Needless
Things & Zenescope Entertainment
Present
The
Winter Wonderland Contest!
If
you listen to the Needless Things Podcast
and visit Needless Things, you could win a Wonderland prize pack from
Zenescope, which includes:
*One
Alice action figure sculpted by Clayburn Moore, as reviewed here on Needless Things
*One
Grimm Fairy Tales: Wonderland board game
*A
trade paperback collection of the Wonderland
comic book from Zenescope Entertainment
Just
send an e-mail to phantomtroublemaker@gmail.com
with the subject “Winter Wonderland” telling us one item you
would take with you if you were going down the rabbit hole into the
wild world of Wonderland.
Be
sure to include your name, phone number (in case we need to contact
the winner), and mailing address.
Contest
runs now through midnight on December 13th,
2014. One entry per individual.
*****
I
am so excited that these figures are finally coming out!
Of
course, this beign the world of toys, that excitement is tempered by
the fact that I am also discovering the flaws in the figures. DC
Collectibles had a strong couple of quality control years in 2012 and
2013, but 2014 has seen a return to some of their old ways. The
Arkham
video game figures have been suffering from dull design or fragility
on some cases. And both of the animated style figures that I have
picked up so far have broken in some way. Not good.
But
before I get to that I should talk about Catwoman.
Julie
Newmar is my Catwoman. Lee Meriweather was cute in the movie and
Earth Kitt was probably actually the best
Catwoman, but Newmar was first and was darn good. When I think of
Catwoman, she’s who I picture.
My
favorite
Catwoman, though, is the one that appeared in Batman:
The Animated Series
as voiced by Adrienne Barbeau. While we never got much in the way of
a backstory, this animated Selina Kyle was a fully developed
character with her own interests beyond whatever relationship she had
with Batman or Bruce Wayne. She was an animal rights activist and
even a player in Gotham City’s high society social scene. Like
almost every character depicted in the DC Animated Universe, Catwoman
was written with depth and substance.
Before
I get into the review I want to talk a bit about DC Collectibles’
release strategy for these animated figures.
Rather
than releasing these figures in cases together all at once, DCC is
putting out one at a time. They aren’t quite weekly, as we had
Batman
one week, then Catwoman, but nothing last week. But I think spreading
them out is a very good idea and probably should have been mentioned
when they were offered in Previews. The idea of buying one
twenty-five dollar figure a week (or less often) is somewhat less
intimidating than shelling out a hundred bucks at once for all four
figures in a series. As a matter of fact, if DCC made a point of
offering these like a monthly subscription (a model that has seen
some success elsewhere)
or even weekly if they really needed to, I feel like even more people
might have ordered these than did. My local comic book shop is not
exactly a high-volume store, so I don’t really have a gauge of what
the orders were for these. I was the only customer that ordered a
Catwoman there and they didn’t order any extras, but I can’t
imagine this is the case most places. I fully expect this line to be
a massive hit, but with DCC price points beign what they are I think
it needs all the help it can get. Spacing releases out would be
smart.
FIRST
GLANCE
Catwoman
is very tiny compared to Batman, which is refreshing to see. I still
have all of my old Kenner Animated Series figures and the scale in
that line was not great. The joints on this figure are not overly
invasive aside from the hips, which are a little ugly. But overall
this is a sleek Catwoman that looks just like the cartoon
counterpart.
PACKAGING
I
want to write a song about how much I love blister cards every time I
see a blister card from a company that I typically associate with
clamshells. DCC seems to be moving away from those ugly, hazardous
things, but it still makes me happy to see that cardboard cardback.
This
line has taken the numbering route, which I like. Each figure’s
insert features which cartoon its look is from. Someday I hope to see
inserts with Justice
League Unlimited
printed on them.
The
back is simple. I’d like a profile, but I also know darn well who
Catwoman is and throw the packaging in the trash anyway, so whatever.
LOOKS
My
lousy pictures do not convey just how excellent this head looks. The
sculpt and proportions are just perfect. Her mask is sculpted and not
just a paint job. The choice to have her mouth open was great. You
almost expect her to start talking. Or maybe it’s just really late.
I’m tired.
Her
body is sculpted with the curves of the cartoon character and the
designers chose to leave out any kind of abdominal articulation, as
that would have interrupted the profile. I think it was the right
call. The hip joints are a little ugly and there’s nothing you can
do about that. Otherwise the lines of the figure are great.
The
gloves and boots are well defined. The boots are actually separate
pieces with swivels at the top, which would be great if not for:
Yeah. That makes two of these new DC Animated figures that have broken – very easily and with careful handling, by the way – out of the two that I’ve bought. Not good.
Side
Note: We also picked up the Lil’ Gotham figures for my son. Harley
broke almost immediately. I touched one of the little pompoms on her
hat and it practically fell right off. DCC really
needs to get their act back together or I’m going to have to
rethink my love for them.
Catwoman’s
hands look great and are delicate and fortunately quite sturdy. I was
absolutely positive that they were going to break, given what
happened with Batman,
but they didn’t.
Catwoman comes with a stand, Isis the cat, a whip, a diamond necklace, four extra hands, and what I think are binoculars.
I’m
certain the necklace and binoculars are episode-specific items, but
despite the fact that I’ve seen every episode of the animated
Batman series multiple times, my knowledge is not encyclopedic. I
know Isis the cat because she featured in many (if not most) of
Catwoman’s episodes, but I couldn’t tell you what the bag of
jewels Catwoman stole in her fourth appearance looked like.
Regardless, both of these items look neat. The necklace has a lot of
detail and a good paint job. It doesn’t fit over Catwoman’s head,
but she can hold it and you can put it on Isis, as well. Which I
think is a thing that happened.
The
binoculars look like what binoculars in the world of Batman:
The Animated Series
should look like – that is, what people in the fifties might think
binoculars would look like in the future. Catwoman can hold them with
a couple of her hands, but she can’t be posed as though she’s
looking through them , which kind of defeats the purpose. Also,
there’s no paint on one side to suggest lenses, so maybe this thing
isn’t binoculars, after all. Maybe it’s a magnet (how do those
work?).
The
whip is rubber and nicely sculpted. It comes curled up, so it’s
going to take a while to straighten out. But if you leave it hanging
from the figure’s hand long enough gravity should do the trick.
The hands are in various useful poses and are hinged at the wrist. They are sturdier than they look (sturdier than Batman’s hands, anyway) and are fairly easy to switch out – but do be careful doing so.
The hands are in various useful poses and are hinged at the wrist. They are sturdier than they look (sturdier than Batman’s hands, anyway) and are fairly easy to switch out – but do be careful doing so.
Isis
looks great and
is functional. She has joints on all four legs and her tail and can
sit or stand on her own. It’s also relatively easy to get her to
sit on Selina’s shoulder. This is a great little accessory that
really adds to the value of the figure. If certain other companies
had produced this figure it almost certainly wouldn’t have included
Isis.
And if it had, Isis would have been a non-articulated lump of plastic that probably wouldn’t stand up on its own. This little cat goes above and beyond.
And if it had, Isis would have been a non-articulated lump of plastic that probably wouldn’t stand up on its own. This little cat goes above and beyond.
Finally
there’s the stand. I normally despise stands as accessories, but
these are cool and have reference art printed on them. Catwoman’s
stand is a little more involved than Batman’s. The clamp has two
supports rather than just one. I guess this is because she’s
smaller, but I really don’t know for sure. Either way it works well
and looks neat – far superior to typical foot peg stands, in that
this one actually supports the figure.
I
really
wish that this figure had come with an unmasked Selina Kyle head.
Actually, I was shocked to open it and see that there wasn’t one.
Batman didn’t come with a Bruce Wayne head, but for some reason I
thought we would get an unmasked Selina. I suppose DCC might have
secret identity figures somewhere in the road map, but I’d really
prefer just heads to stick on the costumed bodies. While I do think
that these figures are worth the price, I don’t necessarily want to
spend this for a guy in a suit or a lady in a dress. I would,
however, be in favor of a pack of alternate unmasked heads.
And
I suppose an undamaged Harvey Dent figure is a must.
DCC did a very good job with articulation. There’s not much you can do to hide joints on a female form in a skintight catsuit, but for the most part Selina looks good and her joints are all quite functional. The figure might not have quite the range of motion of the character, but it can still achieve a satisfying number of poses.
The
accessories definitely add to the fun. Isis was a great addition that
could have easily been overlooked and the other stuff is neat to
have.
I think I might actually like this figure more than I liked Batman. That one is great, but this Catwoman just seems to have so much personality. I don’t know if you can really tell from the pictures, but that face is so spot-on.
4
out of 5
Make yourself (and us) happy and buy a Catwoman from the Needless Things Amazon store!:
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