The figures come in a fishtank style package with artwork that remains totally faithful to the single carded figures. The figures come in cool action poses ready to kick each other’s ass, with their accessories in hand. The back panel shows photos of both figures along with their respective stats and biographies on the bottom. Wow, Manta’s actually mentions his murdering Aquaman’s infant son. That’s pretty heavy stuff for the back of a toy package and for a Wally World Exclusive, that’s positively hardcore! The package is completely collector friendly, which is a good thing, because right now my DCUC shelf is too congested to fit either of these figures.

Before going on to look at each figure, individually, I do want to point out that the plastic on these guys doesn’t seem like the same quality used on the single carded DCUC figures. Its not terrible, but it does feel considerably softer in some areas. On Aquaman it only seems to be the case on his legs, especially his knee joints. As for Black Manta, it seems to be his whole body. I’d sort of compare it to the differences in plastic Hasbro uses for their Marvel Universe and Secret Wars comic packs.

This version of Aquaman is my absolute favorite as it really harkens me back to my days as a yewt watching the Superfriends cartoon. Its also one of the more diverse and detailed sculpts of the line. The combination of sculpted scales and gold paint on his torso and upper arms looks fantastic, and I love the high gloss green used on his gauntlets, legs and boots. He has sculpted fins in his gauntlets and calves, and overall the head sculpt is pretty good too. He does look a bit more smug than Aquaman has any right to be, but all in all, its still a good sculpt. He comes with his gold trident, which is nicely sculpted, but the soft plastic gives the forks a tendency to bend a bit.

Like Aquaman, Black Manta also remains a favorite of mine because of his prominance on Superfriends. As his character design dictates, Manta is a much simpler sculpt than Aquaman. Apart from his muscle tone and his belt, his entire body is practically void of any detail and painted in one solid color. Oh wait, there’s actually one other paint app. The trademark information that’s stamped on his ass is painted white. WTF? Seriously, why in the name of all that is holy would Mattel decide to paint this white so that it stands out like a neon sign in the middle of the night?

Of course Manta’s head makes up for the lack of details from the neck down. He sports his huge silver saucer head, complete with hoses that run to his backpack. The metallic silver on his head and backpack really pop against his dark blue body. Overall, as a character, I think its safe to say that Manta enjoys the benefits of Boba Fett syndrome. He’s cool because he wears a cool looking helmet. Nuff said. Manta comes with a silver pistol.

Both figures have the same standard DCUC articulation. They have ball jointed necks; ball jointed shoulders, hinged elbows, knees and ankles; swivel cuts in the biceps, wrists and thighs; and universal joints in their hips. The only difference is in Black Manta. His head is technically balljointed, but the hoses keep it from being very poseable. You can turn his head from side to side quite easily, but it tends to snap back to center.

This 2-pack retails at $29.99. I probably need not point out to DCUC fans that this classic verision of Aquaman was in dire need of a reissue, what with the high prices he commands on Ebay, so to be able to get him and Manta for $15 a pop made my day! Even more incredible is the fact that I was actually able to find a Walmart Exclusive at retail. Apart from the Star Wars AT-ST, which was available in mass quantities, I think the last time I was able to walk into a Walmart and buy an exclusive was back when Hasbro reissued 2-packs of old Beast Wars figures as Dinobots. The other half of this 2-pack assortment is a Batman and Robin, which is a pretty nice set, but as much as I would love the Robin figure, I already have the Batman, so I took a pass.

Once again, slightly new packaging. Blah, blah, blah. If you’ve read the last three parts, you know what to expect by now. Both variants of Mary are carded in the same flying pose. Both figures came with the same collector pin and both figures came with the torso of Darkseid. I’m not opening my white costumed Mary, so you might as well take a good look now.

Mary Batson… do I really care a lot about this character? No, not really. I’ve never been a big follower of the Captain Marvel comics, although I don’t mind when they work a special appearance of Billy into a comic or cartoon every now and again. On the other hand, I can’t seem to recall any instances of actually seeing Mary Batson recently. Still, I’m all for adding as many of the ladies as I can to my DCUC collection, and she is a pretty nice looking figure.

Mary is an extremely slight figure in terms of her overall build. Yeah, most of the ladies in this line of figures are smaller than the dudes, but Ms. Batson here is downright petite. Although in retrospect, I recall the fists on my Black Canary being ridiculously small too. Either way, Mary here looks less like a super hero and more like just a regular chick in a cosplay outfit, which I presume is pretty character accurate. DCUC hasn’t always been a slave to scale, so it’s nice to see them pay attention to it here.

The sculpting on this figure is very good. I must admit, I wasn’t sure about the face sculpt when I saw initial pictures of the figure. Something about it just struck me as cheesy. But getting the figure in hand, its not at all bad and the paint apps on her lips and eyes are applied with precision. The outfit consists of a red top and skirt with yellow trim, yellow knee-high boots, and a little cape that hangs off to the side. Again, the paint apps here are all good, whether you’re looking at the red and yellow (which I prefer) or the white and yellow variant. Ms. Batson is missing a few traditional points of articulation in the DCUC line. Her head is balljointed, but her sculpted hair really makes it useless. She has ball jointed shoulders, swivel cuts in her biceps and wrists and hinged elbows. She has universal leg joints at her hips, but her sculpted skirt really inhibits her leg movement. She is also missing the torso hinge and the swivel cuts in her upper thighs. She does have hinged knees and hinged ankles.

The only problem I really have with this figure are her thin legs, which got somewhat deformed because of the way she was posed on the card. When I first got her out of the package, they were really bad, both bowing to one side. Since then, they’ve corrected themselves somewhat, but considering the female DCUC figures have trouble standing at the best of times, Mary Batson is even worse. I got tired of her falling over and taking out half my shelf of figures, so I finally decided to just give her the Super Powers stand that came with Desaad. Besides, its bright, bubbly colors suit her a lot more than they do Darkseid’s chief torturer.

And now… Darkseid.

You’ll have to forgive my gushing and unbridled excitement over this figure, but to better understand it let me point out two things. First, I’ve wanted a Darkseid figure ever since I was a wee lad and Kenner’s Super Powers figures were out. I only had a few of these, and its not because my parents were stingy or anything, but I just always opted for more Star Wars or GI Joe or Transformers whenever I was getting figures. Secondly, this is the first Collect & Connect figure from the DCUC line that I’ve been able to assemble. These figures are just impossible to find in my area, and when you do see them on the pegs, its always the same few over and over again. As a result, I have a small box full of arms and legs from various C&C figures, but Darkseid is my first complete one, and its all thanks to Matty offering this complete wave for sale in one shot. I’ve heard a lot of horror stories from other collectors having problems assembling their Darkseid figures. I guess I lucked out because mine went together with no problems and he holds together just fine. At least I was comforted to know that I had a spare torso in my variant Mary Baston in case I needed it.

First thing I gotta say is how friggin huge and hefty this figure is. His torso is like a huge solid plastic brick and he towers above my other DCUC figures. He isn’t over endowed with details in most of his body, but he’s got it where it counts. His grim, stoney head sculpt is fantastic as is the stoney skin on his arms and legs. His spartan blue garb is perfectly iconic. Despite being a C&C figure, Darkseid still has most of the usual DCUC articulation. He has a ball jointed neck and shoulders. His arms have swivel cuts in his biceps and wrists and hinged elbows. His legs have universal joints at the hips, which are slightly hindered by his tunic. He has swivel cuts in his thighs and hinged knees and ankles. He is missing the ability to swivel at his waist, but he does have the large torso hinge, and I find it actually a lot more useful on this figure then it is on most.

Darkseid comes with two accessories. First he has a Mother Box that fits onto the back of his belt and has some really nice sculpted detail and allows him to open a Boom Tube up all over yo ass. I’m really happy they threw this in because he can share it with my Mr. Miracle figure. He also comes with the golden “killing glove” designed by Desaad, which can be swapped out with his regular gauntlet hand. The detail on this piece is really amazing and I definitely prefer displaying him with it on. In fact, I have no idea where the regular hand got to. I’m guessing the cat claimed it and carried it off to his lair under the sofa.

And that wraps up my look at DC Universe Classics Wave 12… finally. I love this wave and I love my new Darkseid figure, but I must admit to being just a tad DC Universed out. I’ll be looking forward to moving on to a bit more variety this weekend.

Once again, slightly new packaging. Ok, really not all that different apart from the “75 Years of Super Power” and the collector button, which has already been pitched into one of my junk drawers and forgotten. Bios and stats are on the back, along with photos of the other figures in the wave and Darkseid!

Dr. Mid-nite is fantastic. I love this character and for whatever reason, I get into all sorts of arguments with one of my pals insisting he is in fact awesome and not lame, as this fellow suggests. I love the fact that he’s a surgeon and I love the fact that despite his “power” of being able to see in pure darkness, his goggles give him the best of both worlds. Oh yeah, he has a sidekick… he’s an owl… and his name is Hooty. Try to top that! No, don’t try… you can’t.

The figure captures all that is great about this character right down to the crescent buttons on his red tunic. He has black sleeves and leggings, a black cowl with his infrared goggles, and brown gauntlets and boots. His green cape is pretty narrow and doesn’t get into the way of his articulation much at all.

Naturally, Mid-nite comes with Hooty the owl. This little guy is an amazing sculpt for a little accessory. All of his feathers are detailed as his his tiny little face. His paint apps are equally impressive giving him realistic glossy eyes and beak. His bottom is molded so he can clip onto Mid-nites arm as if perching there. He’s even articulated as he can rotate his head 360 degrees.

Copperhead is admittedly something of a backbench villain, but I’ve always thought he was damn cool and pretty creepy at the same time, especially the way he was portrayed in the Justice League cartoon. Yikes. Besides being a sicko in a snake suit, he’s also got a poisonous bite and constriction and contortionist skills.

Copperhead’s body sculpt is particularly cool as he’s covered in scales, save for his green boots, undies and gauntlets. His skin has a glossy orange finish. The fact that his face is visible through the snake hood’s open mouth is something I’ve always found unintentionally hilarious, made even more so by his face sculpt frozen into a maniacal laugh. Awesome. There’s really only one thing that keeps this figure from being close to perfect. Umm… where’s his friggin tail? Seriously, it was a pretty big aspect of his costume and the fact that Mattel omitted it really pisses me off.

Articulation on these figures is standard for the DCUC line. You get a ball jointed neck, ball jointed shoulders, swivel cuts in the biceps, hinged elbows and swivel cuts in the wrists. The waists swivel, there’s a huge hinge in the torso. The legs have ball joints up in the hips, swivel cuts in the thighs, and hinged elbows and ankles.

I wouldn’t change a thing about Dr. Mid-nite, and Copperhead is really a great figure too, even if he is missing his tail. Grrr. He’s good to have around for when my Batman gets tired of beating the shit out of The Joker and wants a little variety. These are two great additions to DC’s amazing figure line and I’m really glad to have them in my collection.

Next up… Desaad and Iron.