Mattel’s newest wave of DC Superheroes has started to pop up. Reviews of the all new Lex Luthor, Darkseid, and Brainiac are featured in this article. How do these newest additions to the DC collection stack up? Find out inside!
Sculpting:
Brainiac, Darkseid, and Luthor all feature the new S3 series sculpts associated with the Four Horsemen. The Rehash Superman also has this logo on his package, but lets be honest there’s nothing new or special about him. Luthor shares the same midarm region and legs as Mr. Freeze though his calf sections face forward correctly unlike the Mr. Freeze figure. The rest of Lex is completely new with lots of little details like the grid around his neck, and the addition of small rivets, wires, and vents. His armor looks very nice and there’s quite a lot of room in the shoulder wells and head case for movement. The skirt is a soft yet taut plastic, from an engineering standpoint it seems a bit unnecessary for Lex to add a skirt to battle armor but it does add a bit of color in the mid section.
Darkseid is the biggest of the lot and he has another great sculpt. His dark blue outfit is smooth with sculpted wrinkles and waves to add realism. His exposed parts showcase small rocky indentions and cracks, and his head has a nice furrowed brow and frown to intimidate any other toys on your shelf. His body is hollow making him very light unfortunately. The Darkseid presented here is much more in line with Kirby’s classic version as opposed to the monstrous re-imagined and oddly proportioned design you’d see from Turner. Last but not least, it takes a bit of work but you can also fit in several other things into Darkseid’s open hand, including Superman’s neck for awesome New Gods choking action.
Brainiac in his Crisis appearance has lots of small details particularly in the clear shoulders cases and the brain case. Two wires connect his back to his waist and below them are two flip out controllers that are articulated to not hinder leg movement. His face is most reminiscent of a skull with two additional small sculpted wires connecting his cheeks to the back of his head. He has his characteristic pointy feet and clawed hands.
Paint:
All three have nice paint applications. I was very impressed with how clean all of them turned out and there appears to be a definite improvement in painting over the previous Superman wave. Darkseid possesses little actual paint detail being almost entirely blue and grey, but there some nice black outlines to add a touch of detail.
Brainiac has a silver scheme though it’s not metallic but it does have light blue highlights faded in and interspersed throughout. This design makes up over 90% of his body and his only other details are the shoulder and head cages where yellow, red, grey, and white mechanics are painted in.
Luthor has the most varied paint design being a mix of light and dark green armor with muted purple gauntlets and boots. In particular the paint on his face is very well done, specifically the eyes and brows. My main paint complaint with this series lies with Lex. Although his paint apps are very nice, a little more attention to detail in the rivets, wires, and folds of his legs and arms like the Mr. Freeze figure has would have added a lot more detail. As it stands his arms and legs are just a solid color.
Articulation:
Lex has ball-jointed shoulders different from Freeze that provide additional range. Twist biceps, wrists, thighs, and calves and standard single articulation at the elbows, knees, and ankles. He features the standard DCSH hip design but the skirt hinders almost all movement. His upper abdomen spins and has up and down movement as does his head, but both are limited in the actual range of up and down movement.
Darkseid features a twist waist, wrists, and biceps though the bicep twist is tucked in the shoulder similar to the new DCSH designs and is not a straight across cut. He has ball-jointed shoulders and hips, though his massive shoulders hinder up and down movement and the skirt severely limits hip movement. He has standard articulation at the elbows, ankles, and knees. He also features a ball jointed head though he can’t look up very well.
Brainiac has ball-jointed shoulders and a head, again with not a lot of head movement though probably the most of the three. He has standard single articulation at the elbows, knees, and ankles. He has cut-twist biceps, wrists, thighs, and calves. The standard DCSH hip is present as well. His abdomen moves up and down and side to side though the attached wires limit movement but on the bright side he isn’t limited in this are as bad as you think he would be. The wires actually give quite a lot and are quite flexible, so his actual range of movement is only limited by their length and not by their rigidness. He also has two small side controller devices which move up and down so that his leg movement isn’t hindered, something I wish would have been incorporated onto the Series 3 Batman.
Accessories:
The accessory choices for this series are perfect. Luthor features a piece of Kryptonite and a futuristic gun that the Kryptonite can be placed into for what one would assume to be firing Kryptonite blasts at Superman. Darkseid features a removeable mother box. Brainiac comes with no accessories. All the accessories are sculpted well and easily fit into the hands of their users, even the slender Motherbox can be held easily by Darkseid without sliding out of position.
Value:
Overall I was quite impressed with all three. Compared to their DCD counterparts all three have an edge in articulation, though the DCD Brainiac figure is close to its DCSH counterpart. The scale of this series seems to fit as well and all are roughly the right height you’d expect for these characters. Luthor is the same height as Superman. Brainiac is just a bit taller, and Darkseid stands a head taller. Dakrseid’s not oversized like Turner’s version and is more in line with his classic appearance both in scale and sculpt. I really enjoyed the sculpting on all three. DCSH seems to favor the extra articulation of its competition Marvel Legends, but they don’t allow the articulation to get in the way of the sculpt. This can either be a blessing or a curse depending on your own personal preferences. For example, there’s no bulging shoulders here like on Daredevil for example and consequently no need to fix them either. At the same time shoulder movement is limited because of this preference of sculpt over articulation and the overall range of free movement doesn’t compare to Marvel Legends in most areas. The figures are still quite capable of a good deal of movement and posing though, plus they look real nice while they’re posed with no odd proportions and bulges. The addition of accessories are nice, particularly characteristic pieces like a Motherbox and Kryptonite shard, though in today’s age of BAFs I can’t help but feel like something is missing especially at the $9.00 price tag. Overall all three new villains are great figures and I’m quiet pleased with how they turned out. The Superman rehash on the other hand is entirely avoidable. I bought him to review, but couldn’t bring myself to actually open him. He’s going right back to the store and I recommend that when you see him you leave him on the shelves.
If Fwoosh ruled the World:
I’d like to see more paint details on Luthor and double jointed elbows and knees on all of them as well as decent wrist movement. The lack of leg movement due to the skirts doesn’t bother me so much because honestly I can’t ever remember Darkseid or Luthor trying to kick something and not being able to put either in a running pose isn’t a big loss for me. A little bit more range of motion in the heads, shoulders, and waists would also be greatly appreciated, and I agree with Mattel on this, provided it can be worked out without too much hindrance on sculpt. Last but not least I’d like to see either a price drop or instead of that the addition of a BAF to the line to help justify such a hefty price tag.
Where to Buy:
All major retailers as well as online stores, though these are relatively new so they may not be available in your market yet.