I don’t
usually review toys that I buy for my son, as that would get
overwhelming, but since these are pretty much the replacement for the
DC Universe Classics figures I thought I should at least cover the
initial offerings. I was going to start off with a rant about how
thanks to Mattel’s foolish mis-management and weird character
selection and inflated prices we’ve seen the official end of the DC
Universe style 6” scale action figures. I mean, I’ve certainly
predicted it enough times.
But you
know what? That style of figure has lasted around a decade in one
form or another and I have to admit that it’s pretty impressive.
Mattel may have (definitely has) made a lot of terrible decisions
regarding the various DCUC lines, but they managed to keep the 4
Horsemen designed figures relevant for a long time without long-term
media support.
But now
that Horsemen style is done and we have a new look for 6” scale
figures based on DC Comics. I hate to tell you that I don’t know
who sculpted them, but I don’t. I do know that the new sculpts are
good and Mattel got their money’s worth because they are clearly
going to get a lot
of mileage out of very little sculpting.
The new
retail line is called DC Total Heroes. I found the first four
releases on Amazon right after Christmas and couldn’t help but
order them, ostensibly for Lil’ Troublemaker. I got Batman,
Superman, Aquaman, and Flash.
FIRST
GLANCE
All four
figures look pretty sharp, but are clearly intended for a younger
audience. This doesn’t mean they are limited in sculpt or
articulation, but the style is halfway between the DCUC style and the
recent Target Exclusive Justice League figures (which themselves were
an evolution of the Batman: Brave and the Bold and Justice League
Unlimited styles). These guys have pretty standard heads and bodies,
but their hands and feet are slightly exaggerated.
PACKAGING
Oh, how
I love a good blister card. These come in what is basically a simpler
version of the recent DC Unlimited boxes – minus all the extra
cardboard on the front. I like that the card has an interesting shape
and is made of a lighter cardboard. The packaging does feel cheaper,
but it looks classy. I like the graphics a lot, and while I am not
overall happy with the New 52 I do think it’s good that Mattel and
DC are integrating things. As much as I may prefer the DCU I grew up
with, this is how things are now. And besides, I have maintained
since the beginning that if nothing else these New 52 designs would
make great-looking action figures.
The back
of each card features some nice, dynamic art and a basic bio:
I enjoy
bios that are basically short stories, but we don’t really
need all of that.
There
are a few things worth noting about the packaging:
The art
is all from the comics rather than a uniform style for the line. Jim
Lee art was used for Batman rather than Greg Capullo.
While
the back of Superman’s card features a Jim Lee New 52 costume
Superman, the front features the jeans and t-shirt version done by
somebody else. Weird.
What the
heck is going on with Aquaman’s trident on that cardback?
LOOKS
All four
of these figures share the same basic body and have very simplistic
paint jobs. Once you take a closer look, though, there are enough
differences to make this a pretty neat action figure line with a lot
of potential for expansion. The figures are meant to share the same
generic looks rather than being based on any one artists’ style.
I’m actually a bit surprised they aren’t more obviously Jim
Lee-influenced.
I like
the size of the heads versus the bodies. Mattel seems to like giving
figures small heads, but these figures have decent sized noggins that
feel a little more realistic to me. Granted, other portions of the
figures are more exaggerated, but overall they look good. Batman has
the least cartoony features of the four figures, but that’s
probably because his cowl obscures most of his face.
Batman
has a grim expression and the longer ears that I prefer.
Aquaman
looks angry and has great hair.
Flash
has a very well defined mask with those little bolts sculpted on the
side. He has a smirk that is more Wally West than Barry Allen, but
it’s a nice touch.
Superman
looks a little too smarmy, but at least he isn’t all angry. I like
my Superman smiling.
Batman
and Superman share the same torso. It has armor seams like the comics
and a separate attached piece to hold the fabric capes in place.
Flash has a similar torso, but without the cape piece. Aquaman’s
torso is completely different, with scaling sculpted on and the
trademark New 52 Nehru collar (which I just realized this Superman
does not have). It looks great, but the scaling does not carry out to
the arms. I can’t decide if I’d rather just not have it at all
then not have it match.
The
figures’ forearms are oversized and the hands are also large. They
aren’t very detailed, but look good. My issue here is that Batman’s
right hand is a closed fist and his left is an open fist, meaning he
can’t hold his accessories in his dominant hand. While I’m sure
Bruce Wayne is at least a bit ambidextrous, years and years of
continuity have shown him using his right hand to throw Batarangs and
so all of the other Bat stuff he does. So this is kind of irritating.
Honestly, I would have preferred two open fists. I am not going to go
so far as to suggest he should have come with an extra set of hands.
Flash
has what could either be a running hand or a karate hand on the right
and a closed fist on the left. This is fine since he has no
accessories to hold.
Superman
and Flash share the same plain forearms. Superman’s have red trim
painted right at the edge. I’m glad they didn’t paint down onto
his hands like his comic book suit., It would have looked stupid. I
mean, it looks stupid in the comics, but it would have been really
bad here with no sculpt to support it. Superman has two closed fists,
which is fine because I want my Superman action figures to be able to
punch things. And he doesn’t have any accessories to hold anyway.
Aquaman,
like Batman, has fins on his forearms and the same hand setup. The
hands irritate me even more here because Aquaman has a two-handed
weapon. Both
of his hands should be open fists. His forearms are different from
Batman’s and if you think about it his fins make more sense. I do
think it’s kind of weird that his gloves are so blocky, but with
the style of the figures it looks fine.
The
belts are also pretty huge. Batman’s is the pouch version, so that
gets points. It also has little pegs on the back:
So you
have a place to store his gadgets.
That is a HUGE win.
These
are separately sculpted pieces that can turn on the figures torso –
they aren’t part of the upper or lower abdomen, which allows Mattel
to reuse those parts for other characters and simply stick a
different belt piece on. This is what they did for the Superman and
Aquaman figures. Superman’s belt is kind of silly big. Aquaman’s
is pretty awesome and gets points for being cool because I have never
noticed if Aquaman even has
a belt before.
Batman
and Superman have fabric capes that are attached to the back of the
figures’ torsos. They look great and hang well. I am usually an
opponent of soft goods on figures of this scale, but I have never
liked the plastic capes on the DCUC figures. These, to me, are so
much better. Superman's cape even has the “S” (stands for “hope”)
printed on the back, which is impressive.
Flash,
Superman, and Batman have the exact same bodies from the waist down.
I don’t care for the kneepads on Superman and Flash in the comics,
but on the figures they look cool and do a great job of hiding the
knee joints. They also have painted-on boots, which sucks. I know it
would have cost a lot more to sculpt calves for all of these guys
since their boots are so different, but this looks so lame. At least
the paint apps are clean.
Aquaman
has different calves – they have fins on them, which is a nice
touch considering that I – and most people – wouldn’t have even
noticed if they weren’t there. They also have painted-on boots,
which sucks.
I really
like the use of the metallic colors for the New 52 armor-looking
costumes.
The
black on Batman’s boots, gloves, and cowl look great and match
across the various plastics. The face and eyes are painted well. The
gold on the utility belt looks fantastic. I love the contrast between
it and the rest of the figure.
Flash is
a nice, bright red and the yellow on his costume is clean and bright.
Yellow has traditionally been a tough color to get right on an action
figure, but it looks good here. His chest symbol is clean and well
done. Obviously I’d prefer a sculpt, but this is fine. The
detailing on Flash’s head is fantastic. All of the colors stay
cleanly within their sculpted areas.
Aquaman
has the least paint of the bunch. His body is all molded plastic with
no paint, which looks fine. His hair is more blonde and less yellow,
which I like. His eyes are painted precisely under that furrowed
brow. Despite having little in the way of paint, Aquaman looks great.
I love
the shade of blue they used for Superman. It’s nice and deep and
contrasts the reds and yellows, which are all applied well. All of
the paint on his head is solid and well placed.
ACCESSORIES
Batman
comes with three accessories – a grapnel gun and two Batarangs. All
three are made of a firm rubber and are quite thick.
The
grapnel gun looks almost like one of those flintlock pirate pistols.
It has a cool shape and enough detail to look neat. The Batarangs are
identical. Each one features holes on the sides, presumably so you
can tie a string through it. These aren’t the best Batarangs ever,
but they work for the style of the figure.
Aquaman
comes with a trident, except it isn’t really a trident because it
has five prongs. It’s just a tiny bit more basic than I would like,
but it looks neat. Aquaman can’t hold it with both hands because he
has the same closed right fist as Batman.
Superman
and Flash don’t come with any accessories, which I am okay with. If
not making up some random accessory for guys that don’t need them
means we get a grapnel gun and two Batarangs with Batman or a bow and
some trick arrows with Green Arrow or (hopefully) some light
constructs with Green Lantern then I’m all for it.
FUN
Each of
these figures features the same articulation:
Head –
ball joint with about the same range of motion as previous DC
releases from Mattel - mostly just side-to-side.
Shoulders
– ball joint which works nicely as well, as the portion of the
torso where they connect is scooped out more and doesn’t restrict
movement.
Elbows –
pivot with a swivel at the top. I prefer elbow swivels to bicep
swivels even though they don’t provide quite as much posability.
It’s an almost entirely hidden joint and bicep swivels can look
terrible if they aren’t done just right. As with almost every
figure I buy, the elbows and knees don’t pivot as deeply as I would
like. But these do work better than some others.
Wrists -
swivel
Waist –
swivel
Hips –
swivel/pivot, but one that is far more visually pleasing than past
releases. The pin hinge is connected to a thigh that is rounded and
that sits separately from the lower abdomen rather than trying to
create a perfect seam. Yes – there is a visible break in the
figure’s profile. But I find this more acceptable than the
ridiculous disruption that occurred when the old style of DCUC
figures were posed.
Knees –
pivot
Ankles –
pivot, but not deeply. I really want a mass-produced Batman figure
that can squat.
These
guys lack the abdominal pivot of the DCUC line, but it doesn’t
really matter. They are just as much fun to play with, if not more so
because their hip joints don’t look horrible when you pose them.
Plus, none of these figures suffer from stuck joints or weak parts.
They feel sturdy. I’m sure it’s just the novelty of a new line,
but we played with these for a while. They’re fun toys.
OVERALL
For ten
bucks apiece, these are a great buy. They share a lot of parts and
have minimal paint (not Dollar Tree minimal, but definitely
conservative usage of color), but in a very clever way. If Mattel
continues this line and actually gets around to making a full Justice
League they are going to look pretty awesome on the shelf together.
The
style is slightly cartoony, but uniform. I like it a lot and I think
Mattel has made some good choices to keep costs down. I’d love to
see vehicles to go along with this line, particularly a comic book
styled Batmobile (which I think isn’t out of the question
considering some of the really cool Batmobiles Mattel has produced).
Here’s
a weird thing, though – I got these from Amazon and haven’t seen
them at retail yet. Batman, Aquaman, and Superman were $9.99. Flash
was $11.99. And now when I look them up, they’re all $11.99, which
is still not bad, but not the great deal that these figures need to
be to succeed. Of course, if you know anything about action figures
on Amazon you know that the prices on there range from insanely good
to just insane, so who knows what the real MSRP is on these guys.
If you
see them for ten bucks each, buy them. They’re a lot of fun and
look cool. But twelve might be pushing it, especially considering
that the new Captain America and Spider-Man Legends are showing up in
Target for $14.99 and mostly look outstanding.
Aside
from not liking the closed right fists on Aquaman and Batman, these
figures really couldn’t be much better for the price. I think this
is a fun new line and I hope it takes off. As a matter of fact, I found these at Toys R Us after I initially wrote this and had to buy a Batman for myself.
4
out of 5
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