Tuesday, April 16, 2019

Not a Review: DC Multiverse Jessica Cruz and Clayface!


The first of the month, I got a surprising April Fool's: on the pegs at Target, a DC Multiverse Jessica Cruz figure! Currently upwards of $100 on Amazon, I had never seen one, so I did not think finishing Clayface was in the cards. But, since we already had the parts from Two-Face, I bought the head and pelvis pieces that came with Batwoman from eBay; then at that same aforementioned Target got Superman and the Martian Manhunter. (That Superman wasn't there when I got Jessica, for some reason.) All of which brings us to this absolute monster!

Now, I didn't love that Two-Face figure: it wasn't the design I would've preferred, and as commenter Barbeque17 pointed out, that suit body was even older than I had thought. I can't say on Batwoman, but this Manhunter is from TV's Supergirl, and like all the Multiverse TV figures, feels a little small? We may get some of the TV figures out here for a gander. Did I end up with all of Mattel's TV figures?

The Superman figure; I am going to say something a little mean. With them losing the DC license, I am so glad I'm never going to have to buy another Mattel-made Superman, because I hate their neck joints. We've got three here, and not a one of them can look up!

Conversely, going back to DC Universe Classics; I think Mattel always did a good job with Green Lanterns. (Wellll...there was that Injustice Green Lantern, I didn't go near that one with a ten-foot pole; but I don't think that design was their fault, either.) Jessica Cruz turned out very well, and in almost unheard of news, she gets accessories--besides her lantern! She also has four pieces representing green energy; I couldn't do much with the two larger ones, but still. It's a perfectly nice figure, but I can't puzzle out why she sold so much more than the rest of this series. Batwoman and Two-Face weren't even close; the Martian Manhunter was the biggest pegwarmer, if you even saw him.

If there was a particular character you were waiting for Mattel to make, this may stick in your craw a little: this is the company's third Clayface in this scale! The first was back in the DC Superheroes, pre-DCUC, and as cyclically happened with Mattel, the distribution may have been crap. In 2009, Clayface returned in a two-pack with a muddied-up Batman; I can't tell if that was a straight reissue or not. (The Batman was.) I don't have either to compare to the Collect-n-Connect, but his arms alone seem more massive than the heroes he was packed with! I thought CF may have trouble staying upright with his feet, which seem small, but so far so good. There's a swivel neck so no up-and-down motion, but also a moveable jaw, with terrible teeth inside, including another row of them!

I'm actually a little surprised, but over the past few years we've seen the Rookie, King Shark, the Justice Buster, and Dr. Psycho. But the distribution for Multiverse has been at best hit-and-miss: I've barely seen any of the Lobo or Lex Luthor waves, and like Jessica Cruz and Zoom, there's a figure in each that's far more expensive. (Batman Beyond and Vixen, respectively.) Mattel still has the DC license for the rest of the year, before McFarlane takes over; but what will actually end up coming out is anyone's guess.

Maybe Mattel should've only done the "Collect-n-Connects."

1 comment:

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

Funny captioned pics.
Didn't know that Jessica Cruz figure was that hard to find and going for that much online. But goddamn!
Glad the action figure gods smiled on you though.

Thanks for bring up that hideous Injustice GL figure. All those Injustice figures sucked. The GL figure worse than the Injustice one, was the movie GL for me.

I'm really curious as to how the McFarlane line of DC toys turn out. I hope they do well, I really do because Mattel has defintiely gotten lazy as fuck when it comes to making DC figures as of late, regardless of who they make. Say what you will about Hasbro's ML line, but at least they've maintained their own standard of quality throughout the span of their licence. Mattel's just consistently gone down the shitter ever since the they folded the DCUC line.
Serves 'em right for losing the license.