Jan 13 2011

DC Universe Classics Wave 14: Zatanna by Mattel

I can’t deny it. I love me my DC ladies, so it should be no surprise I’ve been patiently awaiting the inevitable DCUC release of everyone’s favorite sexy magician, Zatanna. Not to be confused with Zartan, Zaranna or Zatarain’s Cajun style foods. Found in your grocer’s freezer section, their New Orleans style dirty rice and beans can’t be beat! Wait, what? Oh, yeah… Zatanna. I’ve spent an awful lot of money lately buying up entire waves of DCUC figures, so I’m cherry picking Wave 14 and just picking up a few figures for now, but Zatanna was one of those must-haves for me in this wave. I’ve already heard an earful of collectors complaining about this figure, so let’s take a look and see what we’ve got.

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Same old DC Universe Classics packaging. You’ll note the “Only At Walmart” sticker, which ensures that I could never find this figure at a retail store. Apparently, none of the Walmarts in my area got the memo saying they have an exclusive deal with Mattel and should therefore actually carry DCUC figures. Still, Zatanna sure looks great in there… all dynamically posed… in the tray… held down by… oh shit! Yeah, Zatanna comes right out of the tray with her lovely legs warped all to hell because Mattel cannot understand that some of us “Adult Collectors” actually open our figures and care less about how they look in the package and more about them not coming out of said package all deformed. When Zatanna came out of the bubble it looked as if Brother Night ran over her legs with an SUV… and then backed up. I was able to get them a bit more presentable, but I’m being doubly cautious since a) I’m afraid I’m going to mess up her fishnets even more, and b) ever since my Raven figure’s leg broke off in my hand, I’m extra gentle with these joints. But let’s try to put the unfortunate packing aside and check out the figure.

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Some early photos of the figure had me worried about the face sculpt, but the figure that I have in hand looks fantastic. The face sculpt is beautiful and the paint apps are immaculate. Naturally, the sculpted hair all but torpedoes her neck articulation, but that’s just something I come to expect from a lot of the DCUC ladies. In this case, however, they needn’t have even bothered putting a neck joint in there. Ah, well. I really like the subtle blue highlights in her hair. Her magician outfit is well done, and for a showgirl, Zatanna shows a lot more class than her fellow female superheroes by buttoning up to the collar and garnishing with a cute little bowtie. Because bowties are cool. Wait, wrong series.

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From the waist down, it’s a bit more of a mixed bag. Yeah, I’m talking about the fishnets. If you own the DCUC Black Canary figure than you know exactly what to expect here, only in the case of my figure it’s a lot worse. The stockings look passable from the front and from the knees up, but they tend to bunch up a lot down by her ankles, and Mattel’s inability to replicate a decent stiletto heel makes Zatanna’s look a bit like granny shoes with support hose bunched up around her ankles. It ain’t pretty. From the back, the fishnets are a mess. Should Mattel have tried this again? I don’t know. I’d say at the very least, they should have done a variant without the fishnets. I’m thinking that with deft use of a razor blade you could get them off, but I’m not about to try it unless I wind up with an extra. They look loads better on Black Canary, just because they end at her boots. Oh, and speaking of shoes, Zatanna has no peg holes in the bottom of her feet, so even a figure stand won’t save her from falling down.

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Zatanna comes with two accessories: Her hat and wand. I am so glad that Mattel made the hat removable, as I really thought that they were going to go for a hat or hatless variant like they did way back with Big Barda. The hat has a little nob inside that catches against her bangs and keeps it on her head pretty well. I may have to go buy myself a little Schleich rabbit for the hat [Actually, wound up getting one with one of my Zenescope Alice in Wonderland figures!] Why yes, I am insane, thanks for asking! Zatanna also comes with the right arm of that damn dirty ape, Ultra Humanite, Wave 14’s Collect & Connect figure.

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In the end Zatanna is a real mixed bag. The sculpt is excellent, but I think a lot of collectors will remain undecided on the fishnets. I would appreciate the attempt more if they hadn’t already tried it on a previous figure with dubious results. Even so, I’d still end up recommending this figure. It took Mattel longer than I thought to get to her, but I’m just glad they finally did. She set me back about $25 including shipping, which is a lot more than I’m used to spending on these figures. But I guess if I can blow $30 on a Masters of the Universe Classics figure, than Zatanna was worth the money.

*This Feature was re-worked and re-shot on 8/18/15. 

Jan 12 2011

DC Justice League Unlimited: Superman, Galatea, The Huntress, and Booster Gold by Mattel

With DC’s Infinite Heroes line a thing of the past, I’ve had to begrudgingly get my fix of smaller DC figures elsewhere. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Justice League cartoon and Justice League Unlimited was pretty good too, but it took me a long time to warm up to the overly stylized nature of the JLU figures, not to mention some of their other recurring issues. Nonetheless, a few days ago I picked up one of the 3-packs as well as a single carded Booster Gold figure, so let’s check them out.

I love the look on the packaging here. The DC Universe style card is great, there’s animated stills of the characters on the back panel, and the figures are displayed well. What I don’t like is that the tray is designed to warp the legs of the female figures. Seriously, the ladies never stood a chance with their lower legs splayed out like that in the package. Luckily they come with stands. I’ve tried my best to warp them back into form, but the plastic is too soft and thin. Great job Mattel. Thanks a lot.

I’ll start with Superman, since I already own this mold, albeit with ugly Eclipso triangles all over it. The figure captures the animated style of the character pretty well and for the most part the paint apps are pretty clean. There are some serious quality control problems, though, with the seaming around his shoulders and the way his head fits on his neck. It just looks like the figure’s torso is ready to burst into two halves and shoot the head up in the air. Other than that, Sueprman is fine.

Galatea, on the other hand is a mess. The head sculpt is awful, particularly around the eyes where she looks like a Futurama character. The body is ok, if you ignore the fact that her legs are malformed from the package. All of the detail from the neck down is achieved with paint apps, which certainly gets the job done. Hey, Galatea, Power Girl called and she wants her shirt back. Moving on…

The Huntress is a great looking figure and from an aesthetics standpoint easily the best of this set. Unlike Galatea, her headsculpt is very well done and between the head, the cape and the paint apps, you’d be hard pressed to tell that this is the same figure as Galatea from the neck down. Unfortunately, that also includes the warped legs. But wait, what the hell is up with her arms. All of these figures use a rather soft plastic, but Huntress’ arms feel like she’s been left in a car in Florida for about four hours in the burning hot sun. They literally feel like they are made of the same plastic as her cape. Not cool.

This set originally retailed for around $15, which is a hell of a lot better than the ridiculous $9.99 that the single carded JLU figures sell for at Target or online. As fun as these figures are, I can barely justify paying the five bucks a pop each in the three-packs. There isn’t a single figure in this pack that doesn’t have serious issues that range from nagging to just downright awful. The pack does include two figure stands, which is a good thing because neither of the ladies will stand on their own. But it still irks me when Mattel tosses only two stands in a three figure pack, as if to suggest that the .000001 of a cent that those stands must cost to make prohibit them from including three.

Ok, moving on to Booster Gold. Sorry, I don’t have an in-package shot, but I just wanted to throw him in as a contrast to the other figures and to show that Mattel is capable of putting out a quality figure in this line. Sure, Booster is simple. He uses a standard body with paint apps to make him who he is. The head and collar are the only unique sculpted parts on this figure. Still, like the Superman mold, this figure does a great job capturing the spirit of the character as depicted in the JLU style. He also comes with a little Skeets, which sadly doesn’t plug in to him anywhere like the Skeets on the DCUC Booster, so there’s really no good way to display it.

As decent as the quality is on this figure, and as much as I love Booster Gold [even if you are trying my patience in the funny books lately. -FF], I couldn’t justify the $10 price point, but I only paid a couple of bucks for him so no worries. These aren’t my first JLU figures, as I do own a number of the six-pack figure sets, but needless to say poor quality control made this a pretty disappointing foray.

Jan 11 2011

Lego’s Pharaoh’s Quest: Cursed Cobra Statue (#7325)

Next up on our jaunt through Pharaoh’s Quest is the Cursed Cobra Statue set. For this set, we jump from 125 pieces (which was the brick count for Flying Mummy Attack) and up to 213 pieces. Like the last two sets we looked at, this set still includes three minifigs and a vehicle. Oh yeah, the artifact du jour is a golden scarab shield. I was really hesitant to get this set, because the Cobra takes up most of the brick count and building it looked like it was going to be a really redundant and tedious affair. Plus, if you’re working your way up from the bottom like I am, this set is going to give you a duplicate minifig and that’s always a bummer. So let’s see if the Cursed Cobra Statue set is really worth the thirty bucks in the end or if Pharaoh’s Quest has finally derailed.


The box includes an instruction manual and five unnumbered bags of bricks. You also get a small sticker sheet and the translucent plastic sheet to punch out the part that makes up the Cobra’s hood. The minifigs include a Mummy High Priest, [Seems to be officially called a Snake Charmer. Just sayin’ is all. -FF] the third new hero in the series, Helena Tova, and the same Jack Raines figure that came with the Scarab Attack set. You also get a jeep and the Cobra and his temple base. Let’s start with the minifigs.

There’s not much point looking at Jack again, as we already saw this figure in the first set. While I can appreciate having a spare to display with this set, it’s still kind of a bummer getting a duplicate figure in a set that cost me thrity bones. Helena, on the other hand is new, and she’s very cool. She has printing on the front and back of her shirt as well as two expressions on her face and a satchel. The heroes come with two pistols, a rifle, a bundle of dynamite and a shovel. The dynamite and rifle are the same pieces that were released in previous PQ sets. The Mummy Priest is the same body and head as the regular Mummy Warriors, but he has a new headdress and comes with two snakes. Why’d it have to be snakes? Oops, wrong series.

The jeep is very cool and it was almost as satisfying a build as the biplane from the last set we looked at. It can comfortably fit three minifigs, two seated in the front and one standing in the back. It also has clips on each side for the rifle and shovel, or whatever else you want to put in there.

The Cobra statue and temple represent most of the building here and while it is true that the Cobra consists of building the same two components over and over again, I didn’t seem to mind it so much while I was doing it. The Cobra is designed to coil around and attach to the temple, but it can be removed and thanks to what I believe are some Bionicle ball joints, it has a nice amount of articulation for when it comes to life to protect the scarab shield. It’s mouth also opens and closes. I do think the use of the plastic sheet for the Cobra’s hood is a bit of a cheat, but it looks good, and I can’t see any way round it. The temple has a platform for the Mummy Priest to stand so he can chuck snakes at the heroes.

I bought this set expecting to be disappointed. Yeah, sounds crazy, huh? But I wasn’t at all. It was still fun to build, even though it didn’t take me much longer than the last set, and the end result is great looking. I’m really happy with the way the Cobra looks on the shelf coiled around the altar. I still wish a unique version of Jack could have been included, and it’s the first set where the price, in this case $30, started to feel like a bit of a reach, but apart from that this is a pretty solid set in the Pharaoh’s Quest.

Jan 10 2011

Lego Pharaoh’s Quest: Flying Mummy Attack (#7307)

Another day, another Pharaoh’s Quest set, and this time we’re beefing things up just a wee bit more, with the 125-piece Flying Mummy Attack set. Again, it’s not quite twice as big as the last set, and it still comes with three minifigs, but the vehicle and the obelisk here are a lot more substantial than anything we’ve seen in the previous sets. But forget all that because, Lego, you had me at Flying Mummies.


The box includes an instruction booklet, a small sticker sheet and three unnumbered baggies of bricks. The three minifigs include two Flying Mummies and a new version of lead hero, Jack Rainer. You also get a bi-plane and an obelisk monument to hold this set’s priceless artifact: The Soul Gem! This set had me pretty excited to get going and I have to say the build was pretty satisfying. But first things first… to the minifigs!

The Flying Mummies are basically the same minifigs as the Mummy Warriors that we saw in the last set, with some new accoutrement to make them stand out. Namely, they get new, swankier headdresses that look like bird heads. They also get plastic wings that clip in between their head and torso. The wings look really coo and have a surprisingly long wingspan, but if you would just rather beef up your ground armies, you can leave them out and use these as regular Mummies. They each also come with a spear. The Jack Raines figure is in his aviators outfit, which includes a smartly painted flight jacket and the same helmet and goggles that came with Mac McCloud in the last set.

My first impression of the biplane was that it was smaller than I thought it would be, but in retrospect, I think my expectations were a little high, since this is just a twenty dollar set. It’s actually perfectly scaled to fit the minifig and it was lots of fun to build. It features twin machineguns,which are cleverly modified from regular hand-held machine gun pieces. There’s also a large grappling arm that swings down from the bottom to scoop up the Soul Gem right off the top of the obelisk. Naturally the propeller turns as well. I love pretty much everything about this little plane.


The obelisk is just a more elaborate structure to hold the artifact, just like the little altar in the last set, only it’s pretty tall and it has some stickers to improve it’s overall look. There’s not a lot to building this thing, but it does look impressive and it fits the theme really well. The Soul Gem just sits on the top, so that you can scoop it up with the bi-plane’s grappler arm, which works with varying degrees of success, depending on how good your imagination is.

This is the set I wanted to get right off the bat, before I decided to confine myself to going for the smaller sets first. Between the obelisk and the biplane and the Flying-freaking-Mummies, this set looked like fun and it sure was that. Sure it costs twice as much as the last set and isn’t really twice as big, the build is definitely substantial enough and the end result definitely seems like a decent value for the money. So far, this one is definitely my favorite in the series. Can the next set in the line, the Cursed Cobra Statue, beat it? We’ll find out tomorrow.

Jan 9 2011

Lego Pharaoh’s Quest: Golden Staff Guardians (#7306)

Last time we looked at the smallest set of the Pharaoh’s Quest assortment, today we’re climbing up a notch to the Golden Staff Guardians set. It’s not quite twice as big as the Scarab Attack set, but with 70 pieces, including no less than three minifigs and a vehicle, things are starting to get a little more serious. As indicated in the title of the set, this time around the featured artifact is the Golden Staff.


The box contains an instruction sheet and two unnumbered bags of bricks. The minifigs consist of two Mummy Guardians, or Warriors if you prefer, and the second of the heroes in the line, mechanic-slash-adventurer Mac McCloud. You also get the pedastal containing the Golden Staff and McCloud’s motorcycle, along with some weapons and equipment. Let’s start with the minifigs.

The two Mummies are identical, but they do have double printed faces, so you can at least make them each look unique. Personally, I’m not a fan of the one-eyed face, so I’m fine with them both looking the same. Their torsos are printed on both sides, and the detail is very nice. They each come with a sword and a scarab shield and also a black headpiece. Then you have Mac McCloud. His torso is also printed on both sides. He’s wearing an oil stained A-shirt with suspenders. He’s also wearing a motorcycle helmet with flip down goggles. He comes with a bundle of dynamite and a rifle. 

The motorcycle is pretty cool, but the build was a little disappointing in that the bulk of it is made up of just two pieces. I know, this is only a ten dollar set, but I buy these things to build, and slapping the bike together was just way too simple. I also preferred to go with just the one headlight as opposed to using the extra block to give it two. It just looks more natural. The back of the bike has clips to hold both the dynamite and the rifle. Mac fits on it fine, and it’s not too hard to get it to stand up, but it does have a habit of toppling over.

The altar is just a little construct to house the staff. It looks ok, and I like the little palm brick on the side to give it some garnish. I think it could have used a couple of stickers to help it along, but it’s fine for what it is. There is a a rod through it, which is designed to blast the staff off the altar when you hit it. This gimmick works with varying degrees of success.

This set retails at just under ten bucks, and I’ve got to say I think the value for your money here is pretty high. Not only do you get a brand new hero for the line, but you get two army builder minifigs, another artifact to chase after and the motorcycle is pretty cool too. It didn’t take very long to put together, but that’s to be expected from a set at this price point. All in all, it was a satisfying step up from the last set, and I definitely recommend picking it up.

Jan 8 2011

Lego Space Police: Lunar Limo (#5984)

Yeah, when I make a New Year’s Resolution I stick to it. Unless it’s about drinking less and sucking down fewer cheeseburgers. Or drinking less. Anyway, I set out a few mornings ago to pick me up some Lego. A serious set. And I really lucked out, because I found the one set that I’ve been wanting to pick up for a while now, and it was in Walmart’s clearance aisle and marked at $32, which made me happy. When I got to the register and it rang up at $16, I was even more happy. Cheap and Lego don’t usually go together, but in this case the Lego Gods are obviously pleased to welcome me into their cult. Plus, it meant I had money left over for beer and cheeseburgers. This Lunar Limo set, along with the Space Truck Getaway were the two sets that attracted me to the Space Police series (and back to Lego in general) in the first place, and as much as I hate to say it, this one totally blows away Space Truck Getaway.

The set comes in a nice big box that boasts 391 pieces, which makes this the largest Lego set I own. Yeah, that’s not saying a lot, but give me a break, this stuff is still relatively new to me. The piece count includes three minifigs, but that still leaves quite a bit of bricks to make up the single ship. Inside the box are four big bags of bricks and a nice big instruction sheet. There’s also a sticker sheet. I was pretty surprised how few stickers this ship needed, considering how big it is, but I think that’s a testament to its design that it doesn’t require a bunch of stickers to look great.

It took me just under three hours to build this baby. It was lots of fun to build, although each set of wings and thrusters needed to be built twice. I’m not a big fan of having to duplicate assemblies, but it’s obviously a necessary evil to create a ship with symmatry and it’s worth it to get to the finished product. I think the best thing about building this set is the fact that you basically build each have separately, so when the time came to put them together, I was totally unprepared for just how long this thing was going to be. It’s huge. It also means you can pull it into two halves for easier storage.


Let’s get the minifigs out of the way first. You get a Space Police officer, Brick Daddy, and his driver. Brick Daddy is easily one of the coolest Lego minifigs I’ve ever seen, but I think that goes without saying since he’s a squid-faced alien space pimp. Considering the age range for these sets, it’s probably too much to ask for a couple of alien space whores to go with him, but it might just be a custom project that would be worth doing.


It may be ironic, but the thing that got me into the Space Police line has very little to do with the Space Police themselves, and more to do with the awesome designs of the alien vehicles. I mean, just look at this thing. It’s a pimped out space limo and it’s glorious. It makes me want to get a Lando Calrissian minifig so he can fly around in this beauty. The black, purple and gold deco is really sharp and I absolutely love the little gold hood ornament. The Limo is also a really solid piece once it’s built, which is sadly more than I can say about the Space Truck. The only thing to be really careful about here are the two front laser guns, as they are very thin and probably rather prone to snapping or stressing. Other then that, this is one awesome intergalactic ride, man.

The Lunar Limo also has some decent little play features. The roof opens up to show inside the cabin, where the two minifigs sit. Brick Daddy actually sits on a little escape rocket inside the cabin, with what looks like a giant minigun on the front of it. The trunk also opens, which can fit the Space Police minifig. I’m not sure if he’s hiding back there or if Brick Daddy is driving him out to some distant nebula so they can whack him. He’s got a flick-fire gun, so it’s probably the former. There’s a little bit of articulation in the front wings and in the guns on the rear wing assemblies. There’s also a concealed missile launcher in the front of the limo, which fires a pretty hefty missile a pretty good distance. The whip antenna on the top is hinged, and I got an extra antenna in the box in case this one snaps.

This set is the fourth Space Police set I’ve picked up and it retailed originally at $39.99 and is still pretty easy to find both online and in stores. My Walmart actually had a ton of them on clearance. I would have been happy with it at full retail, but I won’t complain about getting it on clearance. Right now, there are just two more must-have sets in this series for me: The Hyperspeed Pursuit and Smash and Grab, although the Galactic Enforcer is still trying to wear down my resistance.

Jan 8 2011

Lego Pharaoh’s Quest: Scarab Attack (#7305)

The big unlicensed Lego series hitting the stores now is Pharaoh’s Quest, [Actually, right now that would be Ninjago, but I’m not all that interested in those, so bear with me, folks. -FF] the epic story of adventurer Jack Raines and his quest to steal a bunch of mystical Egyptian artifacts from a slew of baddies. Each set is themed around a specific artifact, which is noted on the package. I think this line was a stroke of genius coming off the licensed Indiana Jones sets, since it offers up the same general flavor with free reign to get as wacky and imaginative as they want, and of course without any of those pesky licensing fees. Plus, your Indiana Jones minifigs will feel right at home with any of these sets. The initial assortment of sets offers something for every size group. I’m going to start from the bottom and work my way up (more or less), so today we’ll begin with Scarab Attack.


Scarab Attack is the smallest of the current assortment, weighing in at just 44 pieces. The box contains an instruction sheet and two unnumbered baggies of bricks. It recreates Jack’s campsite as he gets set upon by a Giant Scarab. The set comes with a Jack Raines minifig, the Giant Scarab, a cooking pit, and an equipment stand. There’s a slew of tiny pieces, but it took no time at all to slap thsi set together.

The Jack Raines minifig is great. His head is printed on one side with a smarmy expression. I don’t think he’s too worried about that giant ass scarab coming at him. His shirt is printed on both sides, and the gold paint they are using on this set looks great. I love the bandalier strap of cartridges running down his chest, as it goes well with the rifle that comes with the set. He also comes with a pick axe, binoculars and the Golden Crystal artifact.

Next up is the Giant Scarab, which keep in mind is just giant when compared to normal scarabs, but he’s still a good size compared to Jack. I love this figure. The construction is really clever, and the articulation is pretty good. It also looks great. Instead of stickers, the back is printed with a cartouche and part of a brick wall. He’s a fun figure.

The rest of the set is kind of meh. The cooking pit comes with a flame piece, a turkey leg and a coffee cup. The equipment box can hold the rifle and the pick axe. I would have preferred a second minifig in this set over the campsite, but that probably goes without saying.


If you’re opening sets like I am, from smallest to largest, I think you’ll be happy with this set. It’s new and fresh, which is cool and it does exactly what it needs to do. It introduces you to the main character and gives him something to fight. But even if this isn’t your first set, you’ll probably find some nice stuff in here to compliment some of the bigger sets, particularly the scarab figure. The retail here is only $4.99, and honestly, I think the Jack Raines figure and the Giant Scarab are worth the price of admission alone, although I don’t think this is the last we’ve seen of this Jack Raines minifig.

Jan 8 2011

The Real Ghostbusters: Retro-Style Figures by Mattel

A lot of collectors were saddened to hear that Mattel opted out of doing regular figures based on The Real Ghostbusters cartoon in line with their movie based figures. I’ll admit, I was bummed out about it at first. But then I saw the early production shots of their Mego-style figures and I wasn’t sad anymore. We already had a whole line of regular Real Ghostbusters figures back in the day, and with how Mattel’s regular line of Ghostbusters figures has plummeted after such a little while, I was glad that Mattel went with this other venue. So glad, that I pre-ordered these things back in August of last year. My set finally came in earlier in the week, and I am thrilled with them.


When I ordered these guys, I was seriously considering keeping them on the cards and just hanging them on my wall. They really do look that awesome in the package, but my willpower wasn’t strong enough and pretty soon I had them all torn open. The cards feature artwork from the cartoon with portraits of all four Ghostbusters on the front, plus Mr. Staypuft himself. The back panel shows all four boys with their names along with Slimer and Janine and it says, “Collect Them All.” Does that mean we’re getting a Janine figure? I doubt it, but if you’re listening, Mattel, I vote for her in the Ghostbusters jumpsuit as seen in the Season 1 episode Janine’s Genie. She wore the same jumpsuit as Peter, so you’d just have to do the headsculpt and slap it on one of teh female bodies. Just saying is all! Anyway, the cards are all identical and the only thing distinguishing the packages from each other is the personalized splatter sticker on the bubbles with each of the Ghostbuster’s name on it. The figures and their equipment are also left loose to rattle around inside the bubble.

Before getting into the actual figures, let me preface things by saying that two issues worried me as the final production versions of these figures began turning up. First off, the proton packs were blue, as opposed to the black one that came with the SDCC Venkman figure. The blue is show accurate, but I was worried that my Venkman figure would be the odd man out with a black proton pack. Luckily, all the figures shipped with the blue ones. If you want a matching set and you already have an SDCC Venkman, you may want to consider ordering the regular version for the blue proton pack. Next, early reports had some of the figures showing up without the Ghostbusters emblem on their shoulders. Again, it all worked out fine as all of my figures have the logo present.


As in the traditional Mego style, each of The Real Ghostbusters figures features the exact same body sculpt. It works pretty well, except for Ray who was pretty portly in the cartoon. I may try to stuff some foam into his uniform to bulk him up. The articulation is serviceable, but still below what we get in many action figures these days and it’s kind of tough to get them to hold their particle throwers in a very dynamic position. The headsculpts on these figures are what give them all the distinctive character and I’ve got to say that Matty did a fine job bringing the cartoonish caricatures of the Ghostbusters to life in plastic. I don’t have any issues with any of the head sculpts, although I’ll give the special nod to Egon, with his glasses and crazy hair, they really nailed him right out of the park.  The uniform patterns are identical on all four figures and they are each colored to match the uniform each character wore in the cartoon. They fit the figures very well and really round out the package nicely and there’s no sloppy stitching or anything like that. As mentioned earlier, each one has a Ghostbusters patch on their right shoulder. The figures also have their chests painted black to simulate the t-shirt worn under the uniforms in the cartoon. They all have the same pair of black boots and the same belt.

Each Ghostbuster comes with an identical proton pack and all but Venkman come with an extra piece of equipment. The proton packs look appropriately like cartoonified versions of the ones on the movie figures, although there are far from cartoon accurate. The biggest differences are in the particle thrower, as the plastic versions look a lot closer to the movie ones than the ones seen in the cartoon. Nevertheless, the proton packs are removable and you can peg the wand onto the pack for storage, just like they do in the cartoon. The packs are easy to get on and off the figure and fit on them very well.


As for the rest of the equipment… Egon comes with a PKE Meter, which looks a lot different then it does on the episodes of the cartoon that I’ve seen recently, but it might have been redesigned at some point during the show’s long run. Ray comes with a cartoon version of the ghost sniffer that Peter used in Dana’s apartment in the movie. I don’t remember it ever being seen in the cartoon, but it’s a cool movie-cartoon tie-in. This accessory shows off the only quality control issue I have with the whole set, as there’s some serious yellow paint slop all over the sniffer want. Winston comes with a ghost trap, which does not open, but you can actually attach it to the side of the proton packs, which is how the Ghostbusters carried them in the cartoon.

I was still pretty young when Mego figures were ruling the toy shelves, but my brother and I got a bunch of Mego’s Star Trek, DC, and Planet of the Apes figures handed down to us from our Uncle. We played with them a lot, but for whatever reason I didn’t retain a lot of nostalgia for the style and that’s probably why these Real Ghostbusters were the first Mego style figures I’ve picked up since the whole retro-style revival began. I’m still not sold on the style in general, but I can’t deny that they work perfectly for these figures, and I highly recommend you fans of the cartoon give them a look, even if the Mego style ain’t usually your bag. The figures retail for around $20 each, which is pretty standard for this type of thing and I’m really glad to have them in my collection.

Jan 7 2011

DC Universe Classics Wave 13: Collect & Connect Trigon by Mattel

Man, it’s been a long week. If a few of these posts have seemed a little abrupt, it’s because I’ve been fighting a ridiculously busy week at work that has been sapping the very soul out of me each and every day. I also haven’t had a day off in eight days. There have been a few days this week where almost all I did before crashing in bed was one of these posts. But Friday’s here, I’ve finally got two days off, and so let’s kill off the week by taking a look at Wave 13’s Collect & Connect figure. He’s big, he’s red, he’s a sadistic bastard from another dimension… he’s Trigon!

I’m not being the biggest Teen Titans fan around. Trigon wasn’t necessarily tops on my list of DC Universe characters I needed to own in figure form. Or at least that was true until I saw the figure. Love him, hate him, don’t know who the hell he is, it doesn’t matter because this figure pretty much sells himself with his sheer awesomeness. Weighing it at twice as tall as many DCUC figures, he’s certainly an imposing fellow and his sculpt has the chops to back it up.
Ok, so in terms of body sculpt there isn’t a whole lot going on here. He’s mostly a slab of red muscle with his boots painted on. He does have sculpted arm bracers and a strap across his torso. He also has a loin cloth to protect his delicate demon modesty. But check out that head sculpt. It’s like Thor, Mr. Spock, Red Hulk, and an antelope had an orgy and this is the unholy product of that forbidden congress. Trigon’s mouth is agape with wonderfully sculpted and painted teeth, soft plastic antlers, and that extra set of eyes that is all the rage in Azarath these days. Obviously Raven gets her looks from her mother’s side.

Trigon also breaks tradition for the DCUC with a bonafide softgoods cape. The cape and plastic high collar are of course removable, since they were one of the components of his BAF nature. The cape even has a bendy wire frame that allows for some posing. Trigon also comes with a staff, cast in a really cool looking pearl colored plastic.

No two ways about it, Trigon is an awesome figure and definitely one of the more impressive of the C&C family. He looks amazing on the shelf and was well worth picking up the likes of Negative Man in order to complete him. Sorry, Negative Man, that was a low blow.

[Ok, so I was planning on slipping in a Justice League Unlimted 3-pack to round out the week, but I’m ready to move on to other things for a little bit, so I’ll come back to it later. I did get in the first wave of Green Lantern Classics yesterday, and it is a spectacular set of figures, but I’m going to hold off until Monday to look at those and rather then make another week of it, I’ll pack the whole thing into two or three posts to help keep those of you who aren’t that into DC stuff from getting bleary eyed. In the meantime, this weekend is going to be all about Ghostbusters and Legos. But right now, it’s all about booze and sleep. See ya tomorrow. -FF]

Jan 7 2011

DC Universe Classics Wave 13: Donna Troy by Mattel

The last figure [Next to last… don’t forget about Trigon! -FF] on our Wave 13 whirlwind tour is none other than Donna Troy, Wonder Woman’s sister… er, magical clone… er, Wonder Girl… um… Multiverse composite with the… um, memories… oh, the hell with it. Go get yourself a copy of Brave and the Bold #60 to start to track Donna’s tortured continuity, but then this figure isn’t even modeled on that version, so let’s just forget it and take a look at the goddamn figure.

As with many of the DCUC figures, Wonder Girl relies as much on paint apps as she does on sculpting to make her who she is. She dresses a lot less gaudy than her sister, at least in this later incarnation. No red white and blue panties and she also shows off a lot less skin. Instead she’s wearing a red jumper with some yellow stars, a gold belt with the “W” beltbuckle, and her trusty golden lariat hanging off her hip. I’m usually happy with the face sculpts on the female DCUC figures, and Donna here is no exception to that. The sculpt is excellent right down to her star earrings and her perfectly sculpted hair. I’m also really happy with the paint apps on this figure, except for maybe the sleepy eyes. But apart from that there’s really no slop or bleeding to speak of.


Donna Troy doesn’t come with any accessories, unless you count her emotional baggage, and her permanently mounted lasso. She does, however, come with the pelvis and head pieces to build the Trigon C&C figure.

I purposely saved Donna for last because I didn’t want to write this post. It’s easy to blather on about a character you know, and it’s just as easy to claim total ignorance. Either way, I still like to attach something of the character’s backstory with the figure, but I’d need a week off from work and a prescription for some pretty strong stimulants to write that article and even then it wouldn’t make any sense. Besides, which I just don’t think the character is all that worth the trouble. Nonetheless, Donna Troy here is a fine, well-executed figure, which looks great standing on my Teen Titans shelf. The next and last stop? Trigon!