Tag Archives: Mattel

#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!