Yep, standard DCUC packaging. Not much else to say here, except these two figures were exceptionally stubborn to get out of their trays.

I think it’s a tribute to Martian Manhunter’s iconic design that he’s so simple a figure and yet simply fantastic. The head sculpt is amazing and exactly what I was hoping for. As with a lot of the DCUC figures, J’onn has a pretty generic body sculpt, although the musculature is nicely detailed, right down to the little veins in his arms. The cape is sculpted with a high collar and a red cord connecting it under his chin. I was expecting it to really throw off his balance, but he stands pretty well, considering.

There isn’t a lot of paintwork on this figure as most of it is cast in the appropriate colors. His torso, arms and legs are green, his boots and cape are blue, and he has a red soft plastic harness around his chest. Strangely enough, there’s a bit of stray red paint on the chest of my figure. It’s a bit unsightly, and considering the only red paint apps on this figure are probably his eyes, that’s some pretty bad slop. Here’s a perfectly good example of the pitfalls of buying figures online. I would have definitely flipped through the pegs to find a better one if I was purchasing in a store. Then again, I’d have no chance of finding even one of these guys in any of the stores in my area.

J’onn comes with the head and crotch pieces to build Validus. He also comes with the collector pin, which features Hal Jordan mugging in on his action. Hey, Hal, get your own pin! He doesn’t have any other accessories. It would have been cool if Mattel gave him a swappable arm sort of like they did with the Metal Men figures, Iron and Gold, but I guess that would have undercut sales on their variant figure.

Moving on from Mars to Saturn… as mentioned above, I was pretty sure Jemm was going to be a mere repaint and resculpt when I saw the early pics. It’s an easy mistake since both of them are bald muscular dudes with high collared capes. And besides all the people from Saturn and Mars look alike to us Earthlings anyway, right? But put the two figures beside each other and it’s easy to see that Jemm is a completely different figure. His build is a bit slighter, he has bracers on his arms and elongated alien fingers. Apparently, people from Saturn don’t have nipples either, while Martians do. Jemm’s headsculpt features pointed ears, a less pronounced brow ridge and, of course, the gem in his forehead. Even the sculpt of the cape is completely different.

While Jemm’s torso, arms and head are cast in red plastic, he has more paint apps than Martian Manhunter. From the waist down he’s two-tone blue and his arm bracers are painted silver and the gem is painted yellow. His cape is cast in soft powder blue plastic and the sculpted starfish clasp is yellow.
Jemm comes with the left arm piece of Validus and his collectible button, which has some of the best artwork I’ve seen on these little things to date. He doesn’t come with any other accessories.

Both figures have the same points of articulation. The head is ball jointed. The arms have ball jointed shoulders, swivels in the biceps and wrists and hinged elbows. The legs have universal movement in the hips, swivels in the thighs and hinges in the knees and ankles. They each swivel at the waist and have the ab crunch hinge in the torso.

I think both of these figures turned out great. I know Martian Manhunter has been a hotly anticipated figure, and I really have no complaints about the finished product. Jemm, on the other hand, isn’t a guy I’ve been holding my breath to get, but he’s still a great looking figure and a nice compliment to his Martian “cousin.” I think Mattel could have gotten away with making Jemm on the cheap with a heavy reuse of parts and some different paint, but instead they went the extra mile to deliver a totally fresh and unique figure.