Killer Croc Wave

Killer Croc Wave

DC Multiverse

The newest (and possibly last) wave of Mattel's DC Multiverse is all bat-family and a couple of villains:  Red Robin, Red Hood, Dick Grayson as Batman, Katana, Alfred, and KGBeast...each with a piece of a large Killer Croc figure.  

I need another Robin figure like I need a hole in the head, but he sure does look nice with the newer, smaller male buck from Mattel.  He's perfect in sculpt, paint, and poseability. I was using the Batman Missions Robin as my go-to Tim Drake, but this guy is the new champion.  He comes with an extra set of closed-fist hands and his battle staff.

Though this may be the best comic-accurate Red Hood figure to date, I was happy with my Gamestop exclusive Arkham Origins version.  However, once I saw he came with an alternate, unmasked Jason Todd head...beat it with that "Robin is the Arkham Knight" nonsense!  He also comes with alernate hands, trigger-fingers ready to...wait...the guns in his holsters are non-removable?!  WTF?!  Sigh...I guess we pretend those are his "last resorts" and bum some other firepower from his predecessor.

Lots of people online are giving the Dick Grayson Bats flack for his cape and feet.  The feet aren't as big as they say, but the cape could have been a bit wider and more dynamic.  I don't mind that it is made of fabric, but you just can't do much with it.  Oh well...it works with the extra "cowl down" accessory and the first unmasked Dick Grayson head.

Katana is the weakest link in the Batman-themed wave.  Sure, she was one of the Bat-mentored Outsiders...I just wish we had gotten a modern Cassandra Cain figure in her place.  She's not a bad figure, probably the best Katana we could hope for.  So long, "Suicide Squad" movie figure stand-in!  I wanted to take a pic with some of the other Outsiders we have gotten, but I seem to have misplaced my Black Lightning figure.  Static Shock is covering him in his absence.  

Speaking of Outsiders...we come to the "ultimate" Alfred figure.  Not only do I have a superior-articulated figure to replace the DC Direct Hush Version, but he comes with some fantastic accessories.  You get a silver tray to hold Batman's removed cowl and a glass of water to cool down on after a long night on the beat.  You also get four different Alfred headsculpts!  66' Alan Napier and '89 Michael Gough?!  Sheer madness!  Who would have ever though we would get figures of these Alfreds?  Near perfect actor likenesses, and Mattel has nailed two different styles of glasses to boot!  (Figure companies are finally figuring out how to make small, durable glasses after all these years.)

The comic heads are also near perfect.  True Alfred and his Outsider persona from waaay back in the day when he died and came back as a zombified supervillain.  Obscure and awesome!  I intend to put the Oustider head on a different body (like the mod Joker) to represent the modern, Earth 3 version of the character.  Meanwhile, I have given the standard Alf his much-needed shotgun (from the DKR Son of Batman figure.)  When your Batcave's high tech security measure fail, nothing beats the Batman's most trusted ally and his primitive firepower!

Next, bring on the baddies:  two in this wave!  If a new Alfred figure wasn't shocking enough, can you believe we finally have KGBeast!  And re-using some of Mattel's Masters of the Universe Classics heft, what a beast he is!  He comes with a big, permanently attached arm canon that has a removable missile and bayonet blade and a couple of knives that fit into his boots.

And if a super-assassin wasn't enough to take a bite out of the bat-family, the massive Killer Croc collect-n-connect figure will play clean up.  Mattel did a strange, tailed Croc waaay back in 2003 with their "Batman" line.  That figure was retooled for the DC Superheroes line with a more traditional head and paint scheme, but lacked additional articulation.  So I guess a re-do was a long time coming.  Some fans take issue with this figure's size.  Sure, he could go toe to toe with my Marvel Legends Hulk figure, but I'm fine with it.  Croc's size has varied artist to artist.  This one is comparable to the tall Arkham Origins take...he's also replacing that figure on my shelf.

He shares some leg parts with the King Shark figure from many waves back, but other than that, he's a new sculpt.  The detail on the scales and the opening jaws make him a must-have.  I modified a torn up shirt from the earliest Mattel Croc I mentioned.  It's a bit small, bit I do think it adds something to him visually, just a bit to break up the blue-green combo.

Unlike most Mattel DC product, this wave has been readily available at Walmarts and online retailers.  Maybe it's Mattel going out with a bang before handing over the keys to the DC kingdom or they wanted to go big for Batman's 80th Anniversary.  In any case, this wave was pure win.  Bittersweet...this may be the end of my days as a DC collector unless McFarlane can make something in-scale.  I have my doubts...

The beginning is the end is the beginning:  1st and Last Collect-n-Connect Figures

DC Multiverse - Rookie Wave

 "Rookie" Collect and Connect Wave

DC Multiverse - Mattel

A Batman-centric wave may sound a bit disappointing considering that's about all we got from Mattel over a decade ago, but stay til the end... it's worth it!  We get 2 new Bat-family characters, a fairly current-to-the-comics Batman, a classic villain, and an awesome Collect and Connect figure... oh, and one made-for-TV dud.  Wah wah!

Duke Thomas is a new Robin in the "Superheavy" storyline.  No spoilers here... you should definitely read this one.  Anyway, this figure is a completely new sculpt/body type for this line.  One that I don't see them getting much reuse/repaints out of, so Mattel is treating us.  The look and paint is spot on.  He gets a fair amount of accessories:  nunchucks, a gas grenade, and an unmasked head.  The articulation is decent, but could always use a bit more in the elbows and knees.







Rebirth Batman takes some warming to...especially in continuing the "no trunks tradition.  I do like the yellow-gold outline around the bat-logo to match the belt and the purple on the inside of the cape is a great nod to the original bat-suit.  I also like the cape being draped over the shoulders a bit, but this does hinder the range of movement here.  The plastic is just a little to rigid to make it work.  The head sculpt, with artist specific/accurate, may be a lil cartoony to fit in with the larger part of my collection.  Like with Duke, the new knees here are strange.

Let's get this over with...here's the least exciting figure in the wave:  The Atom from TV's "Arrow" and "Legends of Tomorrow."  I gave up on collecting most screen-accurate versions of comic characters, as there will inevitably be a dip in the show or movie's quality at some point that makes you regret your purchase.  It's not a bad design for a real-world Atom (though maybe a lil too Robocop reboot?), and I am glad to support Brandon Routh, who I think got a raw deal as Superman.  "Superman Returns" was pretty bad, though it's probably a good thing that story didn't continue, as at some point behind the scenes, "that version" of Lex Luthor might have forced himself upon our hero.  Wait...is that worse than a Ledger-wannabe Luthor that gets off on tricking people into drinking a mason jar of pee?  Anyway, the look of the figure is fine, but the articulation is stiff and limiting.  The mini-Atom figure was a nice touch, but...still bought it for the Rookie.

Batwing is another fairly new Bat-family addtion.  The very Tony Stark-esque son of longtime Wayne Enterprises frontman, Lucius Fox, Luke Fox joins the fray in a sleek-looking version of the Alex Ross/Kingdom Come armored Bat-suit. The suit is mostly shiny black, with some nice blue highlights here and there to make it a little more exciting. Even with some minor armor detail, this figure is a bit plain to me.  The removable wings look to be reused from a Batman Beyond figure.  Not sure why Luke didn't get an unmasked head here when Atom and Duke did.










Lastly is probably my favorite and most anticipated figure in the wave, the Reaper.  Man, for Batman having one of the biggest and most beloved Rogues gallery, Mattel sure likes to have them outnumbered in the action figure offerings.  The Reaper comes with two mace/reaper hand things, but I like to display him with one hand exposed, like the titular character he inspired from "Mask of the Phantasm."  He's pretty spot on to his Year 2 design.  The spikes and lines on the costume are perfect.  He's pretty much a flat, two-tone color scheme, but it is accurate nonetheless.  If there was one gripe with this figure, I guess it would be that the sickles look more plasticy and less metallic.  Maybe a different shade of grey in the plastic?  As long as it's not that fakey, vac-metal stuff they used to use on old Transformers and stuff.



All-in-all, not a terrible wave.  Even with some misteps, its good to see Mattel trying new things with some of these sculpts to try and keep up with Marvel Legends.  If you can look past the odd knee articulation and the Atom to the Collect and Connect Rookie figure (coming up in the next review), it's worth going all in.

King Shark wave: DC Multiverse

King Shark wave

DC Multiverse - Mattel 6-inch figures

This is one of those waves that makes you want to pull your hair out.  The Collect-n-Connect figure (a piece coming with each smaller figure in the wave) was the sole reason to get them all.  Half this wave are keepers, the other half are duds.  Luckily, since I found the bulk of this wave on shelves earlier than most of the country (way back in February), I had no problem unloading the duds on Ebay.  Sorry, fans of the CW shows, Hawkman and Jay Garrick are gone.  Nothing against the characters, I just have better comic-accurate figures of them already.   Consider them sacrifices to the glory of his majesty, King Shark!

There was one dud I kept...Zoom.  It's not a bad character design, especially for television, but it doesn't translate well into figure form as far as the articulation goes:  kinda long torsoed and doesn't look all that great in running poses.  

He's got a pretty scary looking face and some blue lightning effects.  The problem is, these have been lifted from Superman Blue from wave 2 of Mattel's DC Universe Classics (2009?).  The shield shape on the back is a dead giveaway.  How villainous...anyway, let's get to the keepers.

A new Batman!  One can never have enough Batmen, right?  What sets this one apart from the others is that is based on Commissioner Jim Gordon's short run as the Caped Crusader...er...scratch the cape.  I had not read this storyline before the figure came out, but now that I have, it makes more sense and is pretty awesome. 

He comes with an alternate unmasked head and a gun that can be holstered to his leg.  No, Batman isn't really shooting people.  It's more of a taser pistol.  I'm really looking forward to the next wave where the Collect-n-Connect figure is the mech-suit he rides in.

I'm not a huge fan of Frank Miller or The Dark Knight Returns, but this is a fantastic Joker figure!  Mattel gave us a 100% original body sculpt!  No re-used parts!  Makes you wonder if they have any plans for this suited body down the line, though, since it's pretty specific to the Frank Miller style, I can't imagine where.

Mattel has also been treating us to more and more interchangeable heads!  One is a more serious, sinister Joker, the other a scary, open-smile, sadistic Joker complete with batarang to the eye!  That right, a pretty violent, scene-specific detail from the hook on a Wal-mart shelf right across from some Paw Patrol toys!  Who would have expected that?  He also comes with a pistol and a knife accessory. Batarang half is removable, but leaves a pretty noticeable slot when absent.

Finally, we come to Batgirl.  I am happy with my old DC Superheroes line Batgirl, so I wasn't really excited for this figure save for it being packed with the last King Shark piece I needed.  It took me four months after finding the rest of the wave on shelves to find a Batgirl at a decent price online!  I paid out a little more for her just to be done with it.  I needed a complete King Shark, dammit!  May his majesty devour you and your stupid cell phone accessory!

Take my spot on the Suicide Squad movie will ya?!

So what if King Shark is based on his appearance from the CW Flash show...he's still awesome.  Or should I say... JAWSOME!  Nice detailing on the choppers!  Love the opening jaw.  He shares a crotch piece with Solomon Grundy from way back in DC Universe Classics wave 3 (2009?) but everything else here is new.  Hey, jean shorts are hard to find for big guys.

A little while later, Toys R Us released an exclusive Damian Wayne Robin figure packed with an alternate head for King Shark; it's the Hammerhead look from his New 52 comics design.  Pretty neat, but I still prefer the Great White.  Robin is a retool from the Mattycollector subscription line, but this time features a hooded head sculpt, sword, and Court of Owls mask.  Neat, but I would have passed on him if it weren't for Sharky.