Tag Archives: Ultra Humanite Series

#1146: Todd Rice

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

TODD RICE

DC UNIVERSE CLASSICS (MATTEL)

obsidian1

It’s rare for something’s greatest strength to also be its greatest weakness, but that’s really the case with Mattel’s DC Universe Classics.  One of the most endearing and memorable things about the line was the sheer reach of character selection.  Not only did we get definitive versions of major characters, but we also got lots of characters that pretty much no one ever thought would get action figures.  Unfortunately, while is is great for hardcore fans, it doesn’t result in the greatest sales in a retail line.  Still, the line did give a lot of DC characters their very first action figures.  Interestingly enough, today’s focus Todd Rice, better known as Obsidian, is not an example of this.  Oh sure, he’s obscure, but he actually had already gotten a figure courtesy of the Justice League Unlimited toyline.  For those of you less familiar with Todd, he’s the son of the Golden Age Green Lantern Alan Scott.  He was a member of the JSA-spin-off team Infinity Inc in the ‘80s, and has been on-again-off-again affiliated with the Justice Society themselves.  Most recently, he was played by Lance Hendrickson in an episode of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, which is easily the most coverage Obsidian’s ever gotten!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

obsidian2Todd Rice was released in Series 14 of DC Universe Classics, which was the third (and final) Walmart-exclusive series from the line.  Given the presence of both his father and fellow JSAer Hourman in the line-up, as well as frequent JSA foe Ultra Humanite being the CnC for this particular series, Todd was right at home.  It’s worth noting that Todd’s official codename is Obsidian, and has always been Obsidian, but for whatever reason (more than likely it’s the fact that Obsidian, as a rock, can’t be trademarked), he’s called “Todd Rice” on the box.  Whatever gets us the figures, I suppose.  The figure stands about 6 1/2 inches tall and has 23 points of articulation.  Todd was built on the mid-sized male buck, with unique head and hands, as well as add-ons for the cape and belt.  The base body is starting to show its age a bit more with every figure I review from this line, but it’s still a pretty solid piece.  The mid-sized body is actually a pretty perfect fit for Todd.  In fact, he’s the sort of character who really works in a line of this nature.  The new pieces all work pretty well with the established body.  The hands are nice and expressive, and certainly a nice change of pace compared to the basic gripping hands so many of the figures got stuck with.  The cape is one of the better capes from the line, and the belt does a decent job of capturing the design from the comics, as silly as it is.  The head is…well, I guess it’s okay, but I’m not sure it’s one of the better DCUC sculpts.  What’s weird is that is seems almost too detailed on the face.  Like, it’s as if no one told the Four Horsemen that Todd’s wearing a mask and that’s not just his face.  Usually, the black part of the mask was mostly featureless, with just the eyes and his open mouth showing, which makes him look pretty sleek.  Here, they clearly tried to replicate that, but they also tried to add this realistic touch to his face, which just seems…odd.  Also, he seems to have had his lips removed or something, because they appear to be absent.  Obsidian’s paintwork did a pretty decent job of replicating his color scheme from the comics.  It’s a good scheme, and it looks really nice on the figure.  Obsidian was packed with the left arm of Ultra Humanite.  Not really specific to him, but I guess it’s better than nothing.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Obsidian was one of the last figures I found from this particular set (but not THE last; that was Gold).  I’m not insanely familiar with the character, but I’ve always liked his costume quite a bit, and I obviously have at least some appreciation for him due to being the son of a Green Lantern and all.  I was actually pretty excited to get this guy, and he’s really not a bad figure.  Sure, there are a few oddities, but the good definitely outweighs the bad.

#0421: Gold

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

GOLD

DC UNIVERSE CLASSICS

DC Universe Classics, through all of its victories, was not without its flaws. When the line ended, more than one team of heroes was left incomplete. That being said, the line did manage to finish up a couple of teams. One of those teams, the Metal Men, hadn’t seen toy form ever before. That’s not a particularly shocking thing, truth be told. The Metal Men are far from one of DC’s more well-known properties. Still, they managed to all show up in this line, and they serve as an example of the line’s strength in rendering oft-forgotten characters in action figure form.

As a bit of backstory, the Metal Men are a team of robots, constructed by Dr. Will Magnus, who were each made out of a particular metal, animated by a “responsometer” which gave each of them a distinct personality. Today, I’ll be looking at the team’s field leader, Gold, who was the member of the team who best fit the traditional hero archetype.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Gold was a figure in Series 14 of DC Universe Classics. Series 14 was the third Walmart exclusive series in the line, and it fell somewhere in between the impossible to find Series 5 and the rather plentiful Series 10 in terms of availability. Gold is a little over 6 inches in height and he features 23 points of articulation (he was released after Mattel removed the ankle rocker joints). He was the second Metal Man released in the line, following Series 12’s Iron. The figure makes use of the mid-size male buck as a starting point, with a new head, forearms, and calves, as well as a set of die-cast hands (first used on Iron), and an add-on for the front of his torso. The mid-size body is a good fit for Gold, so it was well chosen. The new pieces match up pretty well with the body, while giving him some individual flair. The head is the only piece to sport any flaws. It’s not a bad sculpt, but it doesn’t seem quite right for Gold; he should look more confident and self-assured. The hands being actual metal is cool, though the fact that they were originally sculpted for Iron means that they have some dings and things that aren’t quite right for Gold. Gold’s paint is rather straight-forward. He’s painted from head to toe with gold paint. The decision to use paint rather than gold plastic was a wise choice, as the end result is much cleaner. In addition, he also features a few details for his symbol on his head and torso, as well as his eyes. The eyes are rather clean, but the symbols are a slight bit off center. Gold included two hand attachments: a buzz saw and a pick axe. Both are well done, but the buzz saw really stands out, just for the sheer amount of imagination that went into it. If you look closely, you can see that it actually looks like a stretched out version of his hand is holding the blade. It’s a great touch. Gold also included the left leg of the series Collect-N-Connect, Ultra Humanite, who you can read about here.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

After finding Iron at a reduced price, I was all on board for getting Gold when he was released. My dad is a pretty big fan of the Metal Men, so this was one of those instances of both of us wanting a certain figure. So, when we finally came across a set of Series 14, the single Gold figure went to him. I didn’t mind, seeing as I got all the other figures I wanted, but I still hoped to find another. The figure’s price jumped and I figured I’d missed my shot. Fortunately, while checking out The House of Fun, I found a loose Gold amongst their large selection of DCUC figures. I’m happy to have the figure. He’s not perfect, but he’s pretty close, and he’s a key piece of one of DCUC’s greatest legacies.

#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.