Tag Archives: mattel

Feb 5 2012

Green Lantern Classics Wave 2: Green Lantern G’Hu by Mattel

So, I still haven’t seen last year’s Green Lantern movie all the way through and at this point its doubtful I ever will. It can join the ranks of Ghost Rider as movies where I absolutely love the property, but simply can’t make it through the Hollywood movie treatment without wandering off to do dishes or clean out the grout in my bathtub for want of something more interesting to do. Needless to say, I didn’t collect the movie line of figures, but thanks to Mattel sneaking one into the Green Lantern Classics, I had to buy one in order to complete my C&C Stel figure. Mattel may be bastards, but they’re pretty good at forcing me to buy stuff I don’t really want.

Same packaging as last time. Its basically the DC Universe Classics style only given the lime slushy treatment. G’Hu sports something of a slight build so he’s packaged in a dorky action pose to help him fill out the card a little better. You’ll note the sticker on the bubble that reads“Sneak Peek Movie Figure!” so at least Mattel is announcing their chicanery to the buyer, because just one look at the figure inside and you can tell he doesn’t belong in this lineup.
One thing I did like about what I saw of the movie was the way it emphasized the alien nature of the Green Lantern Corps and that aspect of the movie seemed to work its way into the figures really nicely. Thus far, even the alien Lanterns we got as figures still tended to be rather humanoid, but the movie figures introduced some really wild looking aliens. I applaud that and just wish they were better figures because once I got this guy in hand it just felt like total crap to me. The sculpt is really soft, particularly in the face, which looks like it was modeled directly off of some really shoddy CG effects. Actually, I guess it was, so bravo, Mattel! The head includes a series of soft plastic tendrils that flow off the head and down the back like tentacle hair and G’Hu stands on two legs that terminate into a set of tripod feet. Surprisingly, he can stand pretty well. G’Hu has two fairly conventional arms and two smaller insect like arms coming off his shoulders.
I’m still on the fence over the reflective green used for the Lantern costumes in the movie. On the one hand, it has an ethereal look to it that emphasizes the alien nature, and that’s cool. On the other hand, it just looks junky on the figures. Even G’Hu’s flesh parts feature a purple glossy plastic that looks like it belongs on a My Little Pony figure. Either way, the glossy movie look makes this figure stick out like a sore thumb on my Green Lantern shelf, so he’s pretty useless you have other movie figures to display him with.

Due to his alien form, G’Hu’s articulation breaks from the normal DCUC formula, but then he isn’t a DCUC figure, he’s only packaged as one, so this deviation shouldn’t be surprising. He has a ball jointed neck, and ball joints in the shoulders and a ball joint in the torso. I don’t even know how to describe the joints used in his hips, elbows and knees. In fairness, you can get him into a fair number of poses and even his little insect arms move about a little bit.
Ultimately, it all comes down to me not liking this figure, and not liking the fact that I had to buy it to complete my Stel, and not liking the fact that its packaged in this line at all. If I wanted to collect the Green Lantern movie figures I would have done so. I can sort of understand the thinking here as being, “Hey, let’s get them to buy one movie figure and they’ll love it and buy the rest of the line.” But this figure is so crappy it would have convinced me against buying any more even if I was interested. There’s a reason those figures are rotting on the pegs and being clearanced out everywhere, Mattel. Nobody wanted them.

And remember kids, No G’News is good G’News without Gary G’Hu.
Feb 4 2012

Green Lantern Classics Wave 2: B’Dg, Despotellis, and Dex-Starr by Mattel

It’s been a little while since I last looked at Mattel’s Green Lantern Classics. We last left off with Skallox/Nite-Lik and Medphyll/Naut Kei Loi and that leaves four more releases plus the C&C Stel figure. Apart from the aforementioned combo figures, I felt this to be a fairly underwhelming, rag-tag assortment of figures leading up to one incredible Collect & Connect, Stel. As a result, I’m going to try to rocket through these pretty quickly, partly because I’ve got so much other stuff to look at, and partly because a lot of these figures just don’t invoke a lot of excitement in me. Today we’re going to kick things off with this curious little three pack that I like to call Green Lantern Critters.

As odd as this three pack is, Mattel still managed to maintain the standard style of packaging. You get all three characters: B’Dg, Despotellis and Dex-Starr staggered on the card as if they’re fighting. Well, B’Dg and Dex-Starr are fighting, Despotellis is just kind of sitting there and trying to look as interesting as a translucent yellow plastic virus can look. As one might expect, Mattel chose to include Stel’s massive torso piece in with these little guys to kind of balance out the plastic content.
Ok, so B’Dg and Dex-Starr both feature excellent sculpts and paintwork, particularly for the tiny little figures they are. I was also happy to see that the figures actually do feature a respectable five points of articulation, with swivels in the shoulders, hips, heads and tails. Sure there’s not a lot of great poseability here, but its better than just getting completely static hunks of plastic. Dex-Starr also comes with a translucent red energy blast that can plug into his mouth. Nice effect.
And then there’s Despotellis. He’s crap. I can appreciate that there’s not a lot Mattel could possibly do with translating this character to plastic form, but maybe that means they shouldn’t have attempted it, eh? Seriously, he looks like a gummi candy. End of story.
I wanted to like these figures, I really did. Actually it would be fair to say that I really like B’Dg and Dex-Starr, but in the end these three figures don’t add up to one regular Classics figure, at least as far as I’m concerned. These guys would have been better bundled with a regular figure, or possibly this should have been a four-pack with something else included to give it more weight. Or maybe swap out Despotellis for a better and more substantial figure. I’ll freely admit that I’m really glad Mattel got these figures out to the fans, and I’m happy to have them, or at least two of them, but I don’t think this was the best way to do it, especially not at fifteen bucks the the three of them.
Jan 29 2012

Young Justice: 4-inch Series, Wave 3: Sportsmaster by Mattel

I think I’ve got all the frothing bile and anger toward Mattel out of my system, so let’s see if we can give the next figure in the 4-inch Young Justice line a fair shake. He is, afterall, the last only truly new figure in this wave, and the only one that I was excited about picking up.

We just saw the packaging for the 4-inch line a couple of days ago and I don’t have a lot more to add to that. I’m still really digging on it as it feels like the spiritual successor of the JLU line and something about those figures and packaging really scratch my nostalgic itch. Once again, I’ll also point out how much I love the way Mattel uses the printed card behind the figure to hide the C&C piece so that it looks like part of the cardback. It’s just neat.
Out of the package and in hand, Sportsmaster is instantly my favorite figure of all the 4-inch single carded figures in this wave and possibly the whole line. He’s a great recreation of his animated counterpart with what seems to be all new tooling. He’s really well proportioned, the plastic feels a lot more solid and less bendy in the limbs, and there’s a ton of little details on the sculpt and paintwork for this animated-style line. He’s still got that annoying upturned wrist on his left hand, but the fact that it shows off the nice detail of the straps on his armor, it doesn’t look so bad on him.
Sportsmaster came with the rightmost wall of the Hall of Justice C&C set. That means that I can finally connect that rightmost floor piece to something, but I still can’t connect that piece to the rest of it until I buy the two remaining repaints. Truth is, I would have had them already if it weren’t for the fact that noone online seems to have them instock yet.

Of course, you still only get the basic five points of articulation, so there isn’t a lot you can do with him in terms of posing or even play. The lack of articulation is a little more annoying here because there’s not much you can do with his staff.  Plus, this is such a great looking figure, I really want to put him in some cool action poses, and that’s just not going to happen.
So, in a wave of repaints Sportsmaster didn’t have to be anything special to stand out, and yet he turned out to be among the best executed figures in this line. Mattel went above and beyond with his detail and paintwork to the point where he almost looks out of place among some of the others. Its possible they saved so much money on the rest of the figures being repaints that they were able to cost out more attention to him, but whatever the reason, I’m glad to have him in my collection.

[And that’s going to wrap up all I have of the Young Justice line right now. I’m still trying to hunt down those last two pieces of the Hall of Justice, I mean, last two figures from Wave 3, but no such luck yet. I’m going to take a couple of days to dig into some other stuff and then we’ll get back to the world of Mattel and DC by finishing up revisiting the remaining figures from Green Lantern Classics Wave 2. -FF] 
Jan 28 2012

Young Justice: 4-inch Series: Batman and Robin 2-pack by Mattel

Ok, I’ve had some time to drink calm down since yesterday’s post about Mattel’s scheme to get an extra thirty bucks out of me in order to finish my C&C Hall of Justice. The single nugget of consolation I gleaned from the couple of emails I got asked why I expected any different from Mattel. Fair enough. Anyway, for the uninitiated, Mattel decided to stagger their 4-inch Young Justice releases between single carded versions and 2-packs. The 2-packs come with exclusive versions of the adult superheroes in the show, but they also include some repacks of the single-carded kids. On the other hand some of the adult superheroes came in the single carded series, but have not been in the 2-packs. The only rhyme or reason to any of this is that to own everything, you’re going to have to get doubles of some figuers and boring repaints of others.

There’s the packaging. The figures come in a window box with the standard “DC Universe” logo on the top and the “Young Justice” logo on the bottom. The angled sides feature character art of the kids. There’s a fair amount of room in that package, which is filled up by the two translucent blue stands in the middle. What you see is what you get here, so at least there are no surprises. Overall, it looks nice, but I can’t help but think Mattel should have just released these on a big card like Hasbro does with their comic packs.
Let’s get Robin out of the way first, since we looked at the “stealth” version of this figure yesterday. Yep, it’s the exact same figure with the only difference being the color of his tunic, which is the proper red here. Once again, he’s a good sculpt that really matches his animated counterpart rather nicely, but the limbs are still rather rubbery and he still just has the same crappy nostalgic 5-points of articulation. I’m still counting myself in with the nostalgic grouping, but I’ll admit my appreciation of the charm of this line is gradually being eroded away.
Batman is a very cool figure. When I first started collecting this line, I was hoping that the kids would be in scale with the Inifinte Heroes figures so I would already have compatible adult heroes, but Mattel was smarter than that, and made sure it was necessary to buy the new figures to go with the kids. That having been said, this figure is a damn fine 3 3/4″ Batman. There isn’t a whole lot of unique sculpting at work here. You get the head and cape, some fringe on his gauntlets, and his utility belt, and that’s pretty much it. But Batman gets by fine with paint apps to distinguish his costume. My only real complaint here is that he has that same awkward upturned fist on his left hand that a lot of the other figures have. I’m not sure what they were going for when they sculpted it, but its an unusual enough positioning of the arm that it really stands out on all the figures.
You also get the two figure stands in the pack. They’re molded in translucent blue plastic and designed to look like some kind of holograms from Robin’s computer. They’re a nice bonus, but since they don’t come with all the Young Justice 4-inch figures, I doubt I’ll ever use them, opting for my generic clear disc stands instead.
Right now, this Batman and Robin 2-pack is the only way to get a regular 4-inch version of Robin, although rumor has it there may be a regular version of Robin in a single-carded Walmart Exclusive release (minus any C&C pieces). This makes me extra happy since all the Walmarts here stopped carrying Mattel’s DC figures a long time ago. Awesome. All anger aside, though, this is a fairly decent set. The figures are fine, albeit pretty retro in their articulation. The price is also a sticking point. I could stomach the other figures at $9.99 each because the C&C Hall of Justice pieces were pretty big, but here you’re paying $9.99 for each figure and all you get are a couple of little stands. What’s worse, this set is inexplicably starting to go for a bit of a premium online, so if you want one, you better head to your local toy aisle and get it while the getting is good. On the upside, now I’m only one figure away (Miss Martian) from completing my 4-inch Young Justice team.
Jan 27 2012

Young Justice: 4-inch Series, Wave 3: Robin (Stealth Tech) by Mattel

[I started writing this piece and it quickly degenerated into a drunken emotional rant against Mattel and then it kind of got away from me. If you’re only interested in hearing about the figure then go ahead and skip down a couple of paragraphs. If you’re interested in hearing me vent, then by all means read on. -FF]

Mattel hates us. Sure, if you’ve experienced the Matty-Digital River partnership first hand over the years, you’ve already suspected this to be true, but now we have definitive proof that Mattel does indeed hate us. You see, Mattel came up with this great idea to make a Collect & Connect Hall of Justice set and spread the pieces out over three waves of 4-inch Young Justice figures. Sure, at ten bucks a pop the figures were on the pricey side for what they were, but it was easy to swallow that pill knowing that with each one you buy, you were closer to a pretty cool Hall of Justice backdrop. The first two waves gave us a mix of the kids and adults, including Speedy, Kid Flash, Aqualad, Superboy, Captain Atom, and Black Canary as well as some baddies like Icicle Jr and Vandal Savage. All good so far?

So, it seemed only natural that the last wave would finish the team with Robin and Miss Martian, maybe some more adults like Red Tornado and Green Arrow, and some extra baddies like Sportsmaster, Cheshire, and Black Manta, right? Well, we got Sportsmaster… and THREE FUCKING REPAINTS. Yes, the last three figures you need to finish the Hall of Justice set consists of “Stealth” versions of Robin, Aqualad and Kid Flash. Thanks for fucking us over, Mattel! If you want regular Robin or Miss Martian, you can go buy the two-packs, because Mattel would rather saddle you with $30 worth of repaints than give us single carded versions with C&C pieces. What pisses me off even more is that they don’t even bother to call Robin, “Stealth Tech” Robin like they did with Aqualad and Kid Flash, so if you’re ordering this figure online without scrutinizing the picture, you might be fooled into thinking he’s the regular red tunic version.

If this is your first experience with these 4-inch Young Justice figures, by all means go back and read my various looks at the last eight figures. They’re basically like a hybrid of the JLU and Infinite Heroes lines. They have the antiquated basic five points of articulation like the JLU line, but they’re more realistically proportioned like the Infinite Heroes, although make no mistake these figures are still highly stylized to match the animated counterparts. If you’re nostalgic for either of those two lines, these will probably give you a warm fuzzy feeling. Otherwise, you may want to stay away.

[Ok, enough with the long-winded preamble. Let’s get to the figure… -FF]

Its been a little bit since we looked at the second wave, but the packaging for these figures hasn’t changed. I still really love the presentation here. It’s a nice big bubble and a colorful card, not entirely unlike the DC Universe Classics packaging. There’s a printed card insert behind the bubble that matches up with the cardback to conceal the Hall of Justice C&C piece that’s tucked behind the figure. Mattel has always done a wonderful job packaging their DC figures and these guys are no different.
Out of the package, Robin is the same figure you may already own if you bought the Batman and Robin two pack. The only difference? His tunic is painted grey instead of red. It’s a nice enough sculpt and captures the look of the show’s animated Robin pretty well in the 4-inch scale. Unfortunately his arms and legs are really rubbery and soft and as already mentioned, the articulation is pretty much crap. Is there nothing new here? Well, Robin does come with his hologram wrist computer that’s cast in translucent blue plastic and clips on to his arm. This idea worked great for the 6-inch figure, but not so well here. It’s way too big and since Robin’s arm can only rotate at the shoulder, he can’t really hold it in any convincing manner. Blah!
And then there’s the real reason I bought this figure: The C&C piece for the Hall of Justice. I’ve got only three pieces left. This set comes with the middle part of the arch and finally allows me to connect one of the loose pieces I had from Wave 2. It’s looking sharp and really, really big. I’ve opted not to bother posting a picture of the Hall of Justice again until I finally have it complete. Its partly because I’m really bitter right now, and partly because I have it in a tote at the bottom of my closet and I don’t feel like digging it out again.
And there you have it. In case you haven’t picked up on my subtlety, I really resent having to buy this repaint solely for the C&C part, and I’ll likely get more angry with each successive repaint in this Wave that I need to buy. I was also none to pleased yesterday when I went out to buy the Batman and Robin 2-pack so that I could have the regular Robin in my Young Justice 4-inch display. I was going to look at Sportsmaster next, but instead I might as well knock out the Batman and Robin set tomorrow so that I can get the rest of this rage out of my system before taking a look at the only fresh figure in Wave 3: The Sportsmaster.
Jan 22 2012

DC Universe Wave 19: Collect & Connect STRIPE by Mattel

There’s something so satisfying about snapping those last pieces together onto a DC Universe Collect & Connect figure. That’s especially true this time around since apart from Hawkman, I really didn’t have to buy any figures in Wave 19 that I didn’t actually want. But also because I really, really wanted STRIPE in my collection and this was really the only way Mattel could do him justice.

STRIPE’s parts came spread out over all six figures in Wave 19. This time there was no extra figure with a stand or any of that jazz. So when all was said and done, you needed the two arms, the two legs, the head and crotch piece, and the torso. He snaps together pretty easily, but his joints were a real bitch to get unstuck and loosened up. I was literally afraid I was going to snap the arms apart, while trying to get the shoulder joints to move for the first time. Luckily they eventually gave way, and now all the joints can be manipulated just fine. Once together, STRIPE is one seriously satisfying hunk of a figure.
The sculpt here is absolutely fantastic, although you may recognize a couple of the parts. The legs are both repainted from Stel, the C&C figure from Green Lantern Classics Wave 2. (We haven’t looked at him here yet on FigureFan, because I’m still two figures (ie two arms) away from completing that wave and figure) Some may cry foul at the reuse, but honestly I think it works just fine and they match the rest of the sculpt quite appropriately. There’s some really good tooling all around on this figure, particularly in the panel lining and the detail work in the arms and fists.
When I first saw pics of STRIPE, I was kind of leary about the coloring. It looked sort of cheap. The actual figure in hand is much better, largely thanks to the mother-of-pearl style finish used on the bulk of the figure. It has a nice subtle sheen to it that really contrasts beautifully with the red and blue. Granted, it is a little strange seeing a figure this big with so few paint apps, but it definitely jives with the character design and I’m really glad Mattel resisted the urge to put some kind of wash on him.
STRIPE’s articulation consists of ball joints in the shoulders, hips, and neck; Hinges in the elbows, knees, and ankles; And swivels in the biceps, wrists, and waist. His shoulder army is constructed to offer some pliability when articulating the shoulders, and while it does offer some restriction, you can still easily get STRIPE’s arms up to about 90-degrees at the shoulders. He’s certainly a very poseable figure.

I’m a huge fan of teams when it comes to my superhero funny books, so its no surprise that I like Stars and STRIPE. I mean, apart from the fact that its generally a damn good book. So, having a Stargirl and STRIPE on my DCUC shelf is pretty exciting, especially since the figures turned out so well. If I could come up with just one other duo that I would have liked to see hit the DCUC before it ends it would be Hawk and Dove and they’re actually in Wave 20, so I’m a pretty happy camper.
And that closes the book on Wave 19 of DC Universe Classics. I’m going to give this line a rest for a couple of days, look at some other things, and then I’ll come back to finish up looking at Wave 17, take another intermission, and then check out the rest of Green Lantern Classics 2, which I started a long time ago.
Jan 21 2012

DC Universe Classics Wave 19: Magog by Mattel

There have been plenty of times where DCUC has put out a figure that I loved despite not giving a crap about the character. Magog is one of those instances. Of course, the reason I don’t care about the character is because this is one of those rare instances where I have absolutely no idea who he is. I’ve certainly picked up an occasional figure in this line where I wasn’t entirely familiar with a character, but this is one of the first times that I swear I’ve never seen him before. According to his confusing little bio on the back, he’s relatively new, first appearing in JSA just a few years ago. Let’s see what he’s all about…

And there we go. Say goodbye to the Wave 19 packaging, for this is the last packaged figure in the assortment to look at. Of course, the Wave 20 will be the same, as will that of Wave 17, which we’ll start looking at next week, so there’s no reason to start tearing up and sobbing. Magog looks pretty cool in the package with a bit of a neutral stance, one fist clenched against his chest and his staff in hand. What’s with all the staffs lately, Mattel? Seems like we’re getting a disproportionate number of DCUC figures with staffs lately. Oh well.
Out of the package, Magog is an interesting composite character indeed. He’s got a golden ram horned helmet that looks straight out of antiquity, but he’s also got what looks like cybernetics in his neck, a golden armored or mechanical arm, and an automatic pistol slung across his belt. I gotta say, I’m digging the look here. Seeing this amount of new tooling on a character I don’t even know is pretty surprising. But whatever the case, Mattel went all out on him. I think the only downside of the figure is that the pistol is sculpted as part of the holster and isn’t removable. Given the amount of new tooling here, a removable pistol probably just didn’t cost out, but he would have looked pretty damn sweet holding it. Magog’s paintwork is every bit as good as the sculpt. From his blue trousers to brown belts, bare chest and golden parts, he’s a strikingly beautiful figure.
How’s the articulation? Standard DCUC goodness. Magog has a ball jointed neck; His arms feature ball jointed shoulders, hinged elbows, and swivel cuts in the biceps and wrists; His legs have universal movement in the hips, swivel cuts in the thighs, and hinges in the ankles and knees. Magog can swivel at the waist and features the ubiquitous DCUC ab crunch hinge.
With only one wave of figures left, I’m guessing a lot of folks are sore about Magog here taking up a slot. That having been said, I think he’s a great looking figure and pretty distinctive looking, which says quite a lot in a line of figures based on a bunch of kooks in crazy costumes. The colors and sculpt should  impress, so long as you don’t mind the crazy character design. I’ll probably be tracking down some of those issues of JSA to find out more about him.

And that wraps it up for the regular figures in Wave 19. We do still have the C&C figure, STRIPE, to look at, and I’ll be back to check him out tomorrow.
Jan 20 2012

DC Universe Classics Wave 19: Hawkman by Mattel

I’ve already covered four of the six figures from the 19th Wave of DC Universe Classics, so let’s knock off the last two figures today and tomorrow and then we can check out the C&C figure, STRIPE. Today we’re looking at Hawkman and I’ve got some seriously mixed feelings about him turning up in this Wave. The running theme of this Wave has been the JSA and in fairness this is the Golden Age version of the character, but that doesn’t change the fact that we already got Hawkman all the way back in Wave 6, and if you already own that figure then all you’re really getting that’s new here are two new Golden Age heads and the C&C piece. Yep, except for one little change in the paint, this is a straight repack from the neck down. On the plus side… I actually don’t own the Wave 6 release of Hawkman, so…

There’s the DCUC packaging. I’m really anxious to see how the new All Stars packaging will stack up. I don’t know if its because its going away, but I continue to love the presentation of the DC Universe Classics more and more with each figure. Hawkman is carded holding his mace and he really fills out the card beautifully. Mine came packaged with his beaked mask, which I absolutely hate. I’m not sure if this guy was packaged as a variant or not (ie with the other head attached).
Out of the package Hawkman is a great looking figure. But then he was also a great looking figure when he was released 13 waves ago. As I already mentioned, he’s the exact same figure from the neck down save for the absense of the painted emblem on the red disc of his chest harness. The rest of the colors are all the same and the paintwork on my figure is all quite crisp and clean and free of slop. The wings have a nice feathered texture are are hinged on his back, and while the hinge is kind of big and ugly, its at least very sturdy and gives a nice amount of flapping articulation. The wings are also hinged at their peaks and they look quite majestic when spread out to their full span. I’m pretty sure the mace is the same one that came with the Wave 6 Hawkman as well.
I already let it slip that I hate the beaked version of Hawkman’s mask. It’s not any fault of the sculpt, I just think its a stupid looking design. The other head suits me a lot better, but I still don’t like it as much as the modern look. Maybe I can buy a trashed Wave 6 Hawkman for cheap and salvage the modern head, but more than likely I’ll wind up buying Mattel’s MOTUC/DCUC 2-pack with the Hawkman and Stratos, since I still don’t have Stratos. But, I digress…
Let’s run down the articulation. You get a ball jointed neck; The arms feature ball jointed shoulders, hinged elbows, and swivel cuts in the biceps and wrists; The legs have universal movement in the hips, swivel cuts in the thighs, and hinges in the ankles and knees. Hawkman swivels at the waist and features the ubiquitous DCUC ab crunch hinge.
I’ve said plenty of times during my looks at Wave 19 that I’m not going to do a lot of nitpicking regarding what characters Mattel decided to put in these final slots before the line goes bye-bye. They were never going to please everyone with their choices, and quite frankly its a good bet they didn’t even know the line was going to be ending when they populated Wave 19. That all having been said, I’m going to break from that because there’s just no way that I wanted a rehash like this one with only two Waves left. I’d be extra pissed if I already owned the previous Hawkman, but then since I prefer the more modern look, this figure is still nothing more than a placeholder in my collection. He’s a fine figure, and I’m sure there’s plenty of JSA fans and completists who will disagree with me, but I seriously could think of dozens of characters who should have gotten this slot in the penultimate Wave.
See ya tomorrow with a look at Magog!
Jan 16 2012

Young Justice: 6-inch Series: Artemis by Mattel

I’m back with the second figure of the first wave of Mattel’s 6-inch Young Justice series, and it’s Artemis. Yep, kind of an odd choice for a slot in the first wave, since she didn’t come into the series at the beginning, but that doesn’t make her any less welcome. I’ve already went through a lot of the concepts behind this line, so today’s feature should go a lot quicker than yesterday’s.

The packaging. It’s identical to the window box that Robin came in, aside from the back panel that features the character art of Artemis and her bio. Once again, the packaging here really shows off the goods nicely. As big as the box is, though, Artemis’ base is actually bigger, so it comes separated into two halves.
As with Robin, Artemis is essentially a smaller and slighter build version of the DCUC figures, but being kids these are completely in scale with the DCUC collection. The only thing frustraing here is that as good as Artemis’ articulation is, it’s still tough to get her to look really good shooting her bow. She’s a pretty awesome mix of paintwork for her costume and just enough sculpting here and there for her kneepads, gloves, and boots to keep her unique. Her belt and thigh strapped pouch are separate pieces, as is her removable shoulder-slung quiver. I’m particularly happy with the way Artemis’ head sculpt came out and the hinged ponytail is a nice touch and is completely removable if it gets in your way.
Artemis’ articulation is the same as we saw with Robin. You get a ball jointed neck; Arms with ball joints in the shoulders, hinged elbows, and swivels in the biceps and wrists; Her legs feature universal movment in the hips, swivels in the thighs, and hinges in the knees and ankles; Her torso includes an ab crunch hinge and a swivel in the waist. Not bad at all.
Accessories! Artemis comes loaded for bear with her compound bow and arrows. The bow is nicely sculpted with the plastic strings, a sculpted grip for her to hold it and it’s got a groove so you can actually notch one of the arrows into it. She also comes with four various gizmo arrows.
Robin’s base was big, but Artemis’ is huge. It’s two pieces that snap together to make up a cool little archery range. There’s a clear bucket to hold her extra arrows and a stand to cradle her bow when she’s not shooting. The other half of the stand has a target that you can actually plug some of the arrows into to make it look like they were fired into it. The little cracks and damage to the target are a cool little extra. Granted, when assembled, the target isn’t terribly far from her shooting position, but you can separate them to give them a little distance. Personally, I’m happy just displaying her on the half that holds her bow and arrows, although an extra peg on the target base would have been nice.
Artemis falls right in line with Robin as being an excellent all around package. While I think I like the display possibilities of Robin’s base better, Artemis’ is a bit more like a mini playset and that’s a really cool thing. She’s definitely worth the average $20 going price, and possibly even the extra five bucks that TRU will rape out of you if you have no other options without having to pay for shipping. Either way, I’m really pleased with my first foray into this 6-inch line and I’ll definitely be pushing forward and picking up Aqualad, Superboy, and Speedy.
Jan 14 2012

Young Justice: 6-inch Series: Robin by Mattel

I did my best to resist Mattel’s 6-inch line of figures based on the excellent Young Justice cartoon, and opted to collect the smaller 4-inch figures and build the C&C Hall of Justice. But the harsh mistress of clearance overcame me when I was able to scoop up the first two figures in the series for just under fifteen bucks a piece. It seemed like a good opportunity to see what they’re all about. The first two figures consist of Robin and Artemis, so let’s start out by checking out the Boy Wonder himself and see if I turn out being overwhelmed, underwhelmed, or just merely whelmed.

The figure comes in a window box that does an amazing job of showing you exactly what you’re getting in terms of the figure and the base. Robin is in an action pose, the base is on the bottom of the package and his weapons are spread out off to the side. It’s possibly a little too roomy in there, but the base really is big, and unlike Artemis’ it doesn’t come apart. The packaging deco is pretty close to what we’ve been seeing on other DC Universe figures, but with the addition of the Young Justice logo and the character illustrations on the side panels of the box. The layout of the back panel should be instantly familiar to any collectors of DCUC, JLU or Infinite Heroes. It has a little bio of Robin and shows some of the other figures in the line. It’s pretty easy to get everything out and the packaging is certainly collector friendly enough to return it all to the box for display if you should desire. I was a little worried about the action pose wrecking my figure’s joints, but everything seemed ok when I got him out.
So what we have here is basically a somewhat stylized DC Universe Classics figure, and that is definitely not a bad thing. Mattel took the basics of the DCUC body and made it conform to the more animated stylings, while keeping it more or less in line with other figures in the DCUC lineup. More importantly, these figures are slightly smaller and thus actually properly in scale with DCUC. For example, does your DCUC Kid Flash figure piss you off because he’s too tall? Well then, these should make you happy. On the downside, Robin’s limbs feel very soft and rubbery. I’m not sure if its just a different plastic or if its because he’s slighter of build. Surprisingly, it doesn’t seem to effect the joints all that much.
Every bit of Robin’s sculpt is wonderfully executed. The body is a nice mix of paintwork detail and some sculpting, and he sports a short rubbery plastic cape. His head sculpt is complete with his dorky ears and his conceited little smirk and really captures all the personality of his animated counterpart. Articulation consists of standard DCUC poseability. The head is ball jointed; The arms feature ball jointed shoulders, swivels in the biceps and wrists, and hinged elbows; The legs have universal movement at the hips, swivel cuts in the thighs, and hinges in the knees and ankles; And the torso has the DCUC ab crunch hinge and swivels at the waist. I do think this new line would have been a good opportunity to standardize the double-hinged knees that we saw in some of the more recent DCUC figures, but sadly it wasn’t the case.
In addition to a great figure, you get a pretty amazing and impressively large base. Robin’s is the corner section of a rooftop with a gargoyle statue. There are three pegs on it, so you can securely pose Robin in a few different areas or pose more than one figure on it. It’s a really nice piece and versatile enough that you could probably use it for a number of DCUC figures too.
                                     
Acessories include Robin’s battle staff, a couple of batarangs, a very cool translucent blue hologram wrist computer, um, a gun of some sort… and two um… hmmm. Maybe explosives or mines or something. I’ve seen almost all the episodes of teh cartoon, but I can’t seem to remember what the hell these things are, and I’m a little iffy on the gun too. Either way, it’s a nice assortment of stuff.
In the end, I’m really thrilled with this figure. If you’re a fan of the series, and don’t give a crap about building the Hall of Justice from the 4-inch figures, these 6-inchers are definitely the way to go. They look great, feature nice poseability, and they make great display pieces with their bases. The only sticking point can be the price, which is admittedly all over the place. $20 seems to be the average, and I guess that’s fair enough. I usually spend between $15-17 on my DCUC figures, and here you’re getting a huge base and a fair amount of accessories. Toys R Us seems to be the odd man out, charging $25 a pop, which really seems excessive, so shopping around is a good idea. I should be back tomorrow to check out Artemis.