Hello,
Phantomaniacs, and welcome to an all-new year here on Needless
Things! I’m going to be trying out some different toy review
formats in the coming weeks, so let me know what you think.
I’m not going to pretend to be some
kind of expert on Huntress, or try to claim that my initial interest
in the character went beyond that fact that she wore purple and very
little of it. But in the years since I first remember her standing
out – probably during the mostly excellent “No Man’s Land”
crossover – I have grown to like the character quite a bit. Whether
she’s the daughter of a mobster or of Bruce Wayne and Selena (or is
it Selina? I always spell it with an “e” because I had a friend
in high school that spelled it that way so it seems right) Kyle.
Though I prefer the mobster’s daughter story. It speaks more
strongly to me. Not that I’m a mobster’s daughter or anything –
it’s just that whole “sins of the father” thing is such an
effective and life-spanning narrative device. That can motivate a
character pretty much forever.
I came in to Gail Simone’s Birds of Prey late, but caught up quickly. I love that series and Huntress was my favorite character. I also loved how Huntress was portrayed on the Justice League cartoon. The showrunners went so far as to focus several episodes around her and they were some of the best of the series. Of course, it helped that she was teamed up with The Question.
Of course, in current DC continuity we
have the Helena Wayne version and she hails from Earth 2. I
thoroughly enjoyed the initial miniseries by Paul Levitz (one of the
men involved in creating Huntress in the first place), but once she
moved over to the Earth 2 book I dropped out. It was a good
read, but I just didn’t want to deal with another continuity. The
New 52 is straining to keep my attention as it is.
Naturally, since DC is currently using
Helena Wayne, Mattel decided to produce the Helena Bertinelli
version. Not only that, they put her in a costume that is a decade
old. This is how Huntress looked in the story “Hush”. She has
since been clothed more fully.
But the bottom line is that at least we
now have another member of the Birds of Prey team (though we’ll
almost certainly never see an Oracle).
FIRST
GLANCE
Huntress is one of the more
eye-catching DCSC figures that has come out this year. She has a lot
of extra little parts going on that differentiate her from some of
the more basic spandex-clad crowd. Looks like she has more new parts
than I had expected, as well.
PACKAGING
The DCSC window box that seemed so full
of promise but was all empty lies. Allow me to refresh your memories
– it was once claimed that this packaging would allow for a greater
volume of variety and accessories in the figures. Basic retail
packaging limited what Mattel would be able to do, but with these
boxes the sky was the limit! Figures could be different sizes! They
could come with assloads of accessories! Maybe even cupcakes! Just
please give us your money!
Obviously this was all utter horseshit.
Still, I like this excessively large window box. It’s easy to open,
they look nice, and they do present a uniform look for the line.
I will say this, at least they didn’t
shoehorn the New 52 Huntress bio onto this figure.
LOOKS
While this is the basic DCUC female
body, there are enough new bits and pieces attached to it that it
feels pretty original.
The head looks great, and I have to say
that this is the one place the Horsemen almost always nail it.
They’re great with masks and hair, and they have a knack for
creating distinctive faces at this scale. The hair is dynamic without
looking like the wind is coming from a particular direction and the
mask has clean lines and a good profile. The paint looks good. The
eyes are centered and the lips, mask, and hair all stay within their
boundaries. I’m particularly impressed that there’s no bleeding
between the mask and the face.
Huntress has new boots and gloves, a
new cape and belt, and a bunch of new pouch thingies. POUCHES. You
know, people make fun of the whole pouch thing from the 90s, but
where the heck are people who dress in spandex supposed to carry
stuff? I will always defend pouches! Of course, I have to wonder how,
exactly, thigh pouches stay put without any kind of support…
All of the new parts make a huge
difference. Huntress feels like she’s a step above most of the DCSC
figures and even a lot of the DCUC ones. Which brings me to an
important point – most of the DC Signature Collection has felt like
bargain versions of DC Universe Classics. I know Matty’s line about
the sub being underfunded or under-subscribed or whatever, but they
still charged the same ludicrous amount for the figures. But Huntress
holds up to the DCUC retail line (not that all of those were stellar
entries into action figure history).
The sculpting on the belts is
fantastic. All of the flaps and buttons look great and are
well-defined and they even have paint apps. I’m not crazy about the
fact that the shoulder pads are painted on, and I’m less crazy
about the fact that Huntress has purple armpits:
I like purple a lot for a white dude,
but even I have my limits.
The cape hangs well and is a good
length. I like how the clasps do appear to be fixed to her costume
rather than just floating around her chest somewhere. The paint is
good on this piece. Even the white is solid and applied cleanly.
I’ve got to say, the paint app…
wait…
WHAT THE HOLY HEAVY FUCK IS THAT!?!:
Mattel. You have got to be fucking
kidding me with that. Totally unacceptable. What moron thought that
was okay? Seriously.
ACCESSORIES
Huntress comes with an plain,
non-detailed crossbow and that’s it. As much as I dig metallic
purple, I would have liked to see some paint on this thing. And more
gear. Huntress has smaller, pistol-grip crossbows, a staff, and a
quiver of bolts. None of that is here. And the crossbow we got is
made of rubber, which is crap.
FUN
Huntress has a good amount of
articulation, but like most of the DCUC figures much of it isn’t
satisfying. Her elbows, knees, and ankles don’t bend quite
far enough. Her shoulder joints do work well and have a good range of
posability. Her hips are the same ugly joints that I’ve been
disliking since the very first DC figure I bought from Mattel.
There’s just no way to make that look good. The figure can’t
squat, but it can achieve a lot of poses that suggest action of some
sort. And I’m still very impressed by how the Horsemen handle
figures with long hair – the head movement is never as restricted
as I expect it to be.
Huntress was fun for about as long as
it took me to take pictures for the review. In the long run I am not
going to have any desire to take her off of the shelf and play with
her. But she does look good with the rest of the DCUC collection.
OVERALL
While Huntress comes closer to being a
good value than most of the rest of the DC Signature Collection, she
still isn’t worth the twenty-whatever dollars she cost. But this is
a figure I might’ve paid that for at retail. I think that will be
one of my new criteria – if I saw this at retail for the price I
paid online, would I buy it? I don’t feel like this is the best
Huntress Mattel could’ve made, and I am knocking a whole point off
for that hideous and unacceptable manufacturing number on the foot.
3 out
of 5
Good review, PT. While I pretty much buy any Batman related figures in the 6 to 7 inch scale, even I skipped most of the Club Infinite Earths stuff. I'm hoping to get them someday from someone selling off a collection or in a trade. I'm sticking to my DC Direct Hush Huntress for now.
ReplyDeleteAnd there ain't nothing wrong with a white guy liking purple. Embrace it and dress head to toe in that stuff!
There weren't an overwhelming number of Bat-centric releases in the DCSC line, so that's understandable.
DeleteAnd I do. Frequently.