Tag Archives: mattel

Jan 17 2011

DC Green Lantern Classics Wave 1: Kyle Rayner and Abin Sur

[I’m not going to do another DC Universe Classics week, at least not so close to the last one I did. And yet in addition to the first wave of Green Lantern Classics, I’ve also just picked up DCUC Wave 11, so I’ve got a lot of these figures to look at. So, I’ll be tackling them one or two at a time over the ourse of the next couple of weeks while tossing in enough other stuff in between to try to keep things interesting for those of you who don’t give a shit about the DC Universe. Fair nuff? -FF]


Blah, blah, same old DC Universe Classics packaging… only… hey, it’s not! There are definite similarities in the overall design of the packages, and nowhere does it actually say Green Lantern Classics, but the green card, the lack of a collector’s button, and the giant faction symbols on the bubble insert definitely set these figures apart from the regular flavor DCUC figures. And so does the fact that this assortment is called Wave 1. Apart from that, though, these are still essentially DCUC figures in every other way and will fit comfortably in with the rest of your DCUC shelves. Let’s rip them open and start out with Kyle Rayner.

If you’re familiar with the DCUC figures, there shouldn’t be a lot of surprises with the Kyle Rayner figure. He utilizes a pretty standard DCUCbody sculpt and relies mostly on the black and green paint apps to distinguish his Green Lantern costume. The paint apps on my figure are pretty crisp and clean with little to no bleeding or slop. The headsculpt is excellent and I really like the sculpted mask, which could have easily been a paint app cop-out.

Kyle comes with a giant gauntlet and sword construct that fits over his fist and he also comes with a green lantern. The ring construct is pretty cool looking, but I do have a real hard time getting it to socket right under fist, and I’m afraid to monkey with it too much for fear of popping off his wrist.

Next up is Abin Sur who appears in his resurrected Black Lantern form and is one seriously creepy looking figure. But you know what’s scarier than that? He’s packaged in an action pose!! Aaaarggh!!! Yeah, right out of the package my Abin Sur’s right leg was seriously messed up at the knee and ankle hinges. I’ve managed to do a little blow dryer action to bring it back, but it’s still not quite right.

In Brightest Day,  and Blackest Night,  God Damn You Mattel,  Make my figures’ legs alright!

It really is getting infuriating, but I’ve been through all this quite recently with my look at Zatanna, so I’m not going to go through it again. The body sculpt is a bit on the leaner side and the black and white paint apps make up his costume. As with Kyle, the paint apps on this figure have crisp lines and are pretty much without fault. Very nice. The head sculpt is absolutely amazing, with a nice glossy finish to accentuate the gore and vacant, pupil-less eyes. Like I said, he’s damn creepy looking.

Both figures come with a piece to build the Collect & Connect figure, Arkillo.

I’ve probably been more excited about this Green Lantern themed wave than any one since Wave 12. There’s nothing about Kyle and Abin Sur that we haven’t seen before, but they are wonderfully executed and look amazing. But then we’ll see that that’s the case with just about every figure in this wave. I may not be entirely sold on the Green Lantern movie yet, but if it keeps giving us figures like this, I’m all for it.

Jan 13 2011

DC Universe Classics Wave 14: Zatanna by Mattel

I can’t deny it. I love me my DC ladies, so it should be no surprise I’ve been patiently awaiting the inevitable DCUC release of everyone’s favorite sexy magician, Zatanna. Not to be confused with Zartan, Zaranna or Zatarain’s Cajun style foods. Found in your grocer’s freezer section, their New Orleans style dirty rice and beans can’t be beat! Wait, what? Oh, yeah… Zatanna. I’ve spent an awful lot of money lately buying up entire waves of DCUC figures, so I’m cherry picking Wave 14 and just picking up a few figures for now, but Zatanna was one of those must-haves for me in this wave. I’ve already heard an earful of collectors complaining about this figure, so let’s take a look and see what we’ve got.

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Same old DC Universe Classics packaging. You’ll note the “Only At Walmart” sticker, which ensures that I could never find this figure at a retail store. Apparently, none of the Walmarts in my area got the memo saying they have an exclusive deal with Mattel and should therefore actually carry DCUC figures. Still, Zatanna sure looks great in there… all dynamically posed… in the tray… held down by… oh shit! Yeah, Zatanna comes right out of the tray with her lovely legs warped all to hell because Mattel cannot understand that some of us “Adult Collectors” actually open our figures and care less about how they look in the package and more about them not coming out of said package all deformed. When Zatanna came out of the bubble it looked as if Brother Night ran over her legs with an SUV… and then backed up. I was able to get them a bit more presentable, but I’m being doubly cautious since a) I’m afraid I’m going to mess up her fishnets even more, and b) ever since my Raven figure’s leg broke off in my hand, I’m extra gentle with these joints. But let’s try to put the unfortunate packing aside and check out the figure.

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Some early photos of the figure had me worried about the face sculpt, but the figure that I have in hand looks fantastic. The face sculpt is beautiful and the paint apps are immaculate. Naturally, the sculpted hair all but torpedoes her neck articulation, but that’s just something I come to expect from a lot of the DCUC ladies. In this case, however, they needn’t have even bothered putting a neck joint in there. Ah, well. I really like the subtle blue highlights in her hair. Her magician outfit is well done, and for a showgirl, Zatanna shows a lot more class than her fellow female superheroes by buttoning up to the collar and garnishing with a cute little bowtie. Because bowties are cool. Wait, wrong series.

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From the waist down, it’s a bit more of a mixed bag. Yeah, I’m talking about the fishnets. If you own the DCUC Black Canary figure than you know exactly what to expect here, only in the case of my figure it’s a lot worse. The stockings look passable from the front and from the knees up, but they tend to bunch up a lot down by her ankles, and Mattel’s inability to replicate a decent stiletto heel makes Zatanna’s look a bit like granny shoes with support hose bunched up around her ankles. It ain’t pretty. From the back, the fishnets are a mess. Should Mattel have tried this again? I don’t know. I’d say at the very least, they should have done a variant without the fishnets. I’m thinking that with deft use of a razor blade you could get them off, but I’m not about to try it unless I wind up with an extra. They look loads better on Black Canary, just because they end at her boots. Oh, and speaking of shoes, Zatanna has no peg holes in the bottom of her feet, so even a figure stand won’t save her from falling down.

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Zatanna comes with two accessories: Her hat and wand. I am so glad that Mattel made the hat removable, as I really thought that they were going to go for a hat or hatless variant like they did way back with Big Barda. The hat has a little nob inside that catches against her bangs and keeps it on her head pretty well. I may have to go buy myself a little Schleich rabbit for the hat [Actually, wound up getting one with one of my Zenescope Alice in Wonderland figures!] Why yes, I am insane, thanks for asking! Zatanna also comes with the right arm of that damn dirty ape, Ultra Humanite, Wave 14’s Collect & Connect figure.

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In the end Zatanna is a real mixed bag. The sculpt is excellent, but I think a lot of collectors will remain undecided on the fishnets. I would appreciate the attempt more if they hadn’t already tried it on a previous figure with dubious results. Even so, I’d still end up recommending this figure. It took Mattel longer than I thought to get to her, but I’m just glad they finally did. She set me back about $25 including shipping, which is a lot more than I’m used to spending on these figures. But I guess if I can blow $30 on a Masters of the Universe Classics figure, than Zatanna was worth the money.

*This Feature was re-worked and re-shot on 8/18/15. 

Jan 12 2011

DC Justice League Unlimited: Superman, Galatea, The Huntress, and Booster Gold by Mattel

With DC’s Infinite Heroes line a thing of the past, I’ve had to begrudgingly get my fix of smaller DC figures elsewhere. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Justice League cartoon and Justice League Unlimited was pretty good too, but it took me a long time to warm up to the overly stylized nature of the JLU figures, not to mention some of their other recurring issues. Nonetheless, a few days ago I picked up one of the 3-packs as well as a single carded Booster Gold figure, so let’s check them out.

I love the look on the packaging here. The DC Universe style card is great, there’s animated stills of the characters on the back panel, and the figures are displayed well. What I don’t like is that the tray is designed to warp the legs of the female figures. Seriously, the ladies never stood a chance with their lower legs splayed out like that in the package. Luckily they come with stands. I’ve tried my best to warp them back into form, but the plastic is too soft and thin. Great job Mattel. Thanks a lot.

I’ll start with Superman, since I already own this mold, albeit with ugly Eclipso triangles all over it. The figure captures the animated style of the character pretty well and for the most part the paint apps are pretty clean. There are some serious quality control problems, though, with the seaming around his shoulders and the way his head fits on his neck. It just looks like the figure’s torso is ready to burst into two halves and shoot the head up in the air. Other than that, Sueprman is fine.

Galatea, on the other hand is a mess. The head sculpt is awful, particularly around the eyes where she looks like a Futurama character. The body is ok, if you ignore the fact that her legs are malformed from the package. All of the detail from the neck down is achieved with paint apps, which certainly gets the job done. Hey, Galatea, Power Girl called and she wants her shirt back. Moving on…

The Huntress is a great looking figure and from an aesthetics standpoint easily the best of this set. Unlike Galatea, her headsculpt is very well done and between the head, the cape and the paint apps, you’d be hard pressed to tell that this is the same figure as Galatea from the neck down. Unfortunately, that also includes the warped legs. But wait, what the hell is up with her arms. All of these figures use a rather soft plastic, but Huntress’ arms feel like she’s been left in a car in Florida for about four hours in the burning hot sun. They literally feel like they are made of the same plastic as her cape. Not cool.

This set originally retailed for around $15, which is a hell of a lot better than the ridiculous $9.99 that the single carded JLU figures sell for at Target or online. As fun as these figures are, I can barely justify paying the five bucks a pop each in the three-packs. There isn’t a single figure in this pack that doesn’t have serious issues that range from nagging to just downright awful. The pack does include two figure stands, which is a good thing because neither of the ladies will stand on their own. But it still irks me when Mattel tosses only two stands in a three figure pack, as if to suggest that the .000001 of a cent that those stands must cost to make prohibit them from including three.

Ok, moving on to Booster Gold. Sorry, I don’t have an in-package shot, but I just wanted to throw him in as a contrast to the other figures and to show that Mattel is capable of putting out a quality figure in this line. Sure, Booster is simple. He uses a standard body with paint apps to make him who he is. The head and collar are the only unique sculpted parts on this figure. Still, like the Superman mold, this figure does a great job capturing the spirit of the character as depicted in the JLU style. He also comes with a little Skeets, which sadly doesn’t plug in to him anywhere like the Skeets on the DCUC Booster, so there’s really no good way to display it.

As decent as the quality is on this figure, and as much as I love Booster Gold [even if you are trying my patience in the funny books lately. -FF], I couldn’t justify the $10 price point, but I only paid a couple of bucks for him so no worries. These aren’t my first JLU figures, as I do own a number of the six-pack figure sets, but needless to say poor quality control made this a pretty disappointing foray.

Jan 8 2011

The Real Ghostbusters: Retro-Style Figures by Mattel

A lot of collectors were saddened to hear that Mattel opted out of doing regular figures based on The Real Ghostbusters cartoon in line with their movie based figures. I’ll admit, I was bummed out about it at first. But then I saw the early production shots of their Mego-style figures and I wasn’t sad anymore. We already had a whole line of regular Real Ghostbusters figures back in the day, and with how Mattel’s regular line of Ghostbusters figures has plummeted after such a little while, I was glad that Mattel went with this other venue. So glad, that I pre-ordered these things back in August of last year. My set finally came in earlier in the week, and I am thrilled with them.


When I ordered these guys, I was seriously considering keeping them on the cards and just hanging them on my wall. They really do look that awesome in the package, but my willpower wasn’t strong enough and pretty soon I had them all torn open. The cards feature artwork from the cartoon with portraits of all four Ghostbusters on the front, plus Mr. Staypuft himself. The back panel shows all four boys with their names along with Slimer and Janine and it says, “Collect Them All.” Does that mean we’re getting a Janine figure? I doubt it, but if you’re listening, Mattel, I vote for her in the Ghostbusters jumpsuit as seen in the Season 1 episode Janine’s Genie. She wore the same jumpsuit as Peter, so you’d just have to do the headsculpt and slap it on one of teh female bodies. Just saying is all! Anyway, the cards are all identical and the only thing distinguishing the packages from each other is the personalized splatter sticker on the bubbles with each of the Ghostbuster’s name on it. The figures and their equipment are also left loose to rattle around inside the bubble.

Before getting into the actual figures, let me preface things by saying that two issues worried me as the final production versions of these figures began turning up. First off, the proton packs were blue, as opposed to the black one that came with the SDCC Venkman figure. The blue is show accurate, but I was worried that my Venkman figure would be the odd man out with a black proton pack. Luckily, all the figures shipped with the blue ones. If you want a matching set and you already have an SDCC Venkman, you may want to consider ordering the regular version for the blue proton pack. Next, early reports had some of the figures showing up without the Ghostbusters emblem on their shoulders. Again, it all worked out fine as all of my figures have the logo present.


As in the traditional Mego style, each of The Real Ghostbusters figures features the exact same body sculpt. It works pretty well, except for Ray who was pretty portly in the cartoon. I may try to stuff some foam into his uniform to bulk him up. The articulation is serviceable, but still below what we get in many action figures these days and it’s kind of tough to get them to hold their particle throwers in a very dynamic position. The headsculpts on these figures are what give them all the distinctive character and I’ve got to say that Matty did a fine job bringing the cartoonish caricatures of the Ghostbusters to life in plastic. I don’t have any issues with any of the head sculpts, although I’ll give the special nod to Egon, with his glasses and crazy hair, they really nailed him right out of the park.  The uniform patterns are identical on all four figures and they are each colored to match the uniform each character wore in the cartoon. They fit the figures very well and really round out the package nicely and there’s no sloppy stitching or anything like that. As mentioned earlier, each one has a Ghostbusters patch on their right shoulder. The figures also have their chests painted black to simulate the t-shirt worn under the uniforms in the cartoon. They all have the same pair of black boots and the same belt.

Each Ghostbuster comes with an identical proton pack and all but Venkman come with an extra piece of equipment. The proton packs look appropriately like cartoonified versions of the ones on the movie figures, although there are far from cartoon accurate. The biggest differences are in the particle thrower, as the plastic versions look a lot closer to the movie ones than the ones seen in the cartoon. Nevertheless, the proton packs are removable and you can peg the wand onto the pack for storage, just like they do in the cartoon. The packs are easy to get on and off the figure and fit on them very well.


As for the rest of the equipment… Egon comes with a PKE Meter, which looks a lot different then it does on the episodes of the cartoon that I’ve seen recently, but it might have been redesigned at some point during the show’s long run. Ray comes with a cartoon version of the ghost sniffer that Peter used in Dana’s apartment in the movie. I don’t remember it ever being seen in the cartoon, but it’s a cool movie-cartoon tie-in. This accessory shows off the only quality control issue I have with the whole set, as there’s some serious yellow paint slop all over the sniffer want. Winston comes with a ghost trap, which does not open, but you can actually attach it to the side of the proton packs, which is how the Ghostbusters carried them in the cartoon.

I was still pretty young when Mego figures were ruling the toy shelves, but my brother and I got a bunch of Mego’s Star Trek, DC, and Planet of the Apes figures handed down to us from our Uncle. We played with them a lot, but for whatever reason I didn’t retain a lot of nostalgia for the style and that’s probably why these Real Ghostbusters were the first Mego style figures I’ve picked up since the whole retro-style revival began. I’m still not sold on the style in general, but I can’t deny that they work perfectly for these figures, and I highly recommend you fans of the cartoon give them a look, even if the Mego style ain’t usually your bag. The figures retail for around $20 each, which is pretty standard for this type of thing and I’m really glad to have them in my collection.

Jan 7 2011

DC Universe Classics Wave 13: Collect & Connect Trigon by Mattel

Man, it’s been a long week. If a few of these posts have seemed a little abrupt, it’s because I’ve been fighting a ridiculously busy week at work that has been sapping the very soul out of me each and every day. I also haven’t had a day off in eight days. There have been a few days this week where almost all I did before crashing in bed was one of these posts. But Friday’s here, I’ve finally got two days off, and so let’s kill off the week by taking a look at Wave 13’s Collect & Connect figure. He’s big, he’s red, he’s a sadistic bastard from another dimension… he’s Trigon!

I’m not being the biggest Teen Titans fan around. Trigon wasn’t necessarily tops on my list of DC Universe characters I needed to own in figure form. Or at least that was true until I saw the figure. Love him, hate him, don’t know who the hell he is, it doesn’t matter because this figure pretty much sells himself with his sheer awesomeness. Weighing it at twice as tall as many DCUC figures, he’s certainly an imposing fellow and his sculpt has the chops to back it up.
Ok, so in terms of body sculpt there isn’t a whole lot going on here. He’s mostly a slab of red muscle with his boots painted on. He does have sculpted arm bracers and a strap across his torso. He also has a loin cloth to protect his delicate demon modesty. But check out that head sculpt. It’s like Thor, Mr. Spock, Red Hulk, and an antelope had an orgy and this is the unholy product of that forbidden congress. Trigon’s mouth is agape with wonderfully sculpted and painted teeth, soft plastic antlers, and that extra set of eyes that is all the rage in Azarath these days. Obviously Raven gets her looks from her mother’s side.

Trigon also breaks tradition for the DCUC with a bonafide softgoods cape. The cape and plastic high collar are of course removable, since they were one of the components of his BAF nature. The cape even has a bendy wire frame that allows for some posing. Trigon also comes with a staff, cast in a really cool looking pearl colored plastic.

No two ways about it, Trigon is an awesome figure and definitely one of the more impressive of the C&C family. He looks amazing on the shelf and was well worth picking up the likes of Negative Man in order to complete him. Sorry, Negative Man, that was a low blow.

[Ok, so I was planning on slipping in a Justice League Unlimted 3-pack to round out the week, but I’m ready to move on to other things for a little bit, so I’ll come back to it later. I did get in the first wave of Green Lantern Classics yesterday, and it is a spectacular set of figures, but I’m going to hold off until Monday to look at those and rather then make another week of it, I’ll pack the whole thing into two or three posts to help keep those of you who aren’t that into DC stuff from getting bleary eyed. In the meantime, this weekend is going to be all about Ghostbusters and Legos. But right now, it’s all about booze and sleep. See ya tomorrow. -FF]

Jan 7 2011

DC Universe Classics Wave 13: Donna Troy by Mattel

The last figure [Next to last… don’t forget about Trigon! -FF] on our Wave 13 whirlwind tour is none other than Donna Troy, Wonder Woman’s sister… er, magical clone… er, Wonder Girl… um… Multiverse composite with the… um, memories… oh, the hell with it. Go get yourself a copy of Brave and the Bold #60 to start to track Donna’s tortured continuity, but then this figure isn’t even modeled on that version, so let’s just forget it and take a look at the goddamn figure.

As with many of the DCUC figures, Wonder Girl relies as much on paint apps as she does on sculpting to make her who she is. She dresses a lot less gaudy than her sister, at least in this later incarnation. No red white and blue panties and she also shows off a lot less skin. Instead she’s wearing a red jumper with some yellow stars, a gold belt with the “W” beltbuckle, and her trusty golden lariat hanging off her hip. I’m usually happy with the face sculpts on the female DCUC figures, and Donna here is no exception to that. The sculpt is excellent right down to her star earrings and her perfectly sculpted hair. I’m also really happy with the paint apps on this figure, except for maybe the sleepy eyes. But apart from that there’s really no slop or bleeding to speak of.


Donna Troy doesn’t come with any accessories, unless you count her emotional baggage, and her permanently mounted lasso. She does, however, come with the pelvis and head pieces to build the Trigon C&C figure.

I purposely saved Donna for last because I didn’t want to write this post. It’s easy to blather on about a character you know, and it’s just as easy to claim total ignorance. Either way, I still like to attach something of the character’s backstory with the figure, but I’d need a week off from work and a prescription for some pretty strong stimulants to write that article and even then it wouldn’t make any sense. Besides, which I just don’t think the character is all that worth the trouble. Nonetheless, Donna Troy here is a fine, well-executed figure, which looks great standing on my Teen Titans shelf. The next and last stop? Trigon!

Jan 6 2011

DC Universe Classics Wave 13: Blue Beetle by Mattel

Folks, I am a crazy huge fan of the Blue Beetle. Of course, I’m talking about the Ted Kord Blue Beetle. I probably wept over his death more than Booster Gold himself, [Ok, that’s probably not possible. Seriously BG, get over it already. -FF] and I continually shake my fists in anger at DC for bringing back every other dead superhero except him. But enough about Ted, we’re here to talk about Jaime Reyes. I’ve got nothing against this kid. He’s ok. I might even try watching that live action series if it ever comes out. Or is it already out? I need another Scotch. So anyway, let’s take a look and see how his figure turned out.


Unlike Ted Kord, who was just a costumed hero with only his wits and technology, Jamie dons an alien powered supersuit, which explains the huge difference in the look. Jaime’s suit has a really cool, and just a tad creepy, alien design, which is wonderfully translated into this figure. Although the head sculpt reminds me of Forager. I think it’s the diamond shaped eyes.The black and blue really look great and I love all the little sculpted segments and decos throughout the body of the suit. This is a very striking figure, even more so because it’s a 100 percent unique sculpt, and let’s face it, that’s something of a rarity in the DCUC line.


The wings are attached to his back in one solid, sculpted piece. They look fine and I particularly like the semi-translucent plastic that looks like a membrane. Alas, they do not feature any articulation. Blue Beetle’s body on the other hand, brings some new tricks to the old DCUC articulation in that he has double hinged elbows and knees, instead of the standard single hinge. It looks like Mattel has taken a page from Hasbro’s GI Joe/Marvel Universe book and it seems like we’ll be seeing this new body type in future waves, as it’s already in partial use in the just released Green Lantern Classics wave.
Blue Beetle comes with a clip-on sword, that is supposed to be an extension of his suit. I would have liked it better if this piece fit over the fist as with the Green Lantern constructs or the Metal Men weapons. The clip tends to be a little loose and the piece will fall off. Beetle also comes with the left leg piece for the Trigon C&C figure.

I think fans of the Jamie Reyes Blue Beetle should be very happy with this figure. It’s not only a fantastically unique addition to the DCUCroster, but it definitely does the character design justice. But even if you’re not willing to let Ted Kord (or Dan Garret for that matter) go in favor of the new blood, I think you’ll still have to agree this is an excellent figure.

Jan 5 2011

DC Universe Classics Wave 13: Superboy by Mattel

Pushing along through DC Universe Week, we’re more than halfway through Wave 13. The next figure up for scrutiny is none other than Conner Kent aka Kon-El aka Superboy!

I’ve never been all that keen when DC focuses on teenage heroes, but Superboy tends to be the exception to that rule. [The other big exception will be Young Justice, assuming the series pans out as well as the two part premier. -FF] But beside the twisted idea that Kon-El is cloned from both Superman and Lex Luthor, I find what would be an otherwise annoying edgy and youthful wrecklessness a refreshing change from Superman’s insipid whitebread boyscout nature. As such, I was pretty happy to finally be getting this figure. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the figure looks outstanding.
Slapping superflous leather jackets on characters is one of those lingering fashion fetishes from the world of 90’s comics. A lot of times it looked gratuitous and just silly, but here I’m tempted to say that Superboy comes close to pulling it off, even if it still makes him look dated. But it is beautifully sculpted and really gives the figure a very distinctive look. The black jacket is sculpted in soft plastic, like a vest with the arms sculpted with the jacket sleeves and an immaculately painted Superman symbol in yellow in the back. The various zippers are also very nicely painted. If I’m going to criticize anything about the jacket, it’s that the way it bellows out at his waist is too exaggerated, but overall the effect is still nice.

Under the jacket, Superboy features a pretty standard DCUC body with a sculpted belt and strap around his right leg. The rest of the details are achieved through paint apps, including the Superman emblem, again beautifully painted, on his chest. The overall ensemble is a nice mix of iconic Superman with attitude-addled teen. It just works for me. The head sculpt adds to the look with the sculpted on shades and the flock of bangs over his forehead. Superboy features the standard DCUC articulation. Mattel was even able to make the ab crunch joint work with the jacket in place, which was a nice surprise.

You probably wouldn’t be expecting any accessories to be included with Superboy, so you won’t be disappointed. All he comes with his the Left Arm piece for the Collect & Connect Trigon figure.

As I’ve mentioned at least once before, Wave 13 is not an assortment that is bogged down with a lot of A-Listers and heavy hitters. Nonetheless, Superboy here definitely garners the most name recognition of the lot and his figure turned out absolutely gorgeous. Granted, a lot of collectors looking for a Superboy figure aren’t necessarily going to be seeking out this design, but I’m sure Mattel will grace us with a more modern, black shirted version. Perhaps when all this Green Lantern stuff starts to die down.

Jan 5 2011

DC Universe Classics Wave 13: Cheetah by Mattel

Not counting Negative Man’s variant head, Cheetah is Wave 13’s featured variant figure, as there were two completely different versions of the character available. You could go with the vintage version, Priscilla Rich, or the modern version, Babs Minerva, and I’m going to look at both figures today. Keep in mind that as variants, they come in the exact same packaging, with the same collector’s button, and the same C&C piece, in this case it’s Trigon’s right leg. Let’s go ahead and start with my favorite of the two, Priscilla Rich.


CLEVAGE!!! What? Sorry. I jumped the gun there a bit. There’s more to this figure than her huge bust and plunging neckline, but she sure does give Power Girl a run for her money in the “hey look at my boobs” department, and that’s saying quite a lot, so I guess it was only natural to start there. It’s just odd to see a villain that first appeared back in the 40’s showing off this much of her goodies. The head sculpt is excellent as she has a stern, yet attractive face and her little cat ear nubs are just great. The tail is made of soft rubber and curls at the end. There’s a swivel cut about halfway down the tail so you can have it curling up or down.

Apart from the head and the tail, most of Cheetah’s detail comes from the cheetah spot paint apps on her skin tight suit. The spots are plentiful and nice and cleanly applied, as are the paint apps on her face. Even her fingernails are painted red.


Next up is Barbara Minerva, who took the character in a totally new direction. She’s not just some fruitcake villain in a costume. She’s actually got some crazy African blood deity taking up residence in her bod. Naturally, the aesthetics are quite different. Now we’re into Thundercats territory. Minerva’s cat features are part of her body, complete with clawed hands and feet. Her headsculpt is absolutely fantastic. Not only does she have a pretty face, but the detail work on her hair is amazing. As good as the head and hair look, though, it does inhibit her neck articulation. Barbara’s tail is identical in sculpt to Priscilla’s, although she has some painted strips at the tip. This Cheetah’s spots are painted onto her skin and her costume is also painted on, which includes a mid-riff exposing halter top and a pair of pants that come down just below her knees.

Both Cheetah’s have the same level of articulation, and both share the same problem with their hip joints. The tendanacy is for their legs to default to a wide stance and they resist being together. [Insert your own “Cheetah is a slut” joke here. -FF] Now, considering the femaleDCUC figures often have enough problems standing up, it’s really an issue with these two. If you have any spare stands, I recommend you free them up for these ladies. You can try propping them up with their tails, but I’ve not had all that much luck with that strategy.

I may like the Priscilla Rich best, but both Cheetah figures are absolutely fantastic. The sculpting and paint apps come together really well to produce two fine additions to both the DCUC’s roster of villains and female figures. They are definitely two of the strongest figures in this wave and I highly recommend picking up both of them.

Jan 4 2011

DC Universe Classics Wave 13: Cyclotron by Mattel

Ahh, see? See? I bet you were thinking Cyclotron here would be on the list of figures in this wave that I didn’t care about. But you’d be so wrong. Well, maybe not completely, wrong, as I really don’t care much about the character, if you can even call him that. But the figure? I absolutely love when DCUC nods back to the old Kenner line of Superpowers figures, as they have a delightful habit of turning out to be hunks of pure plastic awesome. Remember Golden Pharaoh? Awesome. Desaad? Awesome. Cyclotron? Yep, awesome, again.


Cyclotron has all the potential to have been a great Masters of the Universe figure. Seriously, a little adjustment to his proportions and I could see him hanging out with He-Man and punching Skeletor right in the face. The best surprise for me about this figure is his removable head and face plate. Early production shots of this figure were really confusing and I was totally convinced that he would be one of the variants (like Negative Man) and that you either got him with his robot parts showing or his human bits. But nope you can just flick off his face and chest piece to reveal his robot nature.

In his human form he’s a pretty distinctive looking figure, and the inspiration from the original Kenner toy is certainly there. The green and yellow deco is nice, and there’s a lot of detail sculpted into his outfit, particularly in his torso and boots. His head sculpt features a fairly blank expression and a pair of red shades capped off by a helmet to match his outfit. The red tab on the front of his chest is there to help pop off his chest piece. Both the face and the chestpiece lock on very tightly so there’s no fear of them popping off. Unfortunately, Cyclotron is a bit of a bobblehead. Popping off his human parts reveals the android underneith. It’s silver with some sculpted detail. The android face is recessed quite a bit under the helmet, so you really have to get in close to see it well.

Unless you count his removable skin pieces, Cyclontron doesn’t come with any accessories. And since he’s a Superpowers figure, he also doesn’t include any of the Trigon Collect & Connect pieces. He does, however come with a nice Superpowers figure stand.

Ok, so Cyclotron’s backstory isn’t the greatest, or even the most plausible for that matter, but he still makes for an awesome figure. He’s also a great bit of nostalgia for anyone who has fond memories of the old Kenner figures. As already mentioned, these Superpowers figures tend to be among my favorites in each wave and Cyclotron is no exception.