We are back with a promised continuation of our First Looks at the latest DC swag coming from Mattel. As you may or may not know, next month marks the debut of the next highly-anticipated, straight to DVD DC Animated movie – Superman/Batman Public Enemies. In support of this, Mattel is carting out a ton of new toys across a few different formats. We already gave you a First Look at some of the 6-inch figures, but joining them will be new 3 3/4-inch figures as well. We have two of the three-pack box sets that will be showing up soon for your review. Take a look!
Mattel has been doing DC figures in this smaller scale for awhile now via their Infinite Heroes line, but these figures are being marketed as a line apart and the Infinite Heroes name does not come into play on any of the packaging. Speaking of the packaging, as you can see it follows the style guide of the larger figures’ blister cards. I would imagine that the brick wall and mugshot poster theme is something done by DC to have a constant run through all of the Public Enemies merchandise. I like it and the character art is particularly appealing to me. Also, the in box insert is done very nicely as well, it is cut and has a three-dimensional element to it. I suppose I should be used to finding things like this as Mattel is usually right on the ball with great packaging, but I still like the little surprises.
There are two three-packs here, one with Superman, Lex Luthor (in battle suit) and Power Girl; the other set contains Batman, Captain Atom and Black Lightning. I am happy to say that none of these figures are complete re-releases (save for Lex) and they all have new elements. I must also note that unlike the their larger counterparts, these figures are not stylistically styled after the movie designs. Thus, you get a more generic look that you can easily blend with your other DCIH figures. Let’s take a brief look and let the pictures do the talking.
First off, as alluded to above, Lex is a re-release from the “Battle For Metropolis” Infinite Heroes box set. If any figure in this group was going to be a re-release, I am glad it is him – it is a hefty and impressive figure and it is always good to get a figure that was previously released in a larger set.
Power Girl is the next most basic figure in the group as she is a simple repaint of the previous figure. I would imagine that she has been done to match the deco from the movie and she now has a blue collar.
Black Lightning is next as he kind of straddles the line between the older DCIH style and articulation and the new direction. He has the new elbows, ankles, wrists and knee points but he has the old style T-hips. He is a different deco from the previous figure, again, to match to movie.
The two titular characters (plus one) are the big winners though – the Superman, Batman and Captain Atom figures outshine any other Mattel DC 3 3/4″ figures done previously. Period. There has been a lot of talk since New York Comic Con about increased articulation and I am happy to report that these guys have a lot more than their previous incarnations. The big points for me are the ball hips, ankle hinges and swivel elbows – those points add so much movement to these these figures it is night and day compared to what has been offered before. Another very nice point is that the sculpts on the hands have improved as well – no more giants C-grip, they look much more natural now.
You can now have Superman fly and have Batman do all of those Batman things – fighting, brooding, etcetera.
So, if you are a 3 3/4″ scale fan and you love your DC characters, I strongly suggest you pick these sets up. Batman, Superman and Captain Atom especially offer great new plastic incarnations of their characters. I truly hope this is going to be the new direction in this scale for Mattel, it is a VAST improvement over just about all of their previous offerings.
*Thanks again for looking and as always, thanks so much to Toy Guru for making this possible. We still have more for you in our DC First Look special so stay tuned!
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