Nightwing - Not Bad!

Long time no post – AFB’s “real life” has been a bit too “real” lately!

Back in January I was pretty unhappy (along with most of the collecting community) about the solicited headsculpt for the 13" Nightwing. This was adjusted by DCD, but unlike most of 13" line I didn't place a firm order for this one at my LCS.

Now October is AFB's birthday month (mark your calendars for next year please....), and with not much else happening DCD-wise around my birthday I decided to at least look this one over when it came in.

The verdict? Well, it's far from terrible. In fact, some aspects are pretty good, and the longer I’ve had him the more he’s growing on me.

A nice range of useable accessories are included, no plastic cats here. The highlight of these is the inclusion of both blue and black masks which attach easily and tightly. From inspection it doesn't look like they're magnetic like the Hal Jordan mask, but they’re not going anywhere. The headsculpt really is a genuine improvement over the craptacular one solicited, but it still doesn’t really evoke Dick Grayson.

On the not so great side, the plain black body suit really accentuates all the negatives of the 13" body sculpt. The funny ridgey leg thing (sorry for the technical terms) doesn’t look great on any of the guys, but it really sticks out here. Bleccch.

The packaging design is pretty pedestrian, a far cry from some of the more creative and eye-catching design work done on the Shazam! and Aquaman packs for example. The "action" shots look like something some Year 9 IT students did up in Photoshop in one lesson. Perhaps the good graphic designer was sick that day?

The bottom line is this looks great alongside the other Bats 13”ers, (thankfully my friend Shaun at The Fortress of Testicular Fortitude as taken some great shots and they look quite good together) but on its own it’s an average effort. Weird then that for some reason I quite like it. Just goes to show that collecting isn't all rational!

Oh hey - I totally forgot to mention that this is first 13"er I've taken out of the box to have a better look at - I definitely like this one better out of the packaging - maybe when Mrs AFB comes through on her promise of moolah for anti-dust display cabinets he can be out permanently!

Until next time.....

Custom Fun for September!

My two favourite customisers, Jacknight 92 and Lars, are adding more to my collection than DCD are at the moment. When I started collecting DCD I thought I was too anal to put a custom in amongst the DCD product, but need for complete teams has overridden that and I've really discovered the joy of customs now.

First up are my two newest Silver Age Legionnaires courtesy of Jackknight92: Bouncing Boy and Chemical King. Jack really has captured the essence of the SA Legion in the way he produces these customs. They blend in so beautifully with the figures DCD did produce. One of the things I really like about these as the collection grows is that they really remind me of the Legionnaire statuettes that Superboy had in Smallville which the Legionnaires used to call him for help.

By the way, for those who have asked for a wider picture of the Legion collection, I am working towards getting a better camera soon which should help me to get a good pic of this. Photography is not an interest of mine I'm afraid, just a means to an end, so I am only learning how to get good shots.

Next up on the Legion front: (from Jack of course) Light Lass and Dream Girl.

Secondly, another very happy auction win from Lars: Geo-Force. Here he is with his new JLA teammates. As a huge fan of the original Outsiders this is one figure I've been hanging out for, and I think you'll have to agree Lars has done an excellent job with Brion here.

I have a couple of other wins from Lars on the way here and look forward to showing them off soon!

September's Travels - DCD

Before the month gets away from me, I thought I'd better get the blog up to speed with this month's purchases and acquisitions.

First up are the Reactivated! Super Friends figures. I have some of the originals but they are still MIB and I saw this as a great opportunity to get some additional figures for various displays. I passed on Batman however, seeing as I'd already picked up the one from the Batman Through the Ages set and all the Bats I saw in the Reactivated sets had the same issue as the ones from the Through the Ages set: one misformed bat prong/ear thingy (sorry to get all technical with the Bat anatomy on you there). A shame they couldn't fix that bit of the mold in between waves.

As for the rest, I think they're quite excellent. Unlike some of the other Reactivated! figures these look as good as the originals. The Superfriends Wonder Woman has always been one of my favourite figures, simply because she's such a dead ringer for the cartoon version. The addition of a Flash figure is a nice touch, and again he's a great likeness of his TV show counterpart.

I quite like the packaging on these as well, funny but they look exactly as I thought they would.

Secondly are the Hawkgirl and Scarecrow figures from the latest JUSTICE wave. Shockingly I passed on the Armoured Batman and Green Lantern, and it looks like everyone else did as well seeing as there are stacks of them warming the pegs at both my local LCSs.

All I can say about Hawkgirl is that I think I am in love. This is nothing short of an outstanding figure. The extra head is the making of the toy - not just by making the Shayera look effective but by allowing the best Hawkgirl look as well - if only this had been done with the Hawkman figure to avoid that bizarre shrunken-head look.

Hawkgirl's wing assembly is much more straightforward that Hawkman's as well. Certainly a much easier to assemble than the ordeal I went through having to boil the JSA Hawkgirl's wings to make them malleable enough to pop in! - good to see DCD does some reflection!

Scarecrow is another impressive figure. The Jonathan Crane head (sorry no pic) is a nice touch as well. A shame we couldn't get a whole wave of actual characters of this quality as opposed to the wretched armoured dreck.

At least DCD has acknowledged that people don't want them and flagged that the next JUSTICE wave to be solicited won't be besmirched by any armoured characters.

September's haul should have included the 13" Nightwing as well, but for whatever reason we haven't seen him and my LCS can't find out what's going on with him - good old DCD communication!

That's the month DCD-wise. Next up - new customs!

Custom Happiness Continues......

Let's hear it for Jacknight92 once again, with these awesome Matter-Eater-Lad and Element Lad customs. My Silver Age Legion is two steps closer to completion!

Interestingly, Jack tells me that Matter-Eater-Lad is the most requested SA Legion custom. Go figure!

Next up: Chemical King & Bouncing Boy!

Thanks again Jack!

No need to be Crushed - this Wave Works!

Firstly let me say.... gee it can be challenging coming up with clever/alliterative/cute post titles! I don't know how people who blog every day do it!!

To the task at hand: I picked up Beverly Crusher, Wesley Crusher and Captain Beverly Picard from DST's Star Trek TNG line on Friday. Q is the case figure for this line so I'll wait til the excitement dies down and grab him on eBay eventually.

There was a fair bit riding on this wave in terms of the credibility of the line after the disappointment of the Data / LaForge line which had major scale issues (DST sent the final versions to be used for molds instead of the pre-shrunk versions. Shrinkage, in whatever form, is just a killer.) On top of this, the paint apps were disappointing in comparison to the previous waves and the black elements of the uniforms were shiny instead of the previous and much better looking matte.

I'm pleased to say then that DST has addressed these issues with this new wave. The figures are back in scale with the previous waves and the paint apps are back to their previous quality.

Both Beverlys (Beverlies? A bevy of Bevs??) are very good. The traditional TNG version is quite a good likeness, well sculpted and comes with a good range of accessories including a laptop and what looks like a dermal regenerator. Her hair is very well done - the parts that rest on her shoulders are made of soft plastic so that it doesn't restrict the movement of the head. DCD could certainly take a page out of this book!

The All Good Things Bev is good, and wins points for being quite a different sculpt, not just a different headsculpt. There is a bit of red blotchy-ness on her face which is a slight detraction. (Sorry about the dodgy pic for this one folks, Andy is saving up for a new camera......)

Wesley doesn't look anything like Wil Wheaton (which isn't a totally bad thing, hey?). Good thing I couldn't really care less about this particular figure.

The only bad thing I'd say about this set is that it really points out just how bad the Data / LaForge / Barclay figures were in both scale and QC. I wonder if there's any chance we'll ever see them reissued as the should have been?

On the good side the return to quality with these figures makes me much more excited about the upcoming DS9 and BSG figures from DST.

Also pleased to see that in the upcoming Previews we are getting another TNG wave that includes Nemesis Beverly, Nurse Ogawa, Chief O'Brien and an Exclusive Ensign Ro. Baffling tho that we are getting all of these characters and still no Tasha Yar??

Until next time!

Oh my Stars!

Besides my main customising man Jacknight92, it's always to fun to manage to get something from Lars, and I went all out to win this amazing Stargirl on eBay. I decided I'd rather spend more for an amazng custom I really wanted than give DCD my money for less than average stuff I never asked for. (And yes, to my heckler from a few posts down, I do know that everything DCD makes isn't about me, but this is MY BLOG, so I'm talking about my collecting tastes.... ;0))

The base is a Birds of Prey Black Canary and I think you'll agree it's an awesome job. Almost feels like I have a Modern JSA Collection......

Thanks Lars!!!!!!

Happy Early Father's Day to meeee......

Here in Australia Father's Day is the first Sunday in September. Plays havoc with my chances of remembering Father's Day for my US-based Dad. Every year I forget and then have to endure the ensuing guilt-trip. (My mother has a Masters Degree in guilt trips). On the plus side, with my birthday in October, having Father's Day at the start of September starts a nice four-month present buying run. I buy all the presents in our family, including mine, seeing as The Wife wouldn't know where to begin with my little hobby!

I've already got two of my Father's Day presents for this year - the JLA Cover to Cover Flash Statue and JLA Wave 1.

I am very new to the statue world, but the JLA Cover to Cover Series is something I can see working for me. The Flash statue, shown here with Green Lantern, is a great addition to the line. I really like that these are packed in nice boxes that aren't too huge which means that you've got room to hold on to the box in case you ever need to repack the statue.

These figures a very nicely done, not too huge but you still like you have a full statue, not a mini-bust. His running pose is well captured but the statue is very well-balanced. I hadn't planned on picking this up, but I'm very happy with the purchase!

Then today I picked up my set of the JLA Wave One figures, which IMHO range from outstanding to pretty disappointing. Red Arrow is really excellent. His hair colour has been fixed from the solicited blonde to the correct red - hooray! Roy's arrows are actually loose, which is a really nice touch, but they're quite pointy, so watch them around any little people!

Something else I'd be watching around the young is the enormous busoooms Vixen is sporting. Talk about somebody losing an eye! Despite these she is a great figure. An excellent headsculpt, really nice job with her hair, etc.

It's nice to have a MA Black Canary to replace the Turnerised version from a couple years ago, and while this one is a huge improvement I'm not wild on her stance or her slightly vacant stare. Apart from the eyes it's another great headsculpt. The fishnets are real, bit it's a shame they can't find a way to do this without the hideous large seams at the back of the legs.

I hadn't planned on keeping the Superman, but he actually looks much better than the solicits, in fact he makes quite a passable MA Supes, so he's a keeper for this version of the JLA.

The big disappointment here is Black Lightning. As if getting a MA version without having the classic isn't bad enough, this is not a great figure. It's quite different from the solicits, and while the body seems and improvement (less Turnerised and without the weird pointy finger) the headsculpt is just yuck, especially the replacement of the solicited clear goggles with opaque yellow globes that give him a somewhat bumblebee appearance. Not happy.

The packaging of this wave is quite nice. Much better than the JSA packs which looked like they were thrown together at the last moment.

Not sure what Father's Day present #3 is going to be: (one from The Wife and one from each offspring - almost makes a third tempting but then I think of the nappies.....) but I'll let you know when I work it out.

Makes being a Dad all worthwhile.......... :0)

If I worked at DCD....

..... I would take one look at these photos and fill my pants. Really fill them.

I was very skeptical that the Mattel / DC Universe agreement would bring us something really significant, but now that we've been the first two waves of Mattel's new line I am allowing myself to hope.

We haven't seen anything truly stunning in the character selection department (although the Metamorpho BAF comes close), you just get a feeling that something amazing like a Catman or a Reverse Flash or come out of the bag soon!

In the meantime, Mattel has produced sculpts that put the DCD versions of some of these characters to shame. This Aquaman outstrips anything DCD has done by a longshot.

The big challenge of course will be to see if Mattel can manage the QC to produce figures that live up to what the prototypes are promising.

If they do manage to pull that off, I'm going to be sending a big shipment of diapers to DC Direct HQ.....

More Custom Goodness

My great mate Jackknight92 has done it again, taking me two steps closer to a complete Silver Age Legion of Superheroes with his perfect renditions of Triplicate Girl and Shrinking Violet. Huge props to you, Jack! Thanks!

Next up I believe are Element Lad and Matter-Eater Lad. You'll see them here first!

Khan Exclusives? They are Mine!!!!!

Being a keen collector of the Art Asylum Star Trek figures, it was a major bummer to learn that the second wave of the Star Trek: Wrath of Khan figures were going to be SDCC Exclusives. Some folk on my favourite message board have spoken about dropping the whole line because they wouldn't be able to get their hands on them. It seemed like a very odd move.

For myself, I was resigned to not having the Khan set, since I wouldn't want it unless I could have them all.

With this in mind, you could have pushed me over with a (very, very, small) feather when I got an email from my LCS today saying that they had two sets of the SDCC Exclusive Wrath of Khan figures IN THE SHOP, and would I like a set.

Now, you do know I am in Australia, right?

I managed to find time in my schedule to race over the the LCS after work and couldn't believe my eyes. My favourite person at my most wonderful LCS told me that they'd ordered a couple of sets from a shop in Melbourne for a couple of their customers who they knew were keen collectors of the line.

So here I am, on the other side of the world, before the SDCC has started, AND I HAVE THEM! ALL OF THEM! And I didn't have to eBay for them and get ripped off for international shipping and wait for ever for them! BWAAAAHAAAAHAAAA!!!!

Hey guys, being over here and trying to collect all this stuff can be a royal pain in the bee-hind, so you just have to allow me this moment, 'kay?

I couldn't get a good pic of the back, but it shows the first wave (Two Kirks, Khan and Capt Terrell) which hasn't come out yet, and the "second wave" : Spock, Uhura, Saavik, and someone I can't remember but can't be bothered to get up right now to find out.

Extra nice was that when I explained all my garbled excitement to The Wife, she actually understood that this was a good thing and responded very supportively. All is very, very, happy.

But I still want those Legion toys......

Something nice from across the pond....

Oh, boo. I'm a mad Legion of Superheroes fan, so it's been a bit frustrating being here in Oz when the new cartoon is airing elsewhere (snippets on YouTube don't cut it and I would never like, download it or anything.....).

As if that's not bad enough, now McDonald's US is doing Happy Meal Toys with LSH Action Figures, including first-time ever representations of at least one Legionnaire (Bouncing Boy, not sure if Timber Wolf has ever been done before) and some villains.

Seeing as the show isn't airing here I doubt we'll get this promotion. Any AFB readers from across the ocean that are moved to pick these up for me, send me an email. I am sure I can find something to swap. You like koalas? They're very cute.

At least they're not making Phantom Girl. Then I would have to buy a ticket......

EDIT: Michael from the very awesome Legion blog The Legion Omnicom has pointed out the McDonald's has an interactive site up an running for these toys. Check out the Omnicom at http://adventure247.blogspot.com/ and check out the McD's site at http://www.happymeal.com/en_US/#LOSH. Thanks Michael!

New God Goodness

Always happy to give credit where it's due. DCD - thanks, but please don't leave us hanging with one wave of these babies. We need the set. Kalibak, Desaad, Granny and a decent Barda at least before you finish up.

See, we don't ask much..........

DCD Throws Up Again......

Haven't had a good 'ol rant for awhile, but can't look past the DCD solicits for March '08, which includes DCD Regurgitated Wave 4, featuring... the Super Squad????

Looks like DCD can add "Recycled" to the slang for this series. It's not bad enough that so far in four waves we've seen the Big Three plus a hanger-on each time, we are now seeing the SAME SCULPTS recycled for the SAME CHARACTERS in the SAME SERIES!

Points for effort with the cowled Hawkman, and while I'll buy him for the JSA shelf, no points for execution here. Another case of waiting so long to get something only to find you wish it had never been made. And what is he a "Reactivation" of anyway? I'm not even going to ask what "Super Squad" is supposed to mean........

Mark this day as a new low point for the DC of D folks. They're obviously so over any shame of selling you different versions of the same three characters over and over, they'll now just sell you exactly the same dreck time after time.

Are people really stupid enough to keep buying this stuff?

Of Cats and Kittens......

So I wasn't getting the 13" Catwoman. I said it in a previous post here, maybe even two. I wasn't doing villains (yeah, she's an anti-hero now...), I wasn't that inspired by the promo pics, you have to draw the line somewhere, blah-dy blah-dy blah.

I saw her in my local comic shop on Friday and I didn't cave. I looked her over, came up with lots of reasons against and put her back on the shelf, and even resisted her when the shop attendant tried to coerce me, seeing as I always buy the 13" figures. I got in the car, impressed with my own resolve.

It lasted about 24 hours.

Anyway, now that she's home and in her proper place, what was I thinking??? This cat is awesome. I haven't totally unpacked her (see previous post for future 13" display plans) but I did take her out of the box in the tray for better photographing.

A few comments: Love the detail in this line. The leather bodysuit is really amazing. The zipper works (hey, I had to try) but doesn't feel overly robust, so we'll leave it up (makes everyone here happy anyway...). I'm not that keen on her facial expression (eyes I think) but I plan to display her with the goggles on and they look great. She seemed a little bow-legged but I was able to adjust that even with her still in the tray. From what I've read she is a bit shorter than Batman so that bodes well for Robin and future teen / female figures.

Funny that when we went to pick her up my eldest (all of 6) told the shop attendant she's very worried about when the "big Wonder Woman" is going to come out. What is going on DCD??

Now to another amazing feline: the Bowen Kitty Pryde Mini-Bust. I know it's not DCD, but anything Kitty crossed my radar. This bust is awesome, and frankly puts the Women of the DC Universe to shame. She's on a bigger scale than the DCD busts, the paint apps are amazing and the detail is great. Despite the thin arms and Lockheed's wings she's very sturdy. An A+.

I'm very happy with her and am planning on getting the Thunderbird and Banshee Mini-Busts that are coming out later this year. Enjoy!

And by the way, I am definitely not getting the 13" Nightwing...

My Favourite Martian

I have to say that DCD has outdone itself with the new Martian Manhunter 13" figure, especially since he's been the cause of a much unexpected turn of events in my collecting journey...

First to the figure... I've been a huge fan of this line to date, but was uncertain about how they were going to handle the task of bringing J'onn J'onzz to 13 inches, what with all the bare green flesh and such. The result is more than pleasing. Certainly the weaknesses of the 13' body sculpt (cut arms and thighs) are exposed, but it doesn't detract from the overall effect. The extra pair of hand and extra Martian head are very nice touches. They've done a nice job with the box design as well. Needless to say this stands up very well against the rest of the 13" line.

..and that leads well into my unexpected event.... when I got him home my kids were interested and The Wife came over to have a look and even made an admiring noise. At the moment I have all my 13" MIB and I commented that I was going to have to take them out of the boxes soon to make room, to which the wife commented that we should really get some proper display cabinets for them so that they don't collect dust.

Now to understand the significance of this you need to understand that just a couple of years ago my collection was allowed nowhere nearer the house than a large number of plastic containers in the storage shed which has a suspect roof and threat of leak or storm damage. In this short time they have worked their way from plastic tubs to on display on very basic shelves in my study, and now I'm getting proper display cabinets and I didn't even have to ask for them.

Just finished reading New Avengers #31. Starting to the The Wife is actually a Skrull, but I'm not going to skewer her to find out.

Then I won't get my cabinets.

Infinite Indifference

I think I may have cracked DC Direct's strategy. With a couple of recent exceptions, the amount of effort and QC put into a figure is in inverse proportion to how much anyone cares about it. Stunningly clever, ain't it?

Take this week's Infinite Crisis Wave Two. Hands down, Firestorm is the figure of the bunch. See him here with his other newcomer friends. He's well sculpted with excellent paint apps. His fire base is exceptional.

On the other hand, the Wonder Girl and Donna Troy figures, ones I expect were more widely anticipated, have been pretty much botched in my view, The Wonder Girl figure doesn't look too bad with some of the Classic Titans (pictured below), but I wouldn't suggest putting her next to the Contemporary Titans or putting the Donna figure next to any version of Kyle Rayner - Scale Issue City.

But it's in the individual inspection of the Donna figures that they really fall down. First up, we have some majorly freaky arm construction here. They're far too long and almost appear to be on backwards, making for a very awkward stance. The hips and waist are also clunky, although the loose fitting belts help cover that up. It appears as though a pinkish plastic has been used as opposed to flesh coloured paint and the effect is that they look more like something you'd find in the cheap toy section at the supermarket rather than what should be a quality collectable. More strangely on the Wonder Girl figure the flesh pieces of the upper body are raised above the uniform as though they were different pieces. On the plus side, the head sculpts for the two figures are quite different and fitting.

As for the big three, these are great(ish) ideas that fall short to varying degrees. I'm definitely more of a BVP person but when it comes to Superbat, how many BVP's do you need? I actually quite like the shredded uniform Bats. The detail is excellent here, down to little scratches etc., but there is some sloppy paint work on mine and what appears to be paint spatters on his flesh. Wonder Woman has the same cheap-pinky flesh thing as the Donnas and also the same weird waist and hip thing which me no likey. Supes just doesn't work for me at all. Really hate the head sculpt, and as you can see the only way he'll stand up on his little peg thing without pulling the base over is to put the base sideways which is annoying. As for the claims that you can put these in a plain pose? Not likely.

I don't have a problem with Firestorm II getting a figure. He's had his own series and obviously a base of fans, so good for them. It does seem very typical DCD however that in a line-up like these it's the newcomer and least likely to be remembered that gets the corker of a figure, while the others get progressive levels of blah and blech.

That's a way to keep you fan base, isn't it?

Forbidden Fruit

So a quick confab with the domestic coordinator confirmed today that I will not be owning the 13" Power Girl if I want to keep my marriage, my collection and I think it was implied, my willy.

*Sigh*.

Something to do with the gratuitous representation of women in comics and the fact that we have two young daughters and (you know that sound that all the adults on Charlie Brown make when they speak? Yeah, that's what I heard)

Currently seeking one centrally located friend who will allow me to keep this one at his place and come to look at it often.........

Oh, and to the self-righteous prick who always complains when I post anything about my wife, she, unlike you, has a sense of humour.........

Custom Heaven

I'm not just an rabid Legion of Superheroes fan, I'm a major Phantom Girl Phanatic, so it's always been a point of desperation that DCD pulled the plug on their SA Legion cookie cutter series short of PG and the other early Legion Ladies.

I fret no more, because my amazing customising friend known on many a board as Jackknight92 has produced me this extra fine custom which fits in unbelievably with her SA friends.

I'm still at that stage where I get a little tingle up my spine every time I walk past the shelf and see her there (which is an improvement since when I first put here there I was so excited I'm pretty sure I peed a little bit).

It's an excellent job, but also shows how easy it would have been for DCD to have finished off this line. Grrrr.

At least DCD's current output is making it easy for me to have enough money to commission more customs.

One Hell of a Hal!

I've tried to be a disciplined collector. When I caught the AF bug I realised quickly that this was a hobby that could be a quick road to the poor house, so I decided to clearly define my collecting limits, and I decided that the DCD 6" line was going to be it.

Yeah, that was before the 6" line went to the fractal armor shithouse. (And while we're on armor I'm not going to waste a whole post bitching about the fact that they are ACTUALLY going through with that bloody MA Nightburp and Flamefart armour line....) So I decided to add the 13" line, and the odd Minimate, but I was definitely going to stay away from the statues. That was my line in the sand.

I blurred the line with the Zatanna mini-bust, but that was just because I love the character so much I'd buy a Coco Pop with an extreme Zee likeness. It was pretty nice tho.

And so it was that I was suitably softened up that when I saw the Green Lantern JLA Cover to Cover Statue, I cracked. And I have to say, it's bloody awesome.

As you can see from the comparison pic it's about 10" and after a bit of fiddling it sits beautifully on it's base. Oddly I have to position the base backwards to get him to stand properly, otherwise he slopes oddly. However this statue is so beautiful I really don't care.

I'm not going to be drawn in to this statue thing tho. I mean, I definitely didn't order the Flash and Wonder Woman JLA Cover to Cover Statue, and I most certainly didn't order the Donna Troy or Black Canary Women of the DC Universe Mini-Busts.

And yes I'm totally lying.

Credit where it's due

After my rant in the previous entry, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge Georg Brewer's "interview" with superherotimes in which he does actually acknowledge a scale problem (in this case the Giant-Size CRISIS Batman). Here's the link: http://www.superherotimes.com/newsarchive/002182.php

The reason it's an "interview" is that it's all kid gloves, no truly hard questions asked, and the "interviewer" even wraps up the brief discussion on scale and QC with a glowing statement of how Brewer's obviously addressed it to make sure that scale issues never happen again, or some other such rot.

Was that a paid advertorial? If not, publishing such sycophantic drivel doesn't do much for a fan site's cred. If you're not prepared to ask the hard questions you shouldn't be doing the work in the first place, and if you're not allowed to ask the hard questions then they don't deserve to have the article printed.

When my kids say they're sorry for something I tell them that the true way to show you're sorry is not to do it again.

Same applies here Mr Brewer. Talk is cheap.

Well worth the (bloooody long) wait

It's good to know that DCD takes my threats seriously. And so they should. I was working on some very nasty ju-ju if my fears from the previous post came true. I'm talking really evil, toxic tantrum type vengeance.

Thankfully I can save that up in case they screw up the Shazam Family Wave because I really don't think Booster or Buddy could be much better. True to my word, there will be no complaints about them, especially since, most importantly, Booster and Blue Beetle don't look at all out of place with each other. It's great to have the boys together and also to be one step closer to being able to recreate the cover to JUSTICE LEAGUE #1 circa 1987ish (team photo below) - doubt we'll ever get Black Canary in her funky outfit from that period but I can dream.....

From what I'm reading online, the scene in my LCS today seems to be occurring elsewhere - not a Booster or Animal Man in sight and lots of Supernovas and Batwomen on the pegs. It would be great to think that DCD is watching and seeing that figures of the classic characters (okay some might argue Booster isn't classic but he's been around more than five minutes) WILL sell, especially if done well like these guys.

True to DCD style, of course, the rest of the wave is comprised of flash-in-the-pans who really don't merit a figure at this stage, so the no-bitch policy doesn't extend to them. I predict Supernova will be one of 2007's top peg-cloggers. The final issue of 52 does raise some possibility he might have a future, but with that costume........ He's a competently done figure with a slightly twisted torso, but at the moment I'm struggling to work out where he's going to go on the shelf.

Isis is possibly one of the best female figures DCD has ever done. Shame she also seems to be one of the most pointless, unless this incarnation of Isis is going to rise from the ashes. She looks pretty good paired next to the JUSTICE Black Adam - see the 52 cast photo below.

Batwoman is the disappointment of the bunch. Her face looks puffy, her right leg has an awkward bend in it which was evident in every figure in the shop and this little bunny couldn't get her to stand on her own and I have a bugbear about shelling out my hard-earned clams for an action figure that can't stand up under its own steam. The black lipstick from the solicits has been replaced with red and she looks the worse for it. An underwhelming figure to match an underwhelming character.

It's great to have Skeets, altho he's a touch big IMHO. The stand to create the floating effect is a very nice touch.

I'd say a second wave of 52 is unlikely. Would have been a great opportunity for a Rip Hunter or a better Steel than the one we've got, but again I'm not going to complain about getting these two excellent and long-awaited characters in one wave.

If you haven't bought these two yet, grab them while you can, firstly because I don't think they're going to stay on the pegs for long and secondly so that we can send out own message to DCD about what we want to buy.

Have to go - these guys have thrown my shelving arrangements into chaos and I have to find a place for everyone before I can go to bed.......

Warning shot

Barring any delivery screw-ups, it's two sleeps until I get my much-awaited Animal Man and Booster Gold figures. In appreciation of finally getting these characters I am not going to bitch about minor issues, scale or QC. I have resigned myself to the likelihood that my Booster Gold is going to stand head and shoulders above my Ted Kord. I have reconciled myself to Animal Man's MA styling and leather jacket. I want these characters so bad I'll wear that.

But consider yourself warned, DCD, that if I get a Crisis Batman-sized Booster or a Total Justice-style Animal Man, this little blogger is gonna unleash a big can of whoop-ass, a plague on your house that will curdle the toes of your grandfathers' grandfathers in their graves.

Just so you know.

Right Sculpts, Wrong Toys pt. 2

Finally picked up my case of First Appearance Series 4 this week after last week's delivery fiasco. All I can say is that these are the best toys that have every been made about characters that people care very little about.

These figures deserve to be celebrated in their own right. There's very little to complain about here. Blue Beetle and Martian Manhunter are the stars of the wave for me. I haven't really gotten into the new BB (altho his appearance in BRAVE & BOLD #3 piqued my interest a bit and I'm now giving him a try) but this is an amazing figure. This is one of those rare toys that really looks like the character has jumped straight off the page onto your shelf. The bug thing on his back (I don't know the character well enough to know what it is) clicks on easily and looks groovy but the wings (I guess they're wings) make no sense to me and since DCD is allergic to providing any assembly instructions they're in the extraneous accessories box. He looks great as he is.

Martian Manhunter is a very fine sculpt as well. I seem to be a lone voice in quite liking his new look so as a fan of the character I'm very happy to have a figure of it. Aquaman is a fave character of mine and this version will make a nice addition to the Aquaman shelf, but I'd like it better if the orange and green bits weren't so sparkly. Not sure why they do that. Atom is a fine sculpt but the headsculpt lets it down a bit, he's a little bug-eyed. Kudos to DCD for maintaining the First Appearance Series packaging and bases, but these are missing the mini-comics previous waves came out with.

The way my LCS prices its DCD stuff it's better economy to buy the whole wave when I want 4 out of 6 so I have the Warlord and Blue Beetle variants but they're MIB as they'll be going straight to eBay. I have a buddy on a message board who says that DCD has a way of giving you what you wanted in a way that makes you wish you'd never asked for it. That's got to be the case with this Warlord figure. Fans have been clamouring for a Travis Morgan figure for years and we get a rebooted version of the character whose series lasted a whole 10 issues. Argh. The Blue Beetle "Stealth Variant" has to get the prize for the most meaningless variant ever. We don't know this character well enough to want two of him for pete's sake!

Okay, now to the bitching. DCD has to be given it's due for producing an excellent wave of figures, but as I said in the last post, PLEASE can we have this quality for characters that really matter?? Imagine where DCD's credibility would be right now if JSA Wave 1 was done at this standard? (I know I hark on about JSA Wave One but it bloody well deserves to be harked on about. Three words: Golden. Age. Atoms.)

What ires me most is that we get nothing from Brewer to acknowledge any of this. Recently Art Asylum had a very rare scale issue with it's excellent Star Trek range and they acknowledged it. Some fans were pretty upset about the issue but being given an explanation of why it happened and what steps were being taken to prevent it happening again helps to restore confidence. If anything ever deserved a public acknowledgement it's the Atoms debacle, and what do we get? Oxygen.

So thanks for this great wave DCD. It puts a little in the bank, but nothing near as much as trying to show that you're listening would.

Right Sculpts, Wrong Toys, but what about that Bust??

Ok, back to my recent DCD acquisitions. First a definite travail..... while the other two comic shops in the area received their shipments of First Appearance Series 4, my LCS (who are fantastic) didn't and thus I'm waiting a week for mine - that's what I get for preordering! I'll let you know how I go with them.

I had preordered the Bizarro from the Superman / Batman Series 4 because I needed another Biz for my display. I have to say I am a sucker for those McG figures. I ended up getting Batzarro as well as he just looked so groovy. I can't imagine ever wanting Kryptonite Batman (altho I did hear he glows in the dark....), but the others may sucker me in yet. I know these aren't everyone's cup of tea but they are fun.

Something else that suckered me in were the Supergirl and Batgirl from the latest Elseworlds Series. I had preordered the Aquaman and Nightstar figures and left the rest on principle of character selection, but....... they are actually great figures! Thus the title for this post - why the $#!@#! can't DC Direct pull out decent sculpts for the characters that matter?? Here are a couple of figures using a standard body sculpt (mirror image) that work (altho Supergirl can't stand on her own which always shits me - I hate having to use bases). In the light of these what possible excuse can there be for the Total Justice-style JSA and micro-Atoms we were insulted with earlier this year? It's galling, absolutely galling.

I picked up Mini-Mates Series 3 - at least I got one Aquaman last week! I still am trying to work out how to display these little, but all their teeny-tiny little accessories frighten me. How to keep track of them all?? This was a pretty good assortment, altho we did get a Battled-Damaged Batman. Who actually likes battle damaged figures? It escapes me.

Finally, I have entered the world of statues by picking up the Zatanna mini-bust. This is a fine piece. Emphasis on mini - she really is quite small, but she's beautiful. As much as I have liked some of the other Women of the DC Universe busts, they've been to bust-y for what I would be allowed to display, so I haven;t bitten as these come in around the $90 mark here in Oz. Zee doesn't have that issue. There's a little bit of paint bleed from one side of her face to her hair, but otherwise she's great.

That's the lowdown on the last few purchases. I'll finally get my FA Series 4 this week and with 52 coming up as well there will be more to share soon. Until then, travel well!

A Very Happy Find!

In addition to DCD I collect JLU figures, Art Asylum Star Trek stuff and the occasional Marvel Legend. My LCS orders in DCD and Art Asylum but I'm on my own with the retailers for the rest - I'm in Australia and Diamond doesn't ship Marvel Legends here. Once upon a time I could count on Meyer or Kmart to regularly get in each line of JLU or ML, but the glut of movie toys (especially all that Superman Returns dreck) brought alot of that to a halt. Since then it's been a real hunt.

I had to eBay for the last set of JLU 3-packs on the orange card - they never saw the light of day here. That's always a slippery slope as the shipping here to Oz can be pretty treacherous. Same for the last couple of series of ToyBiz Marvel Legends. Finally, however the first series of Hasbro ML and the purple carded JLU stuff have shown up here. A few weeks ago I got the two Marvel Legends I wanted (Banshee and Hercules - I had wanted Emma Frost too, but then I saw her....) and then today, jackpot. I was with my kids in David Jones (one of our major department stores) and checked out the action figure section. I've found a few sets of the purple carded JLU but the elusive Nemesis/Lightray/Amazo and Stargirl/Parasite/Aquaman sets have been picked off by collectors already. The same seemed the case here, nothing of interest. I moved over to where my girls were and as I was calling them away, bingo - secreted away amongst the Bratz I spotted those two elusive sets. I probably spoiled someone else's day, but I cared not!

Anyway, I just had to share my joy.................

Latest acquisitions - DCD scores, bores and deserves to be abhored

Dreadful I know but that's the best rhyming I can do at the moment. The dreaded work monster has inserted too much "real" into my life of late so there's lots to report on in terms of recent DCD releases. Too hard to be sequential in terms of release dates so we'll go with the ever-reliable stream of consciousness instead. Hang on....

First up is my latest purchase, the Batman through the Ages Boxed Set. Having heard QC grumbles on the net I approached these with caution. The decision to buy was based on the FA Bats with plastic cape (since they don't make rooted capes, plastic is my preference ;0) ) and the nothing short of amazing GA Bats, who looks pretty awesme amongst the JSA. Despite some disappointments in other sections of the box, I decided these two were worth the money.

In all the sets I looked at the left "bat ear" (bat antennae? bat prong? bat sticky-uppy-thing?) of Superfriends Batman looked like it had been damaged in production, shortened and bent - you can see it clearly in this picture. I've just been to Perth (the other side of the country) for work and saw a set in a shop there with the same flaw. Has that been the case with them everywhere? Let me know. My other gripe with Superfriends Bats is that his blue is too dark compared to how he appeared in the show. And I know because I watched every bloody episode of that show and blame it for the twisted individual I've become today.

Interesting that the Bats from Justice was included as "Modern Batman" - (the DCU really is being remade in the image of Alex Ross, isn't it?) DCD could have shown a tad more originality in choices for this set, especially considering that both the Superfriends and Justice Bats are both being issued again in other sets later in the year. Not exactly sure how DCD is justifying that one. Wait, I forgot, DCD is too lazy and overconfident to even bother jutsifying. Silly me. Wonder if the flaw on SuperfriendsBats bent bat sticky-uppy-thing will be fixed for the Superfriends assortment?

Before that I picked up the Elseworlds Kingdom Come Aquaman and Nightstar figures. While many complain about the lack of articulation in the KC figures I enjoy most of the sculpts and Aquaman has to be close to the top of the class in this series. Great detail, love the robes and trident. As many have lamented it would be great to see this quality of sculpting for the in-continuity figures. ...

Also new on my shelves is the 13" Superman Deluxe Collectors Figures. I didn't pick up the first version. This is a pretty good addition to the line, however on every one I saw the "S' was slightly crooked and his jaws were very square, almost flaring out. Supes get jaw implants! I managed to find one with the least crooked "S" and the least flaring jaws and I am enjoying him on the shelf. There may now be a dry spell for me for this line as I'm passing on Nightwing and Catwoman and waiting to see how they pull off Martian Manhunter (all that bare green skin!) before I commit to buy. I am looking forward to Batgirl in November though!

I picked up some of the second set of DC Minimates - no pic sorry. I'm refusing to buy the zillion SuperBat variations that are sure to be regurgiated through this line and only by characters I want, even though at my LCS that means paying alot more per item. This time around I chose Dr Fate and Power Girl and Blue Beetle and Booster Gold. Like 'em, but I did think that some of the little details like Fate's helmet and the goggles on BB and BG looked a little shaky.

By the way, if anyone out there who loves Minimates (in ways that it is legal to love Minimates) has pics of how you display your little friends I'd love to see them - my creativity has come up with nada on this.

Last but certainly not least I bought Hawkman and Natasha Irons from Superman / Batman Wave 3. All I can say is that the International Superhero Anti-Doping Agency is asleep at the wheel if they haven't asked 'ol Hawky for a cup 'o Thanagarian wee. As much as I wanted to take a principled scale stand I really love the sculpt of this figure, but he does look pretty silly towering over his colleagues at the back of the display...

Well, that's my trials and travails for March and early April. I also ordered but haven't received yet the Zatanna Women of the DC Universe Mini-Bust. I've liked quite of few of the sculpts in that wave but Zatanna is the first one that doesn't scream "boobies", and as I do have to pass all my acquisitions through the interior design coordinator (read = wife) I've left the others on the shelf out of respect to her. Looking forward to reviewing Zee when she arrives.

Until next time!