Tag Archives: dc direct

Nov 20 2012

Mass Effect 3: Thane (Series 1) by Big Fish

Oh yeah, folks, it’s time for more Mass Effect 3 goodness and today we’re checking out… oh shit… it’s Thane. I’m taking an extra couple belts of Jameson to get through it, because today’s feature is like a double punch to my gonads. Not only do I hate this character, and don’t even get me started on his Loyalty Mission in ME2, but his figure turned out to be total crap too. Ok, let’s do this…

Thane features the same packaging we’ve seen for the other figures in Series 1. The only real difference here is how awkward and ridiculous Thane looks in the package thanks to the pre-posed nature of the figure. I know we’re talking about the packaging here, and I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but Thane is designed for one pose and one pose only: Firing his weapon. But like the other figures, he comes packaged without his weapon in his hands, and so right off the bat he looks like trash before you even open him up. Is he miming a tug of war?  Is there a fire hose for him to hold somewhere in the package?  Is he handing me an invisible baguette? Sure, you can see his pistol through the side panel, but I seriously thought there was another weapon that had either fallen down to the bottom of the bubble, or was left out entirely. I just couldn’t believe any company would package a figure like this.

So let’s get the big stuff out of the way first. Unlike Shep and Grunt, Thane is basically an articulated statue. His entire body is sculpted for a specific pose, and while I’ve tried to tweak him into something different, everything just looks awkward. His right shoulder is unnaturally hunched forward, so that his arm is literally attached to the front of his twisted torso, and his legs are permanently in a wide stance. His head is designed to look cocked to the side. Your other option is having him look straight down at the ground. Why DC Direct/Big Fish decided on such a departure from the rest of the line for this one character is completely beyond me. The other figures look like action figures, Thane looks like one of those old Star Wars Unleashed statues from Hasbro.

I guess the likeness to the character is pretty good, but maybe I’m the wrong person to ask, because to me Thane’s design looked like he was phoned in at the end of the day. “Hurray, it’s 5pm on Friday!” “Wait, we’re still short one character!” “Dude, just sketch out a fucking lizard man so we can go hit Applebee’s… I’m buying!” The sculpting for the portrait is certainly solid enough, but there’s something unnaturally bright and cartoony about the paint used for his face. I just think it looks odd next to the other figures. The sculptors did an adequate job on Thane’s suit, but the paintwork is another story. The uneven piping looks like it was hand painted by blind Krogans, while other parts look slathered on with a trowel. His back features smudges and splotches, which further suggest that nobody gave a shit about how this figure turned out.

So, Thane comes with the token disc display stand and his pistol. His display stand is kind of important since he’s hard to stand up without it, but when I tried to peg his foot into it, the peg literally shot through the other side of the stand. WTF? His gun is a nicely detailed little piece, but it should have just been sculpted into his hand because a) there’s really no point in ever taking it out, and b) he doesn’t hold it very well. While on the subject, Thane’s pose seems like it’s designed more for a rifle than a pistol. His hands appear to be sculpted to hold something bigger, and the pose seems unusual for a pistol.

Thane sports many points of articulation that sound useful on paper, but in reality are totally pointless. The head is ball jointed and yet the figure will always have his chin perpetually tucked into his chest. The arms feature ball jointed shoulders, hinged elbows and swivel wrists, none of which can be of any use. He has a standard “T” joint at the hips and his knees are hinged. The leg articulation is probably the most useful, and that’s just for adjusting him to stand properly.

There is a bright side at the end of this feature. If any figure had to be screwed up this badly than I’m glad it was a character I hated. I’m also very glad that I got such a great deal on these figures because if I had paid anywhere near $20 for Thane I would have gone ballistic. He’s a poorly conceived and poorly executed piece of garbage, especially when considered alongside Shepard and Grunt. Hopefully things will look up again tomorrow when we finish up Series 1 by checking out one of my favorite characters in the games… Tali.

Nov 19 2012

Mass Effect 3: Grunt (Series 1) by Big Fish

Alrighty, folks, moving on to the second figure in Series 1, today we’re looking at Grunt. Personally, I would have preferred a Wrex figure in my collection, but these are Mass Effect 3 figures, so what sense would that make? Let’s dive right in and check him out…

The packaging is identical to what we saw for Shepard, but the contents make it a lot heavier. I’m kind of impressed that they were able to get Grunt into the same style of package, and obviously he fills out the bubble rather nicely. His weapon is visible through the side panel, and he’s held in place by some twisty-ties, but it’s not too hard to get Grunt out of the package and ready for display.

Grunt is certainly a big slab of action figure, but I’m still trying to decide whether or not he should be taller. As he stands, he’s barely half a head taller than Shepard and I’m pretty sure that on average the Krogan were supposed to be closer to seven feet tall. But when I go back and look at stills from the game, he doesn’t look all that much taller. Still, what he lacks in height he makes up for in bulk and that helps him look satisfyingly big when standing next to the other figures. The sculpting and paintwork on Grunt’s armor gives it a nice, layered look, with the ribbed black suit underneath and the heavy grey plating on top. The armor plates have a brushed finish to the paint that adds a nice realism to the piece. The sculpting on his exposed, muscular arms looks great and he’s even got his stubby little tail bump hanging off his butt!

Moving on to the head sculpt… the details on the face are really well defined, giving us a face that only a mother Krogan could love. The excellent paint work on the head helps tie everything together. His three crests are painted as are all the little spots on his brow ridge and the sides of his face and the use of a little gloss make his tiny, beady eyes really stand out. The paint on the mouth slit is particularly effective, making it almost appear as if the mouth could open. All in all, this is a great portrait of our rather distinctive looking alien friend.

Grunt’s articulation is serviceable and given the bulky nature of the character, it’s probably close to everything we could expect from him. The head swivels side to side just like a dog hearing a curious sound. His arms feature ball joints in the shoulders and wrists, and hinges in the elbows. The legs have a typical “T” design to the hips, hinged knees, and swivels in the ankles. Lastly, Grunt can swivel at the waist. While Shep could have used a few more points of articulation, I can’t think of much more I would want out of Grunt, other than maybe swivels in the biceps.

Accessories? Grunt comes with a big-ass rifle. I don’t like it as much as Shep’s more iconic Assault Rifle, but it’s still a great piece. It’s mostly black, but it does have a little silver-painted weathered look to the metal on the tip and a few other paint apps to signify lights and detail. Grunt can hold it quite well in his right hand. You also get the same plain black disc stand that came with Shep, but Grunt sure as hell doesn’t need it. He’s bulky enough to stand just fine on his own.

I’m a happy camper with this one! Grunt is a fantastic figure. The sculpting and paintwork are great, and like Shepard he features a fairly neutral stance with good, workable articulation that makes them not only great display pieces, but fun to play around with. Maybe he should have been taller? I still can’t decide, but he looks fine standing next to my other ME3 figures. So far, we’re two for two on this line. I’m really happy with what I’ve got. But tomorrow, things will start to fall apart as we check out the third figure from Series 1… Thane!

Nov 18 2012

Mass Effect 3: Commander Shepard (Series 1) by Big Fish

I should start out by saying that in all the times I’ve played through the Mass Effect games, I never once used the canned version of Shepard. In fact, I always rolled a Fem Shep, just because (and forgive me if you’ve heard this from when I talk about World of Warcraft) if I’m going to stare at a character’s ass for 40 hours, you can damn sure bet that ass is going to belong to a chick. Nonetheless, I can still relate to the stock Shepard just from seeing him so many times in the various adverts. But with no Fem Shep in the Big Fish line of figures, grabbing this version was pretty much a must. Let’s see how he turned out.

Shepard comes in a very nicely designed sealed clamshell package. You get a printed insert with the Mass Effect 3 logo up on the top and the bubble is designed to resemble the helmets from the game. Shep’s rifle is visible through the side panel, which is labeled as the weapons locker. In typical DC Direct… oops, I mean Big Fish, fashion, the packaging is completely generic for each series, with only a sticker on the front to distinguish the character inside. The back of the printed insert features photos of all four figures that make up Series 1 along with little blurbs about each character. Overall, this is a very nice presentation and there was a time when I would have carefully razored the back in order to save the package. But I’ve got no room for packages anymore, so I tore the hell out of this thing to get at my figure inside. Shep is held into his tray by a few twisty ties, but nothing that I can’t make quick work of.

Let’s go ahead and start with the head sculpt, since Square-Enix’s shitty Shepard head sculpt is the whole reason I wound up buying this line instead. It’s definitely reminiscent of the stock Shepard from the game and not some small headed flu-addled transvestite like the Play Arts Kai figure. Is it perfect? No. He’s a tad too cartoony for my taste, particularly in the eyes, and maybe his beard is a little heavy, but I’m really looking for things to nitpick here. Truth is, he looks great and I’ll take this head on a $20 figure over the head on that other $60 figure any day of the week. The paint apps are clean and it’s certainly passable for a figure in this price range.

The body sculpt is quite excellent and before getting to the details, I’m most pleased about the way the neutral stance works with this figure’s surprisingly serviceable articulation. But I don’t want to get ahead of myself, so let’s just talk sculpt and paint first. Shep’s armor is very nicely recreated here with a convincing layered depth to it. You get his scaled under armor exposed around his legs  and hands and the sculpted plates on top of that with plenty of panel lines. There aren’t a ton of paint apps on the figure’s armor, but the red and white stripes are there on his right arm and there’s a little silver scraping applied here and there to give the armor a little weathered look. I do wish his right hand was sculpted with the trigger finger so it could pass through the trigger guard of his assault rifle. As he is, he can hold it, but a better sculpt on the hand would have improved it a lot.

Now about that articulation… Big Fish or no, these figures started life as DC Direct product, and while DC Direct figures are hardly statues, they are not generally heralded for being overly articulated. Now, that having been said, Shep here has a surprisingly good amount of useful articulation. He has ball joints in his neck and shoulders, elbows, and knees. He has swivels in his ankles and wrists, and he has a typical “T” joint for his hips. Shep can also swivel just below the chest. A word of warning, if you manipulate his shoulders too much, you may pop off his shoulder armor. The shoulder plates are glued on, but fear not, if you pop them off, they will peg right back in and have a greater range of motion.

Shep comes with two accessories. First off, you get his tried and true Assault Rifle. It’s a faithful recreation of the weapon in the game and he can hold it fairly well, even without that trigger finger. Amazingly enough, you also get a removable helmet, which is ironically something that the Square-Enix figure (at three times the cost) doesn’t come with. I say, it’s ironic because the figure’s head is really ugly and he doesn’t come with a helmet to hide that shit, but then you probably already saw where I was going with that. The helmet is made of soft pliable plastic and fits snugly over the figure’s head while still leaving the lower part of the face visible. The helmet looks great on the figure, but I prefer to pose Shep with the helmet in the crook of his arm. He also comes with a figure stand, which is a simple plain black disc. Come on, Big Fish, couldn’t you have at least put the title of the game on these things?

In the end, I am totally impressed with this figure. He’s a tad bigger than I expected. I thought he’d be more in line with DC Unlimited’sResistance 2 figures,  but he stands just about a head taller than the regular Chimera. The sculpt and paint are both excellent for a figure in this price range and I was pleasantly surprised to find that Shepard isn’t your typical slightly articulated statue, but a bona fide action figure that can be posed and played with just fine. I’d recommend him to anyone looking to pick up a Mass Effect figure, particularly if you don’t want to spend more on a super-articulated ugly one. Alas, as we’ll see in the days ahead, Shepard isn’t exactly illustrative of the rest of this line, which tends to be hit and miss.

Oct 12 2012

DC Identity Crisis: Black Canary by DC Direct

So, in this case, I’ve saved my least favorite of this week’s assortment for last. As with Zatanna, Black Canary is a figure that I already have represented in my DCUC collection, but this version represents enough of a variant that I wanted to open her up and put her out. Now that I have, I’m wondering if I shouldn’t have left her on the card.

Black Canary’s package is identical to Elongated Man’s. Check out the in-package shot, and let’s move along…

Oh, where to begin? Maybe by throwing it out there that this figure gives me more of a Street Fighter Cammy vibe than Black Canary. A lot of it is definitely the head sculpt. And while I took some issues with the one DC Direct used for Zatanna, I was ultimately ok with it. Black Canary’s is a little tougher for me to get behind. Look at the eyes, they’re some kind of bizarre East meets West hybrid. It’s like they wanted to go with an anime look but held back just enough to give us this… whatever this is. The huge eyes, coupled with the very angular configuration of the face and the small head, makes this figure in no way Black Canary to me. I do, however, like the ponytail… it’s fetching.

The rest of the figure has some hit and miss issues as well. Canary’s long sleeve one-piece is executed with a high-gloss black finish, and I wholeheartedly approve. She has the same type of real thread fishnets that Mattel used on the DCUC version of the figure and it meets with the same success and failure. They look great when viewed from the front, and they look like crap when viewed from the back. I also have some issues with the proportions of the hands and feet. The feet look too big, but I’ll chalk that up to the style of the boots, but the hands look a bit oversized as well. When I compare them to Zatanna’s they don’t look much bigger, so maybe it’s just an optical illusion. Either way, between the head, hands, and feet, the proportions on this figure seem a bit skewed to me.

Black Canary’s articulation includes a ball jointed neck, arms with ball joints in the shoulders, hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the wrists. The legs rotate at the hips, and have hinges in the knees. It’s worth noting that the ball joint in her neck doesn’t have a huge range of motion and most of the time it looks like she’s looking down. Blah!

I don’t totally hate this figure, but it really doesn’t seem to fit in this line. It feels more like one of those Ane-Comi statues, only not as hyper cute. Truth be told, I’m not sure where this figure would properly fit. She’s an interesting conversation piece standing among my DC Direct figures, but I’m not putting her anywhere near my DCUC shelves. I’ve got a perfectly fine Black Canary represented there.

And that’ll do it for this week’s little excursion into Identity Crisis. Yes, I have more of these figures, and I’ll have to decide which ones I’m going to open so I can revisit the rest of them at one point or another. Until then, I’ll be back tomorrow to kick off the weekend as Star Wars content makes its return to FigureFan!

Oct 11 2012

DC Identity Crisis: Elongated Man by DC Direct

Poor Ralph Dibny. Between Identity Crisis and 52 he’s had a rough time of it. I haven’t seen him in the New 52 yet, but then I’m woefully behind on my funnybooks, and still working out which books to keep and which ones to drop, so it’s entirely possible that I missed his debut. As for his DC Direct figure, I was torn on whether or not to open this one, since he is finally coming out next year in DCUC format via the Signature Collection. But then, I didn’t want to wait, and given his abilities, there are plenty of different ways to do him in figure form, so having two versions of him on my shelf wouldn’t be the worst thing. In the end, I decided to go ahead and rip him open.

Elongated Man is part of Identity Crisis, Series 2, which warrants another look at the package. The front presentation hasn’t changed, but the back of the card is new to show the figures from the second series and offer some little blurbs about the characters. The figure is carded with his two interchangeable arms flanking him on both sides and the large figure stand partially concealed behind his legs. It’s a great looking presentation, and I’d happily hang it on my wall if I weren’t about to rip it open.

The boys at DC Direct really nailed this figure. The head sculpt is great, particularly the prominent jaw line and sunken cheeks, which is very evocative of the character art. The hair sculpt is equally impressive, and the paintwork on the face is precise and clean. The body is a pretty simple, muscled buck, but the superb coloring really makes it stand out. The bulk of his costume is a dulled gloss red with bright yellow bands for his belt, and the edges of his gloves and boots. The torso stripe is matte black and the gloves and boots are both high gloss black. No doubt, this is what the coloring on a comic book figure is supposed to look like. Bravo!

Elongated Man shares most of the points of articulation as the other figures in this series. The arms feature ball jointed shoulders, hinged elbows, and swivels in the wrists. The legs feature cuts in the hips and hinged knees. The head is not ball jointed, but rather only turns, and we’ll see why in a minute. The figure does, however, have two extra points in the biceps, thanks to his removable arms, hurray for bicep swivels! Elongated Man is definitely the best articulated figure in this series.

Action features on a DC Direct figure? Well sort of. As we saw from the in-package shot, Dibny comes with two stretchy arms that can be swapped out for his normal arms. It’s a nice way to feature his powers in action figure form, although they are real space-killers when you try to display him. I prefer to compromise by displaying him with one stretchy arm and one normal. The figure also has an extending neck feature, which is very well done. Kudos to you, DC Direct, for these cool little extras. Oh yeah, he also comes with the ginormous Identity Crisis figure stand.

Much like Dr. Light, Elongated Man, is a great stand-in for my DCUC display. I really adore this figure, and even if you aren’t collecting this line and don’t want to mess with Club Infinite Earths, you should do yourself a favor and pick him up. No DC figure collection should be complete without a Ralph Dibny, and this is just a great version of the character. I’m really interested to see if the Signature Collection version will be good enough to replace this one in my display, but either way, having an Elongated Man on my shelf will make the wait a lot easier.

Tomorrow, we’ll wrap up the Identity Crisis with Black Canary. And in this case, I did not save the best for last.

Oct 10 2012

DC Identity Crisis: Zatanna by DC Direct

Identity Crisis is steeped with delicious controvers and there’s few characters more steeped in it then Zatanna. Sure, everyone agreed to let her use her mumbo jumbo for unethical mind wipes, but seeing as she was the one with the ability and went along with it, I tend to place more of the weight of the decision on her slender shoulders. Zatanna has always been a favorite of mine, well ever since about the time I hit puberty (wink, wink), and I’ll concede that as much as I love this comic, it made me look at her uncomfortably for quite a while.  But I’ll save the weighty ethical debates for the comic forums, because I’m here to look at toys goddammit.

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The package is identical to what we saw with Dr. Light, so I’ll let the photos speak for themselves. Once again, it’s a great presentation and if I didn’t want a loose Zatanna in this costume, I might be tempted to leave her packaged and hang her on my wall. The card is just so damn colorful and pretty, depicting our heroes displaying their collective shame and the huge bubble leaves little to the imagination.

iczat1Zatanna appears for much of the book in her more familiar (at least to me) coat tails and fishnets, but this particularly version comes from the flashbacks to when she mind-wiped Dr. Light. It’s definitely not my preferred look for the character, but as a fan of the character, I like to have as many versions of her as possible, so this particular figure was a nice pick up. i also can’t deny that the early 80’s vibe she’s got going on here has a certain charm. You get a blue, white and black one-piece with long sleeves, a white cape, and blue and white thigh high boots. A good piece of the costume relies mostly on paintwork for the details, which is fine, although there’s a little bit of slop here and there.

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The sculpting on the sleeves is quite nice as they feature hanging cuffs, which give her a certain wizardly look. The cape, collar and neck broach are all sculpted in soft, rubbery plastic and hang off the back rather nicely without throwing off the balance of the figure. I imagine the cape would be removable via popping off the head, but it’s not something I’m willing to try. The boots have a nice glossy blue sheen to them and the high heels strike a nice balance between looking good and actually allowing the figure to stand. They certainly look a lot nicer than the chunky grandma clogs that Mattel’s DCUC version of the character is wearing.

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The head sculpt is a little hit and miss with me. From a technical standpoint I suppose it’s pretty good. The paint is clean, the sculpted bangs have a ragged and uneven look, and there’s some nice use of red metallic paint for her hair clip. The problem here is that I don’t think it really matches the line art all that well. She looks extremely animated, which would work OK for me as an original take on the character, but not so much as she appeared in the pages of this particular comic book.

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Zatanna’s articulation is similar to Dr. Light’s, with just a couple of changes. You get ball joints in the neck and shoulders, along with hinges in the elbows. Alas, the shoulder hinges are pretty tenuous and I can feel the left elbow already starting to wobble a bit. The legs feature a T-crotch at the hips and have hinged knees. Where Dr. Light had swivels in the boots, Zatanna has swivels in her wrists. Obviously, most of the posing on this piece is going to be from the waist up. I can do a little adjusting with her legs, but they’re always going to look rather stiff, and unless she’s more or less standing straight, I find a stand is needed to keep her up.

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Speaking of stands, Zatanna comes with the same huge, oval “Identity Crisis” stand as Dr. Light. It works fine for holding the figure up, but it’s a real space hog, which is something that most action figure collectors will find as a big drawback.

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Besides being based on a comic that I absolutely love, this Zatanna presents my collection with a distinctive look for the character, and for those reasons I’m happy to have her on my shelf. The portrait is certainly rather odd, but there’s enough here to like, particularly the nice coloring in the costume, that makes her worth while to me. After all, I don’t think it’s possible for me to have too many Zatanna figures. I haven’t decided whether or not to display her with my DCUC Collection or carve out a new shelf for this series, but either way, I’ll definitely find a place for her.

*This Feature was re-worked and re-shot on 8/18/15. It originally appeared in a series of articles on DC Direct’s Identity Crisis line.

Oct 9 2012

DC Identity Crisis: Dr. Light by DC Direct

We’re already one day down for the week, thanks to Xena and friends, so I’m not bothering with an introduction for this week’s theme. I picked up a bunch of DC Direct’s Identity Crisis figures, while scouting comic shops a few weeks back, and so we’ll round out the rest of the week looking at some of those. I figured we’d do two from Series 1 and two from Series 2.  I do already have a couple of these characters in my DCUC collection, but they are pretty unique takes on them so this is a case where I don’t mind double-dipping. By the way… if you haven’t read Identity Crisis yet, there are probably spoilers ahead, but then it’s sufficiently old enough that I’m not worried about ruining it for anyone.

Anyway, I thoroughly adore Brad Meltzer’s Identity Crisis. Besides being one of the first complete series that I read on my tablet via that new-fangled digital media witchcraft, I found it to be everything a landmark comic event should be and yet seldom is. It had plenty of “oh shit!” moments, an ending that left me surprised and satisfied, but most of all, it really took some favorite old characters in new direction. Plus, Batman gets screwed over by his peers, and he’s a dick, so that’s ok by me. I’ll be the first to concede that some of the motivations in the series didn’t make any sense, and the whole rape reveal seemed to glom on a bit to similar themes in The Watchmen, but I don’t let any of that ruin my enjoyment of the experience. Today’s figure, Dr. Light, was one of the key players of the piece. Holy, hell, what a shitbag! Identity Crisis not only raised (or is that lowered?) Light’s status as a villain to that of serial rapist scum, but managed to retcon a justification for his past portrayals as a bumbler. It seems only fair we start with him.

The last time we looked at DC Direct packaging, it was from the Crisis on Infinite Earths series, and that packaging was downright bland and boring. That’s certainly not the case here. The card features some excellent character art of the Justice League, all looking rather shamed and guilty, with a shattered glass motif that carries on to the bubble and tray. Very nice! This package eschews DC Direct’s clever and occasional use of the figure stand to make up the series title for the package. This time the stand is partially hidden behind the legs of the figure. In fact, truth be told, Identity Crisis only appears in a small logo in the upper left corner. The back of the card is generic for all of Series 1, with photos of all five figures and little blurbs about their role in the series. I don’t often have qualms about tearing open DC Direct figures, but the presentation here is nice enough that it gave me pause. Nonetheless, I want a loose Dr. Light for my DCUC shelves, so tear it open, I shall!

Wow, the boys at DC Direct really did a great job sculpting Dr. Light! First off, look at the face! To quote the Young Ones, “Oi, he is a bastard!” From the patented arch-villain-arching-eyebrows to the demonic pointy goatee, this guy has “lethal injection candidate” written all over his face. The whole, “I’m gonna rape you” sneer isn’t helping things either. Just one look and you can’t help but hate him.

The rest of the figure is just as much a slam dunk, derived from a perfect mix of serviceable sculpt and excellent paintwork. Light sports a fairly neutral stance with his rubbery cape favoring one shoulder and his hands permanently clutching in fiendishly diabolical spasms. The deco that makes up his chest emblem and belt are sculpted as well as painted, and likewise, his hood features a sculpted and painted band and a fin protruding from the top. I just love Light’s retro character design, as he looks like he would be right at home menacing Flash Gordon. My experience with DC Direct paintwork has been hit or miss in the past, but the paint on this figure is a neigh perfect application of matte black, bright and clean white, and grey.

We should all know by now not to expect much articulation from DC Direct, but Dr. Light is far from a semi-poseable statue. You get ball joints in the neck and shoulders, with hinges in the elbows. The legs rotate at the hips, have hinged knees, and swivels at the boots. There is no articulation in the torso at all. Again, not a lot, but what’s here is perfectly serviceable.

The only accessory that comes with Light is his ginormous figure stand. It’s a simple oval with “Identity Crisis” printed onto it. I’m usually a big fan of the DC Direct figure stands, but I don’t use them for the figures I display with my DCUC collection, and Light can actually stand just fine on his own.

So, I’m happy to say that DC Direct delivered in spades with Dr. Light. Not only is he a great looking figure in his own right, but his proportions and scale make him a perfect complement to my DCUC shelf. The articulation may not be all there, but he’s a good enough match, that I’m perfectly fine with crossing him off my DCUC Want List.

Tomorrow, we’ll check out Zatanna.

Sep 30 2012

DC Crisis on Infinite Earths: Harbinger by DC Direct

We might as well make it a DC weekend. One of the totes I recently grabbed from storage had a heap of DC Direct figures in it, and I pulled a bunch out to use for content in the weeks ahead. I don’t usually buy a lot of these, as I tend to prefer the DCUC stuff, but every now and again I come across them cheap and just can’t resist. With the DCUC style releases being a lot fewer than what they were, I’ve come to the realization that a lot of these characters aren’t going to be released in the DCUC style, and I’m more willing to turn to some of these DC Direct figures as stand ins for my display. Today we’re looking at a figure that really should have turned up in one of those 20 waves of DCUC… It’s Harbinger from a little something called Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Harbinger comes mounted on a rather bland card and basically lets the figure speak for itself. I do really dig the way DC Direct uses the stand as the series title for the package. It’s clever, but it doesn’t save the package from being bland and boring. There’s a little insert in the bottom of the bubble that identifies the figure. Other than that there’s really nothing here to write home about. The back panel of the card is only marginally better. It’s generic to the series, so it shows all the figures available and gives little blurbs about them. Bland packaging doesn’t really bother me, as I’m just going to rip it open anyway, but I’ve always expected better from a collector driven line like DC Direct. This is just cheap, quick and ugly.

I think the sculpting on the figure is ok. The face is good, and I like the way her hair flows out of the back of the helmet. The Monitor armor-inspired outfit is readily familiar and includes a few nice touches, like the sculpted muscles in her stomach. There isn’t a whole lot else to say here, other than overall, the sculpt just looks rather soft. It’s not up there among DC Direct’s best work, and I don’t think it’s any better than a DCUC version would have been, but it’s not particularly bad either. Maybe just a little dated?

At first glance, the paintwork looks pretty good, but it doesn’t really hold up to close inspection. I do like the glossy red used for the helmet and the metallic blue used for her outfit and it meshes well with the silver bits. The flesh tone paint is a bit spotty and there are some dirty spots on her skin that I’ll have to try to touch up with a magic eraser.  The face is a little better, as there’s no slop or bleeding there. The eyes are a little uneven, but nothing too bad. The paint used for her hair looks dirty and feels a little tacky. It’s not coming off, but it is noticeable to the touch. I may try giving it a go with a damp cloth to see if that helps. It may be from being stored in a humid environment for a while. Had I bought this figure on Ebay and not taken it out of the package myself, I would have doubted it was new.

Harbinger has the basic 9-points of articulation that I’ve come to expect from the DC Direct figures. You get ball joints in the neck and shoulders. The arms have hinged elbows and the legs have hinged knees. The hips have angled cuts. Overall, the poseability is not bad, but not great. There’s not a lot of point to the leg articulation, but at least the arms give you some options for posing her.

Harbinger comes with her figure stand, which is pretty necessary for getting her to stand for any period of time.

In the end, Harbinger is solidly average. There’s nothing so wrong with her that cripples the figure, but nothing about her really shines either. My understanding has always been that if you want articulation and a fun toy, you go with DCUC, if you want a superior sculpt for a display piece, you go with DC Direct. But, as I mentioned earlier, I don’t think a DCUC version of Harbinger would look any worse. That having been said, she is scaled appropriately enough with the DCUC line that I have no problem using her to fill this empty slot in that collection, and since they weren’t in the tote I pulled her out of, I’ll probably hunt down The Monitor and Psycho-Pirate for the same purposes. In the meantime, I have a whole pile of figures from Identity Crisis, which I’ll need to get to next month.

Jun 18 2011

Watchmen: The Comedian by DC Direct

As much as I’d love to do another Cyberverse figure today, a promise is a promise, so I thought I’d mix things up just a bit with a random DC entry from off the top shelf of my toy room. You haven’t seen any Watchmen figures reviewed on FigureFan before because it took me a long time to come around and even give that movie a chance. I was actually pretty excited about it when we first heard it was being made, but then the changes started to filter down and I got really soured on it. Fast forward to late last year when someone gave me a copy of the Blu-Ray for Christmas. It sat unopened on my shelf for weeks until finally I had nothing else to do and gave it a go. Turns out I liked it quite a bit, and not soon after I picked up my first Watchman figure from the film.

It’s The Comedian! I’m pretty sure this is the first action figure based on a rapist that I own, although I’ve never been entirely certain what Freddy Kruger got up to with those kids before he murdered them, so maybe not. Ok, this is getting a little dark, so let’s take a look at the package. I don’t own a lot of DC Direct figures, but all the ones I have purchased were carded. Comedian, on the other hand, comes in a nice window box with an extended cardback to let it hang on a peg. The interior tray of the box is printed with a graffitied wall, which makes for a nice backdrop to display the figure against. The back panel of the box shows the other figures available in this two series line.

DC Direct’s figures usually feature excellent sculpts, but I’m extra impressed with the job they did on The Comedian. Besides being a genuinely good likeness to actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan they attention to the little details of his costume and gear is pretty exquisite and the tiny cigar sculpted into his mouth is just the icing on the cake. His shoulder armor is hinged so as not to interfere with the arm articulation and he has two sculpted holsters on his belt to hold his trusty sidearms. The paintwork on my figure is razor sharp to match the sculpt. You have to look really hard to see any signs of bleed or slop.

The Comedian comes with his two automatic pistols, which fit in the aforementioned holsters or in his hands. The sculps and paintwork on these weapons hold up with the rest of the figure. He also comes with a display stand. I’m not really crazy about the stand. It’s just too small for him, but I won’t complain about getting it. Although a shotgun would have been more welcome.

If you’re familiar with DC Direct’s figures than you know not to expect a super articulated figure, but with 13 useful points of articulation, Comedian has much better poseability than I’m used to seeing in these figures. The arms feature ball jointed shoulders, hinged elbows and swivel cuts to the wrists; his legs rotate at the hips, are hinged at the knees, and feature swivel cuts just above the boots. There’s no articulation in his torso, but his neck is ball jointed.

Comedian is the only Watchman figure I own and that’s mostly because I just stumbled upon him on clearance, but he’s definitely inspired me to hunt down some of the other figures in the line when I get the chance. DC Direct’s figures seldom disappoint me, but the overal quality on this guy has just blown me away.

Feb 14 2011

DC Return of Supergirl: Corrupted Supergirl by DC Direct

As a rule, I try to stay away from any of the DC Direct figures that overlap with Mattel’s DC Universe Classics line. It’s not that I don’t like them, but I really can’t afford the money or space to collect both, so if there’s any chance of a character or variant appearing in the DCUC line, that’s the figure I’ll buy. That having been said, I didn’t see much chance that Supergirl was going to turn up in DCUC as one of Darkseid’s Furies, so I felt perfectly safe buying this one figure out of the set of four. Now, to be fair, Superman and Batman comics fall pretty far down on my list of comics to read, and seeing as I’m usually behind on even the comics on the top of my reading list, I make no apologies at not having read this story arc in comic form. [More than anything, I blame that on trying to get through all of George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones books before the TV series starts, but that’s another story. -FF] I did, however, check out the movie adaptation: Superman/Batman: Apocalypse and I thought it was pretty good stuff.

The packaging here is pretty blah, but that’s what I’ve come to expect from a lot of DC Direct stuff. The card is generic and bland, with only a sticker on the bubble to distinguish this one from the other three figures in this line. The whole thing is also way too big for the figure, and while it definitely shows off what you’re getting, the figure seems small and unimpressive amidst all that air space. I do like the way they used the figure stand in lieu of actual art on the card. It’s a very clever idea, but it doesn’t save what is otherwise a really boring package.

Once out of the package, the figure speaks for itself. Kara’s design is defintely very stylized to reflect the distinctive comic art. She’s cast off her red and blue hero’s outfit for her new bad girl motif, complete with leather leggings, platform stripper heels and a skimpy bikini top. Oh yeah, she’s also got claws strapped to her arms and an iridescent cape made of really soft plastic. I’m particularly fond of the head sculpt here, which uses a cool windblown sculpt for her hair and some creepy gold reflective paint apps for her evil soulless eyes. The paint apps on my figure are pretty clean, as there’s no slop or bleeding to speak of.

Supergirl gets by with a passable, but not exceptional, nine points of articulation. She has a ball jointed neck, and ball joints in her shoulders, which might as well just be rotational joints, because they don’t give much lateral movement. Her legs rotate at the hips and she has hinges in her elbows and knees. She benefits from not really being pre-posed, so you can do a fair amount with the articulation she has. It’s par for the course with most DC Direct figures, so if you’re expecting anything close to DCUC poseability you’ll be disappointed here.

The only accessory included with the figure is the stand. It looks great, and it’s pretty essential since Supergirl has virtually no chance of standing on her own without it.

As a one-off, I’m pretty glad I picked up this figure, but then I got her for a fraction of the original retail. I’m mildly tempted to go after the regular Supergirl from this little assortment, just because the sculpt is distinctive enough to set her apart from my DCUC one. DC Direct certainly does a nice job with their sculpts and paintwork, but I’ll still take the added articulation of my DCUC figures over these any day.