If you know anything about toy collecting, you’ll know that the second series of Mattel’s DC Universe Classics is THE THING at the moment. As they slowly crawl Eastward from California’s ports and through a series of retail stores, collectors have been paying upwards of $50 for a single $10 figure on eBay – just for the sake of having it a few weeks earlier than everyone else. The anticipation is palpable, and expensive.

When I reviewed the first series of these, it was pretty clear that they were some of the best possible 6” action figures that one could hope for, and while I couldn’t wait to get more of them, I also wasn’t willing to pawn my grandma for them, even if she DOES hum while she eats. Patience is a virtue, and so is online shopping. I’ll never really understand the figure collectors who endlessly cry “bad distribution!” when someone else purchases the toys that they want at their local store before they happen to get there. It’s the luck of the draw, but I often tilt the odds in my favor (and save money on gas) by ordering cases of these things online – which is why, as a resident of NY, I have a whole bunch of these in my hands.

In short, they’re great. This second series needs a bit of clarification about which figures are included in it, so here we go :

- Black Manta, Aquaman’s arch-nemesis
- Classic (Caucasian) Firestorm, who is shipping in all early cases. He’ll be replaced by…
- Modern (African American) Firestorm, who will show up in later cases.
- Superman Red and Superman Blue are variants shipping at the same time. Neither is more rare than the other.
- Classic Aquaman has short hair, and seems to be more rare than…
- Modern Aquaman, also shipping, who has long hair. And finally….
- Harley Quinn, Joker’s girlfriend.

By collecting all 5 characters (or variants of the characters), you can assemble a nice Gorilla Grodd figure.

With the average figure clocking in at 21 points of articulation (or joints which you can use for fancy fightin’ poses), there’s really not a lot more that you can ask for by way of poseability. The plastics are as such that they’re slightly yielding, which allows for interference-fit, tight joints that still move smoothly, and I encountered no breakage or joint issues.

While some collectors have complained of paint blemishes, I didn’t encounter anything severe enough to warrant frothing about. They’re toys, they’re painted en masse by fatigued (but well-cared for) factory workers, and you might have gotten the last figure of the day before the dinner bell. That’s how it goes. And extra paint dot isn’t so serious, and even if these are fine works of art to us, there are finer things to worry about. If there’s a paint error at all, it’s that Harley Quinn’s face is, as it was recently described, a Ti-D-Bowl blue hue, instead of the usual plain ol’ white. For a figure that fans have been waiting for for a long time, it’s an odd choice to make. The only alternative exists in DC Direct’s ‘Hush’ line.

The more esoteric choices for figures include Superman Red and Superman Blue, who were co-existing versions of superman that existed in ‘imaginary’ for in 1963 – as in, ‘this isn’t a canonical story, but what if…?’, a thing that DC did every so often to go totally sci-fi on the audience. In 1998, amid a myriad of publishing stunts including the death and rebirth of Superman, Red / Blue appeared again as a manifestation of Superman’s ‘evolving’ electromagnetic powers. Eventually, the two aspects were reunited and never much cared for, but remained a notable part of Superman’s history. Having these unusual selections of figures makes me wish that I’d kept my Superman Black and Kal-El figures from earlier DC waves, and they also serve as a testament to the variety with which Mattel wisely keeps both casual fans and hardcore devotees in search of obscure characters at bay.

Ever-mocked is Aquaman, whose powers over fish are only the surface of his abilities, though most often treated with incredulity. Of the wave of figures, Aquaman is certainly the most powerful looking, and expertly sculpted in full orange mail regalia. The wave also includes Black Manta, a ridiculously simple flat-black, non-costumed figure with a crazy helmet – an enemy of Aquaman, as Mattel is also including arch-nemeses for each of the anchor characters.

The large Gorilla Grodd is great in appearance, but doesn’t have much articulation for his size and seems to topple over easily. The helmet on his head, as best as I can tell, is not removable. DC Direct has also recently released a Grodd in their ‘Justice’ set of figures. Either one of these would be a quick beret away from customization into a handsome Monsieur Mallah, another DC character and enemy of the oft-neglected Doom Patrol.

So, we have recognizable characters, bad guys for playability, amazing sculpting, a few obscure characters, and solid construction. It makes you fall in love with action figures all over again. Like I needed any help.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, April 6th, 2008 at 2:00 am and is filed under collecting fyi, reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.