We now turn our attention from the JLA to another major DC team that gets some roster help in DCUC 15: The Teen Titans. Raven finally arrives on shelves and you have no one to blame but yoursef – she was the winner of the second annual Fan Choice poll! Like the Question that came before her, the Four Horsemen really did this daughter of the devil- er, I mean Trigon, some plastic justice so you will be glad to have this Raven on your shelf – forevermore!
Like most long-storied teams in the DC Universe, the Teen Titans have had several incarnations, eras and countless line-ups throughout their history. However, in the DCUC line, we have really gotten a kind of hodge-podge of eras thus far. Kid Flash is kind of Silver Age since he is so small, Beast Boy could be called modern (or Doom Patrol, of course) along with relative newcomer Jaime Blue Beetle, and the iteration of Starfire, where as Cyborg and Donna Troy are (to me) very Perez/New Teen Titans. I think that we will eventually get other versions of some of these characters to build proper teams, but I am happy to say that as a NTT fan first and foremost, I got the Raven I was hoping for.
Even more toward that point, she might be in competition for one of the best DCUC females so far. She has a lot going for her and it looks like everything just clicked for her. She shares a torso with series 13’s Cheetah figure, but most of the other basic body parts are a great improvement over the former. Like most Four Horsemen figures, nary a detail in for or costume has been overlooked and her raven cape clasps are accurate to the source and she even has the little bindi jewel thingee is present on her forehead despite being mostly covered up my her hood.
From a body structure standpoint, this bird has nice legs. Seriously, and I don’t mean that in a objectifying way (even though toys are objects) but more so than just about any other DCUC female, her legs have nice shape and definition to them, especially in the calves. Her hips have also been reworked so that she doesn’t have that splayed leg thing going like some Cheetah figures and she can stand up nice and straight. Her biceps are another bright spot too – Raven does NOT have little girl stick arms – yay!Her arms are slightly shorter than Cheetah’s but when they are at her side, they look natural where they fall. Her gloves do have sculpted lines at the top and her index fingers even the rings, so that is a cool little detail.
She has a fairly serious expression, which is appropriate to the character, and her hood does not interfere with her neck articulation in the least. Like her Martian Manhunter counterpart, her costume is sculpted in a very soft plastic so it is pliable and the dress does not interfere with the leg articulation. Her cape is the same and is flexible all the way up to those weird points (the one costume touch I have never been a fan of).
At first, Raven was one of the figures I was least excited about in this series, but I have really taken a shine to her. She is an excellent female figure and I hope that Mattel and the Four Horsemen continue to make strides toward making consistent superior females, they certainly did the fans justice with their pick in Raven.
*Thanks for reading, going to try to get another First Look up today, stay tuned!
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