Top Ten DCUC Wishlist

Updated for the Sep 2009 Fwoosh Top Ten Poll. Apparently I think DCUC needs more female characters.

On the various forums I frequent we often discuss which figures we'd like to see in our favorite lines, in this case DCUC. The Fwoosh is doing a Top Ten list and will be counting all the votes, and trying to let Mattel know what we want. Since I know what I'm putting now is quite different than last time I'm going to keep track of what I want, so I can see how stuff gets removed because it's made, or because my tastes change.

1. Huntress (Jim Lee)
   
2. Spoiler
   
3. Jade
   
4. Fatality
   
5. Soranik Natu
   
6. Lady Shiva
   
7. Hawkgirl (modern)
   
8. Batwoman (modern)
   
9. Killer Frost
   
10. Saturn Queen
    
11. C&C Atrocitus
    

Below is a wishlist of all the characters I'm either familiar enough with to want figures of, or I think are visually interesting enough to need figures of.

Alan Scott (Sentinel)

Alex Nero
Animal Man
Arkillo (Sinestro Corps Trainee)

Arkillo (Sinestro Corps)

Atomic Skull
Azrael

Aztek
Bane (improved articulation)

Batgirl (Barbara, black/yellow)

Batgirl (Betty Kane, Earth 2)

Batman (Earth 2)

Batman (Justice Lords)
Batman (Sinestro Corps trainee costume)

Batwoman (Earth Two)


Black Adam

Black Canary
Black Orchid
Blight

Blue Beetle (modern)
Blue Devil (modern)

Brainiac 13
The Calculator

Calendar Man

Captain Boomerang (modern)
Catwoman (Earth 2)

Catwoman (Knightfall costume)

Catwoman (all other costumes)
Checkmate
Circe
Clock King
Cosmic King

Creeper
David Cain
Deadshot

Desaad
Donna Troy (Darkstar)

Donna Troy (Infinite Crisis)

Dove (Don Hall)
Dove (Dawn Granger)
Dr Light (hero) Dr Light (villain) Dr Polaris
Dr. Fate

Eradicator (modern)

Felix Faust
Female Furies
Fire (Checkmate)

Fire (Flames)
Fire (Spandex)

Flamebird (Bette Kane, Teen Titans East)

Flamebird (Bette Kane, modern)

Flash (Wally West)
The General

Gentleman Ghost
Giganta (JLU, C&C)
Green Arrow (Connor Hawke)
Green Arrow (Ollie)

Green Lantern (Justice Lords)
Hal Jordan Parallax
Hawk (Hank Hall)
Hawk (Holly Granger)
Hawkgirl (Justice Lords)
Hawkwoman (Shayera)

Huntress (Earth Two)


Huntress (JLA Era)

Huntress (Modern)

Ice

Isamot Kol

Isis

Jason Blood

John Stewart

Joker (new sculpt)

Katanna

Katma Tui
The Key

Killer Croc (improved articulation)
Kilowog (C&C)

King Kobra

Kraken, GL from Apocalypse

Kyle Rayner (Jim Lee Costume)

Kyle Rayner (Countdown costume)

Kyle Rayner (Classic costume)

Kyle Rayner Ion

Kyle Rayner Parallax

Kyle Rayner Parallax (yellow)

Lady Shiva (Hush)

Lex Luthor (SuperFriends costume)
Lightning Lord
Mad Hatter
Major Force

Man-Bat (Release the brown Prototype!)

Martian Manhunter (Justice Lords)
Martian Manhunter (classic)

Martian Manhunter (modern)

Mary Marvel (black)

Mary Marvel (white)

Merlin
Metron
Mirror Master

Miss Martian

Nightshade
Ocean Master
Oracle

OMAC (Infinite Crisis)
Owlman (Crime Syndicate of Amerika, modern)
Parademon
Phantasm
Phantom Lady
Plastic Man
Poison Ivy

Prometheus
Power Girl (modern)

Question

Ra's Ah Ghul

Ragdoll
Ragman
Ravager (one eye masked)

Ravager (unmasked)

Ravager (two eyes masked)
Raven (Classic)

Raven (purged of evil)

Raven (modern)

Raven (Teen Titans Animated Series)

Raven (Teen Titans Animated Series white)

Red Arrow
Reverse Flash
Robin (Earth 2)

Robin (Earth 2, adult)

Royal Flush Gang (Justice League Animated Series)
Royal Flush Gang (Batman Beyond)

Saturn Girl

Saturn Queen
Shadow Thief
Shasha Bordeaux (Checkmate)
Shasha Bordeaux (OMAC)
Shinning Knight
Silver Banshee Sinestro Corps Anti-Monitor Sinestro Corps Cyborg Sinestro Corps Mongol
The Spectre (Hal Jordan, large C&C)

Star Sapphire
Star Sapphire (modern)
Starro Superboy (Reign of the Supermen)
Superboy (Infinite Crisis)

Superboy Prime (Infinite Crisis)

Superboy Prime (Sinestro Corps)
Superman (Godfall) Superman (Justice Lords)
Superman (Kryptonite Suit)
Superman (One Million) Superwoman (Crime Syndicate of Amerika, modern) The Shade Toyman (Super Friends) Trickster Trigon Ultraman (Crime Syndicate of Amerika, modern) Ultra-Humanite (C&C)
Ventriloquist (Arnold Wesker) & Scarface

Ventriloquist (Peyton Riley) & Scarface

Weather Wizard

Wonder Girl (Cassie, modern)
Wonder Woman (Justice Lords)
Zatanna (Corset/Tux)

Zatanna (Perez)

Zauriel

Zod (Superman: For Tomorrow)

Zoom

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Solomon Grundy Smash Puny Green Man

Thanks to Derek, who is able to hit the stores that sell toys I actually want to buy, I now have all but one DCUC wave 3 figure, the modern Sinestro Corps costume Sinestro. Last night he gave me classic Sinestro and masked Deathstroke.

The most important outcome of ths is that it completed Solomon Grundy. Notice the mud on his jacket, he's awesome.

My cousin and I watched The Terror Beyond episode from Justice League and he pointed out that Solomon Grundy was the Hulk. King Hulk took offense at that and picked a fight with Grundy, who had a little bit of a size advantage.

Not sure why, but when I opened Sinestro and thought about posing him against Hal I just knew it had to happen this way. They face off ready to attack each other with constructs, when Hal pulls a surprise move and clocks Sinestro with his lantern. He thought he won right then, but Sinestro had a good counter move.

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New Stuff, New Monsters, New Figures, New Toys

Busy week (or three) of acquiring figures without posting about them, since the birth of the child trumped everything else. But I have been buying stuff, quite a bit of stuff, and more importantly, I started collecting a new line. Read on to find out more and see pictures!

First off, I completed my second Marvel Legends Build-A-Figure, Onslaught, and I mostly completed blue Apocalypse, just waiting on one of the legs in the mail, I have all the pieces to the black Apocalypse, but the lower torso is connected to a blue upper torso, so I need to separate them before I can assemble him. But Onslaught is great.

Finally received DCSH Brainiac(!!) and Supergirl (see this post for Lex Luthor and Two-Face.

In other DC news Derek found some of DCUC Wave 3 for me.
Robin (Tim Drake)
Nightwing (Dick Grayson)
Slade Wilson, Deathstroke the Terminator, unmasked variant
Up close, because the face just looks amazing to me. He also found Green Lantern, but the paint's not great, so I'm going to try to find a better one, then I just need Sinestro to finish off Grundy.

New Line for me

Now, for the new line. I'd seen this line before in stores, but never really paid it any attention, because it was a G.I. Joe line, and I just have never been interested in it that much. There are two very awesome replica swords based on the two characters that have always interested me the most, Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes, and I've wanted to have a figure of each to go with them, but the 3-3/4 inch figures just haven't interested me enough to pursue them.

Then I was made to notice Sigma 6. Large, 8 inch figures based on a new GI Joe animated series. They're a great scale, reasonably detailed, reasonably priced, and extremely accessorized. And that last point was the convincing point for me. Each of these comes with so many accessories, weapons, gear, etc, that I could not turn them down. It helps that the figures are well articulated and priced. I've used a lot of money that was supposed to be set aside for DCUC figures buying them left and right over the last two weeks. Unfortunately, the line is currently on hiatus, but that means there's a limit to the number of figures and amount of money I can spent on it (unless they revive it).

So, what do they look like?
Snake Eyes
As you can see comes with two large swords, two sheaths for said swords, a short sword and sheath, and an uzi. What you don't see is that his visor is removable, and that he has two more visors. The large swords have a fold out handle that allows him to hold them parallel to his arms. He also has two suction cup things for his hands with which he can 'climb', a grappling hook with a nice long string, and another contraption that I can't find the words to explain. He also comes with a storage locker (with custom cut foam) to store his accessories. All for a retail price of $15, though in this case I got a group of 4 figures for $20 off eBay.

Storm Shadow
Storm Shadow has a katana with sheath, a wakizashi sword with sheath, two sai, a chest strap that holds either sheath and the two sai, a staff with open ends that the swords can attach two, a grappling hook, 2 hand climbing claws and 2 feet climbing claws, a small wooden stand for the swords, and nunchuks with fold-out blades. And cloth pants that I had removed for that picture.

So, the new ones from the last week. Snake Eyes' apprentice Kamakura.

Iron Grenadier

Cobra Commander Battlefield General

Sigma Strike Duke with Power Armor

Ninja Armor Snake Eyes (with extra accessories)

One of my favorites, and one of the more difficult rare ones to find on eBay, that I was lucky to find at KMart (on clearance no less) Dark Ninja Master

Now if you'll notice, Dark Ninja Master has a lot of yellow weapons. I don't know why they're yellow, why his giant cleaver has a plasticky yellow blade, but I didn't like it. So I began tweaking them a bit.

The Kanji on the two blades were already present, one recessed and one not. Those blades use flat black for the bulk of the blade, and the edged part is glossy, metallic black. I'm still going to do more to the ridiculously long blade, add some black and metallic red to the handle.

I really like these figures, they're a lot of fun to play with, and the bucket-load of accessories really helps sell these for me. I plan to get a lot of these figures, characters I wouldn't normally be very interested in, because of the great items they come with.

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Katie, Elayna, and Toys

We had a baby last week. She's pretty cute. Her name is Elayna.

Katie's suddenly looks a lot older, even though she's just over two. But having a tiny newborn again makes me realize just how much Katie has changed.

Got some new toys over the last week or so, missing a couple, but they're taking too long to arrive so I'll just post these. Marvel Legends Build-A-Figure pieces for Apocalypse and Onslaught. I'm now only missing the torso/shell piece to Onslaught, which I will be getting from Derek. For Apocalypse I have 3 of the 6 pieces for the blue one, and different 3 of the 6 for the black one. Two blue pieces are on their way.

My collection of DC Bad Guys continues to grow, with the addition of Lex Luthor and Two-Face. I probably didn't post that a few weeks ago I got Clayface and Catwoman (who plays with the bad guys as often as the good). I'll post pictures of them when I get Brainiac and Supergirl (Linda), who are also on the way. This means I'm only missing 3 figures from the DC SuperHeroes line - Man-Bat, Supergirl (Kara) and Bizzaro #1. If you're willing to part with any of those figures for good prices, feel free to contact me. Also pictured above are Marvel Legends X-23 and Wolverine from series 12 (Apocalpyse).

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Best Movie Ever - The Dark Knight

Some random spoiler-laden thoughts on Christopher Nolan's second Batman movie, The Dark Knight.

Honestly, I hated the Rachel character and was not unhappy she got blowed up. I hope she is dead and doesn't come back. As has been said, Katie looks better but Maggie played the part better, and was even a little more likable as Rachel, but I'm still glad she died.

I was suckered by some of the twists, I though Gordon was dead, I suspected the driver to be one of Joker's agents, since Gotham is full of dirty cops. I kept expecting him to pull a gun and blow the passenger away and drive off with Harvey.

But I knew that Joker told Batman the addresses wrong while he was on his way to save her. Thought it was awesome.

I though Two-Face looked Perfect. I do hope that they were faking his death until they can give him surgery and rehabilitate him a bit. I read a comic where he had plastic surgery and was doing better, and then regressed and CLAWED HALF HIS FACE OFF WITH HIS BARE HANDS. I wouldn't mind seeing something like that in a sequel.

Everything about the Joker was also Perfect. Everything he did, the way he acted, everything he said... Pure Awesomesauce.

I really like Tim Burton's Batman. I really like Jack Nicholson as The Joker. Or I did. After seeing The Dark Knight I don't know if I can ever watch Batman again. There wasn't anything wrong with Burton's Joker, but compared to TDK it'll just never stand up. I much prefer the darker portrayal of the Joker.

This quote from this TDK Review says it better.

When Tim Burton's Batman was released in 1989, it was lauded as a dark, serious take on the mythos of Batman. But watch it now, after Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins, and that movie is barely above an episode of the old Adam West tv show. It's campy, self-consciously over-designed and verges on parody, but it took Batman Begins to really show us that.

I would rather not see the Riddler in the sequel. I don't think the Riddler could be seen as anything more than a cheap knockoff of the Joker. Less violent, less creepy and scary, etc.

I think if done slowly, and well written, some of the more fantastic elements of the DC Universe could be introduced into the Nolan universe, such that it wouldn't be out of place to have Man-Bat or Killer Croc.

I think Talia or Harley would be fun to have in the next movie. Harley would be tricky, as they would need the Joker, and they would face the inevitable comparisons between Ledger and whoever the new guy would be. But if he wasn't in it much I think it could be interesting.

In summary: best movie ever, I want to see it again, I will buy the DVD on release day (unless I've spent all my money on DCUC figures), no movie will ever be the same again in my eyes.
I have seen cinematic perfection, and it is The Dark Knight.

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There's nowhere left to run! This is the hour of Fin Fang Foom!

I've recently become interested enough in the Marvel Legends line (formerly by Toy Biz, currently by Hasbro) to start trying to acquire some. What really pushed me into following the line is the Build-a-Figure concept, started by Toy Biz with series 10. Each figure of that wave came with a piece of another figure. In this case, they assembled into a Giant Mutant-Killing Robot Sentinel. Sentinel is around 13-14 inches tall, which is nice and big compared to the 6 inch scale for the regular figures. He's kinda hard to put together now, but I'm working on it. I also decided I wanted a few of the other BAFs, such as Onslaught, and Annihilus (which I almost have completed).

I really like the BAF idea, as it allows us to get figures we wouldn't normally, like less likely to sell well as a single carded figure, such as a Giant Mutant-Killing Sentinel. A lot of people have complained about Hasbro's BAFs because compared to several of Toy Biz's they're quite small. Ronin is the size of a regular figure, Annihilus is a little bigger, but not 9-10 inches like Onslaught, let alone the Giant Mutant-Killing Robot. But, with Hasbro's latest Marvel Legends line they really tried to match up to Toy Biz's fame with a Giant Green Dragon Monster, by the name of Fin Fang Foom. Derek and I went shopping last night in our weekly toy hunt and found the complete set at Toys R Us. I had been planning to buy the pieces on eBay because I only like two of the figures, but after watching some of the pieces sell for over $15 by themselves I realized it was cheaper to buy all the figures at $15 a pop and sell the ones I don't want.

This wave is know as Hulk Legends and is comprised of eight figures relating to the Incredible Hulk. We've got things like Bruce Banner's cousin the She-Hulk, his son Skaar, Savage Gray Hulk, the Absorbing Man, and then we have more interesting things like Wendigo a demon spirit that possesses people and drives them to violent, mindless ramages until something stronger than it (like the Hulk I guess) stops them. This is one of the only two figures from the set I really like.

The only other figure I like is King Hulk, from the same storyline as Son of Hulk. Something to the effect of people (Superheroes) think Hulk is to dangerous and unpredictable so they put him in a rocket and blast him off into space. He lands on a planet called Sakaar where he finds he fits in great because everyone is violent and mean. He enters into some sort of gladatorial combat (whence comes the Planet Hulk gladiator figure in the Annihilus series, the only figure from that wave I want to get for something other than the Annihilus piece), I guess he wins, eventually kills the evil king, takes his throne and his queen and has a son. Then Earth's 'Superheroes' blow up the planet and kill everyone and everything on it, except Hulk who survives, comes back to Earth and is really not happy. Anyway, the figure is cool, that's why I'm keeping it. He also comes with an axe, but after helping me open several figures Katie was playing with it and I forgot to put it in the picture.

Katie and I spent a good while opening these figures so I could get the pieces for myself and list the extra stuff on eBay, and when we were done this is what we had. As you can see, Foom is comprised of several pieces - 11 spread out over 8 figures, especially compared to DCUC BAFs (Collect & Connect's technically) which only require 5 pieces. Even Sentinel, which is almost as tall as Foom only took 6 pieces.

Once assembled Foom is tall, the packaging says over 15 inches, which I take to mean 15-1/32 or -1/16 inches, but it could be more than that. It doesn't really matter though, because by far he's the tallest thing I have. He will be lots of fun to display against the smaller figures, be it the 6 inch DC and Marvel figures, be it the 5 inch Halo figures, or 3 3/4 Star Wars (and upcoming Marvel figures). In fact, I think the smaller the figures are the cooler Foom will seem. I'm definitely going to give the small Marvel Universe figures a try once they come out, since Wolverine and Iron Man should be some of the earliest figures, and it'll be exciting to set them up with the Star Wars figures and have them take on the Giant Green Dragon.

Okay, enough babbling, right? Let's see him once he's assembled. . Right, that's great and all but it doesn't really show how big he really is, so we've got some comparison pics. As always, click the image for a larger picture.

Fin Fang Foom is awesome. He's also the first Marvel Legends BAF I've completed. And the most expensive. There are a few nits to pick, and since I spent a ton of money on him we'll pick them. King Hulk's left arm is supposed to be silver, but is cast in a plastic that is gray, not shiny or metallic looking at all, and has a bit of a yellow tint to it. I plan to do some touching up of that arm to make it look like he's got a metal sleeve. His skin could use either a dark wash or dry brushing, but I'm not sure which so I'll probably just leave it. Derek thinks the leather stuff needs some work, probably a dark brown or black wash to make it look a little more real, or less like unpainted brown plastic. Some of Fooms joints don't look like they connected well enough, mostly the upper torso area. The arms don't look like they're in far enough, there's too much of a gap, and similarly where the lower and upper torsos connect the gap seems too big. Only the double elbow has enough movement. The ankles and wrists in particular could use more movement, to cover the joint the leg and arm extends too far over the joint, kinda like a sleeve. With some careful trimming the movement range could be enhanced. The knees also could use such tweaking, and maybe the mouth to get it to close a little more. I don't know if I'll make any of these changes though, because he's really great, and I am happy with how he is. He could just move a tad better.

Unrelated Addendum
I recently encountered Evanescence's (of whom I am a big fan) first CD, Origin, of which I am now a bigger fan. It is such a great album it is a damn shame that it is so hard to come by. Everybody deserves to hear it. So, I present for your listening pleasure the first part of the instrumental end track, Eternal.

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Blue Beetle is coming to town!

Toy Guru has given us a sneak peak of what we'll see at San Diego Comic Con in the DC Universe line, and so far it is plasticky awesomeness!

Blue Beetle! who I'd never even heard of until I recently read Countdown to Infinite Crisis, and in that one issue I came to care for an empathize with him, and wish I'd known him as well as Batman.
And then he died.

Thanks to VeeBee at The Fwoosh for letting us all know.

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