Tag Archives: aquaman

Jun 17 2024

DC Multiverse (Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom): Sunken Citadel Pirate & King Kordax by McFarlane

I wouldn’t call the first Aquaman movie a great film, but I went in with low expectations and a healthy level of intoxication and came out of it having had a pretty good time. I didn’t bother seeing Lost Kingdom, but someday I may remedy that, as it looks pretty bonkers. Nonetheless, I was attracted to today’s cool looking figures despite not seeing the film, and it didn’t hurt that these were on deep (no pun intended) discount. Understandable, since the merchandising push crumbled about as badly as the film’s hopes for making a decent profit. As I understand it, it was one of the DCEU’s better recent performers, but when put up against the likes of Black Adam and Shazam, that’s not exactly high praise. At least I’m pretty sure it broke even. Anyway, I was happy to see McFarlane latched onto some of the creative creature designs for this movie, and I would have liked to see more.

The pair I’m looking at today consists of King Kordax and the Sunken Citadel Pirate Mega Figure. I believe, Kordax was the major villain of the film and the Pirate was just a background character from the diverse population of the Sunken Citadel. These, and the Seahorse Mount, are the only figures I picked up from the film, but if a Mamoa Aquaman in his classic armor and Black Manta get cheap enough, I’ll likely grab them too. These figures come in the usual DC Multiverse style window boxes, although they are branded with the movie logo on the lower front. They are mostly collector friendly, although you will have to tear the figure stand and collector cards off of the cardboard backings to get at them. Let’s start with the big guy…

I love McFarlane’s Mega Figs, mainly because you don’t see regular retail figures this big released all that often these days. Plus, Todd has really nailed down a compromise between creating an impressively sized and great looking figure while still keeping costs somewhat reasonable. What we have here is just a giant fish guy in some kind of pressure suit, and I don’t know why, but the idea of fish wearing clothes underwater kind of tickles me. His hands and feet are left bare, showing off some of the delightful anatomy of this creature’s extremities. His legs kind of have the structure of a dog’s hind legs, providing him rather high ankle joints, while his elongated and webbed hands give him quite an impressive reach. The suit has some reinforced pads and what look like pressure valves or hose attachments, but mostly it’s just smooth plastic. I like how it’s designed to let his various fins stick out, including the two little articulated flippers on his chest. The coloring here is mostly various shades of brown, and I would have liked to see more variety between the color of the suit and the actual fish guy itself, but maybe that’s screen accurate, I don’t know. I also think a glossier wash over the suit would have added to the wet and underwater feel. Still, I like what we got just the same.

The head represents some wonderful sculpting, offering plenty of detail to all his fishy parts. It’s a pretty cool design, with the fins forming a sort of beard and mutton chops, the slightly open mouth showing a mess of teeth, and the tiny piercing eyes peeking out past a slab of brow ridge. The head represents the most variety to the color palate, but it’s still just shades of brown with a bit of wash over the boney parts of the face.

The Pirate features a lot of the usual points of articulation found in McFarlane’s Mega Figs, but because of his bizarre anatomy some of it works differently. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, swivels up at the top of the biceps, single hinged elbows, and rotating hinges in the wrists. The legs have rotating hinges in the hips, double hinged knees, and as I mentioned earlier, his ankle hinges are up higher than usual, offering rotation and a hinge, but not much in the way of lateral rockers. There’s a ball joint in the waist and while the neck is articulated, the head can really just pivot side to side like a dog hearing a strange noise, rather than actually rotate. Many of the hinges here are on heavy ratchets making sure they can hold whatever pose you put them in. There are no accessories or extra hands, but this guy really doesn’t need much more, he’s damned impressive all on his own.

The Sunken Citadel Pirate is an outstanding figure, and while he’ll likely take up residence on the regular Aquaman portion of my DC Multiverse shelf, there’s so much crossover potential here. He would make a great Doctor Who monster, and I could even see him fighting some of my fantasy themed figures like Mythic Legions or AD&D. The original MRSP on this behemoth was $40, but I got him for half that and I’m certainly glad I did! Now, let’s move on to King Kordax…

So, I guess the DCEU version of Kordax was the main villain of the film, but spent most of it confined to a magical prison. He possessed Black Manta and influenced a lot of what happened, but really just showed up in person for the big final fight when he was finally released. And I gather he’s basically an undead Atlantean in crustacean armor. And while the figure looks pretty badass, I will say that the coloring on this one seems to really be at odds with the clips I’ve seen of his on screen appearance. Maybe it was just the lighting, but he looked more blackish-green and had green energy spilling out from inside him. None of that is really replicated here, as the armor is mostly tan brown with a bone colored wash and some black for the skirt pieces.

That’s not to say he isn’t a cool looking figure, because he sure as hell is. The sculpting for the armor is excellent with some crazy intricate detail. The chest has a slight ribcage motif, but the bulk of the armor just looks like it was grown like barnacles on the hull of a ship. Even the tattered cape has some detail that looks like ancient organic sea growth.

The elongated helmet is creepy as all hell, with narrow, barely visible eye slits and a mouth exposing a wall of nasty teeth. If you look closely, you can see some portions of his actual head peaking out around the jawline, as well as his ears. These are painted in a sickly, pea soup green and given a hint of gloss. What’s really creepy are all the filaments of growth snaking their way off the back of the helmet and top of the shoulder pieces like tendrils.

Despite his bizarre look, Kordax holds true to the usual DCM system of articulation and he’s pretty fun to pose and play with. The shoulder armor does inhibit the movement up there a little bit, but the arms will simply unplug from the sockets, rather than allow anything to break, if you go beyond what they are intended to do. There’s a single pair of hands, with the left somewhat open and the right closed up in a tight grip to wield his one accessory.

And that accessory is his Black Trident, which I guess was a big deal in the movie. Here, it’s not terribly impressive and it’s cast out of some super soft plastic. Mine was warped straight out of the box and it’s been tough to get it to straighten out for any amount of time before it starts warping again. That’s kind of a shame!

I feel like if you were a fan of the movie and bought this figure sight unseen you might be disappointed with the final result, mainly because of the coloring. Granted, that’s not a problem for me, and I dig him a lot. On the one hand, I think it’s a pity McFarlane put all this work into the figure only to have the movie flop, but then again if nothing else, we still got this cool figure out of the deal, and that ain’t a bad thing! And like the Pirate, I was able to grab this guy for super cheap at just $13.

If you want some cool fish people for your action figure display, I can’t recommend this pair enough. McFarlane poured the love into these sculpts, creating something good out of the movie in the end. Hell, the Pirate is so good, I’d have to show some serious willpower to keep from picking up another if he drops in price much more. I think the real shame here is that there were some other very cool creature designs in the film that would have made for great figures. I’m specifically thinking about the Hammerhead Shark Guards in the Sunken Citadel. I would have definitely been down for a pair of those! Maybe if the film had performed better there would have been a second wave. I guess we’ll never know!

May 27 2024

DC Multiverse (Plastic Man Wave): Aquaman & John Stewart Green Lantern by McFarlane

Talk about a fast turnaround! It feels like the Plastic Man Wave went from reveal to preorder to arriving pretty damn quick. I went with Amazon on this one and while they did wind up sending each figure individually, they all arrived within a week of each other no fuss, no muss. Which is more than I can say for the Superman and Krypto that I preordered the moment it dropped back in February. Every week I get another delay notice on that one, until it will likely eventually get cancelled. They even had the nerve to put up another preorder for him since then. What’s that? Oh yeah… The Plastic Man Wave is here! Let’s check it out.

I’ll do this wave in two parts and we’re starting with Aquaman and Green Lantern. The package is standard stuff, and as always I love these boxes with the blue backdrops behind the trays. The windows are large and show off the goods and you get some top and side window to let in more light. These packages are mostly collector friendly, but you know the drill, if you want the character card and stand, you gotta get to ripping! In addition to the Collect-To-Build parts, this wave is has been solicited as a 1990’s JLA themed assortment, which begs the question, why is John Stewart in there? Well, in fairness we did just get a Kyle Rayner with Kilowog, but that’s not really an answer. I guess the only answer is because… McFarlane! So, let’s start with John…

Both of today’s characters were last seen as different versions in the Endless Winter Wave. And while I have not yet reviewed either of those, I will include some comparison shots at the end. This release of Green Lantern features a pretty classic looking suit and I sure dig that. It is interesting seeing it with the modern texturing, but that’s also kind of cool. I also like that the boots and gloves are sculpted separately from the suit and these are not textured. The McFarlane diaper vibe is a bit strong here, and that’s not usually something that bothers me, but it’s just hitting me hard with this figure. Not ideal, but not enough to ruin the figure for me. Obviously, you get the power ring sculpted and painted on his right fist. His left hand can grip, but surprisingly there is no lantern battery for him to hold, which is kind of weird.

The head sculpt is exceptionally good. John has a strong jawline, a noble brow with a little furl to it, and a slightly concerned expression, as if he’s about to go into a serious fight. This is definitely one of McFarlane’s better portraits. The lantern symbol printed on his chest is a little odd. I’d love to know what the reference art for that was.

Articulation is standard McFarlane fare, and that’s mostly a good thing. I’ll always be salty about not having thigh swivels, but everything else is great. One of the great things about McFarlane is that I don’t think I ever had issues with any of their figures’ joints, and that’s something I can’t say about Hasbro. These guys handle great right out of the box and Stewart is fun to pose and play with.

You get two effect parts, and they’re strangely not constructs, but just energy effects. One fits over the fist and I like the way it looks a lot. The other is just a weird energy swoosh, that I think is meant to go on the bicep, but it really doesn’t fit well. I’m all but sure that at least that one is recycled from another figure and it doesn’t do much for me here. Both are cast in a nice translucent emerald green plastic.

This John Stewart is a decent figure, but if it weren’t for the Plastic Man parts, I probably would have waited until he hit discount. It’s just such a strange choice to take up one of the four slots in this assortment. Still, I like the suit design here better than what we got from Endless Winter, so he may wind up bumping that figure off my Green Lantern shelf, but I’m sure both will be represented somewhere. Let’s head under the sea and check out Aquaman.

There’s no doubt the 90’s gave Aquaman a badass makeover. I’ll confess the more classic look will always be my preferred design for the character, but that’s because it’s the one I grew up with. But nothing escaped the 90’s without being EXTREME, so Arthur grew a beard, donned some half-armor, and got his hand gnawed off by insane piranhas so he could replace it with a goddamned hook. And I’ll say that McFarlane’s figure does this version proud. Things are pretty classic from the waist down with the black and metallic green leggings and gold belt. There are some crisp scale patterns printed on the sides of the legs, and fins jutting out the back of his calves. And from the waist up we go all extreme with three quarters showing skin and the shoulder and sleeve of silver armor on the right side. The straps over and under the left shoulder are part of the body sculpt. I think these would have looked better painted brown or black for a little variety, otherwise it all looks good. There’s some great muscle definition sculpted into his abs, cut segments in the armor sleeve, and various dings and pitting sculpted into the armor itself.

As for the head sculpt, well we’re two for two in this review, because Arthur’s is another absolute banger of a portrait. The beard is sculpted and painted so well and they’ve even allowed for his hair to float a bit above the shoulders to allow for neck articulation. Normally, this might look a bit weird, but I can write it off to those strands just floating while he’s under water. This may be my favorite Aquaman portrait of any figure in my collection right now.

Aquaman is the only figure in this assortment that doesn’t come with any accessories or effect parts, but he does have his harpoon hand, so that’s pretty cool. This is also the only point of difference when it comes to the figure’s articulation, since there’s no wrist on that arm. The elbow is the usual double hinge and you get the bicep swivel, but you also get an added swivel where the harpoon socket meets the arm.

These are both solid figures, but Aquaman takes the prize as my favorite out of this pair. I honestly didn’t think I needed to pick up any more Aquaman figures since the Endless Winter version is such a solid and iconic look, but this version has grown on me a lot over the years, so having both represented on the shelves ain’t a bad thing. Indeed, even if the Plastic Man parts weren’t included, I probably would have preordered this figure. He looked amazing in the solicitation shots, and the actual figure absolutely delivers.

And with a set of arms and legs, that gets us halfway to building Plastic Man! Overall, I’m very pleased with both of these figures, and I’ll come back to this wave at the end of the week to check out Superman, Batman, and put together Plastic Man. Sure, John Stewart is the odd man out here, but he’s still a welcome addition to my Multiverse shelf, and I can’t recommend Aquaman enough, especially if you grew up with this version. These guys retail at the regular $24.99 and for the moment they seem to still be widely available at most McFarlane online retailers. They each also have Platinum chase variants, but I’m not getting into all that, but I will be bitching about it in the next review!

Sep 8 2017

DC Super-Villains: Black Manta by DC Collectibles

I’ve been slowly working my way through the TPB releases of DC ReBirth and having a great time. So far nearly all the books have been enjoyable, but the one that totally took me by surprise was Aquaman. Great story, great characterizations, and beautiful art and coloring. It’s also one that beautifully captures what a badass Black Manta can be. So much so, that I had to go back and pick up his action figure from the DC Super-Villains line. And this is a particularly pertinent review as with Irma bearing down on me in a couple days, I may soon be under water! Yeah… let’s check him out!

I’ve reviewed several of the DC Super-Villains series, so the packaging offers no surprises. The figure comes in a mostly black window box with a swipe colored to match part of the character’s deco. In this case the red of Manta’s eyes. The box also includes an extended back flap with a J-hook so it can be displayed standing on a shelf or hanging on the wall. The window shows off the figure very well and everything here is collector friendly.

Out of the box, Black Manta looks absolutely fantastic. By nature, his design is fairly minimalist when it comes to color and details, but DCC still packed a great amount of love into him. The nearly all matte black body suit features some rather subtle panel lining around the chest and there’s some nice musculature sculpted in a swell. The neck guard, boots and gauntlets are painted with a glossy finish, which can look black or purple depending on how the light hits it. He also features the red gill-like slashes on either side of the suits neck-guard. All in all, this figure captures the look of the suit perfectly.

The only other detail of note on the suit is his right gauntlet, used to fire his energy beams or micro torpedoes. It’s a great sculpt and features some nice silver paint.

From the back, Manta is wearing his jetpack/backpack, which is painted in the same silver as his gauntlet. The backpack not only serves to propel him in water, but in this case also stores his extra weapons, which I’ll touch on in just a bit.

My favorite thing about Black Manta’s look has always been his squat, bulbous helmet and it looks fantastic on this figure. The red paint and texture on the giant buggy eyes is particularly well done. The back of the head connects to the backpack with two soft plastic hoses. They do allow for neck movement, but sometimes have a habit of bringing the head back to the center position.

Articulation on the Super-Villains line isn’t the best and mostly adheres to the standards set by DCC’s earlier “New 52” style figures. The biggest restriction here is in the hips, where we get a disappointing t-crotch as opposed to ball jointed hips. The arms are overall decent, with rotating hinges in the shoulders, swivels in the biceps, hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the wrists. The legs feature hinges in the knees, but no articulation in the ankles, and no swivels in the thighs. There’s no articulation in the torso at all, and the neck is ball jointed. There’s still some fun to be had here, but for the most part, Black Manta is designed to stand on the shelf and look menacing.

What Manta lacks in articulation he makes up for with accessories. First off, he has what is sometimes called his hand-trident, although two blades does not a trident make. This is a simple weapon, but looks great in either hand and is stored by clipping it to the center of the backpack.

The other weapons are twin short-swords, and these aren’t really shown off in the package as they come sheathed in the backpack. Again, these are fairly simple, although they do have some detailing on the grips.

For the most part, the Super-Villains line has been one that I pick up when I find the figures at decent discounts, so rarely have I ever paid the full $20 that these are intended to sell for. Black Manta would have been an exception, as I went hunting for him after reading just a the first few issues of Aquaman ReBirth. To my surprise, he was already going for pretty cheap, and I was able to grab him for about $12. He looks great, and the accessories are a welcome treat that you don’t often see with this line, but the fairly limited articulation dampens (HA!) the fun a little bit. Still, I’m certainly glad I got him, as he displays beautifully with the Aquaman from my “We Can Be Heroes” Justice League set.

Aug 5 2016

DC Icons: (#11) Aquaman by DC Collectibles

Apologies that today’s DC Friday Feature is going up so late. It’s been a bitch of a week and I’m glad to put it behind me. But after a detour last week, I didn’t want to delay wrapping up Wave 3 of DC Icons any longer. Yes, today’s figure is Aquaman, and while he tends to take a lot of guff from a lot of people, I’ve always had a soft spot for the guy. I was happy to see him getting a slot in the DC Icons line, as the series continues to alternate between classic versions of cornerstone characters and more fleeting appearances of back-benchers. And so some may shake their head when a wave goes from Harley Quinn and Superman to Atomica and back to Aquaman, but scoff if you will, this is what Universe building is all about.

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We’ve seen this packaging many times over by now. It’s clean, attractive, and collector friendly. Aquaman’s box is branded with orange coloring, indicates that he is the 11th figure in the line, and the side panel notes that this figure is taken from the pages of “The Legend of Aquaman,” a limited run origins story that was published in the late 80’s. I actually remember reading that one way back when, it was probably one of the last comic series I read before the 90’s hit and I started drifting away from comic books for a time. I revisited it after getting this figure, but unlike my re-reading of “Man of Steel,” it completely failed to capture my interest.

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Nonetheless, the book features a very classic look for Aquaman and a great basis for this figure. But is there really a lot to say about this guy? With a few exceptions, his costume has changed the least out of anyone over the years and whether I’m looking at the original DC Universe Classics version or the New 52 Justice League version from DC Collectibles, there’s not a lot new here to talk about. You get the gorgeous gold fish-scale patterned top and dark green gauntlets and legs. From the back you can see the sculpted fins on the back of his lower legs. This is a fine treatment of the character, but I don’t think it’s really anything we haven’t seen before plenty of times.

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You get two portraits with the figure. The regular head is one of the better ones I’ve seen in the DC Icons line. At the risk of overusing the word here, it just looks very classic Aquaman. The paint is very clean and the figure features a strong jawline.

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The alternate head features a hole in the forehead to insert his telepathy effect part. I like the look of this piece and I’m glad DCC included it, as it’s one of the few things that makes this figure truly stand out as something genuinely new and different. The head sculpt is virtually the same, and I’m not sure why they bothered to make the effect piece removable. It’s not like anyone is going to use the head without the cone telepathy cone pegged into it. Maybe it was just cheaper to do it that way.

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If you’ve been collecting this line, or reading my Features on it, the articulation here should present no surprises. You get rotating hinges in the shoulders, double hinges in the elbows and knees, hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles, ball joints in the hips, an ab-crunch hinge just above the waist, a ball joint under the chest and again in the neck, and swivels in the biceps. It’s all pretty good stuff, but the lack of a waist swivel in this figure really irks me, as does the lack of thigh swivels. The wrists are on hinged pegs, allowing for swappable hands. Aquaman comes with a total of three pairs, including fists, relaxed hands, and trident-holding hands.

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And conveniently, you also get a trident for those-trident holding hands to hold! I have my share of Aquaman figures and I can safely say this is the best trident that’s come with any of them. The prongs are super thin and fragile, but I think that’s what makes it look so good. The head will pop off the shaft to help slide it through his closed grips.

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If you’re in the market for a very classic and solid Aquaman figure, you can’t go wrong here, and thanks to the timelessness of this look, he works fine as a modern version of the character too. I should also note how cool it is that Icons has so far been pulling the core Justice League characters from appearances published in the 80’s and that gives me a very classic and cohesive looking team so far. And this Feature also gets me current on DC Icons, but I’ll be anxiously awaiting Wave 4 to ship with Firestorm, John Stewart, and The Joker. Unfortunately, it looks like they’ve been delayed well into 4th Quarter.