Tag Archives: mcfarlane

Dec 6 2024

DC Multiverse (Collector Edition) Huntress by McFarlane

I am continuing to make it a bad habit of pushing older DC Multiverse figures out of the way in favor of new arrivals. But after having checked out the Power Girl Premium Format last week, I was hankering to open up and have a look at the new DC Multiverse New 52 Huntress. I really enjoyed World’s Finest around that time and this is a figure I was pretty excited to get my hands on! Also, I’ve begun packing away many of my loose DC Multiverse figures for the move and I’m focusing on opening some of the new ones to take a look at them here and get them packed too!

Huntress is part of the Collector Edition subline, which means she’s more expensive than the regular figures and comes in a box with some spiffy silver foil. I sort of say that in jest, but to be fair this packaging looks really nice. I am especially fond of the artwork chosen for the collector card and it is reproduced much larger for the back panel of the box. You may notice that Todd has abandoned including a collector card holder, which nobody seemed to really want, in favor of some more accessories. In this case, that includes two extra face plates (Oh yes… I said face plates, not heads!), and extra hands. I still think these figures are priced too high, but at least we’re moving in the right direction to bring the feeling of value up.

And here’s Helena out of the box and looking pretty damn fine. This costume shows a lot less skin than some, but the overall design is certainly familiar. You get the black body suit with purple boots, gauntlets, belt, and shoulder pads, along with the white cross over the upper body and white stripes on the outside of her leggings. I believe the body recycles legs from Arkham City Catwoman, and to be fair it works really well here with the purple boots making it look rather distinctive. It probably helps that I don’t actually own that figure so my eyes aren’t making that comparison on the shelf. The cape is softgoods, which helps to add to the Collector Edition sense of value. It’s a fairly light black material, light enough to be somewhat sheer. The white border is a little chunky, but it does have a rather sturdy wire running through it, which makes it lots of fun to pose.

Swappable face plates is a new thing for this line, or at least it’s the first time I’ve encountered it. It works simply enough with the face pegging into the front of the head and the transition is fairly seamless thanks to the way the hair is sculpted. The first two plates give her the extended wings on the mask, which also extends down across her chin. One of these sports a serious expression and the other a smile. I think the head sculpts are really solid and while the paint on the mask doesn’t quite line up with the sculpt lines, I think these are both pretty good.

The third option features a more abbreviated mask without the extended wings and lacking the chin piece. This one has a somewhat concerned expression and I like this one a lot too. The hair is sculpted to be blown off the shoulders and that helps to free up the neck articulation. I will say that she could have used a little more neck as the jawline feels like it’s too close to her upper body. Still, I’m pretty happy with it.

If you’ve been kicking around Todd’s DC Multiverse, you know what to expect from the articulation and yes, it’s really quite good. Huntress faces some balance problems because her feet are rather small and in high heels. Combine that with the cape and she’s probably a figure that you’ll want to use the included stand with. Still, I was able to get her to stay upright most of the time. The three pairs of swappable hands include fists, gesturing hands, and gun-holding hands.

The gun hands work with her crossbow, and this is easily the biggest disappointment here as it’s so chunky and uninteresting. The sculpt is bland and satisfies the bare minimum of what it needs to in order to look like a crossbow. I’d wager I could do better with ten minutes and a lump of Playdoh.

I’m still trying to be selective on what Collector Edition figures I buy, but Huntress was one I was never going to pass up and I preordered her right out of the gate. It would have been more prudent to wait, because she’s now turning up on sale at retailers, and I’ve seen her for as low as $17.99 since her release. But I’m not mad, because she’s a really nice figure and definitely an improvement over my old DC Signature Series Huntress, which is looking mighty dated these days. But, maybe I could snatch that crossbow and see how it works on this release. Either way, she’s a great addition to my Multiverse shelf, or at least she would be if I weren’t dismantling them as we speak. Now bring on Power Girl!

Nov 22 2024

DC Multiverse (Rebirth): Cyborg by McFarlane

Oh dear, will I ever get caught up on my DC Multiverse backlog? Probably not. It doesn’t help that new figures arrive and I keep pushing the new ones to the front of the line. But, I guess these are nice problems to have when you’re a collector. Today I’m checking out Vic Stone as the Rebirth version of Cyborg, a figure that I was pretty excited to get and add to my Titans shelf.

Here he is in the box, and there’s not much new to say, other than his massive arm cannon takes up a lot of real estate on that tray. As usual, the packaging is mostly collector friendly, but you will have to tear the stand and collector card off the back to get them out. Cyborg was previously released in the DC Multiverse as the Collect-To-Build figure from a Flashpoint themed wave. I picked up two of those figures (Flash and Wonder Woman), but could not bring myself to buy the other two (Aquaman and Project Superman) just to complete the CTB, so this is actually my first version of Cyborg in this line.

It’s well known that Todd will take liberties matching comic designs in favor of recycling parts from old figures, and Cyborg here is definitely a case of that. With that having been said, I’ve seen a lot worse and what we got here is close enough for me. The body is largely recycled from the Earth-44 Batman seen in the Dark Knights: Metal Wave, which makes sense, since that was a sort of Batman-Cyborg hybrid. It’s not a figure that I have or had any interest in, but having studied some pictures, I have to say the new paint deco does an amazing job of transforming that figure into Cyborg. The silver armored parts have a bit of a wash to them, making them look pretty convincing as weathered steel. Meanwhile, the black areas have some contour lines and work well as the flexible undersuit. The shoulder pieces are a tad organic looking, but they get the job done. You get a red emblem on the chest, some red points on the sides of his abs, and a couple of red triangles on his lower legs. Almost everything about the body looks great here, except for those wrist and ankle balls, and I’ll come back to those soon.

The head sculpt is quite solid, but punching in close shows the paint to be rather messy. There’s a lot of overspray of his skin tone onto the silver machine parts and even some brown bleeding through from the cyborg part of his face. It’s not a big deal with the figure in hand, but the closer you get the uglier the paint gets. It’s a shame, because I think the sculpt is one of Todd’s stronger efforts.

The articulation is mostly standard stuff for this line, but you do get those older ball-style ankles and wrists, and I sure do hate these. They’re awkward to work with and they don’t look natural. Now, they aren’t quite as jarring here on a cybernetic body, but I still don’t like him. The only other problem I have with this guy is his balance. He seems to have super tiny feet, which can make him difficult to stand in action poses, especially when we get to the next part…

His big honkin’ arm cannon! I’m pretty sure this piece is recycled from one of the animated Green Lantern figures, where it was a translucent green construct. Here it’s painted in the same silver as the rest of the figure and it looks absolutely fantastic. It’s a big and complex sculpt with all sort of detail packed into it’s various mechanical parts. Getting it locked onto his arm can be hit and miss. It doesn’t work at all with his right hand, but I can get a pretty snug fit over the left fist.

Collectors looking for a Rebirth version of Cyborg will no doubt have some issues with the accuracy here, but the figure does represent a very nice modern look for Victor. He also fits my display better than the supersized Collect-To-Build version would have. I’m certainly content now to not have to hunt down the unwanted figures from that wave to build him. There’s still a fair bit to nitpick here what with some sloppy head paint and those ball wrists and ankles, but all in all I dig this one well enough. And he’ll likely be spending time on both my Justice League and Titans shelves as I shuffle things around.

Oct 23 2024

DC Multiverse (New 52): Cyborg Superman by McFarlane

Oh boy, is my DC Multiverse collection backing up with new arrivals! The stacks of boxes are continuing to pile higher and I think I’m just going to have to do another opening party one night this week. I may even have to double up on these guys in the weeks ahead just to try to get sort of current. At this point deciding which one to check out next is just down to random grabs and today that turned out to be Cyborg Superman from The New 52!

Everyone seems to loathe The New 52, but it came along for me at a time when I had been out of DC Comics for a little bit and I used the reboot as a point to jump back on, as it was intended. I enjoyed most of it, but I will admit that a lot of the books I liked the most met with early cancellations. Supergirl was one of the longer lived books that I read regularly, which also introduced us to Zor-El as Cyborg Superman. Certainly not the version that most people wanted to see hit the DC Multiverse, but that’s Todd for ya.

Straightaway, this is just an amazing sculpt. The lower half retains the blue suit, but the sculpt is still all borgified with some deep crevices and techno-organic contours. Some red bleeds into the lower legs and the feet are very robotic looking. The upper torso is all bare metal with a sculpted S-shield on the front in red and yellow and the cape attaching at the front of the shoulders. The exposed silver has a crumpled aluminum look to it with some more intricate detail in the neck. The arms have parts of the suit cut away to expose the mechanical body with some mechanized sinew in the shoulders and upper arms. The right arm has some spiked fins, and an exposed robotic elbow joint, and ends with an elongated claw, while the left hand ends in a crumpled fist. Finally, the red cape is tattered and torn. From the sculpt to the colors, this is great stuff!

The head sculpt is pretty grizzly with the upper head looking like business as usual and the flesh on the lower jaw completely gone. There’s a subtle bit of silver marking to the flesh around the forehead and brow region, which makes it look like the flesh is starting to wear off. The eyes are painted red and the coif is sculpted separately giving him an immaculate hair line.

The articulation is nearly identical to what we’re used to seeing in this line, which makes this Supe Borg a lot of fun to play with. The one deviation is the right arm, which only has a single hinge in the elbow. I’m guessing this was to accommodate the aesthetics of the big robot hinge. It would have been cool to get some articulation in the claw’s fingers, but they’re probably too thin to make that work. Instead, they have a bit of a bendy quality to them, making it still useful for grabbing other figures.

Zor-El doesn’t come with any traditional accessories, although you do get a flight stand, which is always a nice bonus, as well as the usual collector card. The flight stand also has a peg on the base, so you can detach the post and use it as a regular stand.

I was excited enough about this release to preorder him, and I’m certainly glad I did. It’s no secret that DC Multiverse gets by with its fair share of generic painted bucks to save on budget, so when we get a figure with this kind of intricate sculpting it really feels like a treat. It’s a damn cool figure, and I think it’s a worthy pick up even for collectors who weren’t into the New 52 Supergirl book. There was a Platinum variant of this figure offered, but I generally don’t chase those down. But, if we do get a Hank Henshaw version of Cyborg Supes released down the road, I will definitely pick him up.

Sep 27 2024

DC Multiverse (McFarlane Digital): Green Arrow and The Atom by McFarlane

Yeah, I don’t know what to call these damn Digital Physical releases, so I just lump them in with DC Multiverse to help sooth my compulsion for order. The figures are indeed done in the DC Multiverse format, but they are branded under McFarlane Digital. It seems like a marketing nightmare just to cater to the handful of collectors who give a crap about getting an NFT digital code with their action figure. This wave consisted of Green Arrow and The Atom, which I’m checking out today, along with Superman from Our Worlds At War and a repaint of Rebirth Batman, both of which I will only pick up if they turn up on deep clearance.

I honestly believe that Todd and the boys have gotten the message that collectors want classic versions of legacy characters, because we have been getting more of them. A lot of them, unfortunately, have been released under the premium priced Collector Edition subset, but when I saw these classic versions of Oliver Queen and Ray Palmer, I was quick to drop those preorders. Of course, the added Digital Code brings the price of these to $25, in line with the figures that have Collect-To-Build parts, but at least it’s still below that $30 Collector Edition range. The boxes are nothing special, but at least they don’t have the ugly code card stuck up against the front of the window like the recent Superman statue. On the downside, the figure stands do have McFarlane Digital printed on them, which is an eyesore. Let’s start with Ollie!

Ollie hails from the absolute banger 1987 story arc, The Longbow Hunters. It was dark, gritty, and fifteen year old me found it to be deliciously adult in nature. It also saw some significant changes to Ollie’s costume. Lord knows, Todd has a way of taking liberties with character designs in DC Multiverse, but here’s an instance where they stuck the lading. Mostly. The sculpt is excellent and does a great job reflecting the suit in the comic. The tunic sculpt creates a nice illusion that it’s layered onto the figure and features a pebbled texture reminiscent of a coarse grain leather. There are sculpted laces securing it down the middle and the hood seamlessly glued to the tunic, making it look like all one garment. The belt and lower part of the tunic are separate to allow for the waist jointing, while the shoulder strap is sculpted into the upper tunic. Boots and gauntlets are painted to match the tunic, while the figure’s body is a lighter green to represent a top and leggings worn underneath. Finally, we get an angled brown quiver on his back, which is permanently attached, and there’s a cluster of arrows to stick into it. I think this figure looks great, but I think the colors could have been more muted to better match the comic art. I will note that he looks a lot brighter under the studio lights than he does in hand. Also, I wish they had painted all the lacings down the front of the tunic yellow. As it is, it’s like they did just the top two and said, “OK, that’s enough.”

The head sculpt under the hood is really solid. They did a fine job with Ollie’s beard and mustache and I dig the mix of golden yellow and pale yellow to give it some pizzazz. The domino mask is sculpted as well as painted and if you punch in close you can see a little variance between the sculpt lines and the paint lines, but nothing too bad. As mentioned, the hood is connected to the tunic, so it does not move with the head. I actually like this a lot and you can still get a good amount of range in the neck articulation. The hood features the same pebbled texture as the tunic and has some sculpted cross-stitching along the top.

Longbow Hunters saw Ollie return to traditional archery and that’s reflected in the simple longbow accessory. It looks good and I like the way the handle is sculpted to fit his hand so well. You’ll notice there’s no string and I’m a bit torn on that. On the one hand, I absolutely hate chunky plastic strings on bow accessories. On the other hand, would it have killed you to put an actual string on it, Todd? What’s worse is the bow is extremely soft and bendy and there are no notches on the end, so I’m not sure how well tying a string onto the bow will work. You also get a single arrow, and this is kind of useless. It’s even more soft and bendy than the bow and there’s no string to knock it, so he can pretty much just hold it. The right hand is sculpted so you can get it between his fingers and just pretend there’s a string there, but it’s still all wavy and warped.

I do like this figure quite a bit, but in fairness I was more excited about getting a classic style Green Arrow than I was a figure ripped from the pages of Longbow Hunters. The sculpt is certainly there, so maybe Todd’s evil plan is to re-release it as a Platinum with more muted colors. Either way, this is my favorite look for Ollie, with the costume leaning into the past, but the flippant feather cap traded in for a more menacing hood. The bow will get a pass if I can actually string it, but I wish the arrow were cast in harder plastic so it wasn’t so warped. OK, onward to The Atom!

Unlike Ollie, this Ray Palmer release isn’t tied to any specific story, but rather just advertised as Silver Age. I’m sure The Atom has had some different looks over the years, but this is the basic costume that I know and love best. Also unlike Ollie, this figure is 100% recycled buck from the neck down, using paint and colored plastic to achieve the design of the suit. It’s the same body we saw for Booster Gold and Blue Beetle and surely more than a dozen other figures by now. I don’t have a big problem with body recycling when it makes sense and works for the character and in this case I think it does. The blue and red deco looks absolutely gorgeous and you get a little silver paint for the belt buckle, along with a crisp Atom symbol.

The portrait is pretty good, with some nicely defined facial features. The lines between the cowl and his face are all sculpted as well as painted and his ears are exposed. The eye printing is fairly sharp, there’s a little color to the lips, and you get the Atom symbol printed on the forehead area of the cowl.

Ray comes with two sets of hands, which is nice because the left gun-hand that comes on the figure doesn’t make a lot of sense, while the right fist is a appropriate. The second set includes a right pointy finger and a left splayed-finger hand.

You also get a semi-shrunken version of The Atom as a static figure. This is a roughly half-sized version of Palmer and it’s a damn nice sculpt. They matched the colors perfectly and the only thing it’s really missing are the Atom symbols on the belt and cowl.

I may not get the whole Digital Physical thing, but I’m not going to quibble when I get more classic legacy characters to put on my DC Multiverse shelf. To be fair, I’d rather get these kinds of figures as part of this subset rather than have to pay five dollars more for the Collectors Edition just to get a stand for a collector card that I will never display. A few nitpicks aside, both of these figures turned out really well, although I’d love to see a properly strung longbow for Ollie turn up in an weapons pack down the road.

Sep 16 2024

DC Multiverse (Mega Figure) Kalibak by McFarlane

A few weeks back, I checked out McFarlane’s Classic Darkseid MegaFig and I promised to come back with a look at his son soon after, and here I am to do just that! I picked up Kalibak shortly after he was released, but he kind of depressed me because we didn’t have a Darkseid or any of his cronies to go with him. But now that I can pair him off on the shelf with his dear old Dad, I’m a lot more excited about having this figure and I’m ready to bust him out and take a look!

Just like we saw with Darkseid, Kalibak comes in a very large version of the normal DC Multiverse window boxes. These do a great job displaying the figure and if I had the space to display them in package, I probably would. But, I don’t and sadly these boxes all go into recycling. By now you should know the routine: The box is mostly collector friendly, but if you want to get the stand and the Collector Card, you have to rip them off the blue backdrop. So, let’s tear into it and see what we got!

Just like his Dad, Kalibak is an absolute bruiser of a figure! His stacked upper body dwarfs his stubby little troll legs, but he still looks like a power house to be reckoned with. This figure depicts Kalibak from The New 52 Justice League story arc, The Darkseid War, giving him a modern, but still pretty classic look. The green tunic features a pebbled, leather-like texture with deep cut emblem gold on the front and ribbed gold panels under his arms on his sides. There’s a rather complex gold belt with a dark green loin cloth hanging down and lighter green sculpted shorts. His right gauntlet and boots are matched with dark green and gold trim, while the left gauntlet is truncated to just the hand and he’s got a couple of gold bands around the wrist and forearm. There’s a gold sash running across his chest, connecting to a piece of shoulder armor that looks a bit regal. The sash has raised alien symbols giving off a very lovely Kirby-esque vibe. The exposed tan skin on his arms and legs is detailed, leathery, and nasty looking, sculpted with lumpy muscles and some cuts and scrapes throughout.

The head sculpt is truly a work of art, and I’d say it ranks up there with McFarlane’s best. The troll-like face is framed by his gold head gear with his shaggy mane projecting outward. The facial features are deeply chiseled giving him an absolutely frightful visage. He’s got deep set yellow eyes, a silver nose ring, and tusks projecting up from his bottom lip. He’s also got got adorable little pointed ears jutting out of his unruly coif. The sculptors put a lot of dynamic character into his hair, which is blowing about in the back. I just can’t say enough wonderful things about how this portrait turned out!

Kalibak features most of the usual standard MegaFig articulation, but the knees and elbows are both rotating hinges, so no doubles here. And because of his muscle sculpt, there’s not a whole lot of range in these points. He can almost do 90-degrees in the elbows. The knee restriction isn’t as important to me, because he does have really stumpy legs, and I’ll mostly just have him in a wide stance with those two-toed feet flat on the ground. He comes with only the one set of hands, with the right hand balled into a fist and the left hand sculpted to hold his accessory.

And of course, that accessory is his Beta Club. This one reminds me a lot of the version included with the Kenner Super Powers figure and I dig that! It’s got a spiked knuckle guard and is cast in gold plastic. Very, very soft gold plastic. Also, the grip on that left hand is like stone, so getting this accessory into his hand is a frustrating effort. I’m pretty sure I’ll keep it in his hand for all eternity.

I’d rank Kalibak up there with some of McFarlane’s best work, and he’s definitely among my tippy-top favorite Mega Figures. Sure the look is modern, but it’s close enough to his classic roots that I would have no problem displaying him beside my DC Collectibles New 52 Darkseid, or McFarlane’s recent classic Darkseid. I’d even go so far as to say I dig him a bit more than my DC Universe Classics Kalibak, and boy that’s saying something! Hopefully we’ll see some more New Gods in DC Multiverse!

Sep 11 2024

DC Super Powers: Green Lanterns and Sinestro by McFarlane

It’s been more than a few months since I checked in on McFarlane’s Super Powers line, but I have still been collecting them! The truth is, I don’t usually review the individual figures unless I have a vehicle to bring along. As much as I love these guys, there’s only so much I can say about and do with 5-POA figures. But, seeing as how McFarlane dropped a bunch of Green Lanterns on us in the last few waves, I thought I’d just check them all out at once. Especially since I’ve been looking for an excuse to sit down and open them all! Not to mention McFarlane’s weird crowdfunding project for some new Super Powers vehicles and figures just ended and thanks to some shenanigans, we’ll actually be getting those!

The packaging for this line is so damn fine it really makes me sad to open them. And believe me it takes every scrap of my admittedly poor willpower to keep from buying doubles of every figure. And yeah, I do have a couple of extras from the first wave that I kept carded just to have an example of the packaging for display. The original Super Powers package design gives me about as much a nostalgic dopamine hit as the vintage packages for Star Wars, G.I. JOE and Transformers, and that’s saying a lot. That blinding blue and yellow deco with the red trim, the logo nestled in an exploding field of stars, it created a hypnotic state of excitement that triggered kids to beg their parents for them. McFarlane has done a beautiful job paying homage to it here without quite doing a straight up copy and the character art on each card looks fabulous. The assortment I’m looking at today includes Guy Gardner, Hal Jordan, Kilowog, and Sinestro. Hal was produced in the original Kenner line, but I don’t believe we ever got Gardner or Sinestro, and the line closed up shop just before Kilowog was introduced in the comics. And yeah, four figures is more than I usually tackle in one review, but I’ll be quick! Let’s start with Hal!

McFarlane’s Hal Jordan is not all that different from the original Kenner figure. It’s the same costume with just a bit of change to the shade of green. It hits all the same classic costume beats with the green top and undies, shoulders and boots. Add to that the black sleeves and leggings, white gloves, and crisp Lantern Corps emblem on his chest and you’ve got a pretty conservative update. I want to say the original had sculpted lines for the shoulders and edges at the top of the leggings, but this one just has paint lines. You do, however get some sculpted lines at the tops of the boots. There are definitely similarities with the head sculpt, but I think this one is much better. You also get a very prominently sculpted ring on his right hand.

As we’ve seen before, this line keeps the articulation of the vintage figures, so you get the classic five-points, plus hinges in the knees. The original figures usually had an action gimmick, but that’s been nixed from this modern line, and I can’t say as I really miss it. Hal comes with a lantern battery, which he can hold in his left hand. This is such a fantastic homage to that original Kenner figure, it’s almost like having a minty fresh original.

Moving on to Guy Gardner, this is a character I would have loved to see in the Kenner line and I think McFarlane did a great job imagining what that figure might have been like. The black, green, and white deco matches Hal’s pretty closely, but you do get a fair bit of new sculpting here, including unique boots, the collar and lapels of his jacket, along with his belt and gauntlets. He even has sculpted detail on his turtleneck.

The head sculpt is a nice balance between retro and modern-retro. The sculpt is better than we would have seen back in the day, even nailing his bowl cut. But, the eye printing really evokes that old vintage Kenner charm. Like Hal, he has a ring sculpted and painted on his right hand, and his left hand is designed to hold an accessory, but no battery for him.

The last of this assortment of Green Lanterns is Kilowog and this may be my favorite of what is a really strong collection of figures. He’s a beautiful slab of retro-styled plastic with chiseled muscles giving him just an all around magnificent shelf presence. You get sculped edges on the boots, gloves, collar, and shoulders, with just paint lines at the tops of his black leggings. The head sculpt is fantastic, and if I were to nitpick anything here it’s that the portrait looks a little too good to be a genuine retro figure. And yeah, that’s more of a compliment than a gripe. The deep set eyes look superb! Kilowog doesn’t come with any accessories, both hands are balled into giant fists, and he does have his ring sculpted and painted on his right hand.

And finally, we get a lovely classic blue-suited Sinestro, and I’ll confess I was surprised to find, when I poked around in the old Kenner catalogs, that he didn’t get a release in the original line. Here we get sculpted boots, belt, bracers, and high collar, while the pattern on his chest is simply painted on. The black and blue looks great together and there’s some white trim along the top and bottom of the belt. His purple skin color is wonderfully vibrant and really makes the figure pop on the shelf.

Once again, the head sculpt here is probably a little too good to really evoke the vintage Kenner line. His pinched face is just perfect, as is his immaculate hair. But we do get the retro-style eyes which helps keep the Kenner spirit alive. His pointed ears look sharp and even the raised eyebrows are sculpted as well as painted. Sinestro dons a sculpted and painted yellow ring on his left hand and his right hand is sculpted to hold his yellow lantern battery.

This is a great assortment of figures and represents why I love this line so much! Add these to the excellent Jon Stewart that we got in the first wave and we’ve certainly had some love for the Green Lantern Corps! And as much as I dig having a minty Super Powers Hal Jordan, it’s the classic characters we haven’t seen before that really get me excited. I’m not sure I can pick a favorite here, but I’m actually leaning a bit toward Sinestro. McFarlane initially released him in his more modern yellow suit, which may have been an exclusive, because I didn’t see it anywhere until the scalpers got him. And all I can say is I’m so very happy that the classic blue suited release wasn’t the more limited release, because this one is perfect.

Sep 2 2024

DC Direct: Superman (Jim Lee) Statue by McFarlane

In addition to their extremely prolific action figure line, McFarlane has been spinning the DC Multiverse brand into statues here and there. I haven’t gone very deep on these, but I did check out the 89-style Batman they did from that Flash movie and liked it a lot… the statue, not the movie! And when I saw the first teasers for this Jim Lee style Superman, I knew it had to be an instant preorder. But, I guess this isn’t really DC Multiverse as it’s branded as McFarlane Toys Digital and also bears the DC Direct logo.

This roughly Sixth-Scale statue comes in a wrap-around window box with another light on top to showcase the figure really well, but it doesn’t follow the usual DC Multiverse box design. You also get an ugly Digital Card pressed up against the front window, which is a shame because otherwise this would display in the box very nicely. I think the card is redeemable for the digital version of the figure. Look, I’m an old man and I don’t understand the appeal of any of this NFT shit. If they want to throw a code into the box, that’s fine, but I’m not a fan of it imposing itself on the presentation of the physical collectible. And as we’ll see, this continues to be a problem. Anyway, the box is collector friendly, but I’m definitely tossing it. You do get a standard McFarlane collectible card stuck to the back tray and the only assembly required for the statue is plugging it into the base.

Here he is all set up, and I’m going to do something I never do with statues and talk about the base first. The bit of sculpture that he’s standing on is part of the figure, while the base is just the black disk. Unfortunately, Todd decided to print McFarlane Toys Digital on it along with their logo and it goes a long way to wreck the whole thing. I mean, Why? Why in the blessed name of Ma Kent would they do this? Even Todd has to realize that the majority of the people buying this doesn’t give a crap about the digital aspect, so why plaster it on the base? Grrr… I hate it.

But as for the figure itself, well I love it! He’s appropriately beefy with his barrel chest pushed out presenting the fully sculpted S-Shield. There’s some subtle texture to the beautiful blue suit, along with the underlying musculature on full display. You get crisp red paint for the boots and undies, and a hint of more yellow for the belt. It’s a lovely classic Superman look, which I’m always happy to get represented on my shelf. The pose mimics the Jim Lee art perfectly, with Supes’ left leg up on the bird sculpture, his arms cocked back at the elbows, and both hands balled into fists. Every bit of this pose suggests some evil-doer is about to get a well-deserved ass-whooping. And then there’s the cape, but I’ll come back to that in a second…

The portrait to me is a real homerun. I’ll be the first to point out that human portraits are not usually McFarlane’s strong suit. They have been getting better, and they’ve turned out some decent efforts in their figures as of late. The statues, on the other hand can be hit or miss, but I’d score this one as a direct hit. The chiseled features, the angular jaw, the slight dimple in the jutting chin, the strong cheekbones, and the powerful, furled brow are all just fantastic. The hair is sculpted separately from the head, giving an immaculate hairline, and I dig the spikey bits and cowlick. What’s more, the eyes and eyebrows are painted perfectly. There is a gap between the neck and costume, but that’s to allow the fabric cape to be secured between. It looks a bit jarring up close, but I don’t find it to be a problem under normal viewing.

And there’s that glorious red fabric cape with the wire running throughout the edge. This garment is so much fun to pose, making me so glad they decided to go with mixed media on this piece. In addition to achieving a great approximation of the cape’s behavior in the source art, it can also be customized to your liking. Whether it be billowing out behind him or flapping off to the other side, you can do a lot of different things with it.

As for that base, well I’m going to have to do something to fix it. Whether that be painting over it, taping over it, covering it with a Superman logo sticker, there’s no way I’m going to display that logo and nonsense. Because the pegs are located in the base, it is possible to display Supes without the base at all, so that’s at least an option. Albeit one that increases the chance of him toppling over. At least he’s a solid slab of plastic, so I doubt the Man of Steel would incur any damage taking a shelf dive.

Desecrated base not withstanding, this is an excellent statue and with an MSRP of $50, I’d say it’s definitely one of the best values on the collectible statue market right now. I can think of several times where I’ve spent more than twice as much and didn’t get something as beautiful as this piece. Originally, I was planning on putting him on one of my DC Multiverse shelves, but he wound up landing on the corner of my desk, and I do believe that’s where he’ll stay for a while. The Jim Lee Wonder Woman should be arriving any day now, and I’m excited to get the two side by side!

Aug 26 2024

DC Multiverse (Mega Figure): Classic Darkseid by McFarlane

Before jumping into today’s review, I have to sadly report that my shitty old Nikon has finally kicked off. And rather than use it as an opportunity to upgrade, I’m just replacing it with the same shitty old model because it’s comfortable and I’m an old man that doesn’t like change. It’ll be about a week until the replacement comes in, so I’m resorting to use my even shittier phone camera for a few reviews. Thanks for your patience and understanding!

While I really do enjoy collecting the DC Multiverse line, it really can be frustrating waiting for those sporadic releases of classic characters. Case in point, this line has been running for nearly five years and there are so many greats still begging to be done. I don’t begrudge Todd his Batman fetish and odd eclectic character choices, but I would like to tip the scales in favor of more traditional legacy releases without always hiding them behind the paywall of the more expensive Collector releases. Well, today I get to cross Darkseid off that list. This Megafig arrived at my door last week, and even with dozens of Multiverse figures waiting for their turn in the spotlight, I immediately bumped him to the head of the line.

As with all the DC Multiverse Megafigs, Darkseid comes in a satisfyingly huge window box, showing off the figure inside. The box is collector friendly, but be prepared to rip and tear the backing of the inside tray to get the collector card and stand off. And that’s fine with me. Even though I’d love to keep these figures boxed, I would run out of room fast even if I only kept the Megafig boxes. Darkseid comes boxed with his peepers charging his Omega Beams, but I’m going to start off by swapping in the regular head.

As a Megafig, Darkseid is obviously a big boi and I absolutely love the powerful and stocky proportions here. Granted, this Lord of Apokolips is not as big as the gigantic New 52 Darkseid that DC Collectibles put out over ten years ago, but he does tower over Mattel’s DC Universe Classics version. The suit is indeed very classic in its inspiration with the sleeveless blue tunic and shorts, bisected by a simple white belt, and matched perfectly with his thigh-high boots and gauntlets. The blue plastic chosen here is absolutely gorgeous and looks great beside the pale gray skin exposed on his upper arms and legs. The upper arms are borrowed from Mongul and yeah, that kind of works if I don’t think too hard about it. Darkseid’s skin should be more granite-like and these are rather veiny, but I can live with it. The ensemble is rounded out by what may seem a curious choice of silver chest medallion and a flowing blue cape, neither of which represent any mainstream comic appearances familiar to me, but rather references Jose Luis Garcia Lopez’s art from the vintage Kenner Super Powers figure. Even the belt is a nod to that design, and I freaking love it!

The regular head is extremely expressive, with his broad, disapprovingly downturned mouth and his heavily purturbed brow ridge. The ashen skin gives way to darkened blackness around his piercing red eyes and the chiseled lines in his face look great. I would have liked to see some ancient crevices in his face, rather than just smooth skin, but I still dig what we got here and I think it pairs well with the simpler Super Powers vibe the body has going on.

The alternate head has some permanent effect pieces around his eyes as he prepares to toast you with the awesome power of his dreaded Omega Beams. I really dig the way these translucent red pieces emanate from the depths of his eyes. Here you do get some wrinkles in his forehead, and he grits his teeth as the power builds. I often stick with displaying figures with the more neutral head choices, but here’s a case where I may go with this one. It just looks so cool!

The cape is made of a super soft and silky fabric and it does have wires running along all the edges to give it that added dynamic posability. My guess is that most collectors would have preferred him without the cape, but again I just dig that Super Powers nod so much. I think it adds a sense of regality to his overall appearance and the cape is extremely fun to mess with.

The articulation is pretty typical Megafig fare, meaning you only get single hinges in the elbows but you do get the doubles in the knees. There’s a ball joint hidden behind the belt and everything else follows the Multiverse system. The elbow range is limited because of the single hinge and muscle sculpt, but he can still pull off some nice poses. You get two pairs of hands for display and these include a set of fists, a left pointy finger hand and a right grasping hand.

If I’m being honest, I don’t usually pick up a lot of the Megafigs until they hit clearance, but this was a case where I had to drop that preorder. The figure looked amazing in the solicitation shots and he looks every bit as good now that he’s in hand. Even better, the turnaround on this one from preorder to shipping seemed super quick. Sure, I would have liked to see this one be 100% new sculpt, but the more I play around with him, the less the Mongul arms bother me. Maybe it’s just a bit of the principal of the matter. If a character with the gravitas of Darkseid doesn’t call for 100% new sculpt, than what does? But I’m not going to let that stop me from enjoying what is just an all around awesome figure. And with Darkseid on the shelf, I guess it’s time to open up his son, so I’ll get Kalibak in here for a review sooner rather than later!


Aug 2 2024

Cover Girls of the DC Universe (J. Scott Campbell) Wonder Woman by McFarlane/DC Direct

The DC Cover Girls line has been going on for quite a while. I reviewed my first statue from this series over ten years ago! The line was mostly produced by DC Collectibles, but when McFarlane took over the license they began releasing some here and there in partnership with DC Direct. I’m not going to pretend to know how the licensing works and who’s actually producing these now, but Both McFarlane’s and DC Direct’s names appear on the box. Recently, McFarlane announced a trio of these ladies inspired by the art of J. Scott Campbell, so you know I was instantly on board! They’ve already released Catwoman, Zatanna is coming soon, and today we’re checking out Wonder Woman.

The mostly white box is similar to what we saw last time, and has remained more or less the same throughout the series run. You get some shots of the statue, a notation of the artist, and the size is roughly the same as the Catwoman statue, with both ladies measuring about 10-inches tall. That puts these a bit taller than the older DC Collectibles offerings. Inside the box, the statue comes encased in two Styrofoam trays and you get a collector card. Assembly requires attaching her right arm at the bicep band via a magnet, and plugging her right foot into the base, which was an easy fit. Let’s get her out of the box and all set up!

Oh yeah, that’s the stuff! As we saw with Catwoman, the composition is a little bit of museum pose with a hint of action. Wonder Woman stands with a slight lean to her right hip and a turn to her left ankle. Her coiled golden lasso is held firm in her right hand, while her left arm is drawn up to effortlessly deflect a projectile headed right for her face. Her one-piece outfit has a very modern vibe from the golden belt up, and things get a little more traditional below, with some abbreviated skirt flaps hanging down front and back.

All the details of the outfit are incorporated as part of the sculpt, which helps make for some clean paint lines. The red part of her corset has panel lining and is painted with a rich, glossy red, while framed top and bottom with the same quality of gold paint. All this conspires to produce a beautiful new-car-style finish to this part of the costume. The high-heeled boots are painted in red matte with some dark shading, white stripes running up the center from toe to top, and gold bands around the top edges. You get two shades of blue around her pelvic region with a darker blue making up the panties and a paler shade for the skirt pieces. And, of course, both are speckled with white stars. Her arm bracers are painted in silver and gold, and her bicep ring is gold. These pieces have a duller metallic finish than the corset, but still look nice. Finally, the skin tone is very warm and even with some pink added to the knees and elbows. All in all, the sculpted detail and colors here are very well done, especially for a statue in this price range.

The portrait is quite lovely and does a solid job evoking the JSC style. Diana is sporting some dreamy, heavy eyelids, a narrow and sharp nose, and her lips are slightly parted, revealing a flash of white teeth. The painted facial features are clean, particularly the eye liner and pupils. The flowing hair has some blue shading to evoke that classic comic book panel coloring, and I really dig the way it bunches up to her right, swirling in a flurry of defensive action. The portrait is rounded out by her gold tiara with a central red star.

The coiled lasso also contorts a bit from her defensive maneuver, with one end curling up into the air. The paint on mystical rope looks good, but I would have liked to have seen a little bit of sculpted detail to the braid. What we got gives it a bit of a simple, animated look, which is fine, but a bit at odds with the detail in her corset. Still, not bad!

The bullet defecting on her wrist bracer is done with a bit of translucent plastic colored in red and orange. It’s not spectacular, but it gets the job done. It would have been cool to have an actual bullet sculpted in there, or perhaps being deflected away.

The base is a raised black disk with beveled edges and a gold stripe. The face has a Wonder Woman logo flanked by stars. I like the way this is stylized and it adds some nice flavor to the base, much in the same way they did with Catwoman’s. On the flipside you get the hand numbered limitation underneath. Mine is 590 out of 945. The limitation is a lot smaller on these than it was in the old days, when 5200 was the magic number.

Like Catwoman, Wonder Woman retails at $139 which, if you count for inflation, is probably pretty close to what the older Cover Girls sold for. I included a shot of her with the Stanley Artgerm Lau piece from 2016. I still enjoy to display that one and it’s fun to see how the series has evolved over nearly a decade. As for the new ones, well, I really like both of these JSC efforts, with Wonder Woman edging out Catwoman as the favorite of the two. From a design standpoint, I think there was just more to work with than this one, and the final release came a lot closer to what was solicited. They do look nice paired together, but I have Catwoman displayed with some other Catwoman pieces and Diana here will be going to my Wonder Woman display. Still, I’m excited to see how the trio will look when Zatanna joins up!

Jul 29 2024

Batman (1966 Retro Series): Joker, Penguin & Riddler by McFarlane

Late last year I started digging into McFarlane’s Retro 66 Batman line by checking out Boxing Batman and Riddler, as well as The Dynamic Duo and The Batmobile. And since then, I’ve let this line fall to the wayside and it’s long past time I get back to looking at some of these figures again. I’ve waxed nostalgic in those previous reviews with my love for the TV series, so I won’t go through it again here. I would imagine that people who didn’t grow up with it don’t know quite what to make of it’s goofiness. You kind of just had to be there. Nonetheless, I’ve been sitting on a lot of these figures and vehicles for a while, so today I’m going to serve up a look at a triple trifecta of terrors in the form of Joker, The Penguin, and The Riddler!

As we saw last time, these figures come on colorful generic cardbacks with bubbles that showcase each figure quite nicely. Beside the figures are the accessories, which in this case all amount to just the fighting exposition balloons that you can clip onto their wrists. I don’t hate these, but I would have rather we got something else in terms of accessories. We certainly didn’t need them with every damn figure. Either way, take a good look because we’ve already seen what these are all about and I won’t be showcasing them much in the review. These packages are not collector friendly, so let’s get to tearing. I’ll start with Joker, move on to Penguin, and I’ll just touch on Riddler a little bit since I already checked out the Boxing version. Also, I’ll be staging these figures in McFarlane’s Villains Lair playset, which I may or may not come back to review in the future.

Cesar Romero will always be the first person that comes to mind when I think about The Joker, although I can happily acknowledge that we’ve certainly had some great versions and performances since. Here, Joker comes wearing his rather iconic pink suit. There’s some nice layering here to the sculpt with the jacket and waist coat worn over the sculpted green shirt and cravat. I also love how the coat tails hang down the back in the old-timey style. There’s some sculpted detail in the jacket, including lapels, a chest pocket, and buttons, but only the buttons on the waist coat are painted black. He’s got black shoes and the gloves are painted purple and feature some decent detail to the stitching.

The head sculpt is excellent and sports a solid likeness of Romero. My only nitpick is that they didn’t sculpt his mustache, which they used to just paint over with the clown makeup, but that’s a minor thing. The green hair is sculpted separately from the head, giving it an immaculate hairline. I love that they sculpted him in the middle of an open mouth laugh, and the printing for the makeup, eyes, and eyebrows is all sharp. McFarlane isn’t always known for great likenesses, but they definitely nailed it here.

The retro-style nature of these figures comes in the limited articulation, but that’s not to say it’s simple 5-POA. You actually get rotating hinges in the knees, shoulders, elbows, and wrists, a swivel in the waist and a ball joint in the neck. The most archaic and limiting thing here is the T-crotch, which offers no lateral movement, and the complete lack of articulation in the ankles. It’s also worth noting that Joker’s coat tails keep him from sitting down. There’s still fun to be had with here, but the limitations can be frustrating, especially if you’re used to McFarlane’s DC Multiverse offerings. And if you want to pose them in anything like an action pose, stands are recommended.

Need I say it? When I think about The Penguin, the image in my mind will always be Burgess Meredith. You have to understand that I was almost 20 years old by the time anyone else had portrayed these villainous roles as live action characters. And talk about perfect casting, Burgess was a master at his craft in being over the top sinister. Here he is sculpted in his tuxedo with an open coat and a white, untucked shirt. He’s got white spats sculpted onto his black shoes and white gloves. The outfit is rounded out by a pink bow tie. Because bow ties are cool… QUACK! The sculpted details on his white shirt are pretty soft, but it is textured, so that’s something. They got his portly dimensions down perfectly too.

As for the head sculpt, this isn’t the slam dunk that we got with The Joker, but it’s still very good. The paint and facial printing is decent and I like that the monocle is a separate piece of clear plastic attached over the eye. The smile looks good, and yes, it’s a shame we couldn’t get his cigarette holder poking out of there, but I’m guessing that was prohibited by Warner Bros. The purple top hat is sculpted separately from the head and permanently attached.

The articulation is the same as we saw with The Joker, but for some reason Penguin doesn’t have peg holes in his feet, so that’s annoying. And he’s another character with coat tails, so he can’t sit down. McFarlane really should have considered that when they put out a playset for these figures that centered around a table and chairs! Also, it’s pretty unforgivable that he didn’t come with his umbrella. How do you release The Penguin without his umbrella??? They did include one in the Villains Lair playset, and I’ve included that with the figure in the above shot. Neither of his hands are sculpted to hold it, but you can hook it around his wrist.

Finally, three’s Frank Gorshin as The Riddler, and yup… he’ll always be MY Riddler, but he hasn’t exactly had a lot of competition since. This is essentially the same figure we saw as a Boxing variant, only sans the sculpted trunks and boxing gloves. The rest of the costume is identical and looks good. I liked when Riddler wore the suit and bowler hat, but I think this tended to be the more iconic look for him in the show. The question marks are crisply printed against the green body suit, and I love that they sculpted his loafers. He does have peg holes in the feet and since there’s no coat tails, he can actually sit down… finally someone can!

This is definitely the weakest head sculpt of the three. It’s a passable likeness, but the sculpt is rather soft and it’s not a terribly iconic expression. The hair is sculpted as part of the head, but the mask is separate, so that adds some nice depth to the portrait there. Maybe part of the problem here is that Gorshin doesn’t have as many over the top characteristics to pin the sculpt to, but in the end I think it’s serviceable for the scope and price point of line.

These figures retailed for about $17.99 each, which isn’t bad for the scale and quality, and I think most of them have been reissued since the original releases. In my experience these could be tough to find in the wild, because the pegs were often clogged up with some of the less desirable variants. I really enjoy these figures and I respect the commitment that McFarlane has made to keeping this line going. It’s undoubtedly a niche market, being retro-style figures based off a show from the 1960’s and that makes it all the more impressive that the line has been so expansive. Obviously, these aren’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but I’m thrilled to have these villains on my shelf and inhabiting their lair. But we’re not done with the villainy yet. Next week I’ll be back with four more baddies to join the cabal. Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel!