Monthly Archives: November 2010

Nov 15 2010

Transformers Classics: Bumblebee and Cliffjumper by Hasbro

Doing a G1 style Bumblebee figure without the blessing of Volkswagon seemed to me like a lost cause. I realize that a whole generation of Transformers fans have grown up since knowing him only as a Camero, but to me, he’ll always be a VW Bug. That having been said, Hasbro did a pretty damn fine job in creating the Classics character without making him a Beetle. Turns out, any old little yellow generic sub-compact works almost as well. As for Cliffjumper, G1 fans understand that despite their similarities, Cliffjumper was not a repaint of Bumblebee. The two did share some parts, but they were different enough. Classics Cliffjumper on the other hand is, in fact, a direct repaint of Bumblebee, with absolutely no changes to the tooling whatsoever. And he still works pretty well.


There’s a lot to like about Bumblebee’s alt mode. It’s obviously not a VW Bug, but it is a sporty little yellow sub-compact, so that’s close enough, I guess. There’s some nice detail on this car, like the sideview mirrors that were missing off of Prowl, Silverstreak and Smokescreen. There’s also a sculpted hood intake and a really nice spoiler. Hasbro decided to spruce up his paint a bit from the all yellow G1 toy by adding some silvery white racing stripes and deco to the rear quarter panels. Unfortunately the striping on the hood of my figure is a little sloppy. Bumblebee also has a raised square on the roof where the rubsign sticker is fixed. One of the coolest things about this car is the way that there are actual seats inside the cabin. Beyond the Alternators line, I can only think of a few figures where Hasbro was able to achieve this, so it’s both a novelty and pretty damn cool as well. Bumblebee has a tow hook on the back, where you can hook up his little jetski trailer.

Cliffjumper’s car deco is red with silver accents. I’m really not crazy about the silver apps on this car. Bumblebees were more subtle, but Cliffjumpers are kind of obnoxious. On the upside, the silver paint apps here are a lot cleaner than the paintwork on Bumblebee.

These figures transform in a manner very similar to their original toys. The hood still folds out to become the feet, and the top of the car still forms the chest. The folding out of the arms is a tad complicated, as is the way the back of the car folds back to reveal the head, but all in all the old conversion is still honored pretty well.


I love the robot mode on these guys. It’s stocky and compact, but that’s pretty cool for what are homages to old Minibots. The doors peg into the arms really nicely to become armor. The head sculpt is fantastic and extremely similar to the G1 animated Bumblebee. The sculpt is clean and detailed and he’s got his trademark horns.

The jetski trailers convert into some kind of winged, jetpack thingy that clips onto the top of the backpack. It looks ok when it’s attached, but I’m not a big fan of this piece and I don’t tend to use it a lot or display it with the figure. I would have rather we got some guns instead.


These figures have nice articulation. The head is ball jointed, as are his shoulders, elbows, and hips. Lots of ball joints! His knees and ankles are hinged. The only downside here is that sometimes the seats/knees interfere with the hood plates on the lower legs.

Both Bumblebee and Cliffjumper are really awesome figures. Granted, if these guys were released today, I think Hasbro would have gone the extra mile and did some resculpting for Cliffjumper, but it’s really not a big deal for me. He works just fine as a straight repaint. They do seem a lot more chunky then the Generations figures being released now, but I think they can still pass pretty well as part of the same collection.

Nov 14 2010

Transformers Classics: Prowl, Silverstreak and Smokescreen by Hasbro

[Just to clarify, while I’m dubbing this the week of Transformers Classics, I’m going to be slipping in figures from Universe 2.0 and maybe even Generations. As far as I’m concerned, it’s all the same line to me! I’m also going to have to forgo any looks at the packaging, since I’ve had these figures in my collection for a while and the packaging has long since become compost! Ok, enough disclaimers, press on and enjoy! -FF]

Way back in the wee dawn of the 80s, 1984 to be exact, a young FigureFan walked into a Toys R Us and saw a cool new line of toys called Transformers. I didn’t know anything about them, the cartoon wasn’t on yet, but it was love at first sight. My first two Transformers were Thundercracker and Prowl. And since I don’t have me a Classics Thundercracker yet we’re going to start the week off looking at Prowl and his sculpt-sharing Autobot bros, Silverstreak and Smokescreen. Let’s Roll Out!
The car modes on these three figures are excellent and they hold together very well and roll along great. The sculpt is somewhat faithful to the original toys, but they’ve been turned a bit more generic and a little less Porsche-y. While they’re all the same sculpt, here’s where we see what a huge difference the paintjob can make.

Prowl is the weakest of the bunch, mainly because the paint doesn’t sufficiently hide the fact that his doors and front quarterpanels are cast in clear plastic. There’s an awful lot of slop on these parts of the car’s paint, making it look dirty and it doesn’t match the parts of the car’s body which are cast in white plastic. On the up side, the lettering on the doors is nice and crisp, as is the Autobot emblem on his hood. Prowl’s lightbar is the only structural difference between all three of these car modes.

Silverstreak has some similar issues as Prowl with the doors and quarterpanels, but the silver paint doesn’t show it as badly. My real issue with Silverstreak’s car mode is that I just think his colors are bland, but then they were on the original figure too. Had Hasbro used a higher gloss on the black, I think this guy would have looked much better in his alt form. He’s got a much larger Autobot emblem on his hood, which is crisp and clear.

True to his original toy, Smokescreen is the most visually striking of all three of these cars. He’s very patriotic looking with his red, white and blue deco, and he’s got the racing number, 38, on both doors and his hood. He’s also got a really cool Autobot emblem on his hood done up with a white outline. Smokescreen’s thick and glossy paintjob also overcomes the dodgy look that Prowl and Silverstreak had on their doors and fenders. There’s a tiny bit of bleed along some of the blue and white borders, but nothing too bad at all.

Transforming these figure’s is fidgity affair, mainly because of those pesky door/quarterpanel pieces. They tend to pop off the ball joint really easy, especially on my Prowl, and you have to do some serious manipulations on them to get them positioned right for the robot modes. As a result, I just tend to pop them off, do what I need to do, and pop them back on. It’s cheating, yeah, but definitely less frustrating than trying in vain to keep them attached. Each figure also stores their gun between their front wheels.

Hasbro did a fantastic job replicating the animated look of the original G1 characters. This has always been my idea of the quintessential Autobot look with the door wings and the front bumper chest, and I still think it looks really great. The door-wings are on ball joints to help position them out of the way and while the configuration of the lower legs is a little different than the original toy designs, it still works well and the overall proportions are excellent. The shoulder cannons are designed so that they flip up, rather than be separate attachable pieces. This is a great design since you don’t have extra pieces to hang on to. Plus you can customize the look of these guys by leaving the guns down, or just flipping one or the other up. The only difference between these guys in robot mode are the paint jobs, so let’s take a look at each one.

Besides being my first Transformer, I always used Prowl as Optimus Prime’s first lieutenant so he’s always been an important figure for me. Prowl’s car mode paint problems mostly go away in his robot mode, as those quarter panels are folded behind his door wings. His black and white deco is very striking, although I find myself worried that the white plastic may start to yellow over time. The silver paint app on his face is fantastic and his eyes feature blue light piping. The only place I take issue with Prowl’s paint in bot form is the lack of any paint apps on his shoulder weapons. These should have at least been painted partially black or silver. Left white as they are they just look unfinished. One of these days I’ll get up the nerve to do it myself.

Silverstreak’s robot deco looks great. The heavier use of black really sets him apart from Prowl and the additional maroon and silver looks nice and very much like the original G1 toy. Silverstreak’s face is painted white and he has the same blue light piping as Prowl. Fortunately, Silverstreak’s shoulder weapons are colored, and in a maroon and silver to match his deco. It really makes all the difference when you look at him standing next to Prowl.

Even in robot mode, Smokescreen is still the most colorful bot of the bunch. His glossy red and blue go well with the molded grey bits. His numbers, 38, are clearly visible on his door-wings and the Autobot emblem on his chest just looks fantastic. His face is painted silver and the blue helmet with yellow horns looks great. Smokescreen’s shoulder weapons are not painted, but they are at least molded in grey plastic, so they don’t look as bland as Prowl’s.

The articulation on these Autobots is solid. The necks rotate, the arms have double hinges at the shoulders so that they can rotate and have lateral movement. The elbows are hinged and the fists can swivel. The legs feature ball joints at the hips and double hinges in the knee. As mentioned, the door wings are also ball jointed. You can get some really nice poses out of these figures, although they do tend to be a little top heavy. Hasbro might have short changed them a bit in the feet department.

Even with the few issues I have with this trio, I still adore them because these are the figures I dreamed about owning as a kid. I can remember watching the cartoon and wondering why my figures couldn’t pose like that, and now they can. I don’t miss the diecast at all, but I do wish that Hasbro had made some different choices in the manufacture, particularly the use of the clear plastic. They would have been better off without any side windows at all like the original toys. But that’s just nitpicking with hindsight. When you get down to it, these three figures are superb updates. They take all the great design and decos of the originals and add loads of articulation and play value. Simply awesome.

Nov 14 2010

Transformers Generations: Darkmount by Hasbro

Yep, I’m finally getting some ‘Cons in my Generations line. Seems like ages ago since I picked up Thrust and still no sign of Dirge or Soundwave in my neck of the woods. But last time we looked at Megatron and today we’re going to take a look at Straxus Darkmount. Wait, so then what’s his fortress called, Straxus? Hmm. I’ve yet to do any research to see why Hasbro named this guy after the fortress and not the Marvel character he’s based on, but I’m sure they had their reasons, (copyright issues?) and it doesn’t matter to me one way or the other. As far as I’m concerned he’s Straxus. I will, however, use his proper Hasbro-given name for this review.


Straxus Damn! Darkmount comes on the standard Generations cardback and packaged in his alt mode. As always, the back panel of the card has a little bio on him and shows the toy in both of his modes.

Darkmount’s alt mode can easily be dismissed as a tank, but on closer inspection, it’s actually a halftrack artillery piece, and a blue one at that! The sculpt on this mode is incredibly detailed with lots of panel lines and hatches and other markings. I especially like the two tone color on the treads and wheels that really make the superior sculpt pop. The turret rotates 360 degrees and the cannon can elevate. There are also three grey weapon pods that can be clipped and unclipped at various hardpoints of the vehicle, which allows you to do a little bit of customizing on the figure if you like.

Transforming Darkmount to robot mode is a little tricky and very clever, but not all that frustrating once you realize what’s happening. You can unclip all those weapon pods before doing it, because you’re going to clip those back on in different spots when he’s in robot mode to give him added firepower on his backpack. What is frustrating, however, is getting him back into his halftrack mode, because you need to remember to put the gun back in before closing up the turret.


In robot mode, Darkmount is simply awesome. There’s so much I love about this guy, like the way his front fenders form his shoulder armor, the way part of his tracks form a solid backpack to attach his weapon pods, and the sculpting in his arms. He’s also got working, hinged hands, which allow him to hold his axe in either hand or both. The headsculpt is really cool too. And check out that color scheme! The blue and the grey really look great with the red and gold accents and I really dig those triangular decos on his chest.

In the Marvel comic, Straxus’ trademark weapon was his axe and Darkmount’s cannon transforms into that weapon. Actually, it’s more of a war pick, but you get the idea.

Darkmount’s articulation consists of a rotating neck, ball joints in his shoulders and hips, hinged elbows and knees, swivesl in his wrists, hinged fingers and ball jointed ankles. You can get a lot of great poses out of him. He’s a bit backpack heavy, but I find you can still get him to stand pretty well.

If you can’t tell by now, I love this figure. He really came out of nowhere, but he’s quickly become one of my favorites in the Generations line, and that’s saying a lot, because I’m pretty much crazy over every Generations figure I’ve bought so far. If you’re a fan of the comic character, I think this figure should please you, but even if you’ve never heard of him before, this guy is a must have as far as I’m concerned. He looks great, and he’s ready to melt down some Autobots. I also like to pair him up with Hunt for Decepticons Hailstorm. Hailstorm just looks like he could be Darkmount’s Igor-like assistant who carries his axe around and spends his spare time cleaning out the huge Autobot smelting tanks.

Nov 13 2010

Transformers Generations: Cybertronian Megatron by Hasbro

The War For Cybertron figures have been an awesome part of the new Generations line. I’ve already looked at Optimus Prime and Bumblebee and now it’s time to see how the other half lives with the first Decepticon in this sub-line of figures, Megatron! I’ve got to say it’s pretty bizarre having a Megatron figure as a Deluxe. I know it’s been done before, but it’s certainly a rarety. Still, he fits in fine with WFCOptimus Prime and while that Prime figure felt like a Voyager shrunk down to a Deluxe sized figure, Megatron here is way too simple to have been a Voyager. Is that a bad thing? Let’s find out…

Megsy comes packaged on the now typical Generations style card. As with the other War For Cybertron inspired figures, he is packaged in his robot form. The card is attractive and serviceable enough, but nothing special. It’s also a damn liar, because it says the figure’s difficulty is Level 3 Intermediate, whereas it should be Level -1 Too Easy. The back panel shows off photos of the toy in both modes and has a little bio blurb on the Decepticon leader himself.

Despite the way he was packaged, I’m going to start out with Megsy’s alternate form, because going the other way just feels wrong. Also, because the alt mode here is definitely the weaker this figure’s two modes. Megatron’s alt mode is a Cybertronian tank with a tracked mode and a hover mode, although the hover mode is the same as the tracked mode, only with the treads folded up underneith. The fact is you can barely tell the difference since the sculpted treads are so puny and insubstantial to begin with.

Make no mistake, Megatron’s alt mode is pretty faithful to the one depicted in the video game, but that doesn’t mean it’s a great design. I can appreciate that we’re dealing with completely fictional “vehicles” here, but the fact is that Prime and Bumblebee in their Cybertron alt modes still featured a strong foreshadowing of their Earth alt modes and so Prime basically looked like a futuristic truck and Bumblebee like a futuristic car. Megatron doesn’t so much look like a tank as he does just a giant cannon on a platform. It’s not a terrible mode by any means, but it’s not all that creative either, and I’d have to say it’s one of the weakest alt modes Megatron has ever had.

Transforming this figure is ridiculously simple, but the good news is that despite the simple conversion, it’s the robot mode where this figure really shines. He reminds me a lot of the Transformers Animated Cybertron Megs, but either way he’s readily recognizeable as Megatron. In fact, the only thing I don’t like about his robot mode is that thing hanging off the top of his left shoulder. Considering his alt mode is entirely fictional, you’d think they could have designed him without that annoying piece of alt mode kibble. The headsculpt is particularly worthy of the Megatron and I really like what Hasbro did with the color scheme, as the black and grey and red is all faithful to his G1 original.

I absolutely love the way Hasbro handled his fusion cannon on this figure. It’s positioned on his arm just like his G1 counterpart and it’s also removable, which is really cool. The sculpted detail on it is impressive and it also fires off a missile. It really doesn’t impair Megs’ articulation either, so you can get some great poses of him blasting Autobot fools with it.

Speaking of articulation, Megatron is a highly poseable figure. He has a ball jointed neck. His arms rotate at the shoulders and have some lateral movement as well. His elbows are hinged and also swivel. His legs rotate at the hips and have lateral movement in those joints, just like his shoulders. He has hinged knees and hinged ankles.

Even with the weak alt mode, I absolutely love this figure. His robot mode looks awesome and really does the character proud. He’s also a really solid figure, without any of the popping ball joints and flippy pieces that we’ve seen in some of the modern figures. But above all, he’s just fun to play around with and pose and he looks fantastic on the shelf.

Nov 12 2010

DC Universe Infinite Heroes: Crisis 3-Pack #5 (Green Lantern, Black Canary and Green Arrow) by Matte

Ok, folks, it’s been a solid week of DC goodness. I’ve got time for one more entry and I wanted to get in something from the Infinite Heroes line before calling it a wrap. Some may argue that these smaller scale figures are redundant in the face of the amazing Universe Classics lineup, but I think these little guys are loads of fun to collect and definitely better for fans on a budget. I went with this particular 3-pack just because it’s the only Infinite Heroes figures that I still had in the package and overall I think this set is a pretty good representation of what the IH line had to offer. There’s some good in here, there’s some great in here, and even a wee bit of disappointment. It just runs the gamut.  It’s also a bit of an ecclectic crew with Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Black Canary and Green Arrow.

I think I probably picked up most of the IH three-pack sets and a lot of that has to do with the packaging and the fact that these always seemed like a good deal when I saw them on the shelves. In retrospect, I really wish I had saved the packaging on all of these sets because they are fairly collector friendly and the figures just look really nice in the box. The back panel has little capsule stats on each of the characters. The front of the package has the tagline, “An Army of Heroes Within Your Grasp,” which I think really characterizes the highly collectible nature of these little guys. Keep in mind, Mattel considers the DCUC line for Adult Collectors, making these better suited for kids.

Green Lantern is a solid figure, and pretty much exactly what I’ve come to expect from the line. He relies more on paint than sculpt to make him who he is, but the head sculpt is decent and the somewhat generic body works fine. The hands are a tad big, but other than that the proportions are ok. The paintwork is very well done, right down to the little painted Power Ring on his right hand.

Hal’s articulation is good for a figure in this scale. His head rotates, his arms have ball joints in the shoulders and hinges in the elbows. His legs rotate at the hips and have hinged knees, and he can swivel at the waist. It’s not Marvel Universe level of articulation, but it’s better than we’ve seen in the Infinite Heroes line and you can get him into some good action poses.

Black Canary should have been my favorite figure in the set, being who she is and all, but unfortunately this is the weakest of the three. I think the body sculpt is ok, although the legs seem a little out of proportion. The sculpted jacket is a nice touch and I wasn’t really expecting them to replicate her fishnets in this scale. The head is what really throws this figure off the most. The sculpt looks good, but it seems way too small for her body. When I take in the whole figure, it just seems like something is wrong.

Black Canary also has the weakest articulation in the bunch. Her head rotates, her arms rotate at the shoulders and her legs rotate at the hips and have hinged knees, and she can swivel at the waist. It’s better than the basic five points, but not up to par with the other figures in the set.

And then there’s Green Arrow. There are very few DC characters that I have zero interest in, but for whatever reason Green Arrow is one of them. I don’t know why, but the connection just isn’t there. And that’s pretty ironic, because he is without a doubt the best figure in this batch, and in terms of sculpt and detail he’s probably one of the best IH figures in my collection. His outfit is incredibly detailed and complete with his belts and pouches and a sculpted quiver on his back.

The head sculpt is fantastic and it’s even a separate piece from his hood so you can still turn his head! What’s more, Green Arrow even comes with his bow. Yeah, it’s pretty essential to the character, but how many IH figures actually come with accessories? I sure as hell didn’t get a lantern with my Hal Jordan. All this and he even has the same level of articulation as Green Lantern.

All in all, this is a nice little set. It’s not a homerun, but I’m willing to say it’s worth picking up just for the exceptional Green Lantern figure. Hal Jordan is solid enough, too. Black Canary? Well, she’s not awful, but she definitely deserved a better figure. Thank god there’s always her DC Universe Classics version and a good selection of 1:6 scale figures, statues and busts which immortalize her a lot better. Bottom line, if I was a kid again, I’d be begging my parents for Infinite Heroes figures every time we went to the store.

And that, folks, is a wrap on DC Universe week. It’s not always easy for me to stay focused on one theme for a whole week, but when you’ve got this much material, there’s plenty to talk about. If you need more DC loving, there’s more DC based reviews buried in the backpages of my blog and eventually I’ll get around to looking at some of the other figures in my Infinite Heroes and Universe Classics collection. I’m also really trying to pick up Wave 14 in one shot, so here’s hoping we can do this again before too long.

If you’re into Transformers, you’ll get your fill of them over the next week. I’ll be looking at a couple of Generations figures this weekend and next week is going to be all about Classics and Universe 2.0!!

Nov 12 2010

DC Universe Classics: Wave 15 Collect & Connect Validus by Mattel

Our last stop on the DCUC Wave 15 bus is the coveted C&C figure, Validus. My collection of DC Universe Classics figures is not small by any means and yet this is only the second time that I’ve been able to complete one of these figures (the other being Darkseid). The problem is that a number of my figures were purchased off of Ebay, loose, and even when I did buy them new, I was never able to complete the Wave. The two times I have completed the C&C figure were the two times that I bought an entire Wave all at once. Newsflash, Mattel: The distribution on this sucks!

As we’ve seen, Validus is comprised of seven parts, spread out over six figures in the assortment. Don’t forget that Golden Pharaoh didn’t come with a part, Manhunter came with two, and the two Starman figures came with the same leg. You simply snap together the arms, legs, torso, pelvis and head to get your Validus.

He’s a big figure, standing just a tad taller than Darkseid and while the sculpt from the neck down is fairly simple, he’s no less impressive and cool looking. Most of the attention to detail is in his musculature and the two bands around his biceps with the soft plastic tubing. He has a pretty simple color scheme of purple, gray, black and silver, but it really looks great together.

The head is the most impressive part of the figure. The exposed brain under the clear dome looks awesome and disgusting and the sculpting on the jaws is certainly fierce. I especially like that if you look close enough you can see the sculpted closed scars of where his eyes would be.

The articulation is just a bit under what we find in the regular figures. Validus has a ball jointed neck, his arms have ball joints in the shoulders, swivels in the biceps and wrists and hinged elbows. His legs have universal movment in the hips as well as hinged knees and ankles. He also swivels at the waist.

Granted, for me Validus wasn’t one of those, “Oh my god, I have to have him” figures. At least not like Darkseid was. But then Mattel could have had pretty much anyone in the Darkseid Wave and I still would have needed him because I’m a New Gods whore. In this case, Validus was just a nice bonus for completing a Wave of figures that I really wanted, OMAC not withstanding. He’s a really menacing looking figure and he looks great in the back row, towering over the other DCUC figures.

Nov 12 2010

DC Universe Classics: Wave 15 Sinestro Corps Batman and Raven by Mattel

We’re nearing home stretch, folks, with a look at the last two regular figures in this line. I’ll admit that neither of these next two figures were all that high on my list of hotly anticipated figure candidates, but when I saw them, I knew I had to have them. Raven was a natural, since there are no doubt a fair number of Teen Titan fans out there. I’m not really one of them, but I like the character well enough and I already own her in the smaller Infinite Heroes format. As for Sinestro Corps Batman… holy shit, just look at him. He’s practically got pure, concentrated awesome dripping right out of his nose.


DCUC Packaging. Been there, done that. I will, however take the time to note how amazing Raven looks in her package. A lot of that has to do with her cloak being pre-posed, but we’ll get to that a bit more in a little bit. I was worried about Batman having some wonky legs because of his action pose in the package, [Yeah, he looks like he’s throwing a shot put at the Olympics -FF] but luckily he came out just fine. Also worth noting is that Batman’s cardback has the bio burned out by a Sinestro Corp symbol. Cool!

Let’s start out with Batman, because despite how much I absolutely adore this figure, the truth is I don’t have a whole lot to say about him. It’s the color scheme that I really love. The yellow Sinestro colors just look AMAZING against his black outfit and the little Sinestro emblems on his chest and left bicep are nice and crisp. Unfortunately, Mattel used the same ochre colored plastic for his arm bracers as they did for OMAC’s boots and gauntlets, but even that can’t blemish this figure. I just think those parts should have been yellow like the rest.

I suppose the head sculpt is also worth mentioning, since it’s Batman looking completely and totally batshit crazy with rage. Sinestro Bats also has his Power Ring molded onto his hand and nicely painted. Simply awesome.

Batman comes with his collector button and the torso piece of Validus. He also comes with a big yellow batarang style construct that attaches to his power ring fist. Or I should say it theoretically attaches. Mine only holds for a few seconds before it pops off.

Moving on to Raven… here we have a really nice sculpt that fits the character perfectly. Her hood, lower dress and cape are all cast in soft plastic and very flexible. The long gloves are both painted and sculpted. The attention to detail on her hands is particularly nice. She has little rings on both her index fingers and the thumbs and index fingers of her gloves are cut out. She has some nicely sculpted legs, but I think Mattel half assed it on her shoes. They clearly wanted to give her some heels, but instead of going all the way, she’s just got more like a sensible pair of low heels. The head sculpt is beautiful and the paint apps on her face are spot-on perfect.

So, the elephant in the room regarding Raven is the pre-posed nature of her cloak, which is perched up on each side of her head like wings. It looks fantastic when she’s posed with her arms up to mesh with each of these wings, but it looks pretty silly when she’s in any other pose. The easy solution to this would have been to give her a swappable cloak, but since that’s not something that Mattel has done with this line yet, they should have at least made her cloak removable. Still, I would imagine that most fans of the character will be happy with the way this figure turned out.

Raven comes with Validus’ right leg and her collector button.

Both figures have the same points of articulation. You get ball joints in their necks. 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 both have swivels in the waist and ab crunche hinges in the torsos. It’s pretty cool that they got all the usual points of articulation into Raven’s sculpt, as I thought she might be lacking some.

Unfortunately when trying to rotate the swivel in Raven’s left thigh, her leg twisted right off. I had to glue it back on making that joint useless. Thankfully it was a clean break and I’ll be able to glue it, but WTF, Mattel???

So, crappy quality control on Raven not withstanding, both of these figures are outstanding. If you can’t find love in your heart for Sinestro Bats, than I just plain pity you. As for Raven, I realize the pre-posed nature of her cloak will be a sticking point with some, but everything else about her is wonderfully executed. Overall, I think this is an outstanding wave and I highly recommend it. But, wait… we’ve got one more to look at… next time, it’s Validus!!!

Nov 11 2010

DC Universe Classics: Wave 15 Golden Pharaoh and OMAC by Mattel

If you are an avid collector of DCUC, chances are you are going to buy some figures based on characters you either don’t know or don’t care about. I like to think my DC knowledge is a little better than average, and it still happens to me now and again. Case in point: I only vaguely remember the Golden Pharaoh figure from the old Kenner Superpowers line, but that’s as far as my knowledge of the character takes me. The only OMAC I knew was that race of androids from Justice League, and I had to resort to my trusty and dog-eared copy of the DC Universe Encyclopedia to learn more about mohawk man here. So, I thought I’d take a look at these two unknown quantities together.


Hey look! The same old DC Universe Classics packaging. You know what they say, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Is that 75 Years of Super Power thingie behind the obnoxious flash glare new? No. No it isn’t. It’s been on the packages for a little while now.


So, let’s start with Golden Pharaoh. Like I said, I knew nothing about him, but oh man, is this a gorgeous figure. Everything about this guy, the sculpt, the paint, the use of the purple transluscent plastic all comes together to make him a great showpiece. The head sculpt is beautiful and definitely among the best Mattel has done in the line to date. He just has a majestic and noble look about him. The glider wings are made of softer rubber to keep them from snapping off, and the clear purple inlays as well as the clear purple collar behind his neck are all nicely sculpted with decorative patterns. When I first saw pictures of this figure, I thought the purple on his chest was just an inlaid piece of clear plastic, but it actually makes up the core of his torso, creating a cool see-through effect.

Granted, there are a couple of downsides to the figure. The glider wings on his arms do inhibit his articulation a bit, and I would have really preferred that both of his hands were capable of holding his staff, like Jack Knight. Instead, Pharaoh’s left hand is just sculpted into a useless fist.

Golden Pharaoh does not come with any of the C&C pieces for Validus. He does, however, come with a Superpowers decoed figure stand. It’s the exact same kind that was included with both Mary Batson figures a few waves back. He also comes with a collector button and a really nicely sculpted golden staff. It would have been really cool if Mattel could have used the same clear purple plastic to make the stone in the staff, but I’m guessing that would have added a lot of cost.

And then there’s OMAC. This guy is pure cheese. I like cheese, but in this case, I don’t mean that in a good way. While researching his backstory has intrigued me enough to want to track down some of his funny books and give them a read, his character design just has “up against a deadline” written all over him. There’s really just nothing for me to like here. The headsculpt is just one travesty after another. Besides that ridiculous mohawk, he’s got Ernest Borgnine’s eyebrows and George Jones’ sideburns. This guy is a freakshow of facial hair cliches.

The rest of OMAC is standard fair for a DCUC figure. He features a very generic body sculpt and relies on a lot of coloring to make him who he is. The eye emblem is nice and clean, although it does have a tiny chip. He’s a pretty good recreation of the source material in figure form, but I really hate that color of gold/yellow/ tan (ochre?) plastic used on his gauntlets, collar and boots. It just looks cheap. Apart from that he’s just blue with red leggings. His arms also look disproportionate and underdeveloped to the rest of his body. The whole thing gives off the vibe of a Masters of the Universe knock-off reject. Mohaw-Kor perhaps?

OMAC comes with the right arm piece for building the Validus figure, and that right there is the only reason I own this figure. I’m guessing Ebay is going to be flooded with loose OMACs in the days to come, so I’ll hang on to mine. He also comes with a collectible button, which instead of featuring him in comic form, it has his eye emblem. I’m guessing they couldn’t fit that ridculous Mohawk on such a tiny button.

There’s a bit of variation in the articulation on these two figures. OMAC has the standard points for the DCUC line. 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. OMAC has the swivel in the waist and the ab crunch hinge, but Golden Pharaoh does not, for obvious reasons.

So, here we have two converging examples of how the DCUC collection sometimes rolls. I knew next to nothing about these characters, but I adore one of these figures and really don’t care much at all for the other. Nonetheless, it’ll still get me to branch out and read some more comics that I probably otherwise wouldn’t have sought out, and that’s a big part of what makes me love this line so much. Granted, a big part of my problem with OMAC is the character design and not the figure’s execution, but also he was released in what in my mind was a wave of pretty exceptional figures, which only makes him look crappier.

Nov 11 2010

DC Justice League Unlimited: Attack From Thanagar Boxed Set by Mattel

Moving on to the second of two Justice League Unlimited Figure sets that I rescued from Ross, is Attack From Thanagar. I’m pretty sure this one is based off the three part story arc from Season 2 called Starcrossed, but I’m a bit fuzzy on it. I think I saw it when it was strung together as a movie. Either way, I think this set is a lot cooler than the Eclipsed set because it’s chock full of Hawk People. And Hawk People are cool.


The package is exactly the same as the last set we looked at, which is a good thing. I like it so much I spent a considerable amount of time carefully scraping and peeling the Ross sticker off of it so I could use it to display the figures. The front of the package has a little explosion of text that points out that this set is the first release of Paran Dul, Hro Talak and Lt. Kragger. It doesn’t say anything about Hawkgirl being new, but she’s definitely not the “regular” masked Hawkgirl sculpt. She’s the “I just got to Earth and I’m going to lead the way for a friggin invasion” Hawkgirl. Maybe this figure was released before? I don’t know, I’m new to the whole JSU thang. The Green Lantern is the same sculpt I got in the last set and you also get Batman.

Talak and Kragger share the same body sculpt but with different paint decos and they have different heads. The different heads do an ok job of separating the figures apart, and I really like Talak’s. But there isn’t enough variation in the paint to really fool me into realizing they’re the same figure designed to be wearing two different kinds of pants. It’s ok though. I like the figure and I’ll take all the Hawkmen figures I can get. The belt and harness on each figure is also a separate soft plastic piece.

Similarly, Paran Dul and Hawkgirl also share the same body with different paint decos and differet heads. The difference here is a lot more striking, probably because the paint decos are a lot different, but also because of the vast difference in the head sculpts. Paran is wearing a helmet, which conceals most of her head and face. Hawkgirl on the other hand, is letting it all hang out. I absolutely love her head sculpt. It’s just adorable and features some excellent, clean paintwork on the face. She’s definitely my favorite figure in the box.

I really don’t have much to say about John Stewart. He’s a pretty simple sculpt and basically relies on his paint job to distinguish him. He’s the same figure we looked at yesterday in the Eclipsed set only without the purple shards painted on him and with his pupils back.

As for Batman, I’m guessing that if you are a JLU collector, then this guy is going to be a duplicate. I can’t imagine most fans not already having Batman. Since these are my first JLU figures, I’m perfectly fine with him being in the set, especially since he’s one of the few Leaguers that wasn’t in the last set. He’s a really great looking figure, with a much more sensible (read less stylized) sculpt than Superman from the Eclipsed set.

All the guys in this set have the same five points of articulation: Head, shoulders and hips. The girls have the shoulders and hips, but their heads don’t turn. I can understand Hawkgirl’s limitation because of her sculpted hair, but I don’t see why Paran’s can’t.

There are sadly no accessories, which seems like a big missed opportunity to give some maces or other weapons to the Hawk People. You do get the same paltry two figure stands in the set, because those stands probably cost half a cent to make and Mattel doesn’t want to go broke giving you one for each figure.

So yeah, when you get down to it, this set cheats a lot with two sculpts being repainted into four figures, and two straight repacks. That may severely diminish the value for anyone who already collects the line. As a starter set, it’s much better and there certainly isn’t a bad figure in the box, so long as these highly stylized sculpts are your bag and you don’t have a problem with Hawk People.

Nov 10 2010

DC Universe Classics: Wave 15 Martian Manhunter and Jemm by Mattel

It’s probably safe to say that for most collectors, Martian Manhunter is the most anticipated figure of Wave 15. Why? Because he’s the last figure needed to be released to complete the Justice League. [Except for me, since I still haven’t got Hawkgirl yet. Grrr. -FF]. Martian Manhunter was also released as a variant in this wave, which featured his more alien head and his right hand morphed into a blade weapon. I’m probably not going to hunt that one down, so we’ll only be looking at the regular version. Alongside, Martian Manhunter, we’re also going to look at Jemm. I was so sure these figures were going to be a repaint/minor resculpt of each other, and happily that turned out to be far from the case.


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.