After much waiting and unsuccessful hunting trips to K-Mart, Wave 15 has finally started showing up in stores. As far as I understand, this wave is K-Mart exclusive for a few months and then gets shipped to other outlets. These other outlets are presumably Target, WalMart and Toys R Us, which are the main sources for the DCUC figures. The two K-Marts that are closest to where I live have been pretty good about keeping the DCUC figures moving through, much better than Target at any rate, so hopefully finishing this set will be easy.
I know that you can pre-order these sets complete from different websites but I enjoy hunting for the figures. The excitement of turning the corner and seeing the figure that you’re looking for is fun and I typically don’t have the money all at once to pick up the whole set. I’m usually all over the city anyway and it’s not a big deal to stop in to the stores and check every so often. My wife and daughter join me on hunting trips sometimes too, which makes it family fun :-)
This first review will focus on the first three DCUC Wave 15 figures that I’ve been able to find: Raven, J’onn J’onnz and Sinestro Corps Batman.
In case I’ve never mentioned it before, I’ve had to limit my action figure collecting. This has happened for two main reasons: first is that we have a two-month old daughter now and are watching our finances a bit more closely to make sure that we’re set up for emergencies, and the second is that since said child arrived she’s taken over what used to be my “geek room” where all of my figures were displayed. Since my collection has been moved to two bookcases in the living room, space has become an issue. I decided to stick with the DCUC figures because of the massive variety available and the reasonable price compared to the ever-more-expensive DC Direct figures.
The first figure that we’ll check out is Sinestro Corps Batman. What’s that, DC purists? He never actually appeared in the Sinestro Corps outfit? Technically, you are correct. In the comics, Batman was almost recruited into the Sinestro Corps due to his ability to instill great fear. But this was before Sinestro donned his now iconic yellow and black uniform and Batman started to develop the classic Sinestro blue and black outfit (see below).
Semantics aside, this is a pretty cool looking figure and a great addition to my Sinestro Corps display which, ironically, is missing Sinestro……damned hard to find variant.
This is based on the existing Batman figures with a new paint job and a new head sculpt to make him look angry…..well, angrier than usual anyway. He also comes with a translucent clip-on ring construct that makes a giant Batarang. All in all it’s a decent figure but not without its issues.
First issue, the Sinestro Corps logo on his armband is upside down. Not a big deal, but it’s there. Second, the paint job is not the greatest. The lines aren’t that crisp and seem a little half-assed. The quality of the DCUC figures is typically pretty decent, but sometimes you do get a sub-par paint job.
Also, the belt thingie around his waist doesn’t seem to fit right, almost as if they made it, realized it didn’t fit but crammed it on anyway. The final issue that I have with it is the color of the costume. The yellow doesn’t match up with the other Sinestro Corps members that I have from the Color of Fear 2-pack. Romat-Ru and Karu-Sil have more shading variation in the yellow portions of the costume to give it a better look but Batman’s is just a straight, bright yellow.
Next we have Raven from the Teen Titans. I’m not exactly a fan of the Titans but this is my 3rd member of the team after Cyborg and Kid Flash. The figure is a fairly standard female figure with a molded cape and hood. The cape is nice because it really helps her stand up, which is a difficult prospect for most of the DCUC females.
Not much to say about this one really, it’s a decent figure but not that exciting.
Last but not least, I stumbled upon this Martian Manhunter variant version the other day. This one differs from the standard figure in two ways : he has the pointier Martian head shape and his right hand is morphing into some sort of edge weapon. The color on the figure is awesome and he is the missing piece we’ve all been waiting for to complete the Justice League collection.
The sculpt is really well done and the only flaw on mine was some blue paint spots on his head but they are extremely minor. I’m not sure why it took Mattel so long to put out this key character but he’s here now and the Justice League is complete!
These figures have also given me the first three pieces I need to build the Validus Collect and Connect figure, which is very clearly based on the Kilowog sculpt from Wave 11/ I felt that Validus was a strange choice, but he’s a cool looking figure. Personally I would have rather seen the Anti-Monitor. And yes, I am aware that Kilowog's left leg is from another character. It seems that Brimstone's legs are the same as Kilowog's as well.
I’ll keep checking for the rest of the wave and I’m really looking forward to the modern Starman figure that is technically a variant but hopefully fairly easy to locate. Supposedly, from October 24th to the 30th, K-Mart will be putting their 6-inch DCUC figures on sale for $7.75 rather than the regular $12.99. I’m going to try and grab up some more figures if I can make it out early enough. When I get some more of this wave, I’ll post again :-) Happy hunting!
2 comments:
On the variant did notice anything about the Right arm I open my regular last night and check my others the right biceps seems way off does not fit properly and leave gaps when turned to the sides
I looked at mine again and there is a gap between the two pieces. I checked out some other similar build figures and it seems to just be the way that it's designed, although the one you have may have more of a gap than usual.
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