Tag Archives: mattel

Nov 11 2010

DC Justice League Unlimited: Attack From Thanagar Boxed Set by Mattel

Moving on to the second of two Justice League Unlimited Figure sets that I rescued from Ross, is Attack From Thanagar. I’m pretty sure this one is based off the three part story arc from Season 2 called Starcrossed, but I’m a bit fuzzy on it. I think I saw it when it was strung together as a movie. Either way, I think this set is a lot cooler than the Eclipsed set because it’s chock full of Hawk People. And Hawk People are cool.


The package is exactly the same as the last set we looked at, which is a good thing. I like it so much I spent a considerable amount of time carefully scraping and peeling the Ross sticker off of it so I could use it to display the figures. The front of the package has a little explosion of text that points out that this set is the first release of Paran Dul, Hro Talak and Lt. Kragger. It doesn’t say anything about Hawkgirl being new, but she’s definitely not the “regular” masked Hawkgirl sculpt. She’s the “I just got to Earth and I’m going to lead the way for a friggin invasion” Hawkgirl. Maybe this figure was released before? I don’t know, I’m new to the whole JSU thang. The Green Lantern is the same sculpt I got in the last set and you also get Batman.

Talak and Kragger share the same body sculpt but with different paint decos and they have different heads. The different heads do an ok job of separating the figures apart, and I really like Talak’s. But there isn’t enough variation in the paint to really fool me into realizing they’re the same figure designed to be wearing two different kinds of pants. It’s ok though. I like the figure and I’ll take all the Hawkmen figures I can get. The belt and harness on each figure is also a separate soft plastic piece.

Similarly, Paran Dul and Hawkgirl also share the same body with different paint decos and differet heads. The difference here is a lot more striking, probably because the paint decos are a lot different, but also because of the vast difference in the head sculpts. Paran is wearing a helmet, which conceals most of her head and face. Hawkgirl on the other hand, is letting it all hang out. I absolutely love her head sculpt. It’s just adorable and features some excellent, clean paintwork on the face. She’s definitely my favorite figure in the box.

I really don’t have much to say about John Stewart. He’s a pretty simple sculpt and basically relies on his paint job to distinguish him. He’s the same figure we looked at yesterday in the Eclipsed set only without the purple shards painted on him and with his pupils back.

As for Batman, I’m guessing that if you are a JLU collector, then this guy is going to be a duplicate. I can’t imagine most fans not already having Batman. Since these are my first JLU figures, I’m perfectly fine with him being in the set, especially since he’s one of the few Leaguers that wasn’t in the last set. He’s a really great looking figure, with a much more sensible (read less stylized) sculpt than Superman from the Eclipsed set.

All the guys in this set have the same five points of articulation: Head, shoulders and hips. The girls have the shoulders and hips, but their heads don’t turn. I can understand Hawkgirl’s limitation because of her sculpted hair, but I don’t see why Paran’s can’t.

There are sadly no accessories, which seems like a big missed opportunity to give some maces or other weapons to the Hawk People. You do get the same paltry two figure stands in the set, because those stands probably cost half a cent to make and Mattel doesn’t want to go broke giving you one for each figure.

So yeah, when you get down to it, this set cheats a lot with two sculpts being repainted into four figures, and two straight repacks. That may severely diminish the value for anyone who already collects the line. As a starter set, it’s much better and there certainly isn’t a bad figure in the box, so long as these highly stylized sculpts are your bag and you don’t have a problem with Hawk People.

Nov 10 2010

DC Universe Classics: Wave 15 Martian Manhunter and Jemm by Mattel

It’s probably safe to say that for most collectors, Martian Manhunter is the most anticipated figure of Wave 15. Why? Because he’s the last figure needed to be released to complete the Justice League. [Except for me, since I still haven’t got Hawkgirl yet. Grrr. -FF]. Martian Manhunter was also released as a variant in this wave, which featured his more alien head and his right hand morphed into a blade weapon. I’m probably not going to hunt that one down, so we’ll only be looking at the regular version. Alongside, Martian Manhunter, we’re also going to look at Jemm. I was so sure these figures were going to be a repaint/minor resculpt of each other, and happily that turned out to be far from the case.


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.

Nov 10 2010

DC Universe Classics: Wave 15 Ted Knight Starman and Jack Knight Starman by Mattel

My Wave 15 case of DC Universe Classics arrived a day early, so I’m going to take the Infinite Heroes figures that I was going to look at today and push them to the back of the week. Yeah, I’m just that excited to get started with looking at these guys. Buying them by the case seems to be the only way to go for me, since I’ll probably never see these figures at any store in my area and I really wanted to make sure I got all the Collect and Connect pieces to build Validus. So, we’re going to go ahead and start with the two versions of Starman.

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.

Nov 8 2010

DC Universe Week Begins: Justice League Unlimited Eclipsed Boxed Set by Mattel

Welcome to DC Universe week! I’ve got a lot of great stuff I want to get through in the next five to seven days, so I’m just going to dive right in with the first of two Justice League boxed figure sets that I picked up out of Ross’ Toy Graveyard last week. Now, I love me my Justice League cartoon. I’ll pop in the DVDs and have the show running in the background when I’m puttering around the house, mainly because I’ve watched them all so many times, I know what’s going on even if I’m not sitting in front of the TV and looking at it.

I really haven’t gotten into the Justice League Unlimited figures too much, mainly because when I’m looking for some smaller scale DC figures, I tend to prefer the less stylized and more realistic Infinite Heroes line. But, the beautiful thing about clearance and closeouts is that you can try out some stuff that you wouldn’t have otherwise picked up, and sometimes you’re pleasantly surprised.

As the title suggests, this set is based on the Season 2 episode, Eclipsed, in which Eclipso possesses a good chunk of the Justice League, leaving Flash to save the day. I love Eclipso and his back story, but I wasn’t crazy about his portrayal in this episode. Overall, I enjoyed the episode, but I would have gone a different route with him. Plus, his character design just looked more goofy than sinister. Nonetheless, this set includes Eclipso himself, in what the package exlaims is his first JLU figure form, as well as possessed versions of Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Hawk Girl, and a regular Flash.

I love the package! It’s nothing fancy, and yet I still feel like I’m getting something really cool. The figures are laid out with three on top and three on bottom, each nestled in a clear plastic tray, with their names just under their feet. It’s a nice big, impressive presentation and it kind of reminds me of the old action figure carry cases they used to sell for the Superpowers figures. It’s also totally collector friendly. While most of my figures reside in totes or on the shelves, I chose to keep these six figures displayed in the package. Also visible in the package are two clear figure stands. Wait… two? TWO? Ok, so either Mattel can’t count or they wanted to be a bastard and short us four stands. Seriously, how much could those stands cost to make that they couldn’t afford to provide one for each figure? The back panel of the box shows images from the episode along with blurbs on each character.

Let’s start with the possessed Leaguers. Obviously, these are all repaints of the core hero characters, and when I say repaints, I’m overstating things a bit. The figures just have some purple triangles shards p ainted on them and no pupils in their eyes. It’s almost subtle enough that you could just use these figures as your regular Justice League team. The effect is more noticeable on the ladies, just because the trianglesshards are on their skin. Superman shows them off pretty clearly, but Green Lantern’s are almost lost in his darker colored costume. You have to look pretty hard to see them.

The sculpts are all pretty solid and very similar to the character designs on the show, although Hawk Girl is my favorite of the bunch. Mattel really did a nice job on her, and her big soft plastic wings are cool. Superman is my least favorite. He looks great from the waist up, but I think his lower half is way too scrawny, even for the stylized look. His posture is also a bit wonky as he tends to look like he’s leaning forward even when he’s not.

As mentioned, The Flash is the only one of the heroes that doesn’t have the shard-possessed deco, although he still doesn’t have any pupils, but then he never did. The paint deco on him is nice and crisp and overall he’s a pretty good figure.

Eclipso is the set exclusive and while he still uses a pretty basic body sculpt, his excellent paint deco really looks great. The eclipse insignia on his chest is nice and crisp and the purple eclipse circle painted on the side of his face is well done too. His face sculpt looks a little too cheesey for my tastes. I like the more demented look of the DC Universe Classics figure, but that’s kind of an apples and oranges comparison. For some reason, Eclipso only has a peghole in one foot, so you can’t really get him centered on a stand. Grrrr.

All of the figures have the same basic five points of articulation: Head, shoulders, hips. It’s a lot more useful on the male characters, since the hip joints on the females are closer to being just swivels. Actually, that’s only in theory. The two ladies can’t move their heads at all because of their big sculpted hair. Either way, don’t expect to get any of these figures into any dynamic action poses.

There are no real accessories to speak of, which is a shame. Hawk Girl should have at least come with her mace. You do get the paltry two figure stands, which are best saved for the ladies, because they’re a bit top heavy and have tiny feet.

All in all, this is an ok set. I’m not sure how much it originally retailed for. The label said $20, but I find it hard to believe that Mattel was releasing a six figure set for an Andy Jackson. I picked it up for $13.99, which is even better. I’ll give the set higher marks because these are my first JLU figures and so even these subtle repaints are new to me. If you already have the core League figures, I don’t know that these very episode specific variants are a must-have unless you’re a completist or you really, really want Eclipso and you happen to need The Flash. I still prefer the sculpts of the Infinite Heroes over these cartoony sculpts, although these guys do have a certain vinyl toy style charm to them that seems to be all the rage these days.

Sep 24 2010

MOTU Classics: Chief Carnivus by Mattel

It feels like ages since I’ve featured a MOTUC figure here. Why? Partly because some of the recent figures haven’t “must haves” for me, and partly because my work schedule just will not mesh with Matty’s sale dates. I have no problem hunting down the figures via other means if I really want them, but that hasn’t been the case with anything released in a little while. Chief Carnivus probably would have been one of those figures I didn’t bother with. He looked cool enough to get (even if I am not at all familiar with the character), but I wouldn’t have gone out of my way to buy him. As it so happened, though, I had a day off on Matty Sale Day this month, so I grabbed him out of sheer convenience.

It’s a testament to Mattel and The Four Horsemen that they can even get me to buy the figures based off of characters I don’t know. Not being a New Adventures fan, I didn’t know Optikk, but I still love the figure. Well, I didn’t watch many episodes of the more recent He-Man cartoon (although I still mean to), so Chief Carnivus is a stranger to me as well. Nonetheless, he looks awesome. It’s like someone got their Thundercats in my Masters of the Universe. And so, as with Optikk, I took the risk, and I’m glad I did. Carnivus is one cool cat. MEOW!

Carnivus may be a newer character, but the packaging remains classic and vintage to the core. Same green brick card, same nice big bubble to show off the figure. The back panel shows other figures in the collection (which you can no longer buy because they were all only available for about 30 seconds each), and it has a bio blurb, which in this case was very useful in helping me get to know my new figure.

Carnivus uses a number of Beast Man’s body parts, but there’s plenty new here to make him look fresh and unique. His armor and his pelvis are brand new, as are his lower legs. The head sculpt is magnificent with a noble feline visage. There’s a little bit of slop on the face paint apps, but nothing major. The gold and purple motif on his armor is really striking. The grieves are molded as part of his legs, but the chest and shoulder piece can come off easily. It’s also really easy to remove his cape. You don’t even have to pop off his head. I love this because as great as the cape looks on him, it can hinder some of his potential for action poses.

Articulation is standard for the MOTU Classics line. He has a ball jointed neck and shoulders. His arms have hinged elbows along with swivel cuts in the biceps and wrists. His hips have universal joints, his knees and ankles are hinged. Carnivus can swivel at the waist and he has a large hinge in the torso.

The Chief comes with a sword and a shield. The shield clips on to his arm and has a nice sculpted angry cat head with red eyes. His sword is slightly curved at the tip, almost like a saber and has a big red painted stone in the hilt. It would have been cool if Matty had given him some kind of loop on his belt to hang his sword from.

I give Carnivus the big thumbs up. He’s a great looking figure and a really nice fit for my MOTU collection. He costs the standard $20 plus about $8 shipping, which is certainly steep, especially for a figure based off a character I don’t know. But I can rationalize the price point because I’m not buying as many of these figures as I used to be, and I don’t see myself buying nearly as many next year either. Either way, I highly recommend him.

Aug 27 2010

Star Trek: Hot Wheels Enterprise-D by Mattel

I’ve had this ship sitting on my desk for a little while now. It was back when I was hunting the pegs at Toys R Us for something or other and came up empty handed that I decided to pick up this ship rather than call it a wasted trip. Well, I’ve been on a Star Trek kick lately, rewatching episodes from all across the Trek continuum, but mostly some of my favorite Next Generations, so I decided it was time to take a look at this nifty little ship.

A while back I looked at the Hot Wheels Enterprise and Reliant from The Wrath of Khan. In that article I went through some of the other various attempts by toy companies to market collectible Star Trek ships from Micro Machines to Johnny Lightning. I won’t go through all that again, but I’m pretty sure that even back then I predicted this Hot Wheels line didn’t have any staying power, and sadly I was right. Mattel produced the initial assortment of the two Enteprises and the Reliant. A later revision saw the release of a Klingon Bird of Prey and the 2009 movie Enterprise, but that was it.

I don’t have the packaging anymore, but these ships came in a window box that showed off the model pretty well. The packaging was functional, but nothing spectacular.

The ship itself is a mix of plastic and diecast metal, with the stardrive section being diecast and the warp nacelles and saucer section plastic. The sculpting on this little guy is excellent. On my other Hot Wheels ships, there was a big contrast between the crispness of the details on the diecast and platic parts, but on Enterprise-D they both look quite good. The paint apps are also very nice on this one, albeit consisting mostly of the blues and reds of the nacelles and the deflector dish. The phaser arrays are all painted and the registry information is very precisely detailed.

While the other Starships I have are just static models, the Enterprise-D does have a detachable saucer section, which is a pretty neat little touch. It also comes with the same display stand as the other ships in this line. The display stand is plastic and has a ball joint that connects to the socket in the bottom of the ship and lets you position it in various ways. It’s a nice idea, but with a model this small, I’m not sure it’s really necessary.

Originally, these ships retailed at $14.99 a piece. I think I paid under five bucks for this one on clearance. I’m not going to say the original price was a rip off, afterall I know working with diecast can be expensive, but I have no doubt that the price tag was part of the reason this line of ships didn’t make it. Any way you slice it, fifteen bucks is a lot of money to pay for something this small that just sits there. The fact that it bore the Hot Wheels moniker, a brand synonymous with a line of collectible cars that typically sell for under a dollar, probably didn’t help either.

Still, if you’re like me and you unloaded your old Playmates Enterprise-D years ago on Ebay, and you don’t have the funds or the extra display space for the Diamond Select version, the Hot Wheels Starship is a pretty decent substitute.

Aug 16 2010

MOTU Classics: Orko and Prince Adam by Mattel

It was with heavy heart that I ultimately decided not to subscribe to Matty’s Club Eternia for next year. Well, not really a heavy heart. For a while now, I’ve suspected the line would not have enough core characters left to make me want all the figures next year, and from early indicators (ie. 2011’s first figure being Bow from She-Ra… wow, really Matty? Really??) it looks like I was right. Granted, I am not the diehard Masters of the Universe fan that a lot of these figures are aimed at and I don’t have a pressing need to own every figure that comes out. As such, Orko and Prince Adam were among two of the last “must have” figures for me. There are still a few that I missed that I would like to own, and I’m still waiting for The Sorceress, but from here on in, I’ll be cherry picking the line carefully. Even if I wind up paying a little more for individual figures on Ebay, it’ll be less bother than having to sell off all the ones I don’t want.

Before getting into these figures, I should say that I have no idea if this set is still considered to be an SDCC exclusive or not. I know the shitty looking color change Orko was the one that was *only* available for sale at the show. This regular flavor Orko went up for sale on the Matty Collector site afterwards and quickly sold out. Is it still considered a Con exclusive? I have no idea. Probably not. There’s nothing on the package that says so.

Speaking of the package, I really hate the direction Matty went with on this set. Oh, the card and bubble and all that jazz are fine as they’re the same classic inspired deco used on the rest of the line and it still looks awesome. It also still comes in the traditional white mailer box. What I hate is the way Matty tried to be cute and put Adam on the bottom as an accessory and have tiny Orko hovering like a dot amidst all the waisted space. If I were a mint-on-card collector, this would have infuriated me to no end. Fortunately, I just tear it open to get at the goods inside. Either way, I think the presentation would have been better served with Orko mounted hovering next to Adam. Not as clever, but it would have looked a lot less ridiculous.

Let’s start with Orko, since its his name on the card. There were a lot of directions Matty could have gone in making this figure, but in the end I think they really nailed it. He’s perfectly in scale with the other figures, and the addition of the clear stand to give him a hovering effect is just what I was hoping they would do. The sculpt is spot on, with a striking resemblance to the Filmation character design. The blue skin tone on his hands and ears is perfect, the eyes and scarf look great. The only nitpick I can come up with is that there are quite a few shades of variation between the red used on his hat and his cloak. No big deal, though.

Orko has a decent amount of articulation for what he is. He has ball joints in his shoulders and elbows, his hands have swivel cuts, and I suppose you can count the ball and socket to his stand as a joint as it allows you to tweak the position he’s hovering in. Oh yeah, even his, erm… head is balljointed giving him more movement there than I would have expected.

Orko comes with two accessories: A wand and a spell book. His right hand is sculpted to hold the wand. As for the book, I can just about get him to hold it in both hands, but not easily. The wand is a wink back to the 200x Orko figure. I suppose you can count his stand as an accessory too.

Prince Adam is also a very nice figure. Once again, I think Matty hit all the right points on his design. They kept the controversial purple tights and purple furry diaper. His white shirt is painted on, which does look a little cheap around his neckline, but not too bad. His bracers are smaller than the ones on the He-Man figure, and they are painted silver. Matty went with a soft plastic tunic, similar to the type used on Teela and it works very well. I’m very glad they didn’t opt for using soft goods here. I would, however have liked a loop on the back of the tunic to hold his sword.

Adam comes with two interchangeable heads. One is pretty much the same as the one used for previous He-Man releases, the other is a resculpt that has him grinning. I like the sculpt on the grinning head as being more appropriate to the figure, but the skin tone is waxy and it looks like Adam is sweating profusely. The other head is fine, but I don’t think Adam should look that pissed off. I’ll have to decide between the lesser of two evils when displaying him. He also comes with one and a half power swords.

Adam’s articulation is typical for the line. He has a ball jointed neck, ball jointed shoulders and hips. His elbows, knees and ankles are all hinged. He has swivel cuts in his biceps, wrists and waist. He has the torso hinge, but the tunic prevents it form being much use. Unfortunately, the joints on my Adam are mighty loose right out of the package. Especially his ankles. I can tell right away he is going to be a shelf diver.

As mentioned at the beginning, this set sold out crazy fast when it went on sale at Matty Collector on the 2nd. That was, of course, to be expected, since even the regular figures sell out like mad. I was lucky enough to get in on a pre-order at another site (which also sold out shortly after) offering the set for $45. Honestly, I expected to get beaten up a lot worse on the price. Considering there are technically two figures here and how important the characters are, I don’t think I did too badly. Although in hindsight I would have done better on Ebay where he has been frequently selling for around $25-35. Live and learn. I’m just happy to have it, as these are both fantastic figures.

 

Jul 11 2010

DC Universe Classics: Kryptonite Chaos Lex Luthor and Supergirl by Mattel

I rarely pre-order figures or toys. Its only when I absolutely have to have something and I think my chances of finding it on the pegs are nil. And that was certainly the case with this two-pack from Matty’s DC Universe Classics line. I pre-ordered this thing late last year, and I didn’t expect to ever get it. It had been cancelled and then revived, and then there were rumblings about whether it hadn’t really been revived. It seemed like noone knew whether it was still going to be released. Even the e-tailer that I dealt with on it offered the disclaimer that this set may or may not be coming. A month or two ago, I had pretty much given up hope, and then last week I got notice that it had actually shipped! Yeah, its just Lex Luthor and Supergirl, but I really wanted these figures in my collection.

If you’ve picked up any of the past DC Universe Classics 2-packs, you’ll be instantly familiar with the packaging here. Its an fishtank style package with the same artwork used on the single carded figures since time began. The back panel shows photos of the figures and has their bios and stats. The package is collector friendly, so feel free to play around with the figures and return them to the package for display if you’re so inclined.

I’ve wanted this Lex Luthor figure since I first started collecting this line. Or maybe it goes further back to Kenner’s Superpowers collection, because I never got that figure as a kid. Either way he has certainly lived up to my long anticipation. As far as I’m concerned, this figure is perfection. I love the detail and coloring in his armor. The wires on the front are a nice touch, as are the sculpted doodads on his back. The face sculpt is spot on and he even comes with a small collection of tiny Kryptonite chunks. Finally, I’ve got a Luthor to duke it out with my Superman!

Articulation on this figure is fairly standard for the DCUC line, although there are some limitations due to his armor sculpt. His head just turns side to side and his arms at the shoulders are a bit restricted. Otherwise, you get ball joints in the shoulders, hinges in the elbows, knees and ankles, swivel cuts in the biceps, wrists and waist, and universal joints in the hips.

The other half of this set is Supergirl, a really nice figure with just a few little things I’m not entirely crazy about. I’m usually not a fan of the pre-posed sculpting (ie windblown hair and capes). I prefer something a little more generic that will work better with various poses. In the case of Supergirl, here, however, I’m just digging the way her hair is sculpted. It looks awesome and it doesn’t effect her neck articulation at all. The cape isn’t quite as exaggerated as its just swaying a tad to the left. I love her face sculpt. DC’s female figure’s heads are sometimes hit or miss, but Kara’s is definitely a homerun.

Supergirl’s outfit is pretty much spot on. I do like the fact that her crest is actually sculpted in and not just painted on. Her skirt is suitably short and soft enough to not horribly hinder her leg articulation, and the sculpted ruffles are well executed. Both of Kara’s hands are sculpted into fists, which are perfect for putting her into a flying pose or for punching out fools. My only gripes here are with the coloring. Her skintone seems a bit off, its got almost a grayish or olive tint to it. It should have been more of a traditional fleshtone. The blues and reds of her costume aren’t as bright and vibrant as my Superman, which doesn’t really bother me until I have her standing next to Supes and it seems more obvious in the comparison.

Supergirl’s articulation is what you would expect from the DCUC line. She has a ball jointed neck and shoulders. She has hinged elbows, knees and ankles. She has swivel cuts in her biceps, wrists and waist, and universal joints in her hips. Like most of my female DCUC figures, Supergirl has some seriously week leg joints. That coupled with the fact that she’s a bit top heavy makes standing her a chore. Next to Black Canary, she seems to be the hardest figure in my collection to keep on the shelf.

So, in the end, I never expected to actually get this set, and needless to say receiving it last week was a real treat. These are two figures that I absolutley had to have in my collection, and I didn’t want to go hunting them down on Ebay and paying through the nose for them.

Jun 26 2010

Ghostbusters: Peter Venkman by Mattel

Its been a long time coming, but Matty Collector finally released the 6″ Peter Venkman figure this month. He went up for sale on the 15th and, unlike the previous figures in this line, Peter sold out quickly, although not as quickly as the MOTU Classics figures have. I’ll count myself among those disappointed that Matty decided to go with a slimed Peter rather than a clean one, especially since SDCC is right around the corner and they could have made the slimed one an exclusive. Nonetheless, I was pretty anxious to finish up my Ghostbusters team in this 6″ scale so I bit the bullet and ordered him anyway.

I don’t have a photo of the package, but if you’ve been collecting this line, you already know what it looks like. Its pretty big for figures of this size, but the presentation is top notch. Of course mine just gets shredded and tossed into the garbage can, but if your a MOC collector, you shouldn’t be disappointed.

Before I get into the sculpt, let me just point out that the slime on Peter is about on par with the SDCC Egon, and for me, that’s a very good thing. Production photos made the figure look like someone squirted day-glo shampoo all over it. The truth is that the slime is pretty subdued, although it shows up on the photos well thanks to the scrutiny of the flash. In the end, its not overly distracting and as with Egon, its not so noticeable that I would feel compelled to fork over another $20 for a clean one that will undoubtedly be released later on.

Peter is the first of the Ghostbusters to receive new sculpting below the neck and overall Matty did a nice job with the changes. I’ll start from the bottom and work my way up. First off, his pants legs are not tucked into his boots. The ankle pegs look a little more noticeable on this sculpt than the other figures, but apart from that, I like it. Unlike the other figures, Peter is wearing his goves, so instead of having them molded onto his belt, he has his walkie talkie in that position. The torso appears to be the same sculpt as the other figures, as is the Proton Pack, which is as incredible looking as ever.

So far so good, right? Well, unfortunately, I have big problems with the head sculpt used. Its not that I don’t like the sculpt itself. It does look like Bill Murray and while it doesn’t look quite as realistic as the other figures’ heads, it gets the job done. My problem is that it looks completely out of place when standing with his teammates because its so damn big compared to the other figures, particularly Ray and Egon. Either that or it makes Ray and Egon’s heads looked squished and deformed in comparison. I’m not sure, but I’m hoping it will grow on me. His hair is matted down, presumeably from the slime, so I’m guessing if/when Mattel does a clean version they will resculpt the head. As he stands now, I would give Venkman pretty high marks on his own, but he just doesn’t look right standing with the other guys.

Articulation is almost identical to the other Ghostbusters figures. You get ball jointed head, shoulders and elbows. Swivel cuts in the wrists, waist, and thighs, universal joints in the hips, and hinged joints in the knees and ankles. The one thing missing is the swivel cuts on his lower legs.

Peter comes with the Slimer ghost. For those of you who didn’t get last year’s SDCC Egon, I’m sure this accessory is a welcome treat. He uses the same clear green plastic as the previous Slimer, but instead of just having a huge open mouth, he’s got his tongue sticking out. Its a nice pack-in, although I do like the SDCC version a bit more. Slimer also comes with the same clear stand we got with SDCC Slimer and the logo ghost that came with Ray.

Peter is not a bad figure. I do like him, I just wish the head looked more in line with the other figures (or vice versa). I’m particularly glad to finally get him and complete my Ghostbusters team so that I can get closure on this line. I’ll cetainly consider any other figures that come down the line, but I’m pretty sure I’m done with these. I’m not interested in variants of the guys in labcoats or anything like that, although if Matty made some decent ghosts, particularly Gozer or the demon dogs, I would probably be willing to pick those up.

Jun 16 2010

MOTU Classics: Optikk by Mattel

Well, its a month late, but seeing as how I got shut out of She-Ra and Keldor this month, I decided to get around to looking at last month’s figure, Optikk. I missed him on Matty as well (seems like I can never get to the computer at Zero Hour these days), but after waiting a few weeks, I was able to pick him up on Ebay for just a few dollars more than his Matty sale price.

I have very little interest or knowledge about the New Adventures series of He-Man toys. I’ve seen some of the figures and playsets online and at some toy shows, but I don’t know anything about the characters unique to this toyline. And seeing as how I’m not a completist when it comes to the MOTU Classics figures, it should go to show you how great a figure Optikk is to make me pick him up.

Optikk comes in a white mailer box and carded on the standard packaging for the Classics line. The only thing new here is the Space Mutants sticker on the front. As is sometimes the case, the logo at the top of the bubble obscures Optikk’s “head” a bit. I know this really bums out mint on card collectors, but it doesn’t phase me since I rip these babies open as soon as I get them. On the other hand, his spare eye is mounted so that it is perfectly visible in the bubble.

The most amazing thing about Optikk is how much of him is a new sculpt. In a line of figures that prides itself on reusing parts over and over again, Optikk looks both fresh and brand new. I absolutely love the detail in his armor, particularly the wires and all the tiny bolts, giving him a smidge of steampunk. I also love the way the top portion forms the cradle to hold his giant eyeball of a head. The armor sculpt even includes a mock thumb wheel on the back that was part of the original figure’s gimmick to turn the eye. In terms of color, Optikk is pretty subdued as the overwhelming bulk of his armor is gold with some black showing from beneath and a little purple. The wires are blue and red and the aforementioned bolts are neatly painted silver.

Since Optikk’s head is a giant eyeball, there isn’t a lot to the sculpt, but it still looks amazing. The translucent part is painted over with veins making for a nice effect. The two eyeballs are identical save for the color of the translucent part, which are either green or orange. I actually haven’t swapped the eyes out on my figure because its difficult to do, impossible to tell what’s going on at the neck, and I’m afraid I’m going to bust the post. Besides, I like the green one better anyway.

Optikk has the same basic articulation as past Classics figures. The main difference is that the ball joint in his “head” doesn’t give a lot of up down leeway, which is a bit disappointing, but it goes from side to side just fine. He has universal ball joints in his shoulders and hips, hinged joints in his elbows, knees and ankles, and swivels in his biceps and wrists. My only quibble here is that the ankle joints on mine are a bit on the loose side.

Optikk comes with two accessories (not counting the spare eye), a laser rifle and a shield. The shield is cool, but not much to talk about. It clips onto his wrists like all the other shields we’ve gotten in this line. The laser gun is a really cool design and sculpt, I just wish they hadn’t stamped CHINA on it in such an obvious place as it kind of detracts from the aesthetics.

So it just goes to show you that The Four Horsemen can take a character that I don’t know or care about and still make a figure that I had to have in my collection. Everything about Optikk is just so cool. He’s the most unqiue looking figure we’ve got in the line so far and yet he blends in just fine with Skeletor’s mob of baddies. Great stuff!