Unlike Negative Man, I actually really dig this figure. It’s hardly a fair comparison since Negative Man is just a dude wrapped in bandages and Blue Devil here is, um, a blue devil. Either way, this is a great looking figure with a lot more unique sculpting than Negative Man. Just check out his head sculpt. Sure he’s got all the devil trappings going on, the horns, the double goatee, the ears, but he still looks like somebody you could go have a beer with and maybe play some Xbox Live afterwards. I’m also imaging he says “dude” a lot, and if you’ve read his books and he doesn’t, I don’t want you breaking my misconception. The color scheme is pretty simple, but the two-tone blue and yellow is certainly pleasing on the eye.

Blue Devil comes with a staff, so he can join my Aquaman, Jack Knight, and Golden Pharaoh in their childish, “Ha-Ha, We Have A Staff And You Don’t” DCUC Clique. [Seriously, they all taunt the other figures on the shelf all day long, Batman gets good and pissed about it, too. -FF] He also comes with the torso and cape pieces for the C&C Trigon figure.

It’s not uncommon for me to get into reading a character’s funny books solely because I liked their action figure. I don’t think that’s going to be the case with Blue Devil, though. I’ll give his back story some points for being original, but there’s nothing about it that really makes me want to rush out to the used comic shop and pick up a stack of them. Besides, I’ve got enough back issues of comics that I am genuinely interested in as it is. Nonetheless, if you’re a fan, I think you’ll probably dig this figure a lot. If you’re like me and picked him up just for Trigon’s parts, well, you could do a lot worse. He really is pretty cool.

The packaging is… oh hell with it. You know what the packaging looks like. It’s the same packaging we’ve seen in the last wave and the wave before that. I’m done talking about the packaging for the rest of the week. I’m also done talking about those crappy little buttons that come with the figures. I’ve got a cigar box with three dozen of those things rattling around in it.

Negative Man features a pretty standard DCUC body sculpt with standard DCUC articulation. With the exception of his belt, hands and head, there’s no special tooling or sculpted detail, just the paint apps to make him look distinctive. His head and hands are sculpted with bandages and he has a nice simple look to him, but there’s not a lot more I can say about this figure. At least the paint apps on mine are crisp and clean.

Negative Man doesn’t come with any accessories, although he does come with the right leg piece to build the Trigon C&C figure, as well as Trigon’s staff. I would have much rather he just come with a stand, so I could have skipped him all together.

There’s nothing wrong with this figure. From the artwork that I was able to scare up, it looks pretty faithful to the source material. I just really wonder how many collectors out there are cheering at the fact that they finally have Negative Man in their collections. But that’s totally cool if you’re one of those people, see, because that’s what makes DCUC such an awesome line of figures. I mean, I doubt the streets weren’t awash with glee when Mister Miracle’s figure was released, but I remember that I was thrilled to get him because I read all his comics as a kid. Hell, I’m still waiting on Oberon. Not that Negative Man is really comparable to Scott Free in terms of importance to the DC Universe, but hopefully you get my drift. Oh yeah, if you are just crazy over Negative Man, he was also available as a variant unbandaged head version. Just saying, is all.

Back when Martian Manhunter was finally released in the DCUC line, many people were celebrating the final completion of their Justice League in this format. Many people, but not me, since I was still missing Hawkgirl. [Technically, I’m still missing John Stewart, but Hal Jordan is a perfectly fine stand-in for now. -FF] Hawkgirl is easy enough to find online, but finding her for a price that doesn’t constitute economic rape is another matter. That’s why I give Mattel huge kudos for finally re-releasing her in this two-pack. I bestow even further kudos for bundling her with the equally expensive Gentleman Ghost, a figure that has been going for insane prices on the secondary market. I do have to take back a few of those kudos for making this set a Walmart Exclusive, but I was ultimately able to get it, so it’s all good.

This set comes in what has become the standard fishtank style packaging for DCUC two-packs, that does a fine job replicating the stylings of the single carded figures. The window wraps around a bit on the sides and there’s an additional window on top, so the figures are displayed extremely well. There are only a few rubber bands holding the figures in, so theoretically, you can remove them and return them to the package for display, although between Hawkgirl’s wings and Gentleman Ghost’s cape, you may wind up mangling the tray trying to get them out. Both figures are packaged in a bit of an action pose, which worried me, but there doesn’t seem to be any warping to the joints on my figures. Also, don’t forget Hawkgirl’s spear taped to the bottom of the tray. I almost tossed the packaging with the spear still inside.

First off… Hawkgirl. This has been that one elusive DCUC figure I’ve been wanting to pick up since I started collecting the line a little over a year ago. I’m not really a fan of comic Hawkgirl, but man, did I love her in the Justice League cartoon. That bird lady can cuddle my bone any day. Because… um… cuddlebone… and birds… ‘kay. The sculpt is fantastic and I think the figure does a fine job straddling the traditional comic design with the more recent catoon style. I was also really happy to see that her sculpted hair doesn’t interfere too badly with her neck articulation going from side to side, although her head does tend to naturally look downward, and there’s not much you can do about it. The paint apps are overall pretty good, although there is a scratch in the yellow on my figure’s belt, which I may eventually touch up with some Testor’s flat enamel.

Hawkgirl’s wings are awesome, and I’d say almost perfect. The feathered sculpting looks fantastic and the articulation is great. The only problem here is that when she’s viewed from behind you’re treated to a pretty big unsightly hinge, but at least they appear to be durable. Amazingly, she is not overly backheavy and stands fine on her own. Hawkgirl is also one of the few figures that works really well with Mattel’s flight stands, since you can actually get the clip between the wings and around her waist.

And then, there’s Gentleman Ghost. Let me be honest here, I don’t really give two shits about Gentleman Ghost. I think I saw him once in an episode of Brave and the Bold, but apart from that the character doesn’t mean a lot to me. That having been said, he is one damn sweet looking figure, even more so when you factor in that he doesn’t have any paint apps whatsoever and severely fucks with my shitty camera’s white balance. He also has no head to speak of, and the figure is designed to use the high collar to suspend his hat and monicle is really genius, and the attention to detail in his tux really carries the figure well. The bottom part of his legs and cape are sort of translucent, which further drive’s home the ghost motif.

Wait, I’m forgetting something… accessories!!! No, getting accessories with our figures is not something we DCUC collectors are accustom to. That’s what happens when most of the characters in the line can kill you simply by punching you, or looking at you, or thinking about punching or looking at you. But this set really packs in the accessories. Hawkgirl comes with no less than three weapons. You get her trademark mace, a short sword, and her spear. I’m pretty sure the spear is different from the original release, but I’m not certain. Gentleman Ghost comes with a flintlock and a walking stick, both painted white, naturally. You’ll notice his walking stick isn’t in any of the out-of-package pictures. That’s because right after I opened the set, my cat ambushed me and ran off with it and won’t tell me where the hell he put it.

Retail on this set is about $29.99, which is typical for these two packs. In the end, I think the only collectors who aren’t going to see this set as a godsend are a) The ones patting themselves on the back for already owning these figures as their prices continued to climb and b) Those people who dropped a bundle for these figures on the secondary market shortly before this set was revealed. But then that’s always the problem with reissues. I’ve certainly had any number of figures in my collection devalued because of reissues, and I can’t say it’s ever bothered me. I do this for fun and not profit and if it helps a fellow collector get a figure they wanted, I give it my blessing.

DCUC Packaging. Been there, done that. I will, however take the time to note how amazing Raven looks in her package. A lot of that has to do with her cloak being pre-posed, but we’ll get to that a bit more in a little bit. I was worried about Batman having some wonky legs because of his action pose in the package, [Yeah, he looks like he’s throwing a shot put at the Olympics -FF] but luckily he came out just fine. Also worth noting is that Batman’s cardback has the bio burned out by a Sinestro Corp symbol. Cool!

Let’s start out with Batman, because despite how much I absolutely adore this figure, the truth is I don’t have a whole lot to say about him. It’s the color scheme that I really love. The yellow Sinestro colors just look AMAZING against his black outfit and the little Sinestro emblems on his chest and left bicep are nice and crisp. Unfortunately, Mattel used the same ochre colored plastic for his arm bracers as they did for OMAC’s boots and gauntlets, but even that can’t blemish this figure. I just think those parts should have been yellow like the rest.

I suppose the head sculpt is also worth mentioning, since it’s Batman looking completely and totally batshit crazy with rage. Sinestro Bats also has his Power Ring molded onto his hand and nicely painted. Simply awesome.

Batman comes with his collector button and the torso piece of Validus. He also comes with a big yellow batarang style construct that attaches to his power ring fist. Or I should say it theoretically attaches. Mine only holds for a few seconds before it pops off.

Moving on to Raven… here we have a really nice sculpt that fits the character perfectly. Her hood, lower dress and cape are all cast in soft plastic and very flexible. The long gloves are both painted and sculpted. The attention to detail on her hands is particularly nice. She has little rings on both her index fingers and the thumbs and index fingers of her gloves are cut out. She has some nicely sculpted legs, but I think Mattel half assed it on her shoes. They clearly wanted to give her some heels, but instead of going all the way, she’s just got more like a sensible pair of low heels. The head sculpt is beautiful and the paint apps on her face are spot-on perfect.

So, the elephant in the room regarding Raven is the pre-posed nature of her cloak, which is perched up on each side of her head like wings. It looks fantastic when she’s posed with her arms up to mesh with each of these wings, but it looks pretty silly when she’s in any other pose. The easy solution to this would have been to give her a swappable cloak, but since that’s not something that Mattel has done with this line yet, they should have at least made her cloak removable. Still, I would imagine that most fans of the character will be happy with the way this figure turned out.

Raven comes with Validus’ right leg and her collector button.

Both figures have the same points of articulation. You get ball joints in their necks. The arms have ball jointed shoulders, swivels in the biceps and wrists and hinged elbows. The legs have universal movement in the hips, swivels in the thighs and hinges in the knees and ankles. They both have swivels in the waist and ab crunche hinges in the torsos. It’s pretty cool that they got all the usual points of articulation into Raven’s sculpt, as I thought she might be lacking some.

Unfortunately when trying to rotate the swivel in Raven’s left thigh, her leg twisted right off. I had to glue it back on making that joint useless. Thankfully it was a clean break and I’ll be able to glue it, but WTF, Mattel???

So, crappy quality control on Raven not withstanding, both of these figures are outstanding. If you can’t find love in your heart for Sinestro Bats, than I just plain pity you. As for Raven, I realize the pre-posed nature of her cloak will be a sticking point with some, but everything else about her is wonderfully executed. Overall, I think this is an outstanding wave and I highly recommend it. But, wait… we’ve got one more to look at… next time, it’s Validus!!!

Hey look! The same old DC Universe Classics packaging. You know what they say, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Is that 75 Years of Super Power thingie behind the obnoxious flash glare new? No. No it isn’t. It’s been on the packages for a little while now.

So, let’s start with Golden Pharaoh. Like I said, I knew nothing about him, but oh man, is this a gorgeous figure. Everything about this guy, the sculpt, the paint, the use of the purple transluscent plastic all comes together to make him a great showpiece. The head sculpt is beautiful and definitely among the best Mattel has done in the line to date. He just has a majestic and noble look about him. The glider wings are made of softer rubber to keep them from snapping off, and the clear purple inlays as well as the clear purple collar behind his neck are all nicely sculpted with decorative patterns. When I first saw pictures of this figure, I thought the purple on his chest was just an inlaid piece of clear plastic, but it actually makes up the core of his torso, creating a cool see-through effect.

Granted, there are a couple of downsides to the figure. The glider wings on his arms do inhibit his articulation a bit, and I would have really preferred that both of his hands were capable of holding his staff, like Jack Knight. Instead, Pharaoh’s left hand is just sculpted into a useless fist.

Golden Pharaoh does not come with any of the C&C pieces for Validus. He does, however, come with a Superpowers decoed figure stand. It’s the exact same kind that was included with both Mary Batson figures a few waves back. He also comes with a collector button and a really nicely sculpted golden staff. It would have been really cool if Mattel could have used the same clear purple plastic to make the stone in the staff, but I’m guessing that would have added a lot of cost.

And then there’s OMAC. This guy is pure cheese. I like cheese, but in this case, I don’t mean that in a good way. While researching his backstory has intrigued me enough to want to track down some of his funny books and give them a read, his character design just has “up against a deadline” written all over him. There’s really just nothing for me to like here. The headsculpt is just one travesty after another. Besides that ridiculous mohawk, he’s got Ernest Borgnine’s eyebrows and George Jones’ sideburns. This guy is a freakshow of facial hair cliches.

The rest of OMAC is standard fair for a DCUC figure. He features a very generic body sculpt and relies on a lot of coloring to make him who he is. The eye emblem is nice and clean, although it does have a tiny chip. He’s a pretty good recreation of the source material in figure form, but I really hate that color of gold/yellow/ tan (ochre?) plastic used on his gauntlets, collar and boots. It just looks cheap. Apart from that he’s just blue with red leggings. His arms also look disproportionate and underdeveloped to the rest of his body. The whole thing gives off the vibe of a Masters of the Universe knock-off reject. Mohaw-Kor perhaps?

OMAC comes with the right arm piece for building the Validus figure, and that right there is the only reason I own this figure. I’m guessing Ebay is going to be flooded with loose OMACs in the days to come, so I’ll hang on to mine. He also comes with a collectible button, which instead of featuring him in comic form, it has his eye emblem. I’m guessing they couldn’t fit that ridculous Mohawk on such a tiny button.

There’s a bit of variation in the articulation on these two figures. OMAC has the standard points for the DCUC line. The head is ball jointed. The arms have ball jointed shoulders, swivels in the biceps and wrists and hinged elbows. The legs have universal movement in the hips, swivels in the thighs and hinges in the knees and ankles. OMAC has the swivel in the waist and the ab crunch hinge, but Golden Pharaoh does not, for obvious reasons.

So, here we have two converging examples of how the DCUC collection sometimes rolls. I knew next to nothing about these characters, but I adore one of these figures and really don’t care much at all for the other. Nonetheless, it’ll still get me to branch out and read some more comics that I probably otherwise wouldn’t have sought out, and that’s a big part of what makes me love this line so much. Granted, a big part of my problem with OMAC is the character design and not the figure’s execution, but also he was released in what in my mind was a wave of pretty exceptional figures, which only makes him look crappier.

Yep, standard DCUC packaging. Not much else to say here, except these two figures were exceptionally stubborn to get out of their trays.

I think it’s a tribute to Martian Manhunter’s iconic design that he’s so simple a figure and yet simply fantastic. The head sculpt is amazing and exactly what I was hoping for. As with a lot of the DCUC figures, J’onn has a pretty generic body sculpt, although the musculature is nicely detailed, right down to the little veins in his arms. The cape is sculpted with a high collar and a red cord connecting it under his chin. I was expecting it to really throw off his balance, but he stands pretty well, considering.

There isn’t a lot of paintwork on this figure as most of it is cast in the appropriate colors. His torso, arms and legs are green, his boots and cape are blue, and he has a red soft plastic harness around his chest. Strangely enough, there’s a bit of stray red paint on the chest of my figure. It’s a bit unsightly, and considering the only red paint apps on this figure are probably his eyes, that’s some pretty bad slop. Here’s a perfectly good example of the pitfalls of buying figures online. I would have definitely flipped through the pegs to find a better one if I was purchasing in a store. Then again, I’d have no chance of finding even one of these guys in any of the stores in my area.

J’onn comes with the head and crotch pieces to build Validus. He also comes with the collector pin, which features Hal Jordan mugging in on his action. Hey, Hal, get your own pin! He doesn’t have any other accessories. It would have been cool if Mattel gave him a swappable arm sort of like they did with the Metal Men figures, Iron and Gold, but I guess that would have undercut sales on their variant figure.

Moving on from Mars to Saturn… as mentioned above, I was pretty sure Jemm was going to be a mere repaint and resculpt when I saw the early pics. It’s an easy mistake since both of them are bald muscular dudes with high collared capes. And besides all the people from Saturn and Mars look alike to us Earthlings anyway, right? But put the two figures beside each other and it’s easy to see that Jemm is a completely different figure. His build is a bit slighter, he has bracers on his arms and elongated alien fingers. Apparently, people from Saturn don’t have nipples either, while Martians do. Jemm’s headsculpt features pointed ears, a less pronounced brow ridge and, of course, the gem in his forehead. Even the sculpt of the cape is completely different.

While Jemm’s torso, arms and head are cast in red plastic, he has more paint apps than Martian Manhunter. From the waist down he’s two-tone blue and his arm bracers are painted silver and the gem is painted yellow. His cape is cast in soft powder blue plastic and the sculpted starfish clasp is yellow.
Jemm comes with the left arm piece of Validus and his collectible button, which has some of the best artwork I’ve seen on these little things to date. He doesn’t come with any other accessories.

Both figures have the same points of articulation. The head is ball jointed. The arms have ball jointed shoulders, swivels in the biceps and wrists and hinged elbows. The legs have universal movement in the hips, swivels in the thighs and hinges in the knees and ankles. They each swivel at the waist and have the ab crunch hinge in the torso.

I think both of these figures turned out great. I know Martian Manhunter has been a hotly anticipated figure, and I really have no complaints about the finished product. Jemm, on the other hand, isn’t a guy I’ve been holding my breath to get, but he’s still a great looking figure and a nice compliment to his Martian “cousin.” I think Mattel could have gotten away with making Jemm on the cheap with a heavy reuse of parts and some different paint, but instead they went the extra mile to deliver a totally fresh and unique figure.

Technically these two figures are variants, although they are obviously completely different figures, unlike say Martian Manhunter who’s variant is just a partial resculpt of the same figure. It’s important, because you don’t need to buy both of these versions of Starman to complete your C&C Validus figure. They both come with the same C&C part, on the same card and have the same collector button. Considering that to most people Starman is something of a B-lister, you may not want to have to buy two versions. I was actually more familiar with the original Starman, and picking up one of his sons in the role was just a cool extension of the history a character I already loved.

The packaging hasn’t changed much from the last time we looked at some DC Universe Classics, even though that seems like ages ago. You get the same huge bubble, that takes up the space of the entire cardback. The card features a montage of different DC character’s faces and the back panel offers a blurb about the character’s history and some of his powers. This is one of my favorite cardbacks on the market today because it packs so much useful information onto it. Not only do you get the character in a nutshell, but you also get photos of all the other figures in the wave. Needless to say, the bubble shows off the figures splendidly as well as the collector button.

Let’s look at Ted Knight first as he was the original Starman and the one that I’m most familiar with. He’s one of those DCUC figures that features a pretty generic body sculpt and depends primarily on his coloring to personalize his character. His outfit is mostly red with green boots, cape and super-panties. He’s got a yellow belt and star on his chest as well as his cape. Starman also has a brown soft plastic holster with a flip up retaining flap. If you have Blue Beetle or Captain Cold, you have a good idea what the holster is like. The paint apps are super crisp and bright with no slop or chipping. The head sculpt is excellent and I love the hood with the crest as it gives him a cool retro sci-fi look.

Ted Knight comes with the left leg of Valdius as well as Starman’s cosmic rod and a pistol. The rod is gold and features some basic sculpted detail. The pistol is silver, has a retro laser gun look and fits into his holster. He can hold either accessory in either hand. He also comes with the tiny little collector button.

His son, Jack, is a big departure from the original figure, which is significant because if I recall Jack wasn’t a big supporter of his dad wearing a goofy costume. As a result, Jack sticks to street clothes, which makes him a pretty unique looking DCUC figure. He’s wearing brown trousers, a green t-shirt and a black leather jacket. [This figure reminds me of a human Hellboy, probably because of the goatee, the jacket and the fact that his goggles look like Hellboy’s horn stumps -FF] He’s also got an amazing looking and elaborate star emblem painted on the back of his jacket. The sculpt is amazingly well done with a loads of detail in the wrinkles and folds of his clothes. The jacket also looks great with a high collar and a little star pin on his lapel. The head is also fantastic. His goggles are sculpted to his forehead and he’s got his little trademark goatee. I love the way this guy turned out.

Jack Knight also comes with the left leg of Validus and the same button as his father, which is kind of a bummer because the button shows Ted and not Jack. [But honestly, I don’t really care. These little buttons don’t do anything for me. It’s a nice little bonus, I suppose, and I don’t throw them away, but I have no idea where any of the buttons are that came with my other DCUC figures, and these will probably get lost in the bottom of some tote as well. -FF] Jack also comes with the larger and more impressive Cosmic Staff. It’s gold and sculpted with some cool details. He can hold it in either hand or in both.

Both Starman figures have almost the same points of articulation, which is pretty standard by now for this line of figures. You get ball joints in the neck, the arms have ball jointed shoulders, swivels in the biceps and wrists and hinges in the elbows. The legs have universal movement in the hips, swivels in the thighs, and hinged knees and ankles. The difference is in the torso, where Ted has the swivel waist and ab crunch hinge, but Jack has neither, presumeably because of the sculpted jacket.

Mattel did a great job with both of these figures, and I think it’s really cool that they offered up both versions. It’s impossible for me to decide which one is my favorite. I’m most familiar with Ted Knight as I’ve actually read some of his funny books and I love his retro Buck Rogers design. I’ve never been as fond of Jack, but I have to admit his figure turned out looking amazing. I may have to track down some of his appearances and give them a read through.