DCUC Chemo wave!

(Oops! Forgot to put Green Arrow in the picture)

Okay, so two posts ago I mentioned that my cousin and I went toy shopping last night, we drove all over the Salt Lake Valley, hitting approximately 11 stores in total, and still skipping 4 or so Walmarts. This area is ripe with Walmarts.

I was actually looking for the Walmart Exclusive 5 pack consisting of Batman, Superman, repainted DCSH Catwoman, repainted DCSH Two-Face, and brand new Lex Luthor from the Super Friends. Two people in the Salt Lake area reported finding it Monday or Tuesday, so I was excited to find it, since I even happened to have money. As for the single packed figures, all the stores around here are swamped with waves 6 and 7, so I'm not expecting to see wave 8 at all, and I thought 9 was really iffy. I was flabbergasted to find wave 9 and two stores that were quite full of the Kalibak and Atom Smasher figures. And not only that, one store had a complete set, where I thought this wave was shipping in two different case assortments, like the last two have, with neither case being able to assemble a complete Chemo.

But none of that matters, because I did find a complete set of 7 Chemo figures. I'd like to get the classic style Mantis, but it's not very important to me, and the black Wildcat isn't either, though I think I'd like it a little more than the blue.

Of course, the real question is, how are the figures? Well, pretty damn good. It's no secret I'm in love with this line, and despite some hard to find figures (Metallo wave), and low-ish quality figures (wave 3), to me Mattel is doing, and can do no wrong.

Green Arrow isn't the one I'm most excited about, but the Fwooshers wanted pics of him, so I complied.

What I was really looking forward to was Chemo himself (itself?), Deadshot, and Robo-Mantis. I can't remember if I actually had the Super Powers toy Robo-Mantis is based of off, or if I just strongly desired it, but this figure is the one with the most nostalgic value to me (classic Aquaman and classic Firestorm do come close though), harkening back to my childhood, with my brother and I playing with the Superman, Aquaman and Firestorm figures that I do specifically remember.

Mantis is, simply put, one of the greatest figures this line has ever seen. Deadshot is awesome. Chemo is awesome. Black Canary and Green Arrow are great. Black Adam and Wildcat are pretty cool. Guardian is...really bland, actually. I haven't pulled out the checklist to actually verify the next statement, but I think this wave has provided us with the most villains at one time - 4 (or 5 if you count the two Mantis variants as separate characters) villains to 4 heroes. Although maybe Black Adam is in a gray area and could be counted on either side. I don't know, I don't get to keep up much with comics.

Sure, Chemo doesn't have a lot of articulation, and a lot of what is there is quite limited. He has no neck, and therefore no neck articulation. The shoulders are bal joints, with the most maneuverability of all the joints. No biceps, simple hinged elbows, he does have cut wrists on both sides of the gauntlet things, but on the elbow side there's not a lot of room. He has a swivel waist, t-crotch with about 45 degrees movement forward, and probably less than 10 back, no boot-top articulation or mid thigh, he does have rocker ankles, with a good bit of travel, and the forward/back hinge his actually quite limited by his boots.

But he looks awesome.

And he is BIG. Atom Smasher looks tall, but he's also human proportioned. Solomon Grundy looks big, because he's also bulky. Chemo dwarfs them all, he's taller than Atom Smasher, and much, much bulkier. I don't yet have any of wave 8 so I don't know how he stacks up next to Giganta, who was supposed to be the tallest C&C figure, but I don't really care how he looks next to her. He's big and bulky, and awesome. If she's taller, who cares? If she's shorter, so what? The way I'm talking about him, you would think Chemo is my favorite of the C&Cs, and honestly, I'm not sure. Metamorpho is a really well made figure, not big or anything, but pretty cool. Metallo is nothing less than freaking awesome, but I think I might actually like Chemo a little more. Only time will tell, and really, who even cares which I like better. I don't even thing I do.

What's important is DCUC is a sweet line, and wave 9 is super awesome. I'll actually be disappointed a little when I finally get the Giganta wave, because I've always been looking forward more to Chemo's wave. As great as some of the upcoming figures are (Joker, Man-bat, Power Girl, Imperiex) I think this is my favorite wave so far.