Toy Review: DC Unlimited New 52 Wonder Woman By Mattel

When DC Comics first released the overly-complicated, super-riveted, and just generally 90’s-looking new designs for the Justice League of their New 52 universe I wasn’t thrilled. They all seemed lame and gimmicky – like an attempt to create a uniform design for characters that should not have uniform designs. Rather than possessing any individuality or varying functionality, they all looked like they had been designed by the same guy. A guy who might be great at graphic design, but maybe not so good at storytelling.

Sorry. My intent here is not to bag on DC. They just make it so easy.

           The bottom line is that Superman, Green Lantern, and Flash do not need armor plating. Batman obviously does, and while I am okay with his new design, the loss of the trunks does bother me. They tried that years ago and it looked weird and didn’t stick. Honestly, they should have just gone with the Arkham game designs.

I am also okay with Wonder Woman having armor. She’s an Amazonian warrior, and while there are certain anatomical inaccuracies (well, one anyway) in that department, I approve of her costume looking more armor-y. So I liked the New 52 look. Actually, I would have supported and even more armored look. But I like what we got and was planning on buying a Mattel figure of the look as soon as they announced one.

As often happens with these things, I went a while without seeing one. Then, as soon as I found a Wonder Woman, I saw a few more in different stores. And now I’m going to take a look and see how Mattel did: 

 

I’m definitely disappointed in some of Mattel’s choices.

• I think the legs are okay, but Wonder Woman should have some larger arms.
  
  
• That puny sword is puny. I gave mine the axe and shield from that old DC Direct Wonder Woman. The gold doesn’t match, but that weapon set just looks great.
  
  
• The "Made In Chine plus 8,000 other facts" stamp on her back is inexcusable.
  
  
  
  
  
• Aside from the paint disaster on the New 52 version’s hip, I think this figure - in concept - is an improvement over the original DCUC Wonder Woman. That one has some ugly seams and that costume design just doesn’t appeal to me as much. If the execution on this one had been more competent it would be an amazing figure.

 

3 out of 5

I wanted to like this one, but that abdominal seam and the butt strap are just too weird. The score took a hit because of hat ugly paint error, but I’m guessing that not all of these will have that. I might even try buying another one to see if I can get a clean paint job. Despite my relative dissatisfaction, I am replacing my old Wonder Woman with this one.

-Phantom