Welcome to the January 15th edition of our ongoing Fwoosh Reviews. Today we will be taking a look at- wait, what? January 15th is still more than a month away? But we have our review of the new Mattel DC Universe Classics Space Heroes Two Pack that is exclusive to www.mattycollector.com for you to see. Should we wait until January? Of course not! Let’s see them in brand new First Look.
Toy Guru and Matty came through for the fans once again and have sent us an advanced copy of everyone’s favorite stranded 52 heroes, Star Fire and Adam Strange. They comprise the first set of what are promised to be quarterly web exclusive DC two packs first debuted last July at the San Diego Comic Con. How did they do from prototype to final figures? Let’s take a look. Oh- and if you are just here for the pictures, go ahead and skip on down to the bottom. It’s okay, I understand.
Adam Strange seems like a nice enough guy so we are going to go ladies first with this and start with Starfire. Koriand’r from the planet Tamaran is sporting (what little there is) of her more modern-esque costume. The purple paint is quite clean and stands out well; it also has just a hint of pearlesence that gives it that patented "space age" look. She has some nicely sculpted details in the costume as well with her collar, gauntlets, arm band and the little red and white dealy on her underwear all sculpted to the usual Four Horsemen standards (I thought for sure that the latter would be painted on at least).
Kory here is primarily made up of the DCUC series 2 Harley Quinn body and it works fine, I think I would have personally like it better if she was a little bit bigger (thick build and taller) but that is a minor nit. I have always like the contrasting purple of her costume and orange of her skin and she certainly holds true to that, even though her skin tone is a somewhat more drab orange than originally shown in the prototype at SDCC.
The head sculpt is the strongest part of the figure however, and I personally like it a lot. The Horsemen have shown that they have the ability to make female faces feminine but stately at the same time, and Starfire follows in the tradition of Bat Girl and Wonder Woman. Her eyes are very clean and the green looks just right for the character. Her hair was originally the biggest concern for me way back when I was considering in my mind of what a Starfire figure would look like. I know she is an alien and her "big" hair was a major part of her look back in the Perez days, but I was never such a huge fan of it. I am glad to say that this figure does have the long, full hair (VERY meticulously sculpted, by the way) but it looks modern and sensible. Nicely done on that.
One of the biggest points of contention about the figure was the apparent "uni-boob" she looked to have from using a base body of character that wears a full shirt. Honestly, it doesn’t bother me, and it is not all that noticeable. No, she is not Chesty LaRue, but she is fine. It is hard to tell with lit pictures but I don’t even notice it. I will leave the final verdict to everyone individually, but I honestly think most will not have an issue.
Overall, I like this Star Fire figure quite a lot. She is a very unique looking character that will stand out on the shelf, which is always good, but she also helps fill out some important spots in the collection- she is a female figure (can never have too many of those), she is a very important member of the Teen Titans (Vic needs someone to stand with) and Dick Grayson has his first, of what I hope to be many of his, ex-girlfriends.
Titan by trade Starfire may be, but she spent most of the time during the weekly 52 book stranded across the universe with her two pack partner, Adam Strange. While I certainly like the figure of our Tamaranean princess, Rann’s most famous resident is the real stand out of the set; he is very well done figure indeed.
Mr. Strange here is sporting his modern costume (appropriate for this two pack, after all) and he has many sculpted and paint details that came out really well. If you are a fan of jet packs, then this is the figure for you, however, if you are more of a Cosmic Odyssey fan than of 52, you can continue to keep hope alive for a classic version of Adam.
For the body, he appears to be Black Manta pretty much from neck to toe. The jet pack and harness (not removable) are very accurately portrayed on the figure and his pistol (pew pew!) fits right into the included holster. I was a little afraid that the pack would make him a little back-heavy and that he would have some trouble standing, I am happy to say that that is not the case and he balances with no effort. I know this is a smallish thing too but I really appreciate the little (sculpted) stars on his collar, a subtle but nice detail. He also has a nicely sculpted (and painted) head. Let’s face it, Adam’s helmet is much more memorable than his mug and, surprise, surprise, the Horsemen nailed it. Long live the head fin!
Most of his other costume details are realized with paint and masking, and when dealing with a character that has lots of transitions from red to yellow to white, you better have some good quality control standards up and running or the badass from Rann could easily turn to a nightmarish rendition of Ronald McDonald. I am happy to say that, despite some pretty wide-spread quality issues Mattel seems to be having, Adam Strange is crispy clean with the paint. I will let the pictures do the talking but as you will see, all of the colors stand out from each other and the little white lines are very smooth.
Finally, I feel that I should address the overall quality of this set since it seems to be such a hot button issue as of late. Honestly, there are no outstanding issues with the set. All of the joints are fluid and work well and the paint is solid. I realize that some people have been having trouble in this area but hopefully this is a step in the right direction.
In conclusion, check out the pictures and decide for yourself, but I do recommend being on www.mattycollector.com on January 15th to grab one of these sets. Starfire and Adam Strange are crucial parts of the DCU and they make for a couple of great figures. Plus, this online exclusive execution makes for some great possibilities (including our first foray into Earth-3 with the next set) for mining the corners of the DC Universe.
I want to thank Toy Guru and Matty for sending this along for us to share, keep up the great work, guys!
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