Tag Archives: dc multiverse

Aug 18 2023

DC Multiverse (Dark Knight Trilogy): Joker, Two-Face and Bane by McFarlane

A couple weeks back I checked out the first half of McFarlane’s Dark Knight Trilogy figures with Batman and Scarecrow. Today, I’m looking at the second half of that wave with Joker and Two-Face, which also gives me the rest of the Collect-To-Build pieces to finish off Bane! The night is darkest just before the dawn, so let’s go…

I’ve got nothing new to say about the packaging, other than if it weren’t for the Bane figure parts, I probably would have just picked up Joker and Batman in this wave. But then I was very happy with how Scarecrow came out, so I have no regrets yet. I should note that I opened these figures a while ago and am using McFarlane’s official solicitation packaged shots, which shows a weird, almost metallic paint scheme for Joker and that’s obviously not what we got on the final figure. Two-Face comes with Bane’s torso and Joker comes with Bane’s head and three sets of his hands. Let’s start with Two-Face…

So, this is the figure in the wave that I was probably least excited about, but now that he’s in hand, I think he’s a pretty cool figure. Sure, he’s a guy in a suit, but I really like what McFarlane did with the damage to the jacket, which is both sculpted and painted on. Overall, I like McFarlane’s suit body a bit better than Hasbro’s Marvel Legends version, but I’d say they’re both more or less on the same level. The sculpted sleeves on the arms definitely match up with the suit-vest a lot better here. The jacket has a nice trim fit and the slacks have a hint of a crease running down the legs. The ball joint under the chest is handled well and the tie being sculpted separately looks great. You even get a little texture to the suit, shirt, and tie for that added pop.

Of course, the head sculpt is the main draw here and it has it’s ups and downs. McFarlane’s portraits work great for comic characters, but they definitely fall short when it comes to their movie figures. There isn’t much of a likeness to Eckhart and the paint on that side of the face is too basic to look all that realistic. The damaged side is pretty horrific, and I mean that in a good way, although I think it could have used a glossy wash to bring out some of that gore. I think this portrait works fine for having a Two-Face in my DC Multiverse collection, but it’s probably going to disappoint people looking for a solid version from the film.

Articulation is standard stuff here for the Multiverse line, which is as solid as always. Dent’s left hand is sculpted with his coin, which was a great choice, while his right hand is sculpted with a trigger finger. Of course, you’ll have to pick up one of McFarlane’s gun-packs to give him a shooter for that hand. All in all, I like this figure a lot, but he didn’t surprise me into loving him , like Scarecrow did. If not for the Bane piece, I would have happily gambled on picking him up at clearance, but I’m sure not angry at picking him up at full price. Moving on to Joker…

This is the figure I was looking forward to the most in this wave and he does not disappoint. I’ve seen a lot of gripes about how he turned out, and I honestly can’t understand them, because I think he looks fantastic. I really dig the billowy sculpt to his purple trench coat and the sculpted sleeves blend with it pretty well. The green vest and shirt collar and tie are all sculpted together, which still looks fine, although they are missing the patterns from the screen worn costume. Finally, the baggie purple striped pants lead down to his brown shoes. There’s also a sculpted gold chain leading from under the vest.

I think the portrait was a sticking point with some collectors’ early reactions, but I like how it turned out. It’s certainly not perfect. The makeup should have been more spotty and rough, but I’m still very happy with what we got. In terms of movie based likenesses, I’d say this is one of McFarlane’s better ones.

Like Two-Face, Joker comes with a trigger hand but no gun. Honestly, if McFarlane couldn’t give us a gun, they should have just given us a knife instead, which feels conspicuously absent from this set. Even a hand with a playing card sculpted into it would have been welcome. The left hand is sculpted into a fist.

You do, however, get a big pile of cash, which is a damn cool accessory, and works great as a throne for him to sit on. So yeah, I’m going to go against the grain and say that I love how this figure turned out. A few tweaks could have made it even better, but I dig him. And that brings us to Bane!

I’m a little saltier about this figure since McFarlane revealed the Gold Label Bane with his coat. It sold out fast and even if it didn’t, I wasn’t about to drop another $45 just to get the coat. I think it was a pretty shitty use of the Gold Label line and companies need to watch how they screw over collectors by reissuing better versions of figures so soon after the initial offerings. With that said, this one looks pretty good. The tactical vest has some pretty sharp detail, I love the wrappings around his right wrist and hand, and the rugged pants are replete with sculpted pockets. All in all pretty nice work!

The portrait is pretty good. It actually looks like the eyes are printed rather than painted. There’s also some nice dry brush weathering on the mask. The lines between his skin and the mask have a little slop here and there, but you have to punch in pretty close for it to be a problem.

Despite being a Collect-To-Build, Bane has all the usual articulation seen in the Multiverse line. I did have some issues with the legs staying put with this figure, but after a lot of cursing and excessive force, I think I finally got them to stay put. You get three sets of hands with Bane, which feels a little excessive. These include fists, relaxed hands, and gesturing hands. I would have much rather we got a knife or playing card hand with Joker rather than these, but I’ll take them anyway.

I don’t buy a lot of Multiverse Waves when they first come out, but this one I jumped on and I’m still glad I did. Especially since these don’t seem to be dropping in price as fast as some of these figures tend to do. While I’m not as big a fan of these movies as most, I do love these versions of the characters and they are certainly a massive step up from the shitty Mattel ones I have from forever ago. Oh wait… we’re not quite done yet…

Yeah, I also bought the Gold Label Joker for some reason. It’s made even more ridiculous by the fact that this is a Jokerized Joker. Yup. I’m probably not going to open this one, and all I can say is it must have been the product of one of those nights of heavy drinking and retail therapy, because otherwise I’m not really sure why I bought it. I do really like the paint on this figure’s portrait, so that’s something. Also the Jokerized Bane head is kind of cool too. But I certainly will not picking up any of the other Jokerized figures in this wave.

Aug 4 2023

DC Multiverse (Dark Knight Trilogy): Batman and Scarecrow by McFarlane

My DC Multiverse collection has been growing exponentially and there’s so many figures to choose from when it comes to deciding who’s turn is next here. But, there are a couple of waves that I’m particularly excited about getting to, so they’ll get the bump to the front. Today I’m kicking off what I hope will be just a two-part look at the four figure Build-A-Bane Wave based on The Dark Knight Trilogy, and I’ll probably throw an extra Gold Label figure in at the end. Let’s start with Batman and Scarecrow.

I’ve got nothing new to say about the packaging. It’s mostly collector friendly and it shows off the figures well. You also get the usual black disk stands and collector cards included. Batman comes with Bane’s legs and Dr. Crane comes with his arms, and boy is it refreshing to only have to pick up four figures in a wave to complete a figure, RIGHT HASBRO? I have to toss out my ubiquitous disclaimer that I’m not the biggest fan of this trilogy or Nolan’s films in general. They’re fine, I guess. The first and third tend to put me to sleep, while I like the middle one the most. With that having been said, I think the movies did a fine job imagining some of these characters. Certainly enough for me to want the figures. Let’s start with Batman…

To me this suit was 90% perfection, assuming you count the cowl as 10%. Yes, I like the Keaton suit better, but if you’re going for realism over comic in your Batsuit, than this is how you do it. The suit has a wonderfully tactical look to it and this figure pulls it off quite nicely. The sculpted gaps between the armored plates show the textured undersuit and the chiseled muscles in the abs are superb. The bat emblem is a little too subtle for me, but I get that was an artistic choice. The vastly diminished profile of the cape works well with this look too, as it hugs the body and only fans out at the end. The gold belt is just the chef’s kiss of the whole ensemble. I’m not well versed in the movies to pick out any inconsistencies or differences between the films, but for my money, this is a great looking Batman figure.

If there’s anywhere this figure stumbles a bit it’s the head, and I’m having a hard time deciding whether it’s actually the figure or just the design of this cowl which I have never liked. The overly round shape is just goofy to me and it’s amplified by the round cut out for the face. I think McFarlane did OK with what they had to work with here, but it remains the one thing I don’t like about this suit.

Articulation is everything you’d expect from the DC Multiverse line. I think I’ve covered enough of these figures where I’m not going to run through it every time. I will say that the range of motion here is all quite nice. The shoulder armor is the only place where there’s some inhibition, and even those are designed to flex as much as possible. I have to imagine that what we get is pretty comparable to what movement in an armored suit like this would be like. Batman only comes with the one set of hands, with the left hand balled into a fist and the right hand designed to hold accessories.

And those accessories come in two varieties. the first is his grapple gun, which is a really nice sculpt and cast in gold plastic to match the belt.

Next up we get three gold batarangs. Why three? Don’t know. I guess it’ll come in hand when I inevitably lose one or two. These are simple accessories, but they are made out of nice stiff plastic, which is nice. I probably would have preferred we only get one and they use the rest of the plastic to make a hand better suited to holding them, or just another fist, but now I’m nitpicking. How about some Scarecrow?

Scarecrow was pretty cool in The Dark Knight Rises, but if it weren’t for the C&B parts, I probably would have passed on this one. And now that I have him I’m kind of glad I didn’t, because McFarlane did an impressive job on this guy, especially with all the layering. Under the straightjacket trench coat you have a fully sculpted suit, but really it’s the detail on the straightjacket sculpt that just blows me away. The texturing on the threads is so intricate, along with all the straps and loops and the ragged edges look great. I also dig the way all the loops in the straps look like suckers on a tentacle. I especially love the way the arm straps just lash out from his arms. You also get a really nice black wash over the tan plastic, making it look extra shabby and dirty.

The head sculpt is great too, as it looks like there’s a whole head sculpt under there, even if it is probably just the eyes. Instead of just doing the whole head as one piece, this makes the eyes look really deep set and extra creepy and adds tons of credibility to the hood being an actual hood. And man, is that hood disgusting. I think the white stuff is supposed to be the maggots from one of the fear gas scenes, but either way it’s just so delightfully gross!

There are no accessories here, but you do get two pairs of hands with Scarecrow, and I honestly can’t understand why they bothered. I would have rather those hands went to Batman. The right fist and the left reaching hand are really all I will ever bother with.

Both of these figures turned out really nice. I think I have one of Mattel’s old TDK Trilogy figures around here somewhere and I can surely retire that one in favor of this release. Still not a fan of the cowl, but even still I think it’s a great Batman figure. Without the C&B part, I would have written off Scarecrow as one of those $12 clearance picks ups that I come across with this line, but it turns out he’s pretty damn cool. Next week, I’ll wrap up this wave with The Joker, Harvey Dent, and the C&B Bane… oh, and one extra Gold Label figure that I mentioned earlier.

Jul 14 2023

DC Multiverse (The Flash): Batman Statue by McFarlane

It’s been a long week at work, but I’m off for a couple of days and ready to start hitting the hooch. So today I’m doing a bit of a quickie. I haven’t picked up any of McFarlane’s DC Multiverse Statues, because I don’t have a whole lot of room to display more statues at this point, but being as smitten as I am with the Batman design from the Flash film, I decided to go ahead and pick this one up, so it’ll be a new experience for me.

The statue is still released under the DC Multiverse banner and even the packaging is identical to the window boxes used for the regular action figures, just bigger. It’s mostly collector friendly, but you will need to tear the base off the back tray and unlike the figures, you really do need it here. There’s also a character trading card just like the ones that come with the figures.

Batman comes out of the box ready for display. You just have to peg his feet into the large round base and he’s good to go. He measures about 10-inches tall and he’s in a bit of a crouched fighting stance, but still a bit shy of being a proper sixth-scale figure. He’s a hefty hunk of plastic and I’ve got to say this guy has a really nice shelf presence about him. With fists balled up, he’s ready to get nuts! This base has a big diameter, and even then it’s still pretty economical when it comes to taking up space with Batman’s left toe at the edge of the front and his right toe at the edge of the back. The cape is made of a very soft plastic and has some excellent texturing throughout. The left side hangs freely while the right corner licks up a bit in front of the leg he has drawn back.

Obviously, there’s not a lot of color here, but you do get some different paint finishes on the black ranging from high gloss to satin to matte. There’s also a muddy paint wash on his boots, which helps to mix things up a bit. The sculpt includes the natural muscle contours of his legs contrasted with the sculpted abs and pectorals of the chest armor. The utility belt has some nice detail work and I’m a big fan of the serrated looking fins on the gauntlets.

The portrait is pretty nice, albeit not a dead-ringer for Keaton. I like the exposed area around the eye holes in the mask are painted black and there’s some sharp edges between the cowl and his skin suggesting the face is sculpted separately. There’s a subtle curve to the ears and these seem to be stiff enough to not be susceptible to warping.

The only real color on the costume is the orange field around the bat symbol. It still feels a little weird for that to be orange and not yellow. Granted, I didn’t see the film, so I can’t comment on whether it’s film accurate or not, but it still looks good.

I think this statue originally retailed for around $40, but I grabbed it on sale at $30. If I were to compare it to something else on the market, I would probably go with Diamond Select’s Gallery series. This one is scaled a bit larger than those, but I’d say the quality is about the same, as is the level of detail in the sculpt and the paint finish. And that’s intended as high praise, because I honestly think that DST’s Gallery offerings are the best value to be had in the comic book statue market right now. I don’t know that I would rate this piece as a Must-Have, especially since I have both versions of the figure, but I’m glad I didn’t pass it up, because it looks really great on the shelf.

May 31 2023

DC Page Punchers: Ocean Master and Black Manta by McFarlane

I’ll confess, I don’t really understand McFarlane’s Page Punchers line, other than they’re figures bundled with comics. I guess they even come in different scales now. Even weirder is that they have DC Direct on the packaging, which really brings me back to the old days of DC figure collecting. Regardless, the Page Punchers that I’ve been picking up are the ones that are scaled with the DC Multiverse series, and today we’re checking out two infamous scourges of Atlantis: Ocean Master and Black Manta!

The figures come in packages with huge windows! Take that Hasbro!!! You get the figure and accessories on a clear tray set in front of a copy of an Aquaman comic, each with cover art of the respective figure. It looks great and it’s collector friendly, and hey… free comic! Yes, it’s the same comic with different covers, and it appears to be made exclusively for these figure releases. It’s got some solid art and recounts a showdown between Black Manta and Aquaman. You also get the standard black disk stand and collector cards that come with the DC Multiverse figures. Ocean Master just gets a quick cameo in the comic, but let’s start with his figure anyway!

Damn, I really love this design for him and the sculpt is outstanding! The costume retains many of the broad strokes of his classic costume, but with a healthy slathering of gritty realism. Orm’s outfit consists of a black body suit with several different types of texture. There’s a cracked surface from the waist down, a finer chain mail texture for the arms and abs, and a jagged shell-like armor for the upper torso. The boots, arm bracers, shoulders, and belt are all finished off in an antiqued gold paint that looks very nice, and you get more of that jagged shell-like motif on these pieces, especially the shoulders. Finally, there’s a red crest on his chest, which matches his cape. I really like the sculpt of the cape with the finer rumples up near the top, where it’s bunched up and it slowly fans out around his feet to a jagged bottom edge.

The mask also borrows from the classic look, but dialed all the way up to nightmare. There is something that is so damn creepy about this head sculpt, and boy do I dig it! The gold mask has horns pointing up and down, a flat triangular piece over the nose, and fins fanning out over the ears. He’s got a super creepy fishy upper lip and the two bulbous red eyes just stare straight into my soul. This is top notch stuff!

In addition to the standard DC Multiverse articulation, Ocean Master sports an extra set of hands, which is pretty unusual for McFarlane’s DC releases. These include a set of relaxed graspy hands and a set of hands to hold his trident.

And the trident is indeed a very cool accessory. It’s cast in gold plastic and has some wonderful sculpted detail all over, including what looks like some old chain wrapped around the base of the forks. The plastic is a bit bendy, but it’s not too bad. This is an absolutely fantastic take on the character and a beautifully executed figure. I genuinely love every single thing about it, and it’s hard to believe this is the first time the character has made an appearance here on FFZ since the Matty Signature Series figure ten years ago! So, let’s slide on over to Black Manta! This dude has always been a favorite of mine since the Super Friends cartoon and yet I’ve only checked out two of his figures here on FFZ before. The first was part of the DC Universe Classics Undersea Assault set back in 2010. The other was from the DC Collectibles Super-Villains wave.

And hot damn is he looking good! Like Ocean Master, this figure takes a lot of the character’s classic beats and just gives it a kick of modern realism. The proportions of the suit give him a bit of a creepy lanky vibe in the limbs. The bulk of the suit has a chain mail like texture and even some of the sculpted plates have a bit of coarse finish. He’s all black with some red panels here and there and a silver disk in the center of the chest piece to make him pop. On the back he has a rather understated breather unit on his back with the tubes leading into the helmet, and there are two silver exhaust ports. angled downward.

The helmet still has the familiar saucer shape to it from his more classic appearances, with a scooped out silver “face” and two elongated red lenses. It looks great, albeit a lot less exaggerated and bulbous than some of his older designs, and while I do like it a lot, it’s not going to replace the classic look as my favorite anytime soon.

Manta comes with twin blades which can be pegged into his arms to look like they are being retracted and deployed. These attach very securely and he looks all sorts of bad-ass while wielding them.

You also get a bladed pole-arm with some sexy curves in the shaft and in all black with red accents to match the suit. The blade is painted silver with some cut-outs in the blade and a vicious double-pointed tip. Unlike Ocean Master, Manta only comes with one set of hands, so you get a left fist and a right gripping hand for the spear.

It’s safe to say that I am completely blown away by this pair of figures. Not only are they cool modern designs for the characters, but the figures are executed brilliantly. These are some crazy complex sculpts with some lovely detailing and texture work on both. The paint is sharp and clean, and they just look fantastic on the shelf together. The rest of this wave consisted of Aquaman and Aqualad, which I’m waiting to see if I can find at discount. I already have the Endless Winter version as an all around excellent Aquaman for my DC Multiverse shelf, but the Aqualad looks good and is pretty tempting.

May 15 2023

DC Multiverse (Titans): Beast Boys by McFarlane

Today’s review was supposed to go up last Friday, but real life stuff intervened as it sometimes does. So… today, I’m checking out A Tale of Two Beast Boys. The first is the Collect & Build figure from the Titans Wave and the second is the Walmart Exclusive Gold Label release. The parts for the C&B figure were included with Arsenal, Raven, Donna Troy, and Nightwing and since it’s a loose end from my look at that wave, let’s start with him first.

Yup, he’s a big boy! Is this what Beast Boy looks like in the current comics or is this just some jacked up half-beast form? I have no idea. I poked around a bit to try to find out, and I could honestly find nothing that looks like this from the comics, but that’s OK. One of my favorite mantras is that I don’t have to be familiar with the source material to enjoy a figure, and boy do I really like this figure! Many have pointed out the similarities the costume shares with Hulk in the temporal suit from Avengers Endgame, and yeah it’s hard not to see that. The suit does have some fantastic texture to the black and cream-colored portions with some smooth red trim to make it pop. But what I really dig is the coloring of the skin, with some vibrant light green on the smooth bits and some darker green on the sculpted fringe. Sure, it looks a bit more like roided out broccoli than it does beast fur, but I still love it.

There’s plenty to love in this head sculpt too. Once again you get that beautiful light green on the skin, but here you have some really breathtaking gradients of slightly darker green and a bit of red in the cheeks and dark shading around the pupil-less eyes. The sculpted tuft of dark green hair is very nicely done, as is the hairy fringe that extends from his sideburns to around his jawline. The pointed ears look great and he’s got two tusk-like teeth protruding from the bottom jaw. Everything about this portrait is just superb!

Despite being a big chonky C&B figure, Beast Boy sports most of the usual articulation that comes standard with most regular DC Multiverse releases. That includes rotating hinges in the shoulders, bicep swivels, only single hinges in the elbows, and hinged pegs in the wrists. There are rotating hinges up in the hips, double hinges in the knees, rotating hinges int he ankles, and hinges in the feet about halfway to the toes. There’s a ball joint under the chest and another in the neck. He has a pretty good range of motion, with the elbows being the most restrictive and only doing about 90-degrees. Still, he’s loads of fun to play with. His right hand is sculpted into a fist and his left hand is a grasping claw for all your punching and grabbing needs!

I absolutely love everything about this figure. The heft is satisfying, the colors are gorgeous, it sports an amazing portrait, and it just has a wonderful shelf presence. It also ties this wave together really nicely, because they look phenomenal when grouped together on the shelf. But, just in case this Big Beast Boi doesn’t float your boat, The Toddfather gave us another option…

Yup, a lot of folks seemed to be confused and disappointed by the Collect & Build figure’s reveal, so I’m glad I wasn’t alone in not recognizing it. But as if planning the whole thing, McFarlane let fly a few days later with a look at a more familiar and normal sized version of Beast Boy. The only downside? He’s a Gold Label release, and they can be hard to get hold of. I was pretty sure I was never going to find him, but he did turn up online long enough for me to grab him and have the best of both worlds. Just as an aside, I really can’t wrap my head around the whole Gold Label concept. I was fine with them being repaints or maybe even alternate head variants, but to release an entirely unique figure of a popular character like this? That just doesn’t make sense. Anyway… there’s not much to say about the packaging, other than it has the foil Gold Label seal at the upper left corner and you get the usual black figure stand and collector card. Let’s tear in and see what we got!

This more reasonably sized Beast Boy sports a pretty simple outfit that gets by with paint paint and no unique sculpting that I can see. And that’s fine, because it’s meant to be a simpleoutfit. The slightly off-white and crimson pairs really well together and the paint lines here are pretty sharp and clean. The rubber diapers don’t usually bother me much in this line, but here it seems a bit more prominent than usual. Still, it’s not an obstacle to me enjoying the figure. I am happy to see that the pins are all painted correctly.

The head sculpt is also more in line with the Beast Boy I know from the comic panels. The vibrant green skin color looks great and and the hair is sculpted separately from the head to give him a well-defined hairline. You get some razor sharp printing for the eyes and eyebrows, and a slight smile to the mouth. Overall, this portrait has an appropriately clean and youthful appearance that works really well for the character.

There’s nothing new to say about the articulation, and I’ve reviewed enough of these figures to where running through the articulation is starting to get redundant. The joints all feel good, but my figure came out of the tray with a little bit of bowing to the legs, which should straighten out with a little heat. Beast Boy sports a fist on his left hand and what looks like a reaching hand on his right.

You do get one accessory here, and that’s Beast Boy in eagle form. The eagle is cast in translucent green plastic, which has a really rich color. The sculpt here is exceptionally nice and sharp with the individual feathers standing out despite the use of clear plastic. I suppose you could also use this as a Green Lantern construct too!

And while he’s not really part of the Titans wave, I think he fits in pretty well with the rest of the bunch!

I would have been fine with just the C&B Beast Boy on my shelf, but I’m very happy to have picked up the Gold Label release as well. I know that McFarlane tends to just do waves of four for their C&B figures, which is admittedly a lot more manageable than Hasbro’s five or six, but maybe this was a case where they should have included regular Beast Boy and gave him some of the parts. The only thing missing here is Starfire, so I’m not sure if she’s just absent from the current Titans book or if they just didn’t want to do her. The next time I check out one of McFarlane’s Collect & Build Waves, we’ll be building us a Bane from The Dark Knight Trilogy!

Apr 26 2023

The Flash: Batmobile and Batman Unmasked by McFarlane

I can think of few toy reveals that rippled outward with such a shockwave of excitement than McFarlane’s take on the Batmobile from the upcoming Flash film. It speaks volumes of how iconic that design has become in the three decades since it appeared in the ’89 Batman film, and makes me wonder why Mattel didn’t cash in on some of that love back when they had the DC license. And while I have no interest in seeing The Flash movie, I guess I have to at least be thankful that it resulted in this ’89 Batman resurgence and some cool toys. Today I’m checking out both the Batmobile and the Target Exclusive unmasked version of Michael Keaton as Batman. Let’s start with the Batmobile! This thing is a little too big for my regular photo staging area, so I had to improvise!

This sweet ride comes in a fully enclosed box that’s drab and boring. It’s a pretty good sized box, but that’s to be expected as this is a 7-inch scale car with very little assembly required. In fact, all you have to do is free it from it’s plastic bag and plug in the rear fins to get it ready to patrol the streets of Gotham. If you pop open the canopy, you’ll find a collector card hidden in there, similar to what we see included with all of McFarlane’s DC Multiverse figures.

Oh yeah… that’s the stuff! This design is still as dead sexy as ever, and McFarlane did a nice job recreating all those sleek curves. But make no mistake, this toy is a textbook example of give and take, so let’s get some of that stuff out of the way first. McFarlane had to play with the size here a bit to get it at the price point they wanted. As a result the car is a tad smaller than it should be, but I don’t find it that noticeable. It certainly doesn’t feel as downscaled as McFarlane’s 66 Batmobile. Along with the scale, the car also lacks the heft you might expect. The plastic is nice and sturdy, and the toy actually feels quite rugged in hand, but in the end it is mostly just a plastic shell. Indeed, as we’ll see the only play feature you get is the opening canopy and the rolling tires. I’m guessing pop up machine guns would qualify as forbidden by Warner Bros weird No Guns policy. Sure, I would have happily paid a bit more to get some extra gimmicks, but I’m also fine with them being left out. Finally, the profile of the canopy is definitely higher than the actual car, but it’s another thing that doesn’t really bother me all that much.

With all that having been said, I think this toy looks fantastic. The car has a beautiful glossy sheen to it that makes it look like it just rolled off the assembly line. Alfred really is an expert at buffing and waxing! You get some beautiful sculpted detail in that bullet shaped turbine in the front, and while I recall that being black in the film, I think the gunmetal gray here looks good. There are sculpted panels where the machine guns would pop up are present, as well as some additional panel lining on the sides. Yes, under bright lights the canopy is gray, but the variance between the gray and black is a lot more subtle in room lighting. When I first took it out of the box I barely noticed it, but under studio lights it can’t be missed. It’s not optimal, but it sure isn’t a deal-breaker for me either.

The rear of the car has a central turbine in gunmetal gray with two pairs of silver exhaust pipes and two sets of red taillights. The organic curves of the fins look great, as does the sculpted vents positioned between them. The tires are made of rubber and have gold bat symbols on the wheels, and you get some silver pipes and detail on the side cutouts, as well as circular vents angled away from the rear wheels.

To open the canopy, there’s a button just in front of it on the hood. It releases the catch and allows you to slide the canopy forward to reveal the driver cabin. There’s only one seat and while it isn’t accurate, it works fine for this toy. I’m extremely happy with the level of detail in here. You get a fully sculpted seat, which even has some sculpted stitching on the cushions. The banks of instruments and gauges are all picked out with silver paint and it all looks really sharp. The steering wheel is positioned dead center, but does not turn. Let’s switch over to have a look at Unmasked Batman and then we’ll get him in the Batmobile!

I’m using McFarlane’s in package solicitation shot here because mine got pulverized in shipping. It’s the same style packaging we’ve been seeing in the DC Multiverse line only branded for The Flash film and with the foil Gold Label corner. You get a stand and a collector card too. I almost wasn’t going to buy this figure, but he was billed to ship before the regular masked version. And I’m pretty glad I did, because my masked version probably won’t arrive until next week and I wouldn’t have had anyone to put in the Batmobile!

I won’t get too long winded here, because I’ll probably do a comparison when the masked version comes in. The suit is a lot different than I expected and I would have preferred something mare akin to the ’89 film. Here it looks more like sculpted armor and less rubbery, which sure ain’t bad, but just different. The sculpted muscles are a tad more pronounced and angular in some areas, particularly in the abs, I really love the detail on the forearm bracers, you get some panel lines in the upper legs, and the boots look great. Yeah, I’m bummed that the belt is now black instead of yellow, and a little surprised that the bat symbol is more orange than yellow here. Still, I think the suit looks great and I especially dig the glossy finish.

The cape is cloth, and while it looks a bit thin under the studio lights, it looks fine with the figure in hand and under normal lighting. Obviously, they went with softgoods here to make him work with the Batmobile, but I really wish they would choose softgoods over plastic more often. It just makes the figure so much more fun to play around with. Speaking of which, Batman hits all the usual points of articulation that are standard for the DC Multiverse line. The only thing I can really complain about are the continued lack of thigh swivels.

And then there’s the portrait. Well, from certain angles I can see Keaton in there, but not enough to make the likeness anywhere near a slam dunk. I actually think the flat paint is what’s letting down the likeness more than the sculpt. Considering you had to buy a whole different figure to get the unmasked head, I think this probably should have turned out better.

Batman comes with two sets of hands: One pair of fists and one pair of accessory holding hands. The included accessories are his grapple gun and a batarang, both of which are silver. Both are nice sculpts, but it’s a little odd that they aren’t black. Maybe they’re silver in the film? Someone will have to let me know, because I’m not going to see it.

Getting Batman into his ride is pretty easy, thanks to that cloth cape. He sits a little close to the steering wheel, but if you have more patience then me, you can probably get his hands on the wheel. I’ll make more of an effort when the masked Batman comes in.

Overall, I like this figure a lot, but I’m sure I’ll like the masked version even more. Chances are, I’ll wind up leaving this one in the Batmobile and displaying the masked version beside it. Then again, I do have McFarlane’s giant Batwing coming in at the end of this week, so I guess one of them may wind up sitting in the cockpit while the other stands beside the Batmobile. As for the Batmobile… If you’re looking for a perfect rendering of the 89 Batmobile that will hold a figure, well this isn’t it. But then, I don’t think such a toy exists. The old Kenner Batmissile Batmobile released in 1992 is your best alternative option, but it’s scaled for smaller figures, has some silly play gimmicks, and has it’s own share of inaccuracies in the design. It’s also selling for three or four times what this one is if you can find one complete and in good condition. Considering that McFarlane’s put this out at $60 seems like quite an amazing feat, and considering how quickly it sold out everywhere, I’ll go out on a limb and call it a success. I pre-ordered this at three online retailers just to be sure I got one. Only one of those retailers delivered the goods and that was Target. Another retailer outright cancelled, and my Amazon pre-order is in limbo and will likely be cancelled too. There’s certainly some room for improvement in this toy, but I love it and I’m glad I was able to get one!

Apr 21 2023

DC Multiverse (Titans): Arsenal and Raven by McFarlane

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mar 22 2023

DC Multiverse (Rebirth): Lobo by McFarlane

As promised, the DC Multiverse reviews are going to be ramping up, as I have spent the last month or so plunging head first into this line and grabbing a bunch of figures on clearance. And it seemed like the perfect time to get into the line as Todd put up the very impressive looking 89-style Batmobile for pre-order just last week. But for now, I’m delving back into the Rebirth era with a look at everyone’s favorite cigar-chomping, genocidal asshole bounty hunter, Lobo.

Here he is in the package, and boy do I have a lot of these big and beefy Multiverse boxes stacking up around here. Storing all of these figures in their packages is sheer folly, as I will eventually fill up an entire bookcase, but for now that’s what I’m doing to make it easier to see what I’ve picked up so far. I like these boxes, even if they aren’t all that visually striking. The blue behind the tray looks nice, you get some artwork on the back panel, and while removing the figure itself is collector friendly, you have to rip the backer to get to the figure stand and trading card. For now I’m leaving those be. I never did pony up for any of the Mattel versions of Lobo, so I’m pretty excited to get this guy opened!

Generally speaking, I like the costume designs that came with Rebirth, and Lobo is no exception. Indeed, while I was largely fine with The New 52, its depiction of Lobo was a huge wrong turn, something which Rebirth set right again. Here, Lobo is quite a beast of a figure sporting a suitably chonky build and lots of great detail in the sculpt. He’s got a ribbed tank top worn under a leather jacket, with the sleeves absolutely shredded off of it, revealing some jacked up arms with some bulging veins. The texturing on both the shirt and jacket is superb, with some tears, and what look like bullet holes in the shirt. He’s got a studded belt with a skull belt buckle, and super tight blue jeans with sculpted pockets, tailoring and all the little wrinkles and rumples to make them look great. The lower leg armor has forged skulls protecting the knees and sharp spikes running down the sides. These grieves are sculpted all around the leg and with straps, but the backs and straps are just painted blue like the jeans. Yeah, these would have looked much better if they were painted all around. I mean, that steel paint on the fronts really is nice. Finally, he has a pair of fingerless gloves painted onto his hands, and some massive shit-kickers on his feet with steel plated toes for kicking that shit!

The head sculpt is solid, and different enough from Mattel’s versions to make comparison’s kind of tough. This one is a bit more stylized, with some exaggerated wrinkling in the forehead to make him look more like a proper alien, and even a bit evocative of a vampire. I love the way his red eyes are partially shrouded under that plunging brow line, and even his nose is wrinkled into a permanent snarl. His sculpted beard follows his jawline, jutting out with a prominent chin, and his teeth are on full display through his wicked grimace. The blue highlights to his wild hair is an interesting choice, at first I was a little iffy on them, but they’ve grown on me. All in all, this is great stuff!

The back of the jacket is a fun nod to the 1992 cover of Lobo’s Back with the “BITE ME FAN BOY” winged skull logo. This stuff is partially sculpted into the jacket as well, and it looks great. If this extra paint is why the paint on the backs of the leg armor didn’t cost out, than I’m totally fine with that. Once again, the texturing and detail on the jacket is superb, and those spikes on his epaulets are pretty sharp!

Despite being a powerhouse, Lobo’s articulation is pretty much in line with the DC Multiverse standards. Granted, because of his bulging muscles, those double-hinged elbows don’t get quite the range of motion as normal, but they can do a bit better than 90-degrees. Everything else is solid, with some especially wide stances up in them hips, double hinges in the knees, and a ball joint under that chest. All these joints feel super solid and are fun to play around with. I don’t know if it’s still the thrill of a new figure line, but I think these Multiverse figures feel fantastic in hand.

Lobo comes with one accessory and that’s his coiled chain blade. The chain is sculpted to be coiled around his wrist when he holds it, and it works OK, but the Mattel figure wins this round for having an actual chain attached to it, which would have been a lot more fun. Still, this looks pretty good in his hand, and the sculpted weathering on the hook is a nice touch.

McFarlane has to abide by Warner Bros’ no gun policy, but you can pick up one of the weapons packs to skirt that silly regulation and give Lobo some firepower. I only have the second weapon pack, and to be honest, most of the shooters are too small for Lobo’s extreme manly meathooks, but this one looks OK.

Lobo was one of the first McFarlane figures I picked up, after getting that Booster and Beetle two-pack, and it was spending some time playing around with this guy that really affirmed my decision to start collecting this line hard. This is a big and beefy badass of a figure, that I managed to pick up for about $17 and that’s a deal that you can’t shake a Czarnian stick at. This brute has been on my desk for weeks, and he is just loads of fun to pick up and play around with, even if you do have to be careful with some of those sharp spikes!

Mar 3 2023

DC Multiverse (Rebirth): Batman and Superman by McFarlane

A little while back, I popped my cherry on McFarlane’s DC Multiverse line with a look at the Blue Beetle and Booster Gold two-pack, and now I’m going to start unloading on reviews for this line, because I bought a whole hell of a lot of them on various sales. Of course, this line is very Batman-heavy and otherwise pretty scattershot when it comes to the comic period and costumes, which can be infuriating when trying to build a team, but otherwise fun if you’re just looking at individual figures. And, coming into a line late in the game also has it’s ups and downs as well. Some figures have gone on deep discount, while others have gone up in value on the secondary market. Right now I’m still in the looking for good deals phase, but eventually I’ll probably hunt down some specific releases. With all that having been said, let’s have a look at Batman and Superman in their Rebirth costumes!

The packaging here is consistent with what we’ve been seeing in the line. I really dig how the bright blue interiors contrast with the black boxes. I’ve never really enjoyed how grimdark modern DC has become in the mainstream, so I think these packages stride the line nicely. Each figure comes with a collector card and a stand. Batman comes with the regular disk stand, while Superman actually comes with a clear flight stand. I bring these up now, because for the time being, I will not be removing the cards or stands from the boxes, as it damages the trays. Eventually, I will get short on space and have to pitch all these boxes, but for now I’m keeping the figures in them. Let’s start with Batman!

Cards on the table, I really loved the New 52 Batman costume, so I was a little apprehensive when Rebirth came along. Turned out that I really liked this one too. Maybe not loved, but it’s not bad at all. The dark gray suit looks great against the black of the boots, gauntlets, cape and cowl. The big change here is the brighter yellow belt and yellow outline around the chest symbol, both add a nice little pop. The suit has a few panel lines, but it doesn’t overdo it, and that sort of detail is mostly reserved for the boots and gauntlets. The serrated blades on the gauntlets are awesome, and I absolutely love how the bat symbol is sculpted and not just printed on. I’m not a huge fan of the bat-head knee guards, but they’re not too distracting. The cape is sculpted so that it stays fairly tight with the body and not fanning out too much. I do tend to prefer this to the dynamic, windblown effect, which I think is best saved for statues and not action figures. All in all, this is a great looking suit and McFarlane executed it beautifully for the figure.

The head sculpt, on the other hand, is nothing to get excited about. The lower half of the face is a pretty soft sculpt. So much so that my shitty camera took half a dozen shots to finally get somewhat focused on it. I do dig the cowl, as it gives me a bit of 89 Batman vibes, and the whited out eyes look fine. There’s nothing really bad here, but I just don’t find it exceptional.

The articulation is exactly what we saw with Beetle and Booster. Eventually, I’ll get to the same point as I did with Marvel Legends and just stop surveying the points of articulation on these. When it doesn’t change from figure to figure, it gets old to recount it all every time. But these bodies are still new to me, so let’s give it a rundown. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, swivels in the biceps, double-hinged elbows, and ball hinges in the wrists. I really have no complaints about the arms at all, and I love how tight the elbows will go! The legs have rotating hinges in the hips, which offer a pretty nice range of motion going forward, back, and to the sides… but so very little swivel, it’s practically non existent.. The knees are double-hinged, the ankles have both hinges and lateral rockers, and the feet are hinged for the toes. The one gripe I’ll keep coming back to in the legs is the lack of a thigh swivel. The neck is ball jointed with some nice range of motion, especially for Batman’s constricting cowls. Finally, you get ball joints under the chest and at the waist, which do a fairly decent job. This is a fun figure to pose and play with, even though the cape can make him a bit back heavy.

Batman comes with two accessories: His grapple gun and a batarang. His right hand is sculpted to hold either one, while the left is balled up in a fist. The grapple gun is pretty big and satisfying, with the grapple hook sculpted in place. Getting a string to swing the figure on would have been cool, but this looks good in his hand. There’s no obvious trigger, which I assume is part of Warner Brothers weird obsession with not allowing any guns or anything even remotely trigger-y. Quite frankly, I’m surprised McFarlane got away with this accessory at all.

The batarang is simple enough, but a pretty nice sculpt. It can be a little tough for him to hold it, but squeezing it between the fingers seems to work fairly well. If you’ve been around here a while, you may know that I’m not a huge Batman fanatic, and I’m not going to buying the majority of the ones released in DC Multiverse. But, I do indeed love this figure, and considering the insane number of Batman figures in this line, I’m glad I started out with this one. Let’s move on to Superman…

Unlike Batman, I’m always down for a new Superman figure, so I was really excited to get this one opened and check him out. Happily, he does not disappoint. Rebirth Superman’s costume didn’t stray too far from his New 52 look, and while I like it a lot, I still think it was a step down. I mainly miss the red boots here, as you now only get some red striping at the tops of blue boots. The cut lines in the suit have been toned down a bit, which is fine. I still like the red belt with the floating diamond buckle. And like Batman, I absolutely love that the chest shield is sculpted and not just printed on the figure. The coloring here is extremely nice, with the blue and red playing off each other brilliantly, and the glossy sheen on the chest shield is gorgeous. I do wish the striping under the knees were a little more vibrant, and I really would have preferred if the ball joints in the wrists were flesh colored and not blue. The cape is mostly tamed behind him, although there’s a little bit of flutter to his left side.

The head sculpt here is much sharper than Batman’s, but in fairness they had a lot more to work with. Overall, I like the portrait, but looking straight on there’s definitely an extra helping of jawline. I like the furled brow and intense gaze, which makes him look just a bit perturbed at the whatever injustice he is perceiving. I don’t like my Superman to be too angry, so this works for me. The cleft chin and the cowling are also wonderful little touches.

The articulation here is identical to Batman, so I won’t run through it all again. I will say how much I appreciate the upward range of motion in Superman’s head, which is perfect for flying poses. It’s ridiculous how many flight capable super hero action figures get this wrong. There are no accessories with Superman, unless you count the flight stand, which I suppose is a really nice bonus. And since he has nothing to hold, his hands are both sculpted as fists, which once again works great for those flight poses, or just punching villains.

I have to say, I’m having an absolute blast dipping my toe into McFarlane’s DC Multiverse. Rebirth Batman and Superman are both excellent figures, and I’ll wager they will reside on my desk within arm’s reach for a while before getting put up on the shelf. They are tons of fun to play around with and I couldn’t be happier with the way they turned out. I was able to pick this pair up for just $16 each, which is a helluva deal, and I’ve already got a few more Rebirth era figures to check out! Boy, does it feel great to be buying DC figures again!

Feb 10 2023

DC Multiverse: Blue Beetle and Booster Gold by McFarlane

I know what you’re thinking. You killed off Marvel Mondays, backed away from Marvel Legends, and now DC Multiverse is coming to take its place. That’s not how I planned it, but I can understand that’s the way it looks. I’ll explain… but first it’s story time! Once upon a time, I had a thing on FFZ called DC Fridays. It was back when I was doing five reviews a week (holy shit, how did I ever make that work?) and I was bookending the week with Marvel and DC content. But after many attempts by Mattel to keep it alive, DC Universe Classics and all its spiritual successors died out. I collected DC Collectibles figures for a while, eventually got into the DC Icons line, but all that crumbled to dust and I just gave up on collecting DC figures altogether. When McFarlane took over, I was interested, but it looked like every other figure was Batman, and I’ve never been enough of a Batman fan to pursue a line like that, so I let it pass me by. But when I wasn’t looking, DC Multiverse seemed to diversify a bit. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still way too much Batman, but then they released a Booster Gold and Blue Beetle two-pack based on the limited series Blue and Gold, and I pre-ordered the set as fast as my finger could mash the button, because I adore these characters so much. And that brings us to today.

I’ll confess it’s exciting to start checking out a line of figures that are new to me. I have looked at a few other current McFarlane releases, including their Doom Guy and I’ve started looking at their figures from Vox Machina, but this is my first experience with the DC Multiverse series. The giant window box is impressive, and the figures look great in the package against a futuristic cityscape. Alas, it’s not quite so collector friendly, as the figure stands and the collector cards are sealed against the backdrop. I won’t be removing those for this review, as for now I plan to return the figures to the box for storage. Thankfully, the set includes a tandem diorama-type display base to use instead.

The back of the box features some great character art, even though Booster’s costume doesn’t match his appearance in the Blue and Gold series. It’s close, but he’s got his collar from the earlier days, whereas the figure does not. But, let’s start with Ted Kord as Blue Beetle!

Wow, it’s great to have a new Blue Beetle figure, considering the last one I owned was all the way back in the DC Universe Classics days. DC Icons put a Booster and Blue Beetle two-pack up for pre-order, but like a dozen other pre-orders in that line they got shit-canned along with the entire line. This new McFarlane version certainly hits all the right points for me! The suit is achieved almost completely with paint, which makes sense, since both Booster and Beetle share the same body. You do get a sculpted black belt with gold buckle, and sculpted bands around the tops of the boots, but the rest is just painted buck. The suit looks as iconic as ever with a light blue base and darker blue making up the boots, gloves, undies, and shoulders and the stylish beetle shape cut-out with thick black borders. This figure looks great!

The head sculpt is also on point, with the dark blue cowl, big yellow bug eyes, and the sculpted eyebrows and antenna on the cowl. The facial sculpt is a tad soft, but still looks solid and is punctuated by a big and cheesy Ted Kord smile. I suppose the eye globes are a step back from the clear lenses used on the old Mattel figure, but I’m not hating it. If anything, the painted globes give the figure something of a more animated look to me.

As my first experience with DC Multiverse articulation, I can say I find what’s here pretty satisfying. The arms feature shoulder crunches as well as rotating hinges, there are swivels in the biceps, double hinges in the elbows, and rotating hinges in the wrists. The hips are ball jointed with soft plastic used in the undies, knees are double hinged, ankles have hinges and lateral rockers, and you get hinges placed right before the toes. There’s a ball joint under the chest and a ball joint in the neck. Everything feels great and works well with an overall excellent range of motion. I think my only two nitpicks would be the wrist joints look a tad awkward, and I would really like swivels in the thighs instead of up top in the hip joint.

Blue Beetle comes with one accessory and that’s his grapple gun. It’s a nicely sculpted piece with that lovely bulbous design and painted with in a sharp silver sheen. The beetle grapple and connecting line is permanently attached. It would have been great if this piece was separate and just pegged into the gun, but the effect is still well executed. Let’s move on to Booster!

As I mentioned, Booster shares the same body with Beetle, which works well enough, given the two are depicted with about the same build. The costume here is again nearly all paint, with the exception of the wrist bracers. If you look close enough, you can see the sculpted edges of Beetle’s boots are still here, but they aren’t that obvious. The yellow plastic looks fantastic, while the painted yellow areas are a shade too dark for a perfect match. I also wish the blue was a touch lighter to match the comic panels a bit better. But all in all, this is a great looking figure!

As much as I dig Beetle’s head sculpt, I think Booster’s is the winner in this set. Once again, you have an opaque lens for the goggles, so no visible eyes. The shock of hair protruding from the top of the cowl looks nice, and I love the big toothy smile.

It’s the same body, so you get the same articulation, and once again these figures are a real joy to play around with. While Beetle only came with the one accessory, Booster comes with two… well, sort of three.

The first is this blast effect part that clips to either of his wrists. It’s a cool bonus and I like the bright blue plastic used for the blast. Maybe it should have been tinted clear plastic? Eh, it looks fine the way it is.

Second, Booster comes with his phone, perfect for taking selfies of his heroics and promoting himself on social media. OK, as far as accessories go, it’s pretty simple. The phone’s case is yellow and it has a simple black screen. A sticker for the screen would have been cool. The left hand is designed to hold the phone, and while it can be a little tricky to get it to stick, I was able to do it without resorting to blue-tack trickery.

The final sort-of accessory is his buddy Skeets, and I’m not thrilled about how they did him. Skeets comes attached to a segmented pipe, which plugs into the display stand, and I have two issues with this. First, why not make it a translucent stand to depict Skeets hovering? Second, why make it so low to the ground? Skeets is usually depicted hovering around Booster at eye level. The DC Universe Classics version of Skeets actually pegged into Booster’s back with a translucent swoosh effect and it worked pretty well. My gripes here are nowhere near critical enough to impact my enjoyment of the set, but I just don’t think a lot of thought was put into Skeets.

The tandam base is a really nice sculpt, but I’m not sure what it’s supposed to be. It looks like the deck of an alien spacecraft, but that doesn’t really fit, so I’m wondering if it’s recycled from a previous McFarlane two-pack. I suppose it could be the Space Museum? Nah, that was always depicted as clean and sterile. Rip Hunter’s lab? Maybe. Either way, it’s cool to have a detailed stand to display the figures on, so I won’t be complaining.

I opened this set a while ago, and while I just got around to reviewing it now, I was impressed enough to start looking at DC Multiverse more seriously. So, no this wasn’t planned as a replacement to Marvel Legends, but it’s something that I’ve been buying now. Some of the figures that have come and gone have become a bit too pricey for me to go after, but since opening this set, I have amassed quite a pile of figures from this line, nearly all purchased at deep discounts. And so you’ll see this line popping up a lot in the coming months, but I’m not going back to a dedicated day for DC, since I’m moving away from that sort of thing. But not to get ahead of myself… I really love these figures and it felt damn good to be reviewing some DC figures again. Hopefully this will be the beginning of a beautiful new friendship between me, McFarlane and DC!