About a month ago
I blogged a quick review of three figures from Wave 4 of Mattel's DC Universe line. At that point I'd found Wonder Woman, Artemis, and Ares, but hadn't found the rest of the Despero wave.
When collecting the DC Universe 6-inch line, the one thing that you learn, is that they appear and then disappear rather quickly. If you're like me, and you tend to hold out until you find figures with the best possible paint, chances are good that you may
never be able to complete a given wave. But it seems that I finally got lucky with this particular group, and was at last able to build Despero, the "Collect & Connect" figure.
In order to do that, I had to first track down Batman Beyond, Captain Atom, and Cyborg.
Batman Beyond is a decent figure, with typically nice articulation, and all of the detail that you would expect from the DC Universe line. It's a simple figure though, as this version of Batman is somewhat streamlined. What's cool here is the glossy black paint job; not the belt, cape or other gadgets that Batman might ordinarily have. It should also be noted that the Three Horsemen took some liberties when creating their super-buff version of Batman Beyond, as he's usually seen as being a bit more slender.
This is both unique, and somewhat of a cop-out at the same time. It's understandable that Mattel would want to get as much mileage out of their generic figure bodies as possible, but a little variation in size and scale would be nice. The only sincere concern that I had with this figure, which also seems to be a trend with the line as a whole, is that his left knee-pin was poorly pressed. It meant that to fix the leg, I had to boil it and push the pin back into place.
The biggest obstacle that I faced in trying to complete this wave, was that for the longest time I couldn't find a "classic" silver version of Captain Atom. There are two versions out there, one silver and another gold, and yet all I was seeing was the more modern gold version... until about a week ago.
Again, this is a simple figure without a complex costume or any accessories, but it's handled well, and there were no serious problems with paint or build quality. It should be noted though, and this is something that I've used on many figures with silver paint, but Sharpie makes a silver marker that works perfectly for when you need to do touch-ups to a figure like this one. The ink blends exactly right, and dries to remain as durable as the original silver coating.
Once I'd found Captain Atom, I was then free to pick up the one figure that I was probably least interested in from this wave. It's not that I don't like the toy, but I'm just not that big of a Teen Titans fan, and as such, not much of a fan of Cyborg.
It's a great figure though, and a real testament to the sculpting and design skills of the Three Horsemen. In fact, out of the entire wave of figures, Cyborg has some of the best play value--with those detachable hands--and some of the best overall detail. Though I shrugged at this figure originally, I'm more than happy that I picked him up in the end.
Once I'd collected and connected all of the appropriate parts, I was able to build what stands as the first and only Mattel Collect & Connect figure that I've been able to complete. There are parts that I'm missing from the other three or four waves (including Wave 5) out there. And for the record, I've
still never seen any of Wave 3, which was supposed to be a Walmart exclusive. But all that aside, Despero is a great figure, and a very nice bonus to what has turned out to be an excellent group of action figures.
Part of me wishes that we could have the classic version of Despero as well, but this one is a lot of fun, and has become my current desktop mascot. It's another figure that shows just what the Four Horsemen do best: he's an angry purple mixture of muscles, armor and weapons. A three-eyed, fin-headed menace.
This Collect & Connect figure wasn't completely perfect though, as I needed to boil and re-set the pin for the left elbow before I could put him together. This is obviously a real concern with this line, and with many of the other action figures that Mattel puts out. I can forgive the problem with one or two figures over time, but looking back at this entire wave, I was required to perform (plastic) surgery on three out of seven figures purchased, which means that only a little better than half had no problems. Not the best percentage, and though I was able to fix them all, and love this group of toys, I think that Mattel can definitely do better.
(As always, you can click on the photos to visit my Flickr page, to see more photos of all the figures from this wave.)
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