Wonder Woman - Dr. Psycho wave

Wonder Woman - Dr. Psycho Wave

DC Multiverse - Mattel

So, Im waaay behind on my Mattel figures.  Now that Mattel is losing the DC license to the likes of Spin Master (WTF?!) and McFarlane (Eh, scale and fagility issues), I'm catching up on some great figures almost as if it they were "in memoriam."  Also, the "Lady Captain Marvel" movie is out now, so I wanted to remind people that the true "Wonder Woman" is one success that Marvel didn't beat DC to at the box office.  Anyway, this mini Wonder Woman wave was shipped with two long-long overdue Superfriends versions of Superman and Aquaman.  Nothing too exiting there, other than Supes finally getting a more powder-blue outfit.  I had to buy them as a set to get these, otherwise I would have passed.

I would have passed on The Dark Knight Strikes Again Wonder Woman as well, because Frank Miller is a one-trick pony and that book is trash...but I needed the Cassie Sandsmark Wonder Girl and Dr. Psycho!  Not that this WW is a bad figure or anything.  I do like that she is an imposing Amazon here, making the best of the larger Masters of the Universe female figure body.  She really does look like she's ready to kick some ass!  Maybe I can convince myself that she is another Amazonian warrior for my army building purposes.

The Cassie Wonder Girl looks to be made similar to the standard DC Universe Classics female buck, which was only terrible when figure proportions were off other places (pinheads, bigheads, small hands.)  The costume is comic accurate in sculpt and color.  The only gripe here is that her lasso is glued to her hip (like previous WW releases) and she comes with no other accessories.  Still, I am glad to have her next to the Donna Troy WG.

The hilariously small collect and connect figure for this wave is longtime WW villain, Dr. Psycho.  Good thing you only needed two figures to build him, but even that is a stretch.  Seriously?  Arms in one pack, everything else in the other?  He should have just been packed with Cassie!  From the waist down, he's one solid piece.  The arms only have articulation at the shoulder.  The head moves, but that's it.  Worth it?  Heck yeah!  You will never get another chance at this bizarre character, so take it while you have the chance!  For all of their inconsistencies, for all their ups and downs, Mattel did deliver a robust DC Universe over the last decade or so.  It's the end of an era, and I don't think I will see another like it again.

DK2 Flash

 The Flash

The Dark Knight Strike Again

Mattel - Walgreens Exclusive

The Dark Knight Strikes Again was pretty bad (not "All-Star Batman" bad), but this Flash figure is pretty decent!  Flash is a Walgreen's exclusive priced at $20, but I held out long enough to find one on clearance for $10 while on vacation.

 

I'm not sure why Barry Allan decided a romper would be a good uniform change, or why to go "Zoom" with the color scheme, but it's different and not wholly visually displeasing.  I mean, it is fairly accurate to the source material, but then again, Frank Miller doesn't make a lot of sense.

My favorite part is the boots.  The lighting bolt off the back is neat, as are the new lifts.  Maybe decades of being a speed demon has been murder on the arches?  Who knows, but the Frankenstein effect puts this retooled/repainted Flash almost a half an inch over his predecessors.  Though cool, the boots also give the figure its only negative.  The leg above the ankle comes from a full-jumpsuit Flash, and its obvious from the weird muffin-top of skin above the yellow.  I guess laces are foreign to him... gotta tie 'em tight if you're gonna break the speed of light, right?

 

For a retooled figure, the changes make sense and isn't bad as far as variants go.  And he comes with a few accessories to sweeten the deal:  a miniaturized Atom figure and an old-man Bruce Wayne head.  Having the Armored Batman from waves back really helped me pull the trigger.  Still, I got him on sale, and wouldn't have paid over $15.