Tag Archives: Mattel

#0098: Negative Man

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

NEGATIVE MAN

DC UNIVERSE CLASSICS

Ah, DC Universe Classics.  A line that left me with so much confusion.  The line led me to steadily hate everything Mattel did.  But on the same hand, it was the DC toy line I’d wanted since I was 4 or 5.  Not only did it have great versions of the big name characters and their supporting casts, but it also gave us characters we never thought we’d see released in a retail toy line in a million years.  I’ll be looking at Negative Man, one of those characters, today.

Negative Man, or more specifically Larry Trainor because Negative Man wasn’t actually his name, was a member of the wacky 60s super hero team the Doom Patrol.  The Doom Patrol weren’t your conventional super heroes, no, they were freaks and outcasts that the public had shunned.  They were led by a wheelchair bound man and they fought the Brotherhood of Evil.  No, I didn’t make that up.  They were totally the X-Men, only at DC.  Not a rip off, mind you.  They debuted the same year, and neither one was really a best seller.  But eventually X-Men became one of the bestselling comicbooks ever, and the Doom Patrol were mostly forgotten.  Sure they’ve had a few reboots, but none of them ever really captured the fun of the original series, and none of them ever really lasted all that long.

Anyway, Larry was a test pilot who was exposed to some strange energy that turned out to be the sentient being N-Man.  N-Man was trapped inside of Larry’s body, and could only be released in 60 second intervals, or Larry would die.  When N-Man was present in Larry’s body, Larry was radioactive, so he had to be wrapped in specially treated bandages to keep the radiation contained.  I’m gonna be honest, it was a pretty sweet concept!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Larry was released as part of the 13th wave of DC Universe Classics.  Believe it or not, Larry’s actually had a few looks over the years.  Mattel has chosen to go with what is probably the character’s best known look, his red and purple number that he sported for the majority of the original series.  While I’m partial to his original green uniform, I think they picked the right costume.  He stands just shy of 6 ½ inches tall and he has 24 points of articulation.  DC Universe Classics operated on the buck system, meaning they had a set of differently sized bodies and the picked the one that best suited the character in order to save on tooling.  Larry is based on the medium build male buck, which works fine, since he’s not supposed to be a powerhouse.  I’ve heard arguments that he should have been on a skinnier body, but I think the medium build looks just fine.  In addition to the buck body, Larry has specially sculpted parts for his head, neck, hands, belt and boots.  The head, neck and hands are all bandaged, and they all look pretty cool.  They found a decent way of handling showing a face, without it looking too silly, which is a good thing.  The belt has a cool leather texture to it, which is one of those things that could have easily been left out, but I’m really glad wasn’t.  The boots are actually a reuse from the line’s Green Arrow figure, but if it’s a good part, use it.  The paint on Larry is all well applied, with no slop or bleed over.  There are several washes present to bring out the details in the sculpt.  In one area of disappointment, Larry includes no accessories apart from the requisite C-n-C piece.  It’s Trigon’s staff for those who care.  But, Larry himself gets nothing, not even a cool snap on Negative Man effect!  I guess they had to draw the line somewhere.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

In spite of DCUC’s spotty distribution, I actually found Larry in store with relative ease.  I was greatly excited by that, as he’s one of my favorite characters, and I’ve always wanted a figure of him.  This one did not disappoint.  Larry shows the DC Universe Classics line at its best.  Well distributed, well sculpted, cool obscure character.  He was just full of win!

#0091: Hal Jordan

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

HAL JORDAN

GREEN LANTERN (MOVIE)

Having rounded up all of my Christmas gift reviews (barring any late gifts, I suppose), I’ll be moving back to my regularly scheduled programming of random figures from my vast collection.  A large subset of my collection is solely Green Lantern items, due to me being a really big fan of the character.  Being such a fan, sometimes I buy stuff solely because it’s Green Lantern.  That was the case with today’s figure, which hails from Mattel’s toy line to tie in with 2011’s Green Lantern movie.  It’s the basic version of the main character, Hal Jordan.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Hal was released in the first wave of figures from Mattel’s Green Lantern line, which came out a few short weeks before the movie’s release.    He stands about 4 inches tall and has 8 points of articulation.    He’s based on Hal’s fully GL’ed up look from the movie.  The sculpt is passable, though the details are a bit on the soft side. The likeness on the head is pretty good, with a decent representation of Ryan Reynolds from the movie.  The paint is fine, nothing spectacular, but there’s no slop of smudges which is nice, but details like Green Lantern’s power ring are left completely unpainted.  This gives the figure a cheap look, but it’s wasn’t a “cheap” figure to buy.  Hal includes a clear green construct.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Yeah, so this figure is, well he’s not very good.  If he’d been released 10 years earlier, perhaps it’d be okay, but not for a modern day figure.  It’s cheaply made, the paint is as simplistic as possible, and he has practically no articulation, which means he’s not a very entertaining figure.  I have this figure because and only because it’s a Green Lantern action figure.

#0077: Batzarro

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

BATZARRO

DC UNIVERSE CLASSICS

Happy New Year everyone!

This isn’t the first time I’ve looked at DC Universe Classics, and I’ve gone into my frustrations with the line and those running it.  The final figure in the second and final year of the subscription’s run was just released this month, and he fits in perfectly with the overall mixed feelings of the line.  Anyway, I’ll save my thoughts for the last section. In the meantime, I’ll take a look at Batzarro.

Real quick sum up of the character for those who aren’t familiar:  In the 60s, the character Bizzarro was created as an Anti-Superman.  He spoke in backwards sentences, used reverse logic, and had the opposite powers of the Superman.  40 some years later, writer Jeff Loeb and artist Ed McGuinness created Batzarro, the Batman to Bizzarro’s Superman.  His name is Wayne Bruce, and he turned to a life of crime when his parents were born in crime alley.  Yes, that’s really his origin.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Batzarro was the 12th figure in Mattel’s 2013 DC Universe Classics: Signature Series subscription.  He stands a little over 6 inches tall, and has 23 points of articulation.  Batzarro has had exactly one look… ever.  So, that’s the look depicted here, which is far from shocking.  Batzarro is made from a fair deal of reused pieces, with a new head, cape and belt.  The rest of the figure is built on a basic DCUC body, specifically the Batman body.  It’s a sensible reuse, given the nature of the character, so no issues there.  The new pieces are all very well done.  In particular, the head looks spot on to the character, with his eyeless cowl and evil grin.  The paint on the figure isn’t perfect, as I did notice a few fuzzy lines and some missed marks, particularly on his belt buckle, which is a noticeable distance from the edge.  But it’s also far from terrible, so, it doesn’t ruin the figure.  It’s just mildly annoying.  Batzarro includes a single accessory, his batarang.  Given his place as the anti-Batman, Batzarro was frequently depicted toting around dual pistols, and the lack of inclusion here is unfortunate, especially given the pricepoint of the figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

So, yeah… this figure.  Hands down, one of the most mixed-feelings-y figures of all time.  You see, I didn’t want to like this figure.  At only 12 figures a year, he’s an absolutely terrible choice.  The character had one storyline, a few years ago.  It wasn’t a monumental story, and he’s not even really a major player in it.  The character’s design is perfectly fine, but not revolutionary.  Of all the characters in the DC Universe, he’s far from the top of anyone’s list of “necessary characters.”  And his placement at the end of the year means two things. 1) He wasn’t amongst the characters subscribers were shown when they signed up, meaning we had to accept him whether we liked it or not, and 2) he was one of the figures that had a direct impact on if the next year of the line went through or not.  Unsurprisingly, next year’s subscription didn’t go through.

But quite frankly, the most damning thing about this figure is that he’s actually a pretty well done figure.  Not the best in the line, but actually good.  Better than a lot of the other figures offered this year.  So, this figure that nobody wanted ended up much better than several of the figures that people have been wanting for years.  It all just leaves a bad taste in the mouth and further punctuates the mismanagement of the line.  So, here I am with a figure I quite like of a character I’m just indifferent about.  I suppose that’s not all bad…

#0072: Ice

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

ICE

DC UNIVERSE CLASSICS (MATTEL)

So, here’s an interesting review.  Rather than looking at something that’s been out for a while, I’m taking a look at something that technically isn’t out yet.  I’m doing some crazy time travel voodoo!

So, I spoke briefly in my review of Ultra Humanite about the demise of the DC Universe Classics line.  This year saw the release of third-tier Justice Leaguer Fire, leading many fans to wonder when we’d see her longtime companion Ice.  Well, Mattel, in their infinite wisdom was attempting to get another year out of the line by making anyone who wanted to complete the duo buy into a whole year’s worth of monthly figures on blind faith.  As much as some people wanted the figure, Ice isn’t exactly going to make a huge number of sales for the line as a whole.  So it failed.

Or did it?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ice was released as…hmm…Ice was part of….um.   Ice is a figure that somehow fits into the DC Universe Classics line.  Exactly how is still a bit iffy.  Anyway, Ice is depicted in her Adam Hughes designed costume from when she was part of the Justice League International.  This is my favorite look of Ice’s, so I’m glad it was the one they chose for the figure.  Ice stands a little over 6 inches tall and has 19 points of articulation.  She’s built on the second female base body that Mattel introduced into the line, with new sculpts for the head, upper torso, and lower legs.  The head is okay.  Not the greatest, but far from the worst sculpt the line has produced.  The upper torso and lower legs depict the more 3d elements of Ice’s costume.  The fur of the boots looks pretty good, and the t-shirt thingy on the torso looks accurate and has some nice sculpted folds and such.  The paint is alright.  There’s some fuzziness on some of the lines of the costume, but nothing too terrible.  Ice’s only accessory is a clear ice blast piece, but my crazy time-travel-copy doesn’t have that piece. Oh well.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Funny thing about the toy industry:  In order to have the first few figures for next year ready to go if the line did go through, the first three figures had to already be in production.  So Ice actually exists.  Rumor has it that she’ll see a release on Matty’s site sometime next year, but I imagine she’ll see quite a mark-up, and trying to order something from that site has to be one of the levels of Hell.  So, I got one…early.

Another funny thing about the toy industry: sometimes figures “fall off” the production line.  And occasionally, they wind up on certain auction sites.  And if there were, say, a significant delay between production and release, these “rejects” might show up several months before the real deal.  And perhaps, a few fans, eager to get the figures a bit early and with a little less hassle might just happen to acquire said figures.  Not that I’d know anything about that, of course.  It’s purely speculative.  I got my figure through crazy time travel voodoo!

#0060: Ultra Humanite

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

ULTRA HUMANITE

DC UNIVERSE CLASSICS (MATTEL)

Hey, two new thingies to my blog:  DC Universe Classics and Build-A-Figures.  DC Universe Classics was a great line of DC figures released by Mattel over the past few years.  It was one of the most expansive DC lines to date, and even though not every decision was perfect, it was a really fun line.  Unfortunately, the advent of the New 52*, DC mandated that the classic looks of the characters wouldn’t appear at retail.  So, Mattel attempted to move the line to their online store, Matty Collector.  However, questionable character choices, no advertising, unreasonably high prices and an over-reliance on a blind-faith all or nothing method of distribution on the figures meant that the sub just barely made it through two years before dying with a whimper (Batzarro?  Seriously!?!  That’s the line’s final figure?).  But, the line did give us some great figures, like the one I’m looking at today.

This figure’s a build-a-figure, or Collect-n-Connect as Mattel branded them.  That meant that each figure in a particular series included a piece to one larger figure, so if you got the whole series, you’d have a cool extra figure.  This time around, it’s everyone’s favorite body-hopping mad scientist with a propensity for albino apes:  The Ultra Humanite!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ultra Humanite was the Collect-N-Connect figure for the 14th series of DC Universe Classics, which was also the 3rd series of the line exclusive to Wal-Mart.  He stands around 8 inches tall and has 22 points of articulation.  Humanite’s had a few distinctive looks over the years, but Mattel decided to go with his albino ape in a red unitard look.  It’s a good choice, as it’s by far the most distinctive look that the character’s had over the years, and had some prominence a few years ago when the character appeared on the Justice League animated series.  Humanite is mostly a new sculpt, though he does share arms with previous C-n-C Gorilla Grodd.  It makes sense given their design similarities.  Everything else is new, and it’s all very well done.  The hair detailing continues over his whole body, and looks good enough. His clothing is a bit jarring in its smoothness when compared to the rest of the body, but that’s accurate to the characters design, so I suppose it’s to be expected.  The head sculpt is easily my favorite part of the figure.  It perfectly conveys Humanite’s smug superiority, while perfectly replicating his ape features.  The paint is nice and consistent with no slop or bleed.  There’s a nice wash on the body to bring out the detail in the sculpt.  It’s a bit heavy in a few places, but it does the job well.  Humanite didn’t include any accessories, but given he’s technically an accessory himself, that’s okay.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Due to the unfortunate distribution of the DCUC line, this was actually the first C-n-C I got all the pieces for.  And even then, it was more a stroke of luck finding the necessary figures at a nearby Wal-Mart.  But I’m really glad I was able to get him built with relative ease, as I feel he’s one of the strongest figures in the line.

*In 2011, DC decided to do a line-wide reboot of their entire line of comics, AGAIN.  So, they redesigned all the characters, and launched 52 new titles, referred to as the “New 52.”  I feel there’s enough nerd rage in this review already, so I won’t delve into my opinion on that idea at this time.

# 0035: Catwoman

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

CATWOMAN

BATMAN ‘66 (MATTEL)

Today, I’ll be taking a look another new addition to my collection.  It’s Catwoman from Mattel’s Batman ’66 line, which I have yet to look at on this blog, so this’ll be a first.  Awesome.  I’m going to assume everybody knows Catwoman, but if you don’t know the 1960s Batman TV show this version is based on, you should definitely read up on it.  It’s a lot of fun.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

This figure is obviously based on Catwoman from the 1960s show, but specifically, this one’s based on Julie Newmar’s portrayal of the character.  I’m more of a Lee Merriweather fan myself, but Newmar was the first, the longest running and is typically the best remembered Catwoman by fans of the show, so she was a good choice to do right off the bat.  Catwoman was released in (kind of) the second series of the Batman ’66 line, although she was released separately from the other two figures in the series.  She stands roughly 6 inches tall and has 22 points of articulation.  Unlike many of Mattel’s previous DC lines, which rely heavily on reuse, Catwoman is an all new sculpt.  Admittedly, it’s one of the better sculpts they’ve done, in that it does come fairly close to a real woman’s proportions, which is a nice change.  It’s not perfect, mind you, but not terrible.  The head sculpt is also well done, with more than a passing resemblance to Julie Newmar.  Unfortunately, the paint doesn’t quite live up to the sculpt.  It’s not terrible, but the face especially is really thickly painted, and the eye lashes and eyebrows are painfully obviously patterned designs.  None of this ruins the figure, but I can’t help but think that the likeness would increase ten-fold with a better paintjob.   Catwoman also includes a sound effect labeled stand and a character card featuring a screen cap from the show.  The stand is the same as every other stand in the line, but Catwoman’s reads “CRRAACK!” like the sound a whip would make, making it a good fit for Catwoman.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I acquired my Catwoman figure from Amazon, like the other Batman ’66 figures, when they all went up for preorder.  Amazon has quickly become my go to for ordering toys because it just makes life a whole lot easier!