“No language on this planet has a word for the… immensity of the evil we’re up against.”
I’m going to be very honest with all of you; I have been dreading this review. Not for the obvious reasons, fortunately enough. This figure is incredible, and Mezco absolutely delivered on a very epic order. The reason for my dread and procrastination is my doubt that I can properly convey this in a few words and pictures. And perhaps because I might be written off as just another Mezco fanboy, not wanting to bag on his latest and most expensive investment. Certainly, over the years I’ve lobbed plenty of criticism at different lines across different companies. But it’s honestly never been a part of this that I have enjoyed. It might sound weird to hear it from me today, but I absolutely hated chronicling the decline of Mattel’s DC Universe line. As that series unravelled, I was able to see clearly that with the departure of a certain few players, the driving forces of that line were almost completely devoid of passion for what they had evolved their work into. It was more about making things “cost out,” or hiding shortcuts behind “design choices” than it was about delivering a product they could be proud of.
I bring this up because whatever this line does- good, bad, and everywhere in between- it is done with passion. Even when something goes wrong, I would argue it’s possible to trace back and see where the intention was. And maybe it’s because of that, even when I’m critical of a One:12 figure, I can still see why they tried what they did, even if it didn’t take. That is a passion I used to see reflected in someone like Scott Nietlich’s work- even if I wasn’t a fan of all of his favorites, I could appreciate the effort he put into them.
So Darkseid is a serious gamble, a heavy wager even for this line. The usual cloth and plastic construction is almost third to die-cast and polystone. He is a deceptively simple figure, with a streamlined layout and clean lines. And that simplicity hides a ton of effort made to balance function, form, and aesthetics into a figure that exudes an almost effortless confidence.
The first thing along that list of prerequisites was clearly his size and heft. From early on, Mezco knew just how big and heavy they wanted Darkseid to be in their universe. Interestingly, he has a much more Silver Age mass than the New 52’s King Kong take, but if you were to pit those two against each other, I have little doubt this version would still best that monster in raw power.
Darkseid is appropriately thick, but he doesn’t fall into the tendencies of making “big” guy with giant arms and pin-heads. He has a pretty large dome, but it sits on a thick core, supported by some massive legs and flanked by some big (but not huge) exposed arms. He is oddly proportionate, and those proportions tell you this beast does not move; everything else moves for him.
I was somewhat among those who were concerned about the use of polystone and how it may affect things like articulation and durability. But that was something that factored into this design early on, as the plastic “composite” parts for the joints, the clearance made for them to work, and even the paints and coating were engineered to keep those parts their needed function and durability. It might lack the resillience of a usual plastic part, but the more I move him around, the less I worry about it. The cloth tunic hides just about all of that articulation perfectly, and I like the Kirby touches added to it. The gloves and boots have excellent paint and a lot more detailing than I expected. I particularly like the metallic nodes on his gloves- I could easily see him plotting the path of the anti-life actolytes on his forearm like a QB play.
And so it comes down to the articulation, where I had expected the least, and was impressed. He isn’t super-poseable, but he is poseable. His articulation is geared toward regal stances, powerful punches, and big gestures. He can punch, he can kick, at least to a degree. As asinine as it might sound though, he’s build to stand around and look intimidating. So he has a ton of range in the head and neck, a good torso joint, and a surprising amount of shoulder and wrist range. Those allow the somewhat limited 90-degree bends in the elbows (althought the swivel is nice) to still deliver some great poses.
For accessories, Darkseid got to upgrade my favorite parts of his Super Powers self in grand fashion. First, he got his cape back- in fact, I don’t know that I’ve seen him depicted with a cape since. The cape rests on his shoulders with the help of two giant die-cast shoulder pauldrons, and when I’m not messing around with him, that’s usually how he stays, ready to James Brown that thing off and go to war at a moment’s notice.
The second is the LED eyes, and the added bonus of optional faceplates. Usually, I can narrow it down to a standard look, but I can’t settle on this one- the enraged battle damage, the classic stoic, and that amazing Mike Mignola grin all just rotate through. The omega effect head is really cool in hand with some low light, though the LEDs don’t quite illuminate the entire beam. But when you want Darkseid to show some “mercy,” it’s a tough one to top. Whichever you prefer, they all take on severe presence when lit up. And the battery life is not half-bad. I left him on the whole time I took pictures.
I remember being just a little jealous of how much fun VeeBee was having back in the DCUC days when that line got heavily into the Fourth World stuff. It’s never really been my thing. But I will be damned if I’m not pining for a One:12 Kalibak or a crew of Parademons.
Are there things I may have done different, had I been in the left seat? Maybe the articulation, and maybe just slightly. I would have been trying for a little more range in his arms. Maybe I wouldn’t have gone polystone- then again, I would have never thought of it in the first place, so that’s sort of an end-run around itself. But here’s the thing about this figure; I can tell you what I might have tried to do, but I sure as hell couldn’t tell you how. And I couldn’t guarantee that it would have worked any better than the choices they made. To put it with a lot less prose, Mezco knocked this one out of the park. He is expensive, and while it’s not hard to see where that money went, I can understand the reservations on making that investment. But I would tell you that if you’re okay with the price, you won’t be disappointed. Darkseid will be one of those figures we’ll still be talking about for years.
