all McF figures are like that to me. This one in particular is off because of the headsculpt, the white lighting bolt, the too tall boots, and the wrist joints being the wrong color.
My fear was the platinum editions for that JL video game wave would be standard colors that I would want and not be able to find. I can rest easy on this one.
I just watched dhunter's review of BvS Wonder Woman and it bummed me out. Better head, yes. That's where the good stuff ends, I'm afraid. The wrists and ankles are still a disaster. Those weapons....GOD! The sword is a wet noodle (like all of his swords, spears, hammers, canes, axes have been lately), the shield flops around on her wrist and looks like crap. She's still huge next to the rest of the JL, scaling is all over the place. The standard for "adult collectible" figures is getting lower and lower for these domestic companies. I've said before that I appreciate the Snyder JL and I'm searching for the best representation of that team in figure form. I honestly don't think Todd's are any better than the Mattel stuff I already have, so why bother? My only option for a noticeably better upgrade is to go with Mafex which would cost $500-$600 to complete the team. No happy medium, I guess.
(Can someone point me toward a decent 3rd party Henry Cavil head that would fit on a Mattel figure? That's really my biggest gripe about the Mattel set. Seriously. Mattel made four 1/12th scale Cavil Superman figures with four different heads and each one is bad in its own unique way.)
todds has their flaws but are INSANELY better than Mattel’s
like light years
I'll just respectfully agree to disagree with you on that sentiment. Granted I'm a silver/bronze age kind of guy but we have yet to see a basic Superman that reflects that era, a good one anyway. If I wanted every variant of Batman from the last 15-years or so I'd be good. He even did a few great Batmans that fit my Silver/Bronze age era. I think for the amount of characters and looks Mattel's stuff is tough to beat. I think a lot of Todd's stuff is kind of lazy also. We get a FA Superman using the newer armored body. In fact, too many Supermans use that body. As many figures as he's made that could use a basic spandex Superman body without cuffs, you'd think the tooling would pay for itself by now. Hell, even Christopher Reeve gets cuffs! The movie version anyway, he fixes it for the comic shaded one! Maybe they're better in terms of articulation but that's about it IMO.
Also, Mattel was easier to collect. Far too many of Todd's more desirable looks or color schemes end up as harder to get Platinums or get really lame Platinums making online buying a crapshoot. You want Swamp Thing in actual green but get the artist proof "saving on the paint budget" version! Even Amazon lets you know that you'll probably end up with the undesired version on that figure by mentioning on the listing that it's a highly returned item for that reason.
If the rumors of Hasbro and Todd swapping brands is true, I'm cool with that. I got all I want out of ML and SW, I'd love to see Hasbro's take on a DCU line. About the only thing I like about Todd's DC Multiverse is the movie stuff. Still Todd doesn't want to do women characters unless he has to so that means no Vicki Vale if he wanders into doing the first Batman film figures (and honestly I don't see him paying the likeness rights to Nicholson anyway). No Ratcatcher 2 to complete the core team from the second Suicide Squad. Will he ever get to doing older DCEU films like Man of Steel now that the new DCCU is upon us? No Zod? Faora probably wouldn't even happen even if he did.
I know he does do women characters, it's hard to do The Suicide Squad without a Harley, but I doubt he'll go back and do the Arkham style costume she wore from the opening of the film. Ratcatcher was a core part of the ensemble though. I'm sure Mattel would have given her a figure. The Harley we got was a pretty crap figure too. Looks decent but no waist or usable leg articulation due the dense rubber dress.
TL:DR: DCUC/DCSH is still THE DC figure line for this old fart collector! Too bad a lot of them are starting to yellow from age.
This was posted on instagram, there’s going to be a blue and grey platinum variant for the Noel batman
@new-batman That Platinum edition Batman looks awesome! Thanks for posting the pic. It looks sharp with the blue.
Hey, has anyone found Geo-Force yet? Mcfarlanes site says in stores now and has a link, but the link goes nowhere. But I know some folks have found it on the West Coast at least.
I'll just respectfully agree to disagree with you on that sentiment. Granted I'm a silver/bronze age kind of guy but we have yet to see a basic Superman that reflects that era, a good one anyway. If I wanted every variant of Batman from the last 15-years or so I'd be good. He even did a few great Batmans that fit my Silver/Bronze age era. I think for the amount of characters and looks Mattel's stuff is tough to beat. I think a lot of Todd's stuff is kind of lazy also. We get a FA Superman using the newer armored body. In fact, too many Supermans use that body. As many figures as he's made that could use a basic spandex Superman body without cuffs, you'd think the tooling would pay for itself by now. Hell, even Christopher Reeve gets cuffs! The movie version anyway, he fixes it for the comic shaded one! Maybe they're better in terms of articulation but that's about it IMO.
Also, Mattel was easier to collect. Far too many of Todd's more desirable looks or color schemes end up as harder to get Platinums or get really lame Platinums making online buying a crapshoot. You want Swamp Thing in actual green but get the artist proof "saving on the paint budget" version! Even Amazon lets you know that you'll probably end up with the undesired version on that figure by mentioning on the listing that it's a highly returned item for that reason.
If the rumors of Hasbro and Todd swapping brands is true, I'm cool with that. I got all I want out of ML and SW, I'd love to see Hasbro's take on a DCU line. About the only thing I like about Todd's DC Multiverse is the movie stuff. Still Todd doesn't want to do women characters unless he has to so that means no Vicki Vale if he wanders into doing the first Batman film figures (and honestly I don't see him paying the likeness rights to Nicholson anyway). No Ratcatcher 2 to complete the core team from the second Suicide Squad. Will he ever get to doing older DCEU films like Man of Steel now that the new DCCU is upon us? No Zod? Faora probably wouldn't even happen even if he did.
I know he does do women characters, it's hard to do The Suicide Squad without a Harley, but I doubt he'll go back and do the Arkham style costume she wore from the opening of the film. Ratcatcher was a core part of the ensemble though. I'm sure Mattel would have given her a figure. The Harley we got was a pretty crap figure too. Looks decent but no waist or usable leg articulation due the dense rubber dress.
TL:DR: DCUC/DCSH is still THE DC figure line for this old fart collector! Too bad a lot of them are starting to yellow from age.
I feel the knee-jerk reaction when comparing old toy lines to new is, "The new line is better because".and then they list the various advancements that have come along in the last 20 years. That's correct to a point. But you have to look at whether or not new toy line is actually TRYING to be better, trying to improve upon itself, trying to be innovative. Or are they just resting on one or two particular "advancements" and saying, "Great, we can just repeat this for 10 or 15 years".
I agree with all of your Todd criticisms. It doesn't cost more to give the right parts to a character's costume. It doesn't cost more to make a character the right height. That's laziness. It doesn't cost more to make female figures. That's ego. Two years ago I would sing Todd's praises over Hasbro, now I just see them both as lacking in their own unique ways. I personally don't see a whole lot where McFarlane or Hasbro are trying to improve upon itself or investing back into their lines.
I'm with Zombie in that I still look at my Mattel DC figure collection and prefer it to the McFarlane offerings most of the times. I absolutely abhor the proportions that McFarlane chooses to use for his figures. I know it's a stylistic choice but the leg length to torso size ratio is just ridiculous on so many of his figures it's tremendously off putting. The heads are often very small for the body size - McFarlane heads are often the same size as heads on many 6" figures. Todd is also slavishly devoted to oversculpting texture and little details that are unnecessary and distracting rather than aesthetic improvement.
Some of the articulation on McFarlane's figures is unquestionably better than Mattel's was 20 year's ago - but some of it isn't; the mid foot joint he employs is problematic far more often than it is useful and his choice to employ the diaper for the lower abdomen is just as off putting as the t-hips Mattel used.
At the end of the day if you like what Todd is doing then you do. And if your are a Batman fan (looking at you Dhunter) then clearly Todd's got your back in a big way. But for me I keep buying the periodic McFarlane figure for one reason or another and inevitably they are some of my least favorite of the things I own.
Todd is the only one with the DC license (outside of Mezco's cloth costumes which I loath even more - or super expensive imports which stick to the same 10 characters ad infinitum) so there's nothing to do about it. But my DC wall in my display room is still my Mattel DCUC collection and Todd isn't going to change that.
Add me to the "DCUC is hard to beat" chorus. Can't believe we got such goodness for ~$10-12 a pop (and complained about the price increase at the time).
So, is Geo-Force not being offered online? I went to the website looking for him and couldn't find him. I'd likely buy both versions if I found them.
While I was on Target.com though, I ended up picking up the Batman/Hush 2-pack for like $14 and ML Avalanche and Longshot for like $7 each. They also had an old Joe Classified Roadblock for under $10, but I passed on that.
In regards to the DC figures, I've found figures from all of DCC/DCD, Mattel and McFarlane that I like but my favorites are still from Mattel. I have at least one version of every character made by all 3 companies. Most of my displayed DC collection is still from Mattel but I have plenty of DCC/DCD and McFarlane mixed in at this point. I've never puchased a MAFEX or Mezco DC figure. My biggest complaint with McFarlane continues to be scale and wonky proportions. I've left most of McF DCM figures unopened.
With that being said there are still a lot of McFarlane DC Multiverse figures that I like. My favorite McF figure this year is probably Lucius Fox (I have both versions). I agree that McF seems to do best with their movies figures, which I generally don't buy a lot of, because I prefer comic based figures. I think that my favorite McF figure last year was the movie stealth Aquaman that came with Topo. The John Cena Peacemaker figure is still one of my favorites from the McF line. The Frankenstein megafig and Frost King Collect to Build are also both pretty great. Grifter, Ghost Maker, Godspeed and the first Zod are all pretty good also. I remember really liking the Suicide Squad movie and Batman Beyond figures that were put out early in the line. I've also bought almost every vehicle that McF has put out and they've generally been very good. However, I don't know if I have much of an appetite to buy any more Bat vehicles at this point as I could fill most of a room with what I already have. So there have certainly been some hits, but I still strongly prefer the Mattel stuff. To each their own.
Hasbro's Marvel Legends line is still my primary line, though and I don't see that ever changing. I would be mortified if they ever lost the license to McFarlane, even moreso than I was when the DC license originally went there and I remember being absolutely pissed when that happened.
The one reason I love McFarlane over DCUC is because of the glut of artist specific figures. Sure, we get a wide variety of figures that give us a nice menagerie of the DCU pantheon. But they are almost too homogeneous to the point of being generic. After a certain point they don't look like characters from the comics, they just look like DCUC figures.And after 12-13 years of collecting Mattel, I was getting a little tired of that. Even Kenner switched things up back in the day with their various toy lines. But admittedly, while I'm a bigger fan of Marvel than I am DC, there is a larger pool of artist specific works from DC that are near and dear to me. Which is why I just love seeing these artist specific recreations from Todd.
The one reason I love McFarlane over DCUC is because of the glut of artist specific figures. Sure, we get a wide variety of figures that give us a nice menagerie of the DCU pantheon. But they are almost too homogeneous to the point of being generic.
That's interesting - because I think that is a point FOR DCUC, not a strike against it. I pretty much HATE artist specific figure renderings in a cohesive figure line representing a broad shared universe.
Like - for a line like McFarlane where you are going to get 1,000 different Batman figures, sure, fine, do Batman the way various artists depicted him - fine. But if I'm only going to get one version of a DC character for my shelf I don't want it looking wildly different from another character it might stand next to. I don't want an Ed McGuiness Power Girl standing next to a George Perez Wonder Woman next to an Humberto Ramos Flash for instance. I would HATE that.
Different strokes for different folks but I like my universe building display to be cohesive.
Oh, we're having a McF VS. DCUC discussion?....interesting!
To be fair, both of those lines have their bad and good things. McF is alittle more realistic and better Articulation and DCUC was more cartoon-y but super fun.
I also like the stark variety between figures that is a result of artist-specific styles. For example, First Appearance Batman is probably my favorite figure so far and he looks like he's from a completely different line than another of my favorites, TDKR Batman. Having said that, it's not as "collectible" from a display standpoint, and I really don't buy a ton of these things, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.
DCUC is one of my top 2 favorite toy lines EVER! MOTU Classic and DC Universe Classics are my two favorite toy lines ever. I loved them both so much, I was a completest with both.
As far as DCUC vs McFarlane, I like both lines so much. But it will be hard for any DC line, or any toy line for that matter to ever top DC Classics for me.
That being said, every time I open a McFarlane DC Multiverse figure, I am happy. The look, the feel, the size, the articulation of each figure, they just make happy. I even tried to stop buying the line to save money, and just couldn't. It's too cool of a toy line. So, I made cuts elsewhere. McFarlane Multiverse figures just seem so sturdy and quality too. Well, almost always, there have been a couple that have had some QC issues over the years. But his figures seem to just get better and better as time goes on.
But I collect Marvel legends and Star Wars Black Series. They are $25 each, as are Mcfarlane DC Multiverse figures. And when you put a Hasbro Star Wars or Marvel 6" figure next to a DC Multiverse figure, it's always shocking that the toys could be sold in the same price range. McFarlane's figures seem bigger and better.
And don't get me wrong, I really like Legends and Black series. It's just McFarlane's DC figures looks and feel superior to me, and they cost the same.
So, I have a lot of love for DC Multiverse. But DC Classics will probably always reign supreme in my heart. But we'll see. The longer Todd makes DC figures, and the more and more characters we get in this line. Someday, it may be the winner to me.
If Hasbro and McFarlane switched licenses they may be inadvertently be saving me from myself, as I'm definitely not rebuying everything in a different aesthetic/scale.
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