While most of my time collecting DC Multiverse has been going back and picking up older figures on sales and clearance, I did pre-order a couple of new waves which came in over the past couple of weeks. And while I always feel a little guilty about checking out new figures with so many older ones waiting their turn, I’m still going to bump these to the head of the line. So, today I’m going to kick off a look at the Teen Titans Wave!

This assortment consists of four figures with Arsenal and Raven being the focus of today’s review. This wave came in slightly bigger boxes than usual, as each figure also has parts to build a rather uncharacteristically large Beast Boy. Arsenal has his legs while Raven has his head and hands. As usual, I’ll check him out after I’ve been through the rest of the figures. I don’t have anything new to say about the packaging, except I finally decided to toss some DC Multiverse boxes, and that meant ripping the character cards and figure stands off the back of the tray. Let’s start with Arsenal.

The last time I looked at an Arsenal figure was nine years ago when I checked out DC Collectibles figure from Red Hood and the Outlaws and I liked it quite a bit. This version is a different look for the character, but not drastically so. You still get a two-tone red and maroon suit, shoulder and bicep tats, and the baseball cap. The proportions are nice, giving Roy a lean and lithe look, The suit features some fine texturing on the red parts as well as some intricate detail on some of the reinforced maroon bits, giving the costume a nice bit of complexity. The boxy quiver plugs into his back and the cluster of arrows is a separate sculpted piece, so I guess you can pull it out if you want to display him having shot all his arrows? Sure why not!

The portrait is solid, although I’m not a huge fan of the visor and preferred him with just the domino mask, but that’s just me. The backwards baseball cap has some very nice texturing and appears to be sculpted separately from the head. I like the little lick of hair that’s jutting out above the hat band.

The tattoos are printed crisp and clean and look really good, especially with the neon yellow-green coloring. It’s a bit of a shame the one on his left arm has the bicep cut running through it.

In addition to the quiver and arrow cluster, he comes with his bow. I dig the bow itself, but I absolutely hate it when the strings are done with plastic instead of actual string. It just looks terrible. I usually like to leave my figures stock, but I will likely clip the plastic string off and tie a real one on. Also, it’s pretty disappointing that you don’t get a single arrow for him to knock into the bow. At least the articulation works well with the bow itself, or reaching over his shoulder to grab another arrow. All the joints on this guy feel great right out of the box.

Taken on his own, I like this figure well enough, despite some big missteps with the accessories. The sculpt is solid, the coloring looks nice, and the articulation makes him pretty fun to mess around with. Still, all in all, I like the overall look of the DC Collectibles version a bit better. Granted, a lot of that has to do with differences in character design, and the articulation on that DCC figure can’t compete with what we got here. So, in the end, I’m happy to have both. Now let’s have a look at Raven!

The only Raven figure I have in my collection is Mattel’s old DC Universe Classics version, which looked OK, but was really designed for one pose, so she wasn’t a lot of fun. I almost picked up DC Collectibles Earth One version a few times, but I was not a big fan of that design, so I never did. I think this modern look is pretty cool and it gave McFarlane some interesting design beats to work with. Most of the suit’s detail comes in the sculpted pattern on the front of the torso, with the segmented built of red and gold disks adding some color. Speaking of color, I dig how the leggings and boots are a dark shade of blue rather than black like her one-piece. I didn’t even really notice until I got her under bright lights and it looks good. The red and gold disk just above her chest serves as a type of fastener for the cape and hood and matches the design of the belt. There’s some nice texturing on the cape, and thankfully it isn’t too big and heavy.

I really dig this portrait! The hood is attached to the head to allow for some decent movement in the neck and I love the layered look with the hair sculpted between the hood and head, and a few strays peeking out below her right eyebrow. She’s got some glittery pink paint applied to her eyes and mascara and a very deep maroon to her lips.

Raven shares the same articulation as Arsenal, and after suffering through so many of Hasbro’s female arms with limited articulation, I’m always happy to see the gals here get the same double-hinged elbows and bicep swivels as the dudes. I do wish she came with the flight stand that McFarlane sometimes throws in with the flying characters, but I can always borrow one from another figure, I guess.

Raven comes with a pair of translucent pink effect parts, which replace her hands and unfortunately these didn’t turn out so great. The pieces themselves look fine, but since they replace the hands, the wrist pegs can be seen inside and really spoils the whole effect. Either these needed to be designed to go onto the hands, or they needed to make those wrist pegs translucent pink as well. I don’t know how anyone thought these looked good enough as a final design, but it’s a pretty big fail.

Both Raven and Arsenal are solid figures that lose points for some poorly implemented accessories. Arsenal really needed a single arrow and an actual string on his bow. I can fix the string issue and borrow an arrow from the DC Collectibles release, but I shouldn’t have to. Meanwhile, Raven’s effect parts just don’t work with those unsightly wrist pegs. Still, I dig both of these designs well enough and it’s cool to have the characters represented on my McFarlane shelves. When I revisit this wave, I’ll check out Donna Troy and Nightwing, as well as the Beast Boy figure!