More DCUC Wave 9 Pics!

Mattel released official pre-sales photos of wave 9 of DCUC, so I'll go ahead and join everyone else in the world and post those pictures. I stole these images from Poe Ghostal's Points of Articulation site. Thanks, Poe.

• Deadshot
• Robo-Mantis
• Human Mantis
• Green Arrow
• Black Canary
• Black Adam
• Wildcat
• Guardian
• C&C Chemo

As I mentioned in my previous post, I think I'm most excited for Deadshot, he is the character I'm most familiar with in the comics (particularly from Bruce Wayne: Murderer?), and he's definitely a well designed charaters.

Robo-Mantis is probably the next most exciting, I remember having the Super Powers figure as a kid, and I always thought it was great, a robotic-insect dude, what could be neater? Well, a newly updated figure sculpted by some of the best sculpters in the business, that's what.

The Collect & Connect figure, Chemo, is looks great, and I'm really excited for him as well. DCUC has really had great C&C figures. I initially was going to skip wave 1 entirely, until seeing Etrigan at Target convinced me to buy him, and then examining the Metamorpho piece I realized I'd really like him, and so ended up with all the figures from that wave, except classic Batman. Grodd isn't a bad figure either, except the lack of leg articulation, I'm just not a big fan of apes; he's definitely my least favorite of the C&Cs.

Solomon Grundy was the best C&C of the first four waves, and the one I looked forward to the most for a long time. Unlike many toy collectors that whined about his large size, I was perfectly happy with the mistake the factory made in not shrinking him down as much as was planned. He's a perfect fit for Grundy from The Long Halloween (by Jeph Lobe, art by Tim Sale) or Justice League: The Animated Series, so I love him to death.

As I have been saying, and will continue saying about these C&C figures, Despero was another great choice. The bandolier looks great, the weapons are great, his size is great. It seems like I didn't get a lot of time to enjoy him though, because Grundy was still eclipsing him from wave 3, and then when the Walmart wave was announced, Metallo began eclipsing Grundy.

Metallo is awesome. It's too bad that more people haven't been able to enjoy him, due to the difficulty in finding wave 5 in some areas. I was really quite lucky to get the set myself, as neither I nor my cousin ever saw a complete set locally, plus there was the mishap with an online retailer that stole $80 from many, many toy collectors. Thankfully, a helpful member of the Fwoosh.net forums found several extra sets, and I was able to purchase one from him. And Metallo was every bit as great as I hoped he would be. Hopefully, this year's Walmart wave will be easier to find.

Wave 6 brought us yet another of my most anticipated C&Cs - Kalibak, Darkseid's second son. I have a great fondness for Kalibak from Superman: The Animated Series (he's voiced by Michael Dorn, probably better known for his role as Lt Cmd Worf, in a Star Trek tv series and 4 films). Kalibak looked absolutely perfect to me, like he was based on the animated series (where in reality that design was based on a common look in the comics), and he fights with Metallo for my favorite C&C so far.

Wave 7 is soon to bring me Atom Smasher, who frankly is somewhat boring to me. He's not quite as boring as Grood, I think, maybe. Maybe he is. I'm just not a huge fan of extra large people. Grundy is great, because he's a huge zombie. Atom Smasher is just a huge guy. Not that exciting to me, not is Giganta from waave 8, but at least she's a female, and everybody knows this line needs more women in it. It doesn't help that I'm not familiar with Atom Smasher at all, and Giganta only marginally from one episode in Justice League: The Animated Series.

Which brings us back to Chemo, who will be one of my favorite C&Cs, despite only having read of him in one Supergirl comic, and he didn't even do much more than agonize over his existence, "Am I alive?" to which Supergirl said, "No, you're a freak of nature." But he's going to be big, and he's translucent. Awesome!

Now, you may have noticed I'm not terribly familiar with most of these characters, and yet the C&C aspect is one of my favorite things about the line. They're such well executed figures, that I love them. Contrast that to the Marvel Legends line, and their Build A Figures - Mojo is nasty looking, a disgusting blob, and I have no desire to own such a thing; MODOK freaks me the hell out, and were someone to pay me to own the figure it would mysteriously find its way between a hammer and the sidewalk. Giant Man is just some really tall guy, and as we already established about tall guys, who cares? Onslaught was an interesting design, and yet shortly after completing that figure, I sold it to buy something more interesting (Specifically, the DCUC Metallo wave). Apocalypse, I still have the black variant, but like Onslaught I sold the blue one for Metallo. The giant, mutant-killing Sentinel robot is the only one that holds any true interest to me, and karmicly one of the most difficult to complete nowadays, as the head/torso piece that came with Spiderman is difficult to find and therefor expensive on eBay.

My point is, I would have had to be a fan of these characters to be interested in their figures, and DCUC requires no such thing for me. Conversely, the figures are so great I want to learn more about the characters, and thus I've bought many comics in the last few months. Just more reasons why DCUC is the best toyline ever.

Remember Kids: Crazy robots...crazy robots everywhere!