We said we would never do it. After the last time, we swore we would never get the band back together. Reunions tours are so overplayed and stifling creatively; no, we were destined to go our own ways to write our reviews and no amount of money Pabs could throw at us would be enough to get us back together again. Nope, we have no price.
…
Okay, so maybe we aren’t in a band, playing shows and rocking out. In fact, we are a rag-tag group of like-minded toy collectors that like to come together (virtually) to write about DCUC action figures. Thinking it through, I can’t imagine anything further from the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle. Okay, so we aren’t a glam-rock group. And we don’t get paid. And I don’t think Pabs actually likes us, but he can’t get rid of us! And now, neither can you!
So, if you have a care, join the regulars for the usual – Matthew K, Ibentmyman-thing, Prodigy, Robokillah, VeeBee, canonball and DisThunder wax geeky about new toys. Oh, and if you want you can sing the review to yourself, then you might feel like a rock and roll type.
Figure 1: Robotman
My most anticipated figure from the series does not disappoint for the most part. The headsculpt matches his classic appearances perfectly as does his chest sculpt. The arms and legs have a little more muscle definition than I prefer to see on Cliff since they are re-used parts, but he’s been drawn that way in the past, so I feel the re-use is justified.
The paint on this guy is good and shiny – The metallic quality matches what I interpreted the colorists’ intent was in the books. I also appreciate the tiny little tampo they used on his chest piece. That tiny little bit of detail really pops for me on this mostly uniformly colored figure.
The brain cap feature works and looks great and is a pretty cool touch. The cap stays fixed on his head tightly, so there is no fear of losing that piece. The plastic quality is really nice and most of the joints have good range of motion and are nice and stiff. The only downside for this whole figure is the restricted head motion. He basically only has side to side swivel motion. I feel like that really limits the poseability and the amount of character you can put into poses.
Overall, a solid figure only held back by restricted neck articulation. I really hope we get the rest of his Doom Patrol mates soon in this line (at least Niles, Negative Man and Elasti-Girl).
Figure 2: Beast Boy
Beast Boy, Changeling, Doom Patrol, Teen Titans…Garfield Logan can’t seem to make up his mind about names or teams sometimes, but he’s no less a hero because of it, albeit a green-hued hero that can change into all types of animals, insects and assorted creatures.
Beast Boy’s action figure is a basic DCUC smaller “teen” base body which fits his young years, and has an added nuance that is very Beast boy: a nice set of hairy arms and hands. They could stand a bit of darker green drybrushing to pop the hair out a bit, but that could hazard overdoing, so it’s a nice little addition that is trademark Gar. Beast boy’s not just a funky name: dude’s got some hair.
His costume is well done, and while I would have preferred the Classic red and white Changeling costume for his first DCUC figure, this is perfect for his time in the Doom Patrol, and for fans of the Titans cartoon. Due to a dedication to team building, I’m sure we’ll get the classic version down the road anyway, so everybody will win.
Beasty comes with a green version of the eagle that came with the Wonder Twin set for a nice transformation mode, but people are going to want to buy plenty of in-scale animals to paint green to reference the zoological cornucopia that he’s transformed himself into over the years.
The headsculpt captures a nice youthful look, with nicely pointed ears just peeking out around his hair. It’s evocative enough that along with the green hue, is unmistakeably Garfieldian. And not the cat.
And speaking of the green…it’s a nice, vibrant shade without being overly neon, or too dark. Green can go wrong sometimes depending on the shade, but they hit just the right color color.
I had no stuck joints or mismatched limbs on mine, however he has the limited neck movement that’s becoming an all too common complaint nowadays. Not sure what that’s about, but it’s the only minor quibble. Overall, he’s a great looking figure that has a place in two growing lineups depending on your proclivities.
Figure 3: Joker
Every once in a while a figure will come out and I’ll get it and honestly think “I’ll never need another _____ action figure.” Meaning that this figure I’ve gotten is so perfect, so dead on a representation of the character that I never need another figure of him. This will be on my shelves forever.
With DC Universe Classics Wave 10 Joker I feel exactly that way.
Joker is such a great figure. He’s classic Joker all the way, and reminds many of the Super Powers Joker, but to me it’s just iconic Joker. The 4H outdid themselves with him.
Besides his overall sculpt being perfect, his face sculpt is also dead on. None of that puppet looking Hush Joker head sculpt here. This is classic “Clown Prince of Crime” Joker. It’s the Joker I grew up with so it definitely has a fond place in my heart. Well, as much of a fond place that an insane, psychopathic , mass murdering clown can have that is.
There’s so much detail in his suit sculpt, and little things like his flower and teeth just stand out as an added touch that put this figure on top of all the other Joker figures out there. His paints are very nice with the purple being rich enough along with the pin stripes on the pants. The orange of his vest really makes it stand out above the green shirt. Everything about the paint job makes him pop. Now, not only is this figure perfect but he also comes with three kickass accessories:
A laughing fish:
A Cane with a Joker sculpted into the handle:
And of course his mallet which also has a haunting laughing Joker face sculpted into it:
Now the one drawback here is that he didn’t come with the gun they originally intended him to. Not a deal breaker for sure, but it would have been nice. So for now I’ll have to use other guns for him to take shots at Bats with.
Articulation wise he has the same amount of poa as most other DCUC figs. The only poa that’s lacking at all is the neck. It’s a ball joint but it doesn’t move quite as fluidly as you’d like. Hopefully that gets fixed in future waves.
But besides the lack of a gun and the neck thing he’s great. One of my top five figures in the DCUC line for sure, and maybe one of my top five figures I’ve ever gotten. I’m excited to add him to not only the DCUC collection but my toy collection in general.
Plus, Harley finally has her puddin back.
Figure 4: Powergirl
When the guys got together and asked who I wanted to review, all I could say was “I like boo….okay, Power Girl.”
I did not have much exposure to Power Girl before jumping head first into the JSA, and she quickly became high on the list of characters I would like to see in toy form. And no, it’s not because of her physical attributes. She’s a strong lady with a strong personality. And she kicks ass. A lot of ass.
I was very happy to learn that she was going to be an action figure. Even happier when we finally saw her. Now that I have her in hand, she’s awesome, but with some tweaks she could be perfect.
First off, the body is what we’ve come to expect in the DCUC line. With the enhancements, it’s unmistakeably Power Girl. Everything works great. But I can’t help but feel she should be a little….beefier? Give her some tone. And some costume details. She is a bit thicker in the arms than we’ve seen in the other females so far. But a little more muscle definition would have put her over the top.
Now, the head. I’ve seen a lot of posts about how it’s not the greatest head for our girl. But personally, I like it. Yeah, it’s a little flat in profile, but it reminds me a lot of her look in the current series with the hair shortened a bit. And the hair sculpt is very nice. Could have easily been straight down, but the 4H went the extra mile and added some layers and such.
As seen in waves 8 and 9, we again get a head with no up and down movement. There is a little, but not much. Not nearly enough for flying poses. But oddly enough, she has more than a little tilt side to side.
Finally, the breasts. After years and years of speculation that “_________ can’t be released to mass retail because she’s too exposed” we get a Power Girl. Through Wal-Mart, no less. Sure, she’s seemingly packaged in a weird pose in an attempt to hide the twins from unsuspecting consumers. But still. It’s Power Girl. In a retail line. They are a fine sculpt, look like the source material for the most part, and I’ll leave it at that. Woulda been a crime not mention them though.
Figure 5: Man-Bat
The wait is finally over! We’ve been waiting for this repaint (or original paint as I think the regular version was planned prior to the SDCC repaint but scrapped) since the rebirth of the DCSH line into DCUC and now he’s finally here. I have the albino SDCC version and I think this version is the superior figure.
If you don’t have the SDCC figure, you should be aware that the articulation on this guy is a little different from your standard DCUC figure. The commonplace outward hip hinge and thigh swivels are not there. He does have a couple of different points of articulation in the legs and really nice hinged wrists. After seeing Green Arrow and this figure so close together it’s got me wishing they would add the wrist hinge articulation to all figures going forward.
One cool way this version is nicer than the SDCC version is they did not flock the ‘mane’ that runs down Man-Bat’s back. It’s a really nice sculpt and painted nicely to highlight that sculpt.
I also really like the semi translucent wings on this version. The sculpt is really nicely detailed with a leathery texture to everything including veins and tiny little worn holes on the wings. I think the darker color helps me appreciate the detail more than the lighter SDCC version.
Overall this is highly anticipated repaint of an earlier exclusive and it improves on the original release. I’d love to have a few of these figures.
Figure 6:Forager
This figure has seen release for just about a month now, but he already has a storied history with me. First off – I don’t think it is any big secret that I have an undying love for Jack Kirby’s New Gods/Fourth World stories and characters. Thus, I love the love that they have been getting in this line so far (and I REALLY want it to continue long into the future) and I think that Forager here is probably my favorite heroic New Gods figure to date.
When I was fortunate enough to review a set of DCUC series 10 as a first look, I decided to allow a certain big fan of Forager the first crack at looking at him, so I am glad to finally take a look a this figure. First, there is no denying that Forager has a very unique look about him. It is classic Kirby all the way and I remember when I was younger be really surprised when I learned that Forager actually wore a mask and he did not have a big red head. He was never my favorite New God, but I really did like that he was the “everyman” of that mythos, much more accessible as “bug” to the common human condition.
Forager went on to have a major impact in the seminal Cosmic Odyssey story where he won the ultimate respect of Batman as well as the Dog of War himself, Orion, who before always dismissed him as being a simple “bug”. When Orion accompanied Forager’s body back to the colony it was the pinnacle of the humbling of a God in fantastic melodramatic fashion – probably one of the best things that Jim Starlin has ever penned, at least I think so. And Ron thinks so.
For the figure itself, he is a fantastic example of shared tooling executed extremely well. For all intents and purposes, Forager is Black Manta in terms of his base body. However, through a hybrid of old and new parts, you would never begin to notice it. I really love the soft overlay they used for the upper part of his costume, it provides accuracy to the page without compromising the articulation. The head sculpt is also a stand out as he looks like he stepped off of the cover of New Gods #9.
So, I am really pleased to add Forager to my shelf and I am glad that he has Fourth World friends and foes to keep him company. I like this figure so much that I don’t even begrudge it for taking the spot of the originally planned Mark Moonrider from the Forever People, Toy Guru and crew just need to get cracking on that one right now though…
What? Like I wasn’t going to get through this whole thing without mentioning the Forever People.
Figure 7: Batman
When the line-up for wave10 was first revealed, the all-black Batman didn’t garner much attention. It’s a mold we’ve seen twice in the line already, with wave 1 and the 5-pack, and the figure’s all jet-black color scheme certainly wasn’t going to draw attention away from the Joker or Power Girl’s awesome… cape. It was “just” a repaint. Add the fact that the purchase of this Batman isn’t necessary to complete Imperiex, and many fans of the line decided to pass on this figure in an effort to save a few bucks or because this Batman didn’t seem like an essential addition to the collection. Heck, fans can’t even agree on what this particular figure’s look is even based on. Was it created in homage to 1989’s Keaton Batman? Is it another comic-accurate look based on Morrison’s work? (Remember – this is the Internet. It can’t be both! Now, fight!) Who knows? Does it even matter? Heck no it doesn’t, because this is a kick-ass Batman that may very well be the best one released in the line so far.
The all-black look is subtly awesome. It’s easy to dismiss at first, but this is such a great look for the character even if a fan doesn’t experience pangs of childhood nostalgia when gazing upon it. The black gives the figure a more threatening, menacing look that the previous DCUC Batman figures lacked. Given that Batman’s movie appearances have been nothing but black, black, and more black, this could be the Batman figure that resonates the most with newer or more casual fans as well. It’s just a great look for the character in general, and while it presently is not my default Batman, I am leaning in that direction more and more every day. I love it.
This Batman got the shaft in the collect & connect department, but he comes with some fun accessories that make up for that and add lots of play value to the figure. First, he comes with a folding “bat-laptop” that is highly detailed and looks corny and cool at the same time. It’s actually shaped like a bat and he can hold it comfortably in both hands so he can update his Facebook status or do bat-math without much fuss. It’s handy. Secondly, he comes with what is probably the coolest looking batarang released so far. It’s bigger, thicker, and more stylized than the previous batarang that came with the wave 1 figure. The fact that he can actually hold it and wield it is a huge plus, particularly when I recall the pile of batarangs the old DCSH Batman came with that he couldn’t even hold. This one makes up for all those. And finally, he comes with a stand. Same stand as we’ve seen in the past. I’ve got about five of these now, and I’m beginning to rely on them in order to help several of my female figures stay standing, so Batman happily donated his to Black Canary.
In an alternate universe, where wave 10 is plentiful, if any figure from this wave were going to peg warm, this would be the one for reasons previously mentioned. But this figure has two things going for it – Batman seemingly never peg warms, and this particular Batman just plain rocks. I urge collectors to not skip him because he is a truly awesome addition to the collection.
Collect and Connect : Imperiex
Let’s talk Imperiex. Imperiex is proported to be living entropy; in chemistry that’s the potential for chaos in any measurable– On second thought, let’s not talk Imperiex. The guy’s basically a quantum wrecking ball that gets to do Darksied level damage without having put in the years for real bad guy cred. The concept, let alone the character, of Imperiex is pretty dumb.
But the figure? Pretty sweet.
It’s not hard to see the attraction in doing this character in plastic. His design (Ed McGuinness and Ian Churchill, I think) has a lot of great armor-meets-Apololips details that really shine using the black, maroon and gold color scheme. He’s imposing, kinda old-school, and has a bit of decaying zombie thrown in for good measure. As a kid, you’d likely make this guy a real bad-ass in your backyard brawls. As an adult, he’s just going to be one of the best looking figures you never wanted.
His size is pretty impressive next to the other C&Cs. One thing I like in particular, is his armor and overall style lends him some bulk, getting him substantially bigger looking. His relative Grundy height makes him not one of the tallest, more in the mid-range, but his more comic-ish build makes him more imposing than the guys his size.
In a lot of ways, for me this exemplifies the C&C concept’s strength. With someone like Killowog or Grundy, for example, you might be in on the wave just for the C&C alone. Here, wave 10 is full of top-notch figures, so Imperiex really does kinda come as an added bonus. Like I said above, I’d imagine he’s not real high on the old wish-list for anybody, me included. But, I have a feeling this will be one of those figures, and maybe even one of those characters, that people will seek out later on, cursing themselves for not completing him.
*Thanks for checking out this reunion tour and rest assured – like it or not, we will be back in a couple of months with series 11.
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