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Chris Price returns to review the latest DC Universe Classics wave! 

My DC Universe Classics series 4 figures finally arrived so I thought I’d give a quick rundown on the wave. For those of you out there who shop at retail, yes this is the fourth wave. Those leftover series 1 figures at your local Target or Toys R Us are a thing of the past. If you want to get caught up on these amazing figures from Mattel it might be time to consider searching for these guys outside of the mass retail avenues. I have received all of my cases from my local comic shop who orders waves directly from Mattel. There are also some very good online stores supporting this line such as Enchantedtoychest.com and cornerstorecomics.com both of which I can personally recommend.

On to the review! The fourth wave in the DC Classics series contains Wonder Woman, Captain Atom, Cyborg, Batman Beyond, and Ares who each include a piece of the Collect and Connect figure Despero.

After wave 3, Mattel decided to switch to a new factory to produce these figures stating the desire for better quality and paint applications. I can say of the 5 cases of figures I inspected that quality of paint has certainly improved. Aside from some very small splashes of random paint on most of the Wonder Woman figures (not all that noticeable), the entire batch looked pretty clean and crisp.

Wonder Woman:
Might as well start with the biggest and best of the wave. Wonder Woman sports an all new 4 Horseman sculpt and she looks great. Beautiful face sculpt that truly captures Diana’s Amazonian appearance. With her new larger female frame than previous female entries in the DC Classics line, she also has all the articulation of her DCUC brethren.

The Horsemen have designed an all new hip articulation for WW which maintains the range of motion but hides the joint for a more aesthetic female design. WW comes with two accessories, her battle axe and sheild. The sheild snaps on to her wrist and has no trouble staying in place. My WW has difficulty holding on to the axe so it has to be pretty well balanced in her hand to keep from falling out.

The Horsemen sculpted a staff to go along with this figure but it apparently didn’t cost out so it was not included. Also, Diana’s famous lasso has unfortunately been sculpted onto her waist and is not a removable accessory. Another negative would be the restricted amount of movment in the waist joint due to the sculpt of Diana’s belt. There have also been some complaints and discussion about the inclusion of the mid-thigh cut joint and whether or not the pros of the joint outweighed the breaking up of the Horseman sculpt. I would say it is certainly a bit of a distraction to the sculpt, but having the joint certainly helps get Wonder Woman into some more dynamic poses. There is a variant to Wonder Woman available in the form of Artemis. Looking forward to finding this figure as well, but out of the five cases I looked through there were none to be found.

Overall, probably my favorite Wonder Woman figure yet. Beautiful sculpt and awesome accessories. It has been argued that Mattel had a lot to lose or gain with this figure and I think they definitely should get kudos for a job well done here. Hopefully this opens the door up for even more DC female figures in the line’s future.

 Cyborg:
My second favorite figure in the line. Perfect realization of the Perez era Titans Victor Stone. This guy is awesome. I love that Mattel went with the classic version of Vic in all its goofy looking glory. Mattel even included two added accessory hands in the form of a claw grip and laser attachment. They snap on and off easily and add some really nice play and posability options. With a classic Kid Flash coming in wave 7, hopefully even more of the Titans of this era are to follow (there is a Starfire figure being offered through Mattycollector.com in her Modern costume coming soon!).

Captain Atom:
Another nice classic design on a staple of the DC Universe, Captain Atom is a nice addition to the ever growing list of the Mattel DCU. CA uses the larger male body design previously used on figures like Red Tornado, Detective Batman and Superman Red/Blue. He also gets an all new heroic face sculpt which suits him well.

Like many of the figures in this line, once you move his shoulder joints the paint rubs off the joint itself almost imediately. Probably a bit more noticable on CA with his metallic paint. Those disappointed with some of the range of motion issues on the neck joint that they exerienced with wave 3 will be happy with a return to superior motion with wave 4.

The Captain is also shipping alongside a variant wearing his Kindom Come duds. It’s a pretty garish Red and Gold combo that I’m not all that fond of but hopefully I’ll actually see one at some point and decide whether I need one or not then.

Ares:
This guy is huge. almost like getting two Collect and Connect figures in the same wave. Not only is he big, he has probably the most detail in sculpt we have seen yet from a DCUC figure. The level of detail in Ares’ helmet, gloves and armor is amazing.

He includes two accessories, an axe and a sword, both of which fit easily in his grip. Mine were both a bit warped as they were made of a really soft grade of plastic much like Deathstroke’s weapons from wave 3.

His cape however, is made of a much more firm plastic making it rigid and weighty. Hopefully Mattel will move to a softer grade for capes in the future. It doesn’t affect Ares as much due to his larger size but smaller figures could certainly use the change. I thought they were moving in the right direction with Robin in wave 3, as he had a bit of a softer cape but we’ll have to see where they go in the future with this.

Another issue with Ares is in the design of the skirt in his armor. It is also made with the rigid plastic and renders his hip articulation fairly useless. Mattel should have either went with a softer plastic here as well or incorporated some slits into the skirt to allow for movement. I will probably end up cutting out some slits myself (much like was necessary with previously released Darkseid and Lex Luthor) to hopefully provide an easy fix. Even with the plastic issues, the sculpt on this guy alone makes him a winner. He really has to be seen to be appreciated as pics (or at least ones I take) just don’t do him justice.

 

Batman Beyond:
Many of you probably are aware of Terry McGinnis from the popular animated TV series Batman Beyond. His inclusion in this line has brought about a lot of discussion about the characters who should be considered for DC Classics mostly focusing on whether or not it should be strictly comic based or if the animated DCU should also be considered.

Fortunately, Batman Beyond made a couple of brief appearances in the mainstream DCU pages so I guess he can now be considered part of DCU canon. Myself, I was never too big into the animated series but what I did see of it seemed enjoyable enough and this figure certainly represents the source well.

My only issue is with the base body Mattel went with. I would have preferred they used the slimmer buck build previously used for figures like Green Lantern and Black Manta as opposed to the larger frame (Captain Atom, Batman, etc.). Terry comes with one accessory in the form of a Batarang. Again, this piece is show accurate (in form but not color I believe) and fits in his grip well. Early shots of Batman Beyond indicated that he would include his red wings but apparently they did not cost out either.

Mattel went with a glossy black paint on this figure and from early pictures I wasn’t really digging it. In person though, he does look pretty sharp but I wonder if a flatter black ala Black Manta wouldn’t have looked a bit better. One thing for people to look out for, quite a few of the figures I inspected had misaligned belts which looked to just be rushed assembly. Some were just slightly off, while others were completely crooked.

Despero:
I was really looking forward to getting a Despero in this line…until I saw the promo pics and they had decided to go with his Justice League: Task Force armor wearing, gun toting design. Ugh. Brought back painful memories of the old Despero from the Total Justice Fractal Gear line.

Still, the Horsemen know how to do big mean scary looking dudes and Despero is no exception. He is big and he is mean looking no doubt. As most know, he shares a body sculpt with the San Diego exclusive Lobo figure from this years show. Really works well for the figure and even side by side with Lobo the body reuse really isn’t an issue. Once I had the figure out and assembled I was actually quite impressed with him. Pretty cool job Mattel.

Then I tried to twist his waist. His hip popped open rendering him pretty useless. Knew it had to happen at some point. I’ve heard all of these complaints about Mattel quality and I’ve never had any real issues. At this point I’m sure I could glue him back in place and be ok, but for right now I just have him balanced where all the pieces are precariously held in place. I’m probably going to try to track down that Captain Atom variant after all so I can replace the piece which has come undone and reassemble him.

Really pleased with this wave overall. With the exception of Wonder Woman and Cyborg I wasn’t all that excited by this wave (mostly due to the pending release of the fantastice looking waves 6 and 7!) but I’ve got to say they all turned out nicely. I think overall Mattel is really moving in the right direction as far as quality is concerned with this line (despite the Despero issue) so I can’t wait to see what figures they have in store for us in the future.

Once again, if you are a fan of DC heroes and like a little “action” in your figures you really can’t beat the DC Classics line. I encourage everyone who wants to get into these to call up your local comic shop or try one of the online vendors I mentioned to get in before the first waves are no longer available.

– Chris Price