We hope you have enjoyed your servings of MOTU and Ghostbusers First Looks, but you did not think we were going to leave our beloved DC Universe out in the cold did you? Well, lucky for the fans of the original comic universe, we have a ton of stuff coming your way. Matthew K has been supplying the DCUC series 18 coverage and we still have some Green Lantern Movie Masters and DCUC 17 pictures to show you. But first we are going to kick off your viewings of the all new Young Justice line with a peek at the six-inch deluxe Robin figure. Man alive does this young Dick Grayson come stocked to the teeth. Come on in and check him out.
I know that Cartoon Network is doing everything in its power to make seeing episodes of Young Justice next to impossible (seriously, their director of programming needs a pink slip and smack on the back of the head), but it really is a great show. DC really knows how to do the animated shows and while we are only a few episodes in, they are establishing a rich universe with lots of interesting characterization story lines. I dare say it could be the heir apparent if it gets the actual network support it needs, I know the fans are doing their part.
Not to let the show go unheralded in toy form, Mattel is rolling out a variety of figures across two different scales (the six inch featured here and a four-ish inch we will show you soon). Back when these were fully debuted, this deluxe line really caught my eye, especially Robin. As you can see, they come packaged in a box about the size of a normal DCUC 2-pack and the contents make good use of the space. Upon opening this figure my hopes were realize – aside from the adoption of the style of the cartoon, these are essentially DCUC figures in terms of shape and articulation. I think that is a very positive point for the line.
The figure itself is a smaller DCUC-type body (think Tim Drake Robin) with the costume from the cartoon. I noticed this in the El Dorado figure that came this time too, but the quality of these figures is quite high. All of the paint is clean, joints are tight and the plastic is strong but not too shiny. His short cape is also quite flexible so you can get full movement.
The articulation is right in line with what you would expect from a DCUC figure and if you collect that line, the YJ Robin follows the scheme formula point for point. As I said, his joints are tight, strong and have no gumminess to them so you can get him into a lot of cool poses.
Really, the only thing that really makes this figure feel like it is from a totally different line from DCUC is the head sculpt. As you can expect, it is modeled off of the source material and the YJ cartoon certainly has its own style. It is kind of a cross between the Bruce Timm style and what the 4H are doing with DCUC. He certainly has an angular chin, there is no mistaking that, but if you take that away, he can *almost* pass for a DCUC figure. Almost. As it stands though, I think that if you want to cheat this Robin into your DCUC collection, he can work.
Robin also comes armed to the teeth with a ton of accessories; this, I believe is one of the major selling points of the line. He has a staff, two Batarangs, a grapple, two yellow disk thingees and his holographic “wrist-top” computer. He can hold all his accessories firmly and they are all 100% new sculpts, no reuse or carry over from DCUC. The real winner of the group is the holo-computer though, it looks great, has a lot of detail holds well to his wrist. Very well executed.
Finally, he comes with a huge honkin’ rooftop base and I think this might be my favorite part of the whole package. As you can see, it is huge, like three figures can stand on it comfortably and it has a lot of detail. The bricks are well done and I really like the gargoyle that perches on the corner, it makes the roof feel very Gotham-like. There are also a few strategically placed foot pegs that will allow you to put Robin (or just about any other six inch figure) into some really fun poses. I REALLY like the idea of including these bases and I am really hoping that this line takes off so we can get some more. A back alley, a Batcave, street corner – they would all make really cool display pieces.
I have to admit that I am not usually a huge fan of media-other-than-comic-book-bases comic book characters, but this Young Justice Robin is a lot of fun. He follows the style of the cartoon very well, but makes use of the articulation sensibilities of DCUC. He is also a very well made figure with tons of character-appropriate accessories and a huge display base. That is winning. We will have a Look at the Artemis figure in a few days but as I said, as long as the cartoon can go (that means YOU Cartoon Network) hopefully this line will be around to support it. We might just be able to build a whole city at some point.
*Thanks for checking this out and thanks to the DC team at Mattel for sending Robin along. We will be back with a ton more DC stuff over the next several days!
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