Tag Archives: Mattel

#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.

#3710: April O’Neil

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

APRIL O’NEIL — SORCERESS FROM CHANNEL 6 NEWS

TURTLES OF GRAYSKULL (MATTEL)

You know, I had a pretty good run of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reviews last month, but it sort of fell off for October.  It’s kind of the nature of the beast; I don’t actually buy *that* much TMNT stuff.  But, it’s okay, because I’ve got a new TMNT thing!  And it’s not *just* TMNT, either!  It’s also Masters of the Universe, because we’ve got another crossover bit up in here!  ….Sorry, that felt wrong and forced.  I promise not to do it again.  Anyway, I’m jumping back over to Turtles of Grayskull, Mattel’s TMNT/MOTU crossover line.  I looked at the Casey last month, and because I’m a guy that loves my pairings, I’m taking a look at their take on the other human ally (and honestly the more important one) April O’Neil!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

April O’Neil – Sorceress From Channel 6 News is part of the fourth assortment of the Turtles of Grayskull line.  She’s one of the two Turtles-centered characters in the set, the other being a revisit on Leonardo.  The figure stands about 5 1/4 inches tall and she has 28 points of articulation.  She’s my first direct interaction with the female Origins base body, which is a fair bit different from its male counterpart in build, of course, but not drastically so in terms of articulation set-up.  Honestly, it’s not bad.  While Casey relied more on just the TMNT side of things for his design, April is going more the Donnie route, and getting merged with a specific MOTU concept, in this case the Sorceress, as is detailed pretty well in the included mini-comic.  It’s a solid merging of the two designs, specifically calling on the ’80s incarnations of both in particular, so that it really feels like ’80s April taking on the ’80s Sorceress’s powers.  The sculpt captures the whole set-up pretty decently.  There’s certainly a degree of hokeyness to it, but that’s kind of exactly the aim with this whole bit.  I do find it generally a more refined sculpt than most of her male counterparts, which is cool.  The color work is very bright and generally clean.  The face looks to be printed.  Mine’s got a stray black mark under the eye, but that’s really my only issue.  I quite like the pattern on the tabard; that’s a lot of fun.  She’s packed with a pair of wings, done up in the colors to match the vintage Sorceress, which plug pretty securely into her collar piece.  She’s also got a big hammer-style version of the Sorceress’s scepter, which I really do love.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I knew once I snagged Casey, I wanted to get an April to go with.  So, when Casey arrived, I confidently grabbed the red-headed warrior woman of the assortment to go with him…before realizing I had *actually* grabbed a Teela, and that April was in the next assortment.  Fortunately, it wasn’t really a long wait.  April’s a solid addition to the concept.  She’s got a different approach to the crossover than Casey, but I definitely can dig it.

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.

#3691: Casey Jones

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

CASEY JONES — ONE-MAN WEAPONS RACK

TURTLES OF GRAYSKULL (MATTEL)

Toy crossovers are becoming a pretty common thing, and, honestly, when it comes to that sort of thing, TMNT has pretty much always been the king of that sort of thing.  At the very tail end of last year, Mattel launched a crossover between TMNT and their own in-house property, Masters of the Universe, dubbed “Turtles of Grayskull”.  I got the Donatello, of course, because that’s what I do.  The Metalhead/Roboto combo is a Build-A-Figure, so there’s a barrier for entry on that one, but that leaves me with one more TMNT character I always buy: Casey Jones!  So, let’s see how his amalgamation worked out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Casey Jones is part of the third assortment of Turtles of Grayskull figures.  He and Mikey are the two Turtles characters, and are joined by Teela and Skeletor from the Masters side. The figure stands about 5 1/2 inches tall and he has 26 points of articulation.  Donatello and the other Turtles were making use of a lot of new base parts, but Casey’s actually just using the standard Origins male buck.  It’s a little buff for Casey, I suppose, but it seems like when you travel to Eternia, you just immediately get jacked.  Donnie was specifically patterned on Man-At-Arms as his MOTU-equivalent, but Casey’s “One-Man Weapons Rack” gimmick makes him a bit more his own thing.  He’s pretty decidedly the classic Casey Jones cartoon design, but assembled using MOTU parts.  It’s honestly a pretty cool concept.  He gets a new head and a new overlay for the torso.  The head’s unmasked, and is certainly more in line with Casey’s more modern “pretty boy” interpretations.  It’s also rather unique when compared to the standard Origins heads, giving Casey a lot of character.  The new torso piece pairs up with a re-used Man-At-Arms shin guard to give him his slightly more padded appearance.  He also gets a new facemask and armored glove, patterned on Ram-Man’s headgear and the Jitsu/Fisto hands, respectively.  The glove’s a little tricky, because it feels like it *should* just slide over the hand, but because it’s an open hand, it sits way too far down.  You can remove the hand, of course, but then it feels like it sits a little too high, and it’s never totally secure.  I feel like just having it swap for the standard hand and putting a peg in place to hold it would have been the best solution.  Casey’s color scheme is his classic color lay out, with the saturation pitched up ever so slightly, and a few more metallic colors thrown in for good measure.  The paint work is minimal but generally clean, with the only notable issue on mine being some slop on the white paint for the boots.  Casey gets quite an impressive assortment of extras, with the previously mentioned mask and glove, as well as a MOTU-ified version of his usual sports bag, as well as a hockey stick, warhammer, axe, katana, and staff.  The “bag” clips securely onto the harness, and everything fits well inside it.  There’s even a special spot on the side to clip the hockey stick in place.  Obviously, the hockey stick is the classic armament here, and I love the translucent green, but I also love the warhammer so very, very much.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Donatello was fun, but as I said in that review, I didn’t see myself really jumping into this line.  Metalboto being a Build-A-Figure that I wasn’t given much of a chance to complete seemed to cement that…and then they showed off Casey.  I already have a soft spot for Casey figures, and this one also looked really, really cool.  As it turns out, he *is* really, really cool!

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.

#3689: Martial Arts Batman

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

MARTIAL ARTS BATMAN

BATMAN (MATTEL)

Back in 2003, there was a huge change-up in the world of super hero toys, as the DC license passed from Hasbro (who had inherited it when they had fully absorbed Kenner at the end of the ’90s) to Mattel.  While Mattel had focused decidedly less on the action figure market for a lot of the ’90s, in the early ’00s, they’d relaunched their in-house brand Masters of the Universe, with former McFarlane sculptors the Four Horsemen doing the sculpts.  Having netted the DC license, they launched a line of Batman figures, also primarily sculpted by the Four Horsemen.  McFarlane sculptors on DC figures?  It’ll never work….

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Martial Arts Batman was one of a whole plethora of Batman variants present for the launch of Mattel’s Batman line in 2003.  While the standard Batman (dubbed “Zipline”), Robin, and Joker all flew off shelves, the Bat-variants were less speedy.  The figure stands 6 inches tall and he has 12 points of articulation.  While the articulation scheme’s nothing to write home about these days (or even when the figures were new, considering they were contemporaries of Spider-Man Classics and Marvel Legends), it was actually a pretty nice step up from what we were typically seeing from Hasbro before the license transferred.  All of the Bat-variants were sculpted by the Four Horsemen, centered around the core sculpt done for Zipline Batman.  It’s a solid starting point, being a clean and rather “generic” take on the then current Batman design.  The iconography definitely holds up.  Each of the variant figures got their own little selection of unique parts, which, in the case of Martial Arts Batman, was the hands, feet, and belt.  The belt and hands would also see re-use for the Batman packed in with the Nightwing figure later the same year.  Generally speaking, the parts aren’t bad.  They match well with the core body pieces, and the general “martial arts” vibe is captured decently enough.  The wrappings on the hands, in particular, are pretty cool.  Also, in keeping with a theme that the Four Horsemen were very insistent on early in the line, he’s got the little bat-symbol on the bottom of his feet, which is a pretty nifty little bit.  His paint work is…odd.  They saddled him with a lot of maroon, as it’s the base color of his suit for some reason.  There’s some black, of course, but he’s also quite reliant on gold for the accents.  It’s a weird set-up.  I’m also not entirely sure how I feel about the bare hands under the wraps.  The application is at least pretty clean, so he’s got that going for him.  He’s packed with a bladed staff thing which can split into two, as well as a wrist mounted bladed thing.  Look, it’s all very technical, but there are a number of things, and they’re all rather martial arts-y, I guess?  I mean, I guess they’re at least kind of nifty.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Hasbro’s last few years on the DC license were rough.  Mattel gaining the license was a breath of fresh air….until the product actually hit.  This line is a great example of that, being a perfectly fine line, while also being more or less indistinguishable from what Hasbro was doing a year before.  I didn’t get a ton of these figures when they were new, and this one in particular is a rather recent addition to my collection…relatively speaking.  He came into All Time a few years ago, and his package was such that he was going to wind up in the loose figure bin anyway, so I snagged him, because why not.  He’s fine.  Nothing amazing or anything, but fine.  He’s got a good sculpt at the very least.

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.

#3601: S.T.R.I.P.E.

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

STRIPE

DC UNIVERSE CLASSICS (MATTEL)

Fun FiQ Fact #0080: The Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy are a unique instance of a kid superhero having an adult sidekick, with Pat “Stripesy” Duggan serving as sidekick to both Sylvester Pemberton and Courtney Whitmore during their turns in the role.

When I was a kid, I got my first introduction to the “modern” incarnation of Stars and STRIPE via their guest appearance in Impulse, an issue I got as a free give away at an early Baltimore Comic Con I attended (which was also my introduction to Impulse himself). I had known of their golden age incarnation thanks to reading my dad’s copy of the JLA/JSA team-up featuring the Seven Soldiers of Victory, but I felt kind of like I got in on the ground floor with the new ones. They haven’t been excessively blessed with action figures over the years, especially not as a pair, but they did both at the very least make it into DC Universe Classics. I reviewed the Stars part of the team a while back, so now I’m looking at STRIPE!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

STRIPE was the Collect-N-Connect for the 19th Series of DC Universe Classics. The assortment was JSA-themed, and while Pat was never directly affiliated with the JSA himself, he’s been pretty closely tied to them enough for his inclusion to make sense.  The figure stands 9 1/2 inches tall and he has 23 points of articulation.  His movement isn’t terrible for a figure of his build, with the only notable hang-up being that his mid-torso joint is effectively useless.  Beyond that, it’s not bad.  The sculpt, handled by the Four Horsemen, was built from a number of the same parts as the Stel CnC.  The legs are entirely shared, as well as the upper arms and the pelvis.  The rest of it was unique to this figure, and it all meshes together pretty well into one cohesive piece.  Said cohesive piece is interesting, because STRIPE’s design is not actually based on any pre-existing look for the character.  He’d had two notable comics looks and another design for JLU, and while there are certainly elements of all those looks here, it’s still something largely unique.  Certainly some of this comes from the ability to share parts with Stel (who got an upscaling of his own to also be able to share these parts), but there seems to have been a degree of letting the Four Horsemen go wild a bit with it.  While I’d have liked to get something more in line with his original look from the comics, I can’t deny that this is a pretty cool design in its own right, and it still works well for the character.   STRIPE’s paint work is pretty basic looking, but there’s a bit more to it.  He’s entirely painted, and the bulk of him is a pearlescent white, which is very fun.  The accent colors really pop, and he’s even got a light blue wash to help bring out more of the sculpted elements.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

I tried to actually build this guy when he was new, but I never succeeded.  I wound up with half of him and just never got more.  I kept hoping I might find the missing pieces, but it didn’t happen.  However, as luck would have it, just as I was giving up on the whole endeavor, a mere decade after starting on him, a complete one got traded into All Time, and, boom, here he is.  Fun times.  He’s nifty.  Still would love a more comics accurate one too, but this one holds up nicely.

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.

#3569: Mekaneck

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

MEKANECK

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE MASTERVERSE (MATTEL)

Fun FiQ Fact #0048:  I’ve reviewed all of the Mekanecks in my collection, which means at this point, all I have to do is review each new one as I add it!

I’ve touched on it here on the site before, but Mekaneck has been my favorite focus in Masters of the Universe since my earliest days with the franchise.  As such, he’s my top want in any given incarnation of the franchise, and I always get excited to see him crop back up.  Classics was perhaps the longest wait for the character to join a given style, but Masterverse took a little while itself.  But he’s finally here, and I’m checking him out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mekaneck was released in Series 11 of Masters of the Universe Masterverse.  He’s under the “New Eternia” banner, alongside Tri-Klops.  As with the others in that sub-brand, he’s taking the classic look and putting a few upgrades into place.  In his most basic mode, the figure stands 7 inches tall and he has 33 points of articulation.  The extended neck grants him extra height and movement, of course.  Mekaneck is actually largely new, at least to me, sculpturally.  The old “barbarian” body has been worked out with the Revolution re-launch, and this is an upgraded version.  It’s got harder angles, it’s generally smoother, and the articulation works a touch better.  He’s got an assortment of character-specific parts, which include the head, chest armor, and his left arm bracer.  The head does a nice job of capturing the vintage look, while also giving it just the slightest bit of an updated flair.  The new shaping sits a bit better with the general aesthetic of the line, and it sits much nicer on the head than the Classics version.  The new chest piece is surprising, given that they had already sculpted one for Stinkor, and the two usually share.  I do like the shaping on this one more than the Stinkor version, even if they’re ultimately very similar.  The new bracer piece gives Mekaneck an asymmetrical set-up, mirroring his vintage figure.  It’s got a peg-hole in it, for the purposes of mounting a shield, if you so choose.  Mekaneck’s color work is pretty nicely handled; it leans into metallic shades, which I really dig.  He also gets mirrored lenses for the goggles, fixing one of my biggest issues with the Classics release.  Mekaneck is packed with five segments to his extended neck, his club, two sets of hands, and a shield.  The neck segments can be swapped in and out, allowing both additional posability, and much more modulation to the length of the neck.  Further, the top of the club is now removable, and it’s on the same joint system as the neck, so you can give him an extended club as well.  Or, mount his club in place of his head, I guess.  Dealer’s choice, really.  The hands come in gripping and fists; the back of the box shows a relaxed left hand, but it’s not present in the box.  The shield is a fun piece; the front shows a graphic inspired by the Road Ripper, which Mattel seems to have decided to link to Mekaneck now, if this and the Origins figure are anything to go by.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

I can’t help but love a good Mekaneck figure.  The Classics Mekaneck was just okay, never really strong.  But, between Origins and this guy, I feel like I’ve gotten some very good Mekanecks.  Honestly, this figure is everything I wanted the Classics figure to be.  He’s just so immensely fun.

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.

#3557: Big Barda

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

BIG BARDA

DC UNIVERSE CLASSICS (MATTEL)

Fun FiQ Fact #0036: Big Barda is consistently depicted as standing *at least* a head taller then her partner Mr. Miracle, and the “Big” part of her name is in no way meant in jest or irony.  Any depictions to the contrary are, generally speaking, wrong.

When I was a kid, probably around 10 or 11, I got pretty super into Jack Kirby’s Fourth World.  At the time, action figure coverage for any of it was pretty sparse, so I made do with the couple of sets of figures put out by DC Direct in the early ’00s.  Some of my favorites of the Fourth World characters were Mr. Miracle and Big Barda, who were amongst the few figures from DCD, but that didn’t stop me from going back to the well when new versions were available…or at the very least trying to.  DC Universe Classics had a rather nice selection of Kirby’s characters, and they made sure to include Scott and Barda…even if there were some questionable choices made.  But, you know what, it wouldn’t really be DCUC without the questionable choices, right?  They kind of excelled at those.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Big Barda was part of Series 7 of DC Universe Classics, which was the series that built Atom Smasher.  Not that the two had any real ties or anything.  There were two Bardas available, one with her helmet and one without.  DCUC had two methods of handling variants: 50/50 splits and 70/30 splits.  For some reason, they made the two Bardas a 50/50, meaning that half of the figures out there where a look that most people wanting a Barda didn’t want, resulting in it being the one that was everywhere.  Great call, guys.  But, I harped on that in my helmet-less Barda review.  This one’s the good one…more or less.  Barda stands about 6 inches tall and has 23 points of articulation.  Now, the biggest…well, the most major issue with either DCUC Barda figure is sizing; Barda’s supposed to have quite a stature to her, commonly being depicted as about a head taller than the average male hero.  Here, she’s taller than the other female heroes, but is in fact *shorter* than most of the men in the line.  What’s more, she’s also rather skinny, again in contrast to how Barda’s always been depicted.  Given the line’s precedent for bulking characters up from their usual depictions, it makes her really get lost in the crowd, especially compared to the other New Gods.  What’s especially baffling about all of this, though, is that the most sensible explanation for her downsizing, which is the line’s reliance on shared molds, doesn’t hold up here, since Barda got a brand-new sculpt.  Why not just make that brand-new sculpt a larger one?  You got me.  I’d ask the people in charge, but, well, that’s a whole other thing.  The difference in the sculpt between this figure and the one I’ve already looked at is that, in place of a hair piece, she’s got a helmet.  Of the two looks, the helmet is certainly the preferred, so she’s at least marginally better than the other release.  Barda’s paint work is actually pretty good, so she’s at least got that going for her.  In particular, the accenting on the chainmail sections of the suit is quite nicely rendered.  Barda was packed with her Mega-Rod, as well as one of the arms to the Atom Smasher CnC.  It’s a little light, and it’s a shame she didn’t at least get the hover discs that Scott had gotten a series prior.  At least she got the Mega-Rod?

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

I had the unhelmeted version of this when the line was new, as it was the only one I could get my hands on.  I was never happy with that one, so when I got the opportunity to swap out for this one a few months ago, I jumped on it.  It’s still not a great figure, as she’s marred by some very poor choices in terms of production.  Still, she’s a Barda figure, and those always have some form of residual coolness at the very least.

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.

#3552: Starfire

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

STARFIRE

DC UNIVERSE CLASSICS (MATTEL)

Fun FiQ Fact #0031: The New Teen Titans’ Tamaranean powerhouse Koriand’r is not DC’s first character, or in fact even the first Teen Titan, to use the name “Starfire.”  The first was actually Leonid Kovar, better known as “Red Star,” and introduced 12 years before Koriand’r.

Like a lot of people of my age group, my first solid intro to the New Teen Titans line-up was through the Teen Titans cartoon.  I of course knew the original team well from the comics, but the cartoon really got me hooked on the likes of Starfire, Raven, and Cyborg.  Because of that, though, I’m more generally invested in the animated versions of the characters, which are a touch different from their comics counterparts.  I’ve grown to appreciate the comics Starfire over the years, though, and I especially liked her portion of 52, which saw her partnered up with Adam Strange and Animal Man for a cross-space-roadtrip.  How about a figure that’s sort of related to that?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Starfire was released in 2009, as part of a Matty Collector-exclusive DC Universe Classics two-pack.  She was originally packed alongside Adam Strange, in a pack that was the first of the four exclusive DCUC sets that hit Matty Collector.  The pairing for this set is undoubtedly in reference to their 52 storyline and it’s follow-up Countdown to Adventure, further enforced by Animal Man’s presence in one of the other three Matty Collector sets.  The figure stands just over 6 inches tall and she has 25 points of articulation.  Starfire’s based on the first standard female body for the line, notably used for Katma Tui.  It’s not a bad base on its own, but it’s not really a great match for Kori.  It’s a bit too small and scrawny, and also, it’s clearly sculpted to be wearing a full shirt, rather than the bikini-looking thing that she’s actually wearing.  As a result, she’s got what was affectionately referred to by the fanbase as a “uni-boob”.  She really should have gotten a different torso piece, or they should have perhaps chosen a different costume for the character.  As such, it looks a little weird.  She’s got unique parts for her head, collar, and forearms.  The new parts are okay; they match decently with the rest of the parts, but they don’t quite hit the mark for the character.  The hair in particular could use a bit more volume, and the face seems a bit too thin and pinched.  The paint work on Starfire is alright, but not without its issues.  The purple details are rather fuzzy around the edges, and it kind of muddies a bit with the shade of the orange on the skin.  Starfire was packed with no accessories, which, given the retail on these sets, was really light.  Not even an energy effect?

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

The two-packs were just too cost prohibitive for me when they dropped, so I didn’t get any of them new from Matty Collector.  I wound up getting Adam Strange on his own a few years back, but I’ve been waiting for my chance to snag the other half of the set.  I finally got the chance via a trade-in at All Time a few weeks back.  She’s not great.  Honestly, she’s not even really that good.  She’s there.  But now I have her?  Sure, let’s go with that.

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.

#3547: Batman Beyond

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

BATMAN BEYOND

DC UNIVERSE CLASSICS (MATTEL)

FiQ Fun Fact #0026:  While he started as a purely animated character, Batman Beyond has had 12 different non-animation based figures.

DC Universe Classics launched with a lot of weirdness when it came to distribution, and not helping things early on was the closure of KB Toys, one of the few stores consistently carrying the line’s earliest assortments.  Their closure coincided with the fourth series of the line, a fact I vividly recall because they were actually amongst the very last things I bought from KB.  Well, most of them, anyway.  There was one figure I missed, largely because he was far and away the most popular figure in the set.  And that figure?  Batman Beyond.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Batman Beyond is part of the aforementioned Series 4 line-up of DC Universe Classics.  There were actually two different versions of the figure available, a standard and a KB Toys-exclusive unmasked release.  The standard was also meant to get a re-release under the planned DC Universe All-Stars line, but that was scrapped when All-Stars was rejected by retailers.  So, just the one release on this guy.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 23 points of articulation.  He’s based on the medium-sided male body, which honestly seems a bit too large for Terry, who was just a teenager most of the times we saw him.  At this point in the line, however, the only smaller body was the one used for Sinestro, which would have made him really short as well, so they just did the best they could, I suppose.  Admittedly, the whole line seemed a little bulked up relative to their usual looks, so it wound up being more a stylistic change-up than anything.  Terry got a new head, forearms, and belt piece.  They all match-up well enough with the base body pieces, and make for pretty decent “real world” takes on the Batman Beyond design.  It keeps the design fairly clean, which I definitely like, especially compared to other realistic updates to the look.  The color work on this figure is pretty cool.  They opted to make the black a glossy finish, which is a different choice, but one that very definitely works for the figure.  It makes him really pop out from the rest of the series, when he could otherwise get lost in the crowd.  Batman Beyond was packed with a single batarang, and the arm to the Despero Collect-N-Connect.  The batarang is an okay sculpt, but is for some reason silver.  I get not having the budget to do multi-colors, but either red or black would have made more sense, I feel.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

Back when KB was going out of business, I got the full set of these minus Terry.  I tried and tried, but one never made its way to me, so I just made due with my DC Direct Superman/Batman figure for a while.  In the mean time, I’ve been constantly searching for the perfect Batman Beyond for my collection, and I’ve just kept coming up shy on every figure.  Sometimes, you just have to go back to the beginning, I guess.  I finally got ahold of a loose one recently, and, well, here he is.  He’s a pretty by the numbers DCUC figure, but I honestly really like by the numbers DCUC figures.

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.

#3542: Prince Adam

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

PRINCE ADAM

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE (MATTEL)

(Not So) Fun FiQ Fact #0021:  I’m coming into this MotU review with an unfortunately re-ignited frustration towards the Classics era of the line…or at least some of it’s management.  Thankfully, I’m not focusing on that era!  Yay!

My introduction to Masters of the Universe was the 2002 re-launch of the brand, specifically the pilot movie to the cartoon, which aired during Cartoon Network’s Cartoon Theatre.  I really loved it, and got a basic He-Man from the tie-in line almost immediately.  The line was notoriously hard to find, though, so follow-ups to He-Man were on the trickier side.  But, even during the original run, I did manage to snag He-Man’s alter ego Prince Adam, who in this incarnation was actually convincingly a different guy.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Prince Adam was released in the third main assortment of the rebooted Masters of the Universe line from 2002.  The figure stands a little under 6 inches tall and he has 12 points of articulation.  He was notably smaller than the rest of the Heroic Warriors, accurately depicting the smaller stature Adam had in the cartoon.  His articulation matched the rest of the line; it’s hardly super-posable, but it was an improvement on the vintage line, which was cool at the time.  Adam’s sculpt was, like the rest of the line, handled by Four Horsemen Studios.  Honestly, it’s one of my favorites from the line, just because it was different from everything else.  It takes the core elements of the vintage Adam design, and translates them into something more in-line with the updated aesthetics of the line.  There’s plenty of detail work, and it’s a pretty nice example of subtlety from the line.  Adam’s paint work is decently handled.  It’s largely on the basic side, but the application is clean.  He could definitely benefit from some additional accenting, but that was really true of this whole line.  Adam was packed with the “powered-down” version of the Power Sword, as well as a scepter thing, which originally included a missile launcher-style case, but I’ve lost that.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

My dad had driven me around to a few stores when I was looking for a basic He-Man, and from that point on, he kept a pretty close eye on the line’s other releases.  This one in particular he kept an eye out for, because it had all the markings of a particularly tricky to get release, and he wound up finding me one in a much shorter fashion than I think either of us expected.  He’s basic, and kind of just a statue, but still definitely my favorite version of Adam.