than what we’ve seen from the film. However, the application is a bit spotty. The two biggest areas of issue WWDoJ3are the face and the boots. The face is at least fairly clean, if perhaps a bit thick and in need of some accent work. The boots seem like the painter just got confused by all those sculpted lines and gave their best approximation; they’re quite sloppy, and the flesh toned ankle joint breaks them up in kind of an odd way. Wonder Woman is packed with a sword and shield (which appears to be the Aegis, aka the shield given to Perseus by Athena). The shield is an amazingly sculpted piece, and by far my favorite part of this whole figure, though it can be a bit difficult for Diana to hold it. The sword is generally pretty nice, though the rather obvious “CHINA” stamp on one side makes it look like Wonder Woman has had to make due with a repro of her actual sword. Wonder Woman is also packed with what has to be the lamest build-a-thing piece I’ve ever gotten; it’s the supporting column to the display base for the Batman Grapnel replica. Seriously, it’s lame.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When I saw the various Dawn of Justice merchandise in the store, I was prepared to totally overlook it. But, I saw Wonder Woman, and was genuinely surprised by how much I liked her. No, she’s not a perfect figure, but she’s really not bad, either. And, with the size that she is, she actually fits in pretty nicely with the recent Adam West Batman and Christopher Reeve Superman from NECA, making for a pretty cool trinity display (though I’d happily replace this figure with a Linda Carter Wonder Woman, should NECA ever get the rights…). I’ve certainly gotten worse figures from Mattel.

#0859: Perseus

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , ,

PERSEUS

CLASH OF THE TITANS (MATTEL)

Perseus1

The incredible success of Star Wars and its associated merchandise was something that just about everyone was looking to cash in on in the late 70s/early 80s. Kenner had struck gold with their 3 ¾ inch line, leading to a number of imitators, hoping to get a slice of that success. Mattel tried a number of different lines, based on various sci-fi and fantasy properties of the time, each very clearly based on the Kenner aesthetic. One such line was Clash of the Titans, based on the 1981 film. The line was far from a smash success, and only managed to produce four basic figures and two larger creatures. Today, I’ll be looking at their figure of the film’s hero, Perseus.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Perseus2Perseus was part of the first, and only, series of Clash of the Titans figures from 1981. The figure stands just shy of 4 inches tall (making him pretty tall for the time) and has 5 points of articulation. While the sculpt was clearly designed to mimic the Kenner figures of the time, this figure is noticeably less sturdy than his Kenner compatriots. For a classic Greek hero, he sure is scrawny. The sculpt is okay overall, but there are a number of odd things going on with it. The legs/pelvis area is definitely pretty weird looking; in the movie, he’s wearing a long tunic sort of a thing, but here it’s been transformed into an odd, squared off diaper thing. And that’s not even addressing the fact that his legs don’t appear to actually connect to his torso. His torso sports a strap that abruptly ends at the hip. In the film, this strap is connected to his scabbard, but Mattel wanted to be able to have Perseus share his legs with Thallo, so there was no scabbard to be had. The head probably exhibits the best work of the sculpt, but it’s still not all there. I can kind of see Harry Hamlin in this sculpt, but he looks a bit exaggerated, and almost has a sinister, scheming air about him, which hardly seems right for the film’s hero. Perseus’s paint is faitlu basic. One shade of brown for his hair, boots, bracelets, and eyes, another for his strap, and a light beige for his tunic. It’s nothing amazing, but it’s all pretty clean. Plus, he got eyes, which means he fared far better than any of the humans from Mattel’s Battlestar Galactica line! Perseus was originally packed with a sword and his shield, the Aegis, but my figure doesn’t have those.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve actually never seen Clash of the Titans. I’ve seen clips from it, I’ve heard the soundtrack, but I’ve never seen the movie. However, I’m a bit of a Greek mythology geek, and I’m also a huge action figure geek (try not to be too shocked). So, when I found this guy in a box of loose figures at a flea market last month, I was actually kind of excited. As usual, it’s a Mattel product that’s nowhere near the competing product of the time in terms of quality, but I kind of have a soft spot for this figure. And one of these days I’ll get around to watching the movie…

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