Tag Archives: Mattel

#3765: Green Lantern

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

GREEN LANTERN

DC UNIVERSE CLASSICS (MATTEL)

“While training in a flight simulator, test pilot Hal ‘Highball’ Jordan was suddenly transported to the crash site of an alien spacecraft. Recognizing Jordan as a man without fear, the injured alien passed to Jordan his green power ring and energy battery or ‘lantern’ which charged the ring. Jordan has since used the ring’s fantastic powers for good, distinguishing himself as one of the finest members of the elite intergalactic police force known as the Green Lantern Corps.”

Well, it hasn’t been a *whole* year since my last venture into DC Universe Classics, but it’s still been since April, which is a fair bit.  But, I’m feeling the need to dive back into it for a little bit.  Perhaps it’s some residual nostalgia from Friday’s Super Powers review, perhaps its that I snagged a stack of loose DCUC figures just before the end of the year.  Whatever the case, DCUC is a line that well and truly gripped me for most of its run, so I do have quite a good number of them.  Today, I’m delving into the earlier days of the line, with Earth’s second Green Lantern, Hal Jordan!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Green Lantern was released in Series 3 of Mattel’s DC Universe Classics, which hit in the fall of 2007.  While this wasn’t Mattel’s first Hal Jordan (the infamous Holiday Hal from JLU hit in 2005), it was the first to go to retail.  He was the assortment’s heavy hitter, and was paired off with Sinestro for the hero/villain dynamic that headlined the first few assortments.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and has 23 points of articulation.  Hal was built on the medium male base body, which was first used by Black Manta in the prior series, along with a new head and right hand, all of them supplied by the Four Horsemen.  The head’s the real star piece, as it has to do the heavy lifting.  It’s a really strong, sort of quintessential Bronze Age Hal.  It’s not *exactly* Jose Garcia-Lopez, but the vibe is certainly quite similar, and it just reads well for the character.  It’s also very sharply defined, and avoids being too reliant on paint to sell it.  That said, the paint does alright selling it, and does do more of the heavy lifting on the rest of the figure.  GL’s one of those character’s where a fully painted suit isn’t too distracting, since it’s supposed to be sleek and one-piece anyway.  Application’s generally pretty clean, and there’s even som slight accenting on the green sections to highlight the sculpt.  At this point, I do have to address the one major oddity of this figure: the residue.  Yes, the first batch of Hals, which my copy hails from, have some sort of issue with the interaction of the plastic and the mold release, and when exposed to air for long periods of time, they develop a white filmy substance over the arms and legs.  Said substance wipes off with a damp cloth, with not notable harm to the figure, but it will re-appear over time, and he’ll have to be wiped again.  So, just remember to wipe your Hals periodically.  It’s not weird.  Don’t make it weird.  Mattel did a later re-release of Hal under the “All-Star” banner, which fixed this issue, as well as tweaking some of the paint/color choices.  Both versions included Hal’s power battery, which seems to be an oddly bright green; I’ve always envisioned it being more on par with the color of his suit, but it’s more of a lime green here.  The Series 3 release also got a piece to the Solomon Grundy Collect-N-Connect, while the “All-Star” version got a stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Hal’s the figure that sold me on DCUC as a while.  I’d been a solid DC Direct devotee, and had been buying pretty much every Hal they’d put out, looking for that perfect version.  This one came along and blew them all away.  I was so excited by the prototype shots of this guy, that I bought what I could find of the first two series solely based on the fact that he was coming.  This set hit right around Baltimore Comic Con in 2007, so he was at the very top of my list of things to look out for.  I snagged him almost immediately after making it through the door, and was very happy and content.  Almost 20 years later, I’m still quite happy and content, even if it does involve the periodic wiping of the Hal.  I did manage to snag the later release as well, so I’ve got one without need of wiping, which is well enough.  In general, though, this Hal is a figure that makes me quite happy.

#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.

#3734: The Riddler

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

THE RIDDLER

BATMAN: THE CLASSIC TV SERIES (MATTEL)

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

THE FIGURE ITSELF

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

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

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

#3729: Darkseid

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

DARKSEID

JUSTICE LEAGUE (MATTEL)

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

THE FIGURE ITSELF

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

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

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

#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.