Tag Archives: Wonder Woman

#1040: Wonder Woman

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

WONDER WOMAN

DC UNIVERSE CLASSICS (MATTEL)

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Oh, DC Universe Classics, how you confuse me.  The line had a lot of promise. Heck, it had a lot of success. After all, 20 series at retail is nothing to sneeze at. Unfortunately, the whole line was plagued with issues with distribution, strange character choices, and the latter half was really hit by odd design choices for long-awaited characters. Still, early on, the figures really seemed to be really on point. If nothing else, the line gave us some pretty definitive versions of DC’s biggest characters, including today’s focus figure, Wonder Woman.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

WonderWomanDCUC2Wonder Woman was released in Series 4 of DC Universe Classics. She served as the series’ “anchor figure,” which seems pretty sensible, what with her being one of DC’s top three characters and all. The figure stands a little over 6 inches tall and she has 25 points of articulation. Wonder Woman is based on the look introduced in the late ‘70s-early ‘80s. It’s the look that the character had for a good 20 years or so, so it’s definitely a good choice. It’s also the same costume used by the Super Powers figure, which fits with DCUC’s theme of recreating SP. The figure had a new sculpt at the time, which was meant to serve as a starting point for future female figures. It’s not bad, though it hasn’t aged quite as well as some of the other sculpts from the time. Like the male bucks from the line, there’s the whole shoulder thing, where they just sort of…jut out. At least the line is internally consistent, I guess. The shoulders wouldn’t quite so much of an issue if her arms weren’t as skinny as they are. They aren’t horrid, but they really should be a bit thicker, especially for an Amazon. The waist is also pretty tiny, especially when compared to later figures in the line. On the plus side, the head sculpt is really strong on this particular figure, especially the hair, which has a nice weight and flow about it. Wonder Woman’s paintwork is pretty decent. While she’s not breaking any records or setting the bar, she’s pretty solid. The colors are nice and bold, and everything’s pretty clean. As far as accessories go, Wonder Woman’s a little. The obvious choice is the lasso, but that’s permanently attached. Instead, she gets an axe and a shield, which are fine, but they mean that her hands are in this odd loose grip, instead of a more preferable fist pose. She also included the left leg of Despero, the Collect-N-Connect for Series 4.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Series 4 of DCUC was the first series that I didn’t have much trouble finding at retail. I actually found all but one of the figures at KB Toys just before they went out of business. Which was cool, since they were 60% off and all, but also really sad, since, you know, KB Toys was closing and all. Ultimately, Wonder Woman isn’t one of the strongest figures in the line, she’s still a pretty solid figure, and a pretty good rendition of the character.

#0867: Wonder Woman

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

WONDER WOMAN

DC COMICS MULTIVERSE (MATTEL)

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March 25th will see the release of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. March 25th will also see me avoiding movie theatres like the plague, because I have no desire to see the movie (my scathing hatred of Man of Steel is the main reason, but there are a few others). For the most part, I’m also steering clear of the associated toys that go with said movie due to them a) being based on designs I’m not super thrilled by, and b) made by Mattel, who happen to be one of my least favorite toy makers. However, I’m a firm believer that a cool toy is a cool toy regardless of its source material or manufacturer. And that, dear readers, is why I’m reviewing today’s figure, Wonder Woman.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

WWDoJ2Wonder Woman is part of the first assortment of the Dawn of Justice series of DC Comics Multiverse. Multiverse has previously been a 3 ¾ inch line, but starting in 2016, Mattel is bumping the line back up to the more familiar 6-inch scale. Also, it should be noted that there are currently two different case pack-outs for this line, and Wonder Woman is only in one of them. That said, she doesn’t look to be all that hard to find right now. The figure stands just shy of 6 ½ inches tall and has 26 points of articulation. The articulation is overall fairly decent, but it seems a bit rudimentary when compared to, say, one of Hasbro’s Marvel Legends. The lack of any real movement on the head is a bit frustrating, but excusable. The height (well, the whole scale, really) of the figure is definitely a bit off; she’s the tallest of the four figures in the series, despite Gal Godot being the shortest of the three leads. She’s more scaled with something like a NECA figure than she is her fellow Multiverse figures. Her sculpt is all-new, and it’s generally pretty good. There’s definitely some oddities, such are the somewhat obvious joints in the arms and legs, or the strangely geometrical upper legs, but the overall proportions of the figure are surprisingly well done. She’s easily one of the most realistic female figures Mattel has ever produced. The details of the costume seem to pretty close to what we’ve seen of the movie’s design, and there’s some decent texture work. The head is pretty decent, if not amazing. I don’t immediately see Gadot’s likeness when looking at the figure, but it’s hard to say how much of that’s the sculpt and how much is paint. Speaking of paint, that’s where this figure takes a slight dive. On a whole, I actually like it, especially the choice to go a bit brighter with the colors than what we’ve seen from the film. However, the application is a bit spotty. The two biggest areas of issue WWDoJ3are the face and the boots. The face is at least fairly clean, if perhaps a bit thick and in need of some accent work. The boots seem like the painter just got confused by all those sculpted lines and gave their best approximation; they’re quite sloppy, and the flesh toned ankle joint breaks them up in kind of an odd way. Wonder Woman is packed with a sword and shield (which appears to be the Aegis, aka the shield given to Perseus by Athena). The shield is an amazingly sculpted piece, and by far my favorite part of this whole figure, though it can be a bit difficult for Diana to hold it. The sword is generally pretty nice, though the rather obvious “CHINA” stamp on one side makes it look like Wonder Woman has had to make due with a repro of her actual sword. Wonder Woman is also packed with what has to be the lamest build-a-thing piece I’ve ever gotten; it’s the supporting column to the display base for the Batman Grapnel replica. Seriously, it’s lame.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When I saw the various Dawn of Justice merchandise in the store, I was prepared to totally overlook it. But, I saw Wonder Woman, and was genuinely surprised by how much I liked her. No, she’s not a perfect figure, but she’s really not bad, either. And, with the size that she is, she actually fits in pretty nicely with the recent Adam West Batman and Christopher Reeve Superman from NECA, making for a pretty cool trinity display (though I’d happily replace this figure with a Linda Carter Wonder Woman, should NECA ever get the rights…). I’ve certainly gotten worse figures from Mattel.

#0293: Wonder Woman

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

WONDER WOMAN

JUSTICE LEAGUE: WAR (DC COLLECTIBLES)

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Justice League: War is far from one of the greatest pieces of animation DC has produced. That being said, it’s also far from the worst (I’m looking at you Flashpoint Paradox…), and I felt it even managed to improve upon the source material a fair bit. The animation proved to be nice a smooth and the design work wasn’t too bad. If they can manage to get some slightly better stories, then perhaps they might get back to where they used to be in animation. Wouldn’t that be nice?

I felt that one of the better aspects of the movie was its handling of Wonder Woman. She’s a character that DC seems to have a lot of trouble getting. War provided a strong and likeable version of the character, which shows that maybe they might have a chance of getting the character the recognition she deserves some day. When I decided to pick up a few of the figures from DC Collectibles’ tie-in toyline for the movie, I knew I wanted Green Lantern right off the bat, but the film’s take on WW convinced me I should get her too. Let’s find out if that was a good move!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

WonderWomanWarWilsonWonder Woman is part of the first series of Justice League: War by DC Collectibles. She’s based on the character’s design from the movie of the same name. The design draws some interpretation from Wonder Woman’s current costume in the comics, but they’ve taken more liberties on her than they did on Green Lantern. The costume features higher sitting boots, pseudo-sleeves, and actual covering on the collar area. The figure stands about 6 ½ inches tall and features 13 points of articulation. They’ve removed the bicep swivels that were present on GL, which limits the movement, but does look better from an aesthetic standpoint. Wonder Woman’s sculpt is completely unique to her. This is most likely due to her being the only female in the line. Still, I’d be curious to see if DCC would re-use the body for any later females, given her Amazonian stature. The sculpt is pretty good, and does a fair job of translating the movie’s design into three dimensions. The figure is about two-thirds legs, which seems a bit more stylized than she was in the movie. She almost looks as if her legs and the rest of her go to two different figures. Still, she’s better than a lot of female figures, and a lot of it can be written off as keeping with the movie’s style. WonderWomanWar2The paint on Wonder Woman is pretty good. Her paint job is a bit more intricate than GL, so there’s a bit more room for error. She suffers from some fuzzy lines on the edges of her boots and sleeves, but they aren’t too noticeable, and they’re certainly better than Hal. Her eyes have been given a red-ish hue, which almost makes it look like she’s been crying. Not sure what they were going for there, but it doesn’t seem to have worked. Also, her skin tone seems to be a bit light compared to what she had in the movie, which is a shame, because it added some nice diversity to the group. I suspect this was done so that they could use the same skin-tone plastic on all of the figures. Wonder Woman includes her lasso of truth, which is glued to her waist, and a sword, which seems oddly short.

 

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I picked up Wonder Woman and GL from Amazon a few weeks ago. My review probably seems a little down on the figure, but in actuality I quite like her, perhaps even more than Green Lantern. I’m a huge Green Lantern fan, so that’s saying something. Justice League: War presented perhaps one of my favorite Wonder Woman designs, so getting a figure of it is a plus. This figure has a few issues, but as a whole, I think it turned out pretty well. If you’re a Wonder Woman fan, I’d certainly recommend it. Heck, I’m only a moderate Wonder Woman fan and I think it’s pretty darn cool!

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