Jun 24 2016

Cover Girls of the DC Universe: Katana by DC Collectibles

It’s Friday! Let’s check out some DC Comics stuff! This week I’m staying on with the Cover Girls statues line and opening up one of the more recent releases, Katana! She’s a cool character, who I believe is going to be getting a lot more merch in the days ahead, so long as the Suicide Squad movie performs well. This version is from the recently defunct New 52 continuity, which is appropriate, as that was where she got her first solo book. I also rather enjoyed her time in Birds of Prey.

There’s not much new to say about the box. With nearly a dozen of these statues on my shelf, I’ve showcased the packaging quite a bit and not much has changed. Katana comes in an enclosed red and white box with various shots of the statue and some teasers of what’s coming up or also available on the back panel. The statue is wrapped in plastic and encased between two pieces of styrofoam. The only assembly required is to peg Katana’s feet into the base and they fit in quite easily.

The Cover Girls line has been a hearty mix of museum-style poses along with some hints of action and on that scale of things Katana comes close to going for all out action. She stands with feet apart and her sword, Soultaker, drawn up to her shoulder and ready to strike. And yet, it still passes for something like a staged shot and I don’t think it goes too far off point. She still looks perfectly at home when displayed with her fellow Cover Girls. Besides, this is a pose that really conveys so much of Katana’s character, and so in terms of composition, I’d say she’s damn near perfect.

The costume features her New 52 armored body suit that looks great without the need for a whole lot of sculpted detail and does it’s best to show off her lovely curves. You do get panel lines running throughout and a cool and consistent metallic charcoal paint that meshes beautifully with the rich matte crimson on her lower leg armor and the quilted sleeve on her right arm. The body suit also features some exposed ribbed black areas in the joints and down the spine, presumably to give her more flexibility. Her scabbard hangs off her back and you also get some sculpted pouches on the small of her back. While the paint scheme and overall sculpt are fairly simple here, everything looks exceptionally clean and this is arguable the best paint I’ve seen in the line to date.

All that praise applies to the head sculpt as well. The beautifully sculpted portrait is two-tone with the lower face painted in matte gray, just a tad slighter than the suit, and the top half in white with the Rising Sun on her forehead. Her blue eyes are sharp and straight and her short hair ruffles ever so slightly in an imagined breeze. I love how her expression offers just a hint of joyful anticipation at the fight that’s about to come.

Katana’s sword looks good, although the sculpt for the hilt is a little on the soft side. Hey, I’m really looking for things to complain about and that’s the best that I can come up with. The blade is straight and while I’m going to be sure and be careful with it, it doesn’t feel overly fragile.

The base consists of the now standard oval with a charcoal and crimson deco to match Katana’s costume. The emblem on the sides consists of a simple red disc suggestive of the Rising Sun. The limitation is hand numbered on the bottom of the base, with mine being 561 of 5,200 statues produced. I think this may be the lowest number Cover Girl I own.

Katana is a wonderful addition to my Cover Girls shelf and definitely a triumph for this line. What’s even better is at the time I publish this Feature, she’s readily available at a few online retailers at close to half the original MSRP. I picked up mine for $55, and damn was that a steal! Considering that DCC has already started doing second versions of some of the gals in this line (Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, Wonder Woman) it’s nice to see that they’re also hitting on some of the less high-profile characters like Katana here. She’s a great release for the line and a worthy pick up for folks who just love the character.

Jun 17 2016

Cover Girls of the DC Universe: Poison Ivy (Ver. 1) by DC Collectibles

I’m switching it back to the statue scene this week on DC Friday and heading all the way back to the beginning of the second series of the Cover Girls line. I wasn’t all that smitten with this first version of Poison Ivy, especially when compared with what came later, but it’s one of the few early releases that I didn’t have, it’s become a bit pricey on the secondary market, and I was made an offer on this one I couldn’t refuse. Does Ivy manage to win me over? Let’s find out!

The packaging hasn’t changed much since the line was rebooted. You get the same fully enclosed box. It’s mostly white and it has some shots of the statue. Inside, the statue comes wrapped in plastic and between two styrofoam bricks. There’s no assembly required and there’s no statement of limitation on this one. It wasn’t until later releases that DCC began limiting the runs to 5,200 and hand numbering them.

And this is indeed the New 52 version of Ivy and it’s a design that I never really understood or much cared for. Just what’s up with the black leotard? To me it doesn’t fit with the whole plant motif. And the leaves and vines on top of it? Are they sewn in? Does she grow them around it after she puts on the leotard? It’s just a weird design. With that having been said, I’m OK with the pose here. It’s designed to show off the curves of her body and with both arms over her head, she holds a single rose bud in her left hand.

The costume design here is relatively simple, as it’s just a lot of matte black. There isn’t a lot of muscle definition showing through, but the shapes and curves are certainly pleasing. But with all that simple space, I would have hoped the sculptor would have paid more attention to the clusters of leaves. In some areas, they’re well defined, but in others they just look like mush. On the plus side, the green paint is applied well and there’s hardly any slop to speak of.

And that brings us to the portrait and this is the part of the statue that could have probably won me over, but it just doesn’t. Again, part of this has to do with my lack of enthusiasm for this version of the character. The black and green eyes are a little too demonic for me, and the black patterns on the face are as weird a choice as the black leotard. There’s something a little too sinister about this portrait. I know, she’s a villain, but here she looks like some kind of Deadite. The expression looks a little too forced as well. Again, the paint here is pretty solid, though, so my issues here are more from the design than the technical merits of the piece.

Easily my favorite thing about this statue is the base. Currently the Cover Girls line utilizes uniform oval bases, but early on in the reboot, the statues featured personalized environment style bases and DCC did some pretty cool things with them, as showcased here. I really dig the way the vines sprout up from the ground and weave their way around her body. It’s a really cool effect for a statue in this price range and I think they pulled it off wonderfully. As for the base itself, it showcases some of the best sculpting and paint on the entire statue. It feels like there was a lot of love put into this aspect of the statue and it makes me wonder if the line would have been better off sticking with these environmental bases.

Admittedly, I’m not the target audience for this piece, as I’ve admitted to not being a big fan of this look for Ivy, so the fact that this statue leaves me a little cold, should be taken with a grain of salt. There’s nothing inherently wrong with it. The paint is sharp and clean on the figure and fairly exceptional on the base. The sculpting is solid work, although the leaves on the costume could have used better definition. I don’t dislike it, but I don’t love it either. And none of that is surprising, considering my rather odd motivations for buying it. I mainly wanted it to complete my trio of Batman femme fatales from the early days of the reboot, and at $65, she was an extremely good deal for a Cover Girls statue that has been out of circulation for a while.

May 27 2016

Justice League War (DC Animated Movie Series): Superman and Wonder Woman by DC Collectibles

Marvel may be ruling the world of live action movies, but DC has long been kicking ass with their animated direct to video presentations. Justice League War was one of these and boy was it great. Superb characterization, a really fun Batman vs. Superman fight, some dude called Wonder Woman a whore and got outed as a transvestite, and overall a really good feature length treatment of the first story arc from The New 52’s Justice League book. Rather than just bring us animated Jim Lee art, these films tend to skew a little more stylized and if nothing else that gives them the opportunity to market action figures of the same characters to idiots like me.

Now let me say straightaway, that I would have included Batman here, but for some inexplicable reason, they didn’t make a Justice League War version of Bats. Shazam? Sure! Batman, nah! That seems really shortsighted to me, but they did release him from Son of Batman, naturally I have him and I’ll get to him eventually. Anyway, the packaging here looks nice, but it’s a simple bubble on card affair and not collector friendly. You get some stills from the feature behind the figures and character art on the right panel insert. The figures are numbered, with Superman and Wonder Woman being #2 and #4, respectively. Let’s start with Superman!

Oh, boy. This is a stylized re-imagining of the New 52 look, and I think the work on the costume is pretty solid. Keep in mind that this line uses some buck sharing, so with the exception of the cape, all the details on Superman’s costume are achieved with paint alone. I like the rich shades of blue and red they used and for the most part the lines are fairly sharp. The intricate panel lines of the comic look have been toned down to just a few. The package suggests these might glow in the dark, but I don’t see much evidence of that. There are a few unfortunate globs of glue on my figure, one by his right cape attachment and another on his left bicep. These were priced about the same as regular DC Collectibles figures, but the quality control on Supes could have been better.

The cape is OK. It’s not too heavy and it doesn’t drag on the floor, so it doesn’t inhibit wider stances. There’s no S-shield printed on the back. I can’t remember if he had it in the film, but I’m guessing not. Moving on to the portrait…

Sweet Kryptonian Jesus!!! While everything from the neck down is passable, I don’t know what is going on with this head sculpt. It’s like someone cast older Robert Z’Dar to play Supes. Too soon? Sorry Z’Dar fans. Anyway, this portrait is just all sorts of wrong and I’m hoping that the mold got pinched in production or something, because I don’t want to call anyone out on their work. Phil Ramirez sculpted him and he’s a talented guy. I have lots of his work in both action figure and statue form, so I’m just not sure what happened here. The promo pictures were actually spot on and should have been enough to warn me off the figure, but I remember thinking, there’s no way the actual figure’s portrait is going to look like that. I have no one to blame but myself.

Articulation is pretty good for a DCC release. You get rotating hinges in both the shoulders and elbows, as well as swivels in the biceps. The wrists look like they have swivel cuts, but mine won’t budge and I don’t want to twist them off trying. The legs are ball jointed and the knees are hinged. And lastly, you get a ball joint in the neck. Let’s move on to Wonder Woman…

Diana is an entirely different story, in that she’s excellent in almost every way. Granted, you have to buy into the the stylized design, and the fact that her costume got a pretty unique overhaul for this movie, but I happen to like it a lot. Wonder Woman is the only female in the Justice League War series, but I believe they might have recycled some of the parts for the buck for Mera from the Throne of Atlantis.

Either way, her costume is also all achieved through a deco of red, blue, and silver paint, coupled with some flesh tones. There are a few lines that could have been sharper, there’s a stray spot of silver on her left heel, but all in all, I think the paint is good here. Her sculpted lasso is permanently attached to her hip.

While Superman looks like he caught a freight train full of bees with his face, Wonder Woman’s portrait, sculpted by Jack Mathews, is very well done and quite faithful to her likeness in the film. The painted features on her face are very sharp and I especially dig her ponytail.

The articulation here is close to Superman’s, just minus the bicep swivels.

Wonder Woman comes with her short sword. It’s a welcome accessory, because she used the sword a lot in the movie… even to inadvertently demand ice cream at the point of a blade.

I’d call my first foray into the DC Animated Movie Series to be a hit and a miss. Superman would have been fine if not for his unfortunately weird face, but I’ve got nothing but love for this Wonder Woman. In fact, she’s so good it makes me all the more sad that I don’t have a decent looking Superman to go with her. Ah, well… I also have a lot more of the Animated Movie Series to open, because most online retailers were blowing them out at $9.99 and I can’t help myself.

May 20 2016

DC Comics: Deluxe “New 52” Swamp Thing by DC Collectibles

The New 52 is winding down and the time of ReBirth is upon us. Now, that doesn’t mean an end to New 52 figures around these parts, because I’ve got tons of them still to get through. Quite the contrary, if anything it’s going to light a fire under me to get through more of them and more quickly. Today’s figure has been sitting in the corner waiting to be opened since late last year… it’s Swamp Thing!

When they say Deluxe, they ain’t kidding around. This is a pretty damn big box. To qualify that, it isn’t as big as the Deluxe Darkseid, nor is the figure itself even much taller than the DC Universe Classics version of Swamp Thing. Still, it’s a big box and it needs to be to hold such an imposing figure. I don’t have a lot to say about the package itself. It’s really just a big window box that let’s the figure inside do the talking. The back panel advertises the Super Heroes Vs Super-Villains boxed set, which I’ll get around to Featuring eventually. The packaging is collector friendly, so long as you’re patient getting him out. Getting those wings out through the slit in the tray was a project in and of itself.

Wait, wings? Yeah, it’s pretty obvious that this isn’t your daddy’s Swamp Thing, particularly if your daddy happens to be Alan Moore. Now I’ll confess, while I’ve stuck it out to the end with quite a few New 52 books, Swamp Thing wasn’t one of them. On the other hand, I am a big fan of character re-imaginings and I think this is a pretty cool design by itself, just not necessarily one that I was interested in seeing in my ongoing Swamp Thing book. At some point, I may still pick up the collected edition and give it another whirl. Anyway, the look they were going for here was part Warrior, part Avenging Angel and if nothing else, I think it makes for a striking action figure and measuring in at about 9 1/2-inches tall and with a 15-inch wingspan, this guy would be hard to miss on any display shelf.

The sculpting here is excellent and it’s only broken up by those rather jarring ball joints in the hips. Otherwise, there’s hardly any space on the figure that isn’t covered in texture, mostly bark and patches of moss. He also has that adorable little pink flower sprouting on the back of his right leg. The wings are a work of art in themselves with the main body of the wings textured to look like moss and the “feathers” bark. Granted, the figure doesn’t have that same gee-whiz feel of the rubber skinned DCUC figure, but it’s still an absolutely striking piece. All that sculpting is backed up by a pretty solid paint job of mingling greens and browns and varying shades and intensities.

The portrait is also fantastic. I can definitely see some Classic Swamp Thing in there, and he almost has a bark helmet integrated into his face. The antlers are cool, as they remind me of the sort of ornaments that could sometimes be seen on knights’ helmets. He also has some rather vicious looking barbs protruding from the top of his head. And the eyes… those deep set eyes are painted with a metallic red that is rather haunting.

The articulation here is pretty good. You get rotating hinges in the shoulders, swivels in the biceps, hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, with swivels at the top of the legs. The knees are double hinged and the feet themselves are on rotating hinges below the ankle, which allows to adjust for stability. There is no articulation in the torso, the neck is ball jointed, and the wings swivel where they peg in and each have a hinge. It’s worth noting that the left elbow on my figure is fused due to being painted over and while I may give him a little heat treatment eventually, for now I’ve opted to leave it that way.

Swamp Thing actually comes with two accessories, his sword and shield. These are designed to appear as if they grew out of him and attach to his arms via tabs. When not in use, there are bark pieces with twigs coming off of them to tab into the holes and hide them.

This is an amazing figure. In fact, I’d dare say it’s a work of art. While DC Collectibles doesn’t churn out figures in the quantity of a Hasbro or a Mattel, I’d still consider their product to be mass market, and you just don’t see this kind of craftsmanship in these kinds of figures very often. The sculpt and coloring are just off the charts. That makes it kind of sad that this guy didn’t sell well. With an MSRP of $50, I can’t say he isn’t worth it and yet he’s still hanging around many online retailers at pretty deeply discounted prices. I’d like to credit that to a lot of people butt hurt over the new design, rather than the appeal of the workmanship here. No, he isn’t going to replace my Classic Swamp Thing from Mattel, but he is going to look damn nice on the shelf… or at least he will when I can find the space to accommodate that wingspan.

May 13 2016

DC Icons: (#07) Black Adam by DC Collectibles

I’m a naughty DC Fan. Today’s DC Friday update is late because I had friends over for pizza and beer and a screening of the Deadpool Blu-Ray. But we got here eventually and today sees me finally get all caught up with the DC Icons line… at least until Wave 3 hits in a little while. This has been a long run, so let’s finish off Wave 2 with Black Adam!

We’ve seen the packaging for this line plenty of times now, so I’m not going to dwell on it. This is the seventh figure in the line, and like the Icons Lex Luthor figure, Black Adam here is drawn from “Forever Evil,” which followed “Trinity War” in the New 52 run. With ReBirth coming, it’ll be interesting what DC Icons does vis-a-vis the other continuities, but my guess is we will likely see a lot of stuff based on the new run.

And here is Black Adam out of the package. Late last year, I featured this character in the DC Collectibles Super-Villains series, which was a great looking figure with fairly restrictive articulation. In terms of sculpt, this Icons version gets the slight nod as some of the costume features, like the cape clasps and belt, look less chunky and more reasonably proportioned. It’s a stylistic preference on my part, to be sure, but even beyond that I’d say the costume sculpt on this version is exceptionally good. Every detail of the costume is part of the sculpt from the subtle panel lines on the vest to the impressive musculature and the chest emblem is raised and hangs off his chest toward the bottom.

The cape is cast in very soft and pliable plastic and doesn’t add a lot of weight to throw the figure off balance. It’s not sculpted to look ragged like on the Super-Villains figure. The hood is sculpted down behind the back of the head. The paint here is really phenomenal. Sure, he’s mostly black, but the gold leaf paint used for his boots, bracers, belt, and other decorations is carefully applied and looks brilliant. Even the gold borders around the cape is splendid. I also really dig the Kirby Krackle printed in the center of his emblem.

The portrait features what I think is one of the better head sculpts in the line so far, but keep in mind, this hasn’t been Icons’ strongest point. Is it better than the Super-Villains figure? Hmm… that other head was a tough act to follow. I’ll cop out and just say it’s different. This is more of a passive expression than the crazy-evil expression of the previous release. The pupil-less eyes are pretty creepy and there are some especially nice and sharp contours in the face. I’ll just say that I like what we got here and leave it at that.

Articulation is exactly what we’ve been seeing all along with the Icons line. The arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, there are swivels in the biceps and double hinges in the elbows. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the knees, and have swivels at the tops of the boots. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. There’s a torso hinge down low by the waist and a ball joint in the chest, and lastly a ball joint in the neck.

For accessories, you get three pairs of hands. Black Adam comes out of the package with fists attached, you also get a pair of graspy hands and finally a pair of lightning shooting hands, which are pretty damn cool. Many of you know I’m not all that much for effect parts, but these are extremely well done and look great on the figure.

I came into this line apprehensive about the new scale and starting over, but nine figures later, I’m mighty glad I got in. With solid accessories and articulation aimed at having fun, the only thing that this line has working against it is the scattershot approach to character selection. If you’re out to build teams, it could be a long time before you get any resolution on that quest. On the other hand, this line seems to have no boundaries. There’s new and old, New 52 and Classic, anything seems possible and we’ve already seen some figures, like Earth 2 Mister Miracle, that haven’t been given figure form before. If DC Collectibles throws enough love behind it, DC Icons could be more than a worthy successor to DC Universe Classics, but only time will tell. Meanwhile, bring on Waves 3 and 4!

May 6 2016

DC Icons: (#09) Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) by DC Collectibles

Today’s Feature is running a little late, because I just got back from seeing Captain America: Civil War. I want to talk about it, I want to review tons of Marvel figures and bask in all the Marvel greatness, but in a bitter turn of irony, it happens to be DC Friday. That means I’m going to do the right thing and open up another DC Icons figure, this time the Wave 2, Deluxe Green Lantern! Hey, Green Lantern had a movie, didn’t he? Oooooh. Riiiight…

While the style of packaging is the same as the previous Icons releases, Green Lantern is a Deluxe, which means he costs a little more and comes in bigger box with a bunch more stuff. The larger tray has the figure to the right and all his construct parts spread out beside him. It’s an impressive set that boasts 26 pieces. The side panel notes that this version of Hal comes from the Dark Days story arc, which I found very adequate, but not as good as as the preceding stint by Geof Johns. Anyway, considering the number of pieces here, I may actually hold on to this box just to have somewhere to keep all this stuff.

So, obviously Hal sports his New 52 design, which isn’t all that big a break from many of his previous looks. I dig it, but then I didn’t have much of a problem with any of the New 52 costumes. Just about every detail in the costume is actually part of the sculpt from the borders of his green “vest” to the tops of his boots and his Lantern Corps emblem is printed on the raised disk in his chest. And of course, his power ring is sculpted and painted on his finger.

The paint here is overall quite good, with the only exception being an extra dollop of green on his chest to the right of his emblem. I’m not sure if that was added to correct a flaw or just a drip, but it’s worth noting all the same, especially since the paint on this line has been more or less flawless so far. The metallic green looks great and contrasts nicely with the black matte and white gloves.

The portrait is sold enough and probably one of the better ones I’ve seen in this series. If you’ve been reading my Features on this line, you know I’m not overly enamored with the head sculpts. With that having been said, the hair looks good, I like the furled brow, and the mask is part of the sculpt as well as painted. Hal is wearing a rather determined face, which fits the book this figure is pulled from.

Articulation is right in line with what we’ve been seeing in this series. The arms are ball jointed at the shoulders and wrists. The elbows have double hinges, and there are swivels both in the biceps and in the forearms. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double hinged knees, and the ankles are hinged and feature lateral rockers. The torso sports a hinge, which is set down by the waist, and there’s a ball joint in the chest. Finally, the neck is ball jointed.

While the base figure is quite good, the real draw here comes from all those extra goodies in the box. For starters, Hal comes with two pairs of hands: One set of fists and one set of grabby hands. He also comes with his Green Lantern battery.

You get one stand-alone construct, which is a giant fist cast in beautiful translucent green plastic. This piece looks fantastic, but is a little problematic. It fits right over Hal’s right hand, but to accommodate his construct armor, his forearms can be un-pegged and the connection is a little weak. If you can’t see where this is going… putting the fist construct on all the way over the fist means that when you pull it off, the arm is going to un-peg and stay stuck in the fist. At this point, it’s frustrating to get it out, so I try not to put it all the way on.

And then you have the full set of construct armor and it is absolutely amazing. It’s all cast in the same translucent green plastic and features boots, upper leg pieces, the arm weapons, shoulder pieces, the torso and helmet harness, and a removable backpack with removable wings. The boots and legs come apart to fully enclose around the legs, the front of the torso is hinged to open, the jetpack is hinged, and the wings on the jetpack are ball jointed.

The fit of the pieces are designed so as not to interfere with the articulation, and that’s quite a clever feat of design. The only thing that’s really lost are the ankle rockers. It’s also impressive how most everything more or less stays put when he’s wearing it. Sometimes I have to re-position the torso piece and sometimes the shoulders will pop off, but otherwise, it fits and stays on really well. The translucent plastic with the figure visible inside creates a beautiful effect and is pretty damn convincing as a ring construct.

Hal is the first Deluxe in the line and as such, he set me back an extra ten bucks, which isn’t a bad deal considering how much is in the box. In fact, I think it’s safe to say that this is my favorite Hal Jordan figure in my collection, and that’s saying something because he’s represented in a fair number of different lines. As a normal release, Hal would have been a perfectly solid and worthwhile figure, but when DC Collectibles threw in that lovely set of armor, they really went above and beyond with this one. I’ve got only one more Icons figure to check out before I’m all up to date and waiting on Wave 3, so next Friday I’ll take a look at Black Adam!

Apr 29 2016

DC Icons: (#05) The Flash by DC Collectibles

It’s DC Friday and time to open another figure from the second wave of DC Icons. This time it’s Barry Allen as The Flash. I was especially excited to get this figure, not only because it’s The Flash and he comes with a damn cool accessory, but it’s a very classic 80’s Flash, which is something I haven’t seen in a while in action figure form.

The package is the same thing we’ve been seeing all along. It looks great, it’s fairly compact, and it shows off the figure beautifully. A quick glance may have some scoffing, “What? All he comes with his a couple of hands?” But that’s just because the Cosmic Treadmill isn’t prominently displayed in the package. The package denotes that this is the fifth figure in this series and that Flash comes from the late 80’s “Chain Lightning” Arc. I was about 15 at the time, and this one was a stand out story for me, particularly because I love the time travel elements so much.

The best way to describe this figure is basic, classic, goodness. DCC could have gotten away with just painting most of the costume, but they went that extra mile and gave us a decent amount of unique sculpting here. The boots feature sculpted lightning bolts on the sides and treads on the feet. The lighting bolts around his waist and arms are sculpted as well as painted, and the chest emblem is also sculpted. The build feels exactly right for Barry, in other words not terribly buff, and while the red plastic is a little duller than I would have liked (it looks a lot brighter under the studio lights) I still think the coloring here is overall very good.

The head sculpt is solid, but not exceptional. In addition to the “wings,” the contours of the mask around the face is part of the sculpt, which is nice, and the exposed lower half of the face looks good. The eyes are very squinty and while the paint looks fine with the naked eye, it breaks down as you get in really close. The portraits have never been one of this line’s greatest points, but I’m fairly happy with what we got here.

Articulation, on the other hand, does continue to be one of this line’s better points and if you’ve played with any of the Icons figures then you know what to expect out of the rest. Flash features rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, swivels in the biceps, and double hinged elbows. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the knees, the ankles have hinges and lateral rockers, and you do get swivels at the tops of the boots. There’s an ab crunch hinge in the torso as well as a ball joint under the chest. Finally, the neck is ball jointed.

Ah, and then you have the accessories. For starters… HANDS! Oh, y’all know how much I love getting extra hands in with my figures. I poke fun, but truth be told, I’m warming up to the idea of having to swap out the mitts on my figures. Flash comes with a pair of “running” hands, which are basically fingers together and straight out so he can cut through the air. The other pair features a graspy right hand and a left fist. Not bad.

And then we have the piece that I was really excited for… The Cosmic Treadmill. Truth be told, in execution it’s a wee bit disappointing. Oh, don’t get me wrong, it’s a very nice sculpt and with some decent paint apps, but it feels just a tad small. I applaud the fact that DCC was able to pack it in with a regular priced figure, but I think they missed an opportunity to bump Flash up to a Deluxe (Like Green Lantern, which I’ll be looking at next week) and put a little more effort and plastic into treadmill. Now I feel bad for nitpicking. It really is a nice little pack-in.

Simple and effective is exactly how I would characterize the Icons version of The Flash. He’s as solid a figure as they come and that lovely Icons articulation makes him as fun to play with as any of the figures in this line. He’s also a great example of how this line is not playing favorites with any one particular era or cross section of the DC Universe. You’ve got New 52 version’s like Mister Miracle and Lex Luthor sharing space with classic versions of Batman and Flash, and I think that’s just great. And while I still maintain a Deluxe version of the figure with Treadmill would have been cool, I don’t want to dismiss the fact that they were able to get us such a cool accessory at the regular price point.

Apr 22 2016

DC Icons: (#06) Blue Beetle by DC Collectibles

It’s DC Friday and I’m back to working my way through the pile of DC Icons figures that currently resides in the corner of my toy closet. Today’s figure? Blue Beetle! Now, I’m a Ted Kord fan and I will be until the day I die. How come everyone else gets to come back to life, but not Ted? Even Booster Gold couldn’t make that happen. My point is, when when DC passed the mantle of Blue Beetle onto some kid named Jaime Reyes, I was pretty skeptical and resistant. But in the end I was won over by a really great character, a super cool new (retconned alien) suit, and what was a truly solid ongoing book.

Here’s the package. We’ve seen this plenty of times, so let’s not dwell on it. It points out that this is the 8th figure in the series and that Blue Beetle is based on “Infinite Crisis,” which was his first appearance back in 2006. As always, the box is collector friendly and gives you a great look at the figure and the accessories inside.

Besides Reyes being a great character, it’s hard not to fall in love with the design of this suit and it’s obviously heavily influenced by the retconned alien tech origins. The Icons figure nails all the crucial details, particularly how almost eerily slender it looks. The two-tone black and blue deco is quite striking and I’ve got to say the blue plastic they used here is absolutely gorgeous. The black portions of the suit feature sculpted segmented lines, while the blue armored portions are beautifully contoured. The beetle sits on his back and the legs protrude around the sides of the torso as well as over the shoulders. You can get a better look at it from behind…

It actually looks like a separate removable piece, although it is permanently attached to the figure. The wings peg into the back of the beetle and are cast mostly in an iridescent clear blue plastic, which offers some spectacular effects when lit up from behind.

In most cases, I’ve said the portraits on the DC Icons figures aren’t really up to the DC Universe Classics standards. With Blue Beetle here, that’s definitely not the case. The DCUC figure’s head was too flat in the face, whereas this one is absolutely perfect. The blue chin guard that extends around to frame the face is actually part of the sculpt, as is the down-turned mouth. The painted details here are particularly good as well.

Another area where the DCUC version of this character fell flat was the articulation. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t up to snuff with the incredible agility that the suit gave Reyes. It’s much better executed here in what is essentially the standard articulation for the Icons line, although there are a few opportunities for improvement. You get rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, the elbows and knees are double hinged. There are swivels in the biceps and middle of the forearms. The hips are ball jointed. The ankles feature hinges and lateral rockers. There is a ball joint in the chest and another in the neck. As always, my only real gripe here is the lack of swivels in the thighs.

The wings are articulated only because they peg in and can swivel. I really would have liked to see hinges added similar to what Mattel has done with some figures in the Masters Classics line. It’s not a huge deal and what we got here is still better than the completely static wings of Mattel’s DCUC Blue Beetle.

Of course, Blue Beetle’s suit can create various weapons and tools and this figure conveys that ability with two swap-out arm pieces. You just pop the arms off at the middle of the forearm and pop in the desired weapon. The first of these is some kind of beam emitter, which kind of reminds me of Cyborg’s sonic cannon. I honestly don’t remember what this thing is supposed to do, but it looks pretty cool on the figure.

The other is an alien minigun and I absolutely love this thing. There’s so much detail packed into the sculpt and while it’s clearly some kind of chain gun the alien influences in the design are unmistakable.

Blue Beetle is easily my favorite figure that I’ve featured in the DC Icons line to date. He’s a huge improvement over what we got from the DCUC line and he’s ridiculously fun to play around with. I would expect that this is going to be the definitive action figure version of the character for a long time to come, only because it’s hard to imagine anyone doing it any better. The sculpt and colors are spot on and the addition of the swappable arm parts just add value to what is already a fairly reasonably priced $20 figure.

Apr 15 2016

DC Icons: (#08) Lex Luthor by DC Collectibles

It’s been a while since I checked out the first wave of DC Collectibles’ new DC Icons line, but after a long detour into some statues and a few other things, I’m ready to bring DC Friday back around to look at what Wave 2 has to offer. Today I’m kicking things off with a look at Lex Luthor, because for some reason (I can’t imagine why), I have a powerful need to look at a traditional and faithful treatment of the character. Yeah, I know, this is the New 52 version, but compared to what we’ve seen on the big screen recently, this is still pretty damn traditional.

The packaging has not changed from what we saw in the first wave. You get a collector friendly window box with a snazzy angle on the window indicating the figure’s name and number in the series. Lex is actually #8, so while I am going to cover all of Wave 2 over the next month or so, I’m not going in order. The side panel also has the name and number of the figure, along with the story he’s pulled from, in this case the “Forever Evil” mini-series by Geoff Johns. If you like to keep your packages, you couldn’t ask for more than this. It displays all the accessories in the tray and they look great lined up on the shelf. If I had the space, I’d be keeping these, but as you all probably know, I don’t.

I like this look for Lex a lot. It’s vaguely reminiscent of his armored costumes from Super Powers and even the DC Universe Classics figure, only a lot less bulky. The sculpting of the costume conveys the idea that he’s wearing armor pieces over a bodysuit and overall it’s fairly faithful to the David Finch art. The armor itself has some rather nice contours, particularly in the chest and shoulders.

The coloring on this figure is stellar. The green and purple not only scream Lex Luthor to me, but the vibrant shade of the purple suit matched with the super slick, glossy green paint on the armor is pure eye candy. The extra white hits do a good job mimicking the light up features from the panel art. Based on the costume alone, this is without a doubt a great looking figure.

The head sculpt is solid, but not exceptional. It’s a very simple sculpt without a lot of depth to it. The eyes seem off to me and the jawline is way too severe. I’m also unsure of what expression they were going for, other than passive and bland. I would have liked something with more energy and emotion. In general, I don’t think the portraits in the DC Icons line have been up there with some of T4H’s work on DCUC and this figure continues that trend.

Articulation, on the other hand, is really wear this line is at and Lex brings it. You get double hinges in both the elbows and knees. The legs are ball jointed at the hips and the ankles feature both hinges and lateral rockers. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists and swivels in the biceps. The torso features both an ab crunch hinge and a ball joint under the chest. Finally, the neck is ball jointed, although the high collar does inhibit the head movement a bit.

Accessories are also a big focus in this line, although I have to admit I find Lex’s collection of extras a little bland. If you’ve been reading FFZ for a while then you know I don’t often go ga-ga over a lot of swap out hands, and that’s mostly what Lex’s extras have to offer. Besides the standard pair of fists and relaxed hands, you also get a hand holding his lighting rod and another projecting an energy screen. These are decent enough display options, but nothing that gets me too excited.

You also get this little wrist blade that clips on over the wrist. It’s probably my favorite accessory in the box, but that’s not saying a lot.

If I sound a little underwhelmed by Mr. Luthor, that’s not really the case. He is a solid figure through and through and he’s got a lot of great qualities, including the fun articulation and rather beautiful paint job. Not to mention, I think this is a look for the character that even a lot of those rabid New 52-haters could get behind. In the end, I just felt the extras left a little to be desired, but that’s coming from someone who can rarely be bothered to swap out hands all that often. But in the end, this is another accomplished entry in what has proven to be an extremely fun line of figures. And if anything, having Lex on my shelf is making me very excited to pick up the Wave 3 Superman figure.

Mar 25 2016

Cover Girls of the DC Universe: Batgirl by DC Collectibles

It’s DC Friday again, and for the past few weeks I’ve been working my way through some DC Statues: Bishoujos, Femme Fatales, and yes, some Cover Girls too! I’m still way behind on the DC Cover Girls line, something that is concerning me because there’s quite a few I’d like to pick up before they hit the secondary market and the prices start to escalate. Today, let’s check out Barbara Gordon in her New 52 look, before she got the Babs Tarr makeover and moved to Burnside.

As always, the statue comes in a fully enclosed box with photos of the piece all around. Inside, the collectible is nestled inside a brick of styrofoam. The only assembly required is pegging the feet into the base and the pegs fit very easy. Oddly, some of the statues in this line come attached to the base and others peg in, so I always have to be careful to support the base when I’m picking them up. Porcelain statues seldom survive drops, so better safe than sorry! At about 9-inches tall, Ms. Gordon scales perfectly with her fellow Cover Girls and continues to skew this line in favor of Bat-flavored characters.

And damn what a beauty she is! Batgirl’s (former) New 52 costume is a favorite of mine because it doesn’t stray too far from the traditional. Fans old and new should be able to get behind this design. Of course, it is New 52, so you do get the sculpted panel lines in the body suit that suggests it’s more armor than mere latex. I like the ribbing inside the thighs, under the arms, and in all the places where a lot of flexing would take place. The yellowish-gold boots and gauntlets have scalloped edges and match the belt, bat symbol, and the interior lining of the cape. All of the yellow has a slight hint of glossy sheen to it, which contrasts nicely with the more matte finish of the black suit. The paint on this piece is very clean, but I’ve come to expect that. Truth be told, even with eight of these ladies on my shelf, I haven’t had any notable paint issues with this line, so when I say the paint is especially good on Batgirl, it’s intended as high praise.

Batgirl stands with feet apart and her right arm drawn up and ready to fling a batarang at an unseen adversary. There’s some lovely subtle bits about her pose, like the way she’s arching her back and twisting in the middle. This is a piece that shows off the art of the female body in all its splendor. As often the case with this line, the composition here is a nice blending of action and a bit of museum-style mugging for the beholder. The invisible wind that bellows out her cape and tosses her hair adds a little more kineticism to the piece. It’s a statue that has a couple of “sweet spots” depending on how you want to position it on the shelf. If I had to come up with something critical to say, I’m not particularly fond of how slender the middle of the cape looks from behind, but when it comes to complaints, that’s really reaching.

The portrait is absolutely fantastic and certainly a high point for this series. The emerald colored eyes are beautiful as is the subtle pink used for her lips. The nose is softly defined and the edges of the mask are clean. Even going back to the 70’s, one of the most fetching things about Batgirl for me has always been the way her red hair spills out from behind her cowl and this statue conveys that quite well.

Batgirl features the now standard oval base. In this case, the coloring doesn’t actually match anything on Ms. Gordon’s costume, instead it’s a bright purple. While unusual for the line, I do dig the color as it calls back to the days when the lovely Yvonne Craig wore donned a different Batgirl suit. As with the Batwoman statue, you get bat emblems on the front, back, and sides. The limitation here is, as usual, 5200 with the individual number of the piece written on the bottom of the base.

Batgirl is another great addition to my Cover Girls shelf, and she displays beautifully with Huntress and Batwoman. I’ve yet to be disappointed with the quality and composition of this line. The 9-inch scale is perfect for a statue collector tight on space and while the MSRP’s on these are usually right at the $100 mark, they can often be had for twenty or so dollars less, which makes them a great value for the money. Now, I just have to pick up Mera, Vixen, Wonder Woman v2, Catwoman v2, Katana, Starfire, Black Canary, and Bleez before Power Girl and Raven are released and I’ll be all current! Yeeeesh!

FigureFan Zero

Action Figure Reviews, Toys & Collectibles…

Tag Archives: dc collectibles

Cover Girls of the DC Universe: Katana by DC Collectibles

Cover Girls of the DC Universe: Poison Ivy (Ver. 1) by DC Collectibles

Justice League War (DC Animated Movie Series): Superman and Wonder Woman by DC Collectibles

DC Comics: Deluxe “New 52” Swamp Thing by DC Collectibles

DC Icons: (#07) Black Adam by DC Collectibles

DC Icons: (#09) Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) by DC Collectibles

DC Icons: (#05) The Flash by DC Collectibles

DC Icons: (#06) Blue Beetle by DC Collectibles

DC Icons: (#08) Lex Luthor by DC Collectibles

Cover Girls of the DC Universe: Batgirl by DC Collectibles

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