Superman, Batman & other DC Figures

[LTBasker]

The "Penguin"mobile is so horribly campy, I can't wait to get it, or the Batskiboat for that matter - if I ever find these things.

The deployed shields Burtonmobile has some nice sculpting to it, and I love that they tried to liven it up by putting in a section to slide forward to reveal the Batmobile.

You sure that the Kenner one had that? I have it somewhere in the house, but it's lost in the closet right now. It probably did, easier to build the toy that way because the thing holding the wheel on in the movie is very thin and on the outside edge, but I don't remember it being 2 wheels on a single axle the way the Mattel one is, it may have been 2 wheels on a chassis instead which is essentially the same thing but different.

If I recall right, what Kenner did is it had 4 wheels, and 4 fakes where the rigging was visible as holding the wheel. So, when you flipped it over it looked like 8 wheels, but 2 on each side were actually static lumps. I remember the toy's bottom being several inches wide, and the wheels were pretty thin. Of course, the sides that split off had their own wheels.

Here's another reference, the actual scene from the film shows the wheels being sucked in and moved to that rollerblade design about 26 seconds in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hil5g0nwBX8

It never occured to me that the tires were huge thick ones, I always assumed they were similar thickness to common car tires. Kind of funny, really. The rigging holding the wheels is so similar to what we ended up with on the Tumbler, making the Batpod like a Batmissile inspired mini-rig.

[Maradona]

After watching Crisis on Two Earths, I can't see why Mattel would release figures for Public Enemies instead. I know their answer was that Crisis came too soon after Public Enemies to determine whether those figures were successful enough and having Superman and Batman in the title has better name recognition for kids. But Crisis is a superior product to Public Enemies and if Mattel had to chose one...

Ultimately, their choice is good for my wallet as there are sooooo many figures that could have been made from Crisis. The Made Men figure would have been awesome.

[buddyfingers]

I saw those this afternoon when I stopped by TRU, and even though I was extremely excited about them at first, now that I've seen them in person, I'm not impressed at all.

I love MEGO figures, so any attempt at playing with the concept is more than cool by me, but these were just not the quality that I was expecting. I saw all four, and each was a mishmash of poorly sewn clothing over weirdly deformed body parts. I think the Superman in particular was actually broken at the waist.

The packaging isn't much better, as the card backs are way too flimsy... and then there's the fact that TRU has opted to apply J-hooks sort of randomly, so none of them hang on the pegs very well.

A huge disappointment.

Yeah I can see what you are saying, but I think that's part of the charm and was done that way on purpose. Like I was saying, they really remind me of the ones I used to get as a kid, the flimsy packaging, the inconsistent bodies and sewn uniforms, I really do think they did that on purpose. I also notice that all the cards are faded in the same left bottom corner. I do have to say that superman's head looks a little square, but overall I am happy with them so far, I didn't want to see a dc version of marvels "famous covers" or even the dc 8 inch line that came out a few years back. These are as close to the old mego's as anything. I am hoping they keep it going.

DC is on a roll right now, and although alot of people don't have much good to say about the infinite crisis figures and other things, they are hot and I hope that means a longer line of these new retro figures to include never before made characters from mego like the Flash for instance. I hope they go all out and just start making obscure characters like the 6 inch DCU classics line

I do with they were more like $14.99 instead of a 20 spot each though

[El Chuxter]

No Music Meister figure yet. Oh well. Chux Jr almost crapped herself when she saw the Clock King show up (who she has, since we picked her up the little Batmobile with Bats and CK on clearance, well before discovering the show was actually good--she's growing up to be a little Batfan herself without my prodding), so I think I'm going to get her some more of the characters she knows. ("Hey! I didn't know Clock Man could talk! Look, he is singing!") They're not exactly Galactic Heroes, but at least they're the same size.

[plasticfetish]

I do wish they were more like $14.99 instead of a 20 spot each though

Yeah, I'd probably be more forgiving if they were a little cheaper. Like I said, I really wanted to like them, and I'm a big MEGO fan, but these just aren't MEGO quality. I dunno... maybe I would have been happier if they were boxed and not carded.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In other news... the store where I've been buying DCUC figures (Frey Meyer), has decided to bump their price to $13-ish, from the more reasonable $9.99 that I've been enjoying. It's still a little lower than most places, but... well... I'm not sure who's going to buy those lingering Booster Gold figures now, so I suppose I'll never see new figures from this line again.

[buddyfingers]

I love the look of the old Mego boxed figures. I was hoping they would come out like that too. I haven't opened any of the new ones yet, I am curious if they are just like the old ones as far as the rubberband in the waist. I remember my aquaman broke when I was a kid playing in the pool. I couldn't understand it, I thought aquaman was supposed to be in water

[JediTricks]

My local Targets have begun clearancing out the Public Enemies figures, both scales. The prices were ok but not outstanding yet.

I saw what was most likely a full case of the HW Bat vehicles on the pegs at one TRU today and although there were 2 Bat Missiles, there were no Batwings (or else I would've bought it).

I noticed TRU La Cienega had another Batmissile and no Batwings. Frustrating.

I wrote a quick little review over at my blog, but in general I think it's pretty cool. I think you're right about them taking liberties... and it's funny that I was probably over looking at Ohrberg's site at about the same time as you.

I'll have to look at the movie again to see about accuracy, but yeah, if you go by the pics at his site, they probably threw chrome in where it doesn't belong, and other things that we should probably expect from Hot Wheels.

(And then there's TRU's $9 price on these... WTF?)

I could probably locate a Batwing if you still need it. I saw one tonight... there's a few around here still. And in case you're wondering... I still need the Super Friends Batmobile.

So... I kind of mentioned this at my blog, but I'm assuming that this line is over for now. We haven't heard about a forth series have we?

TRU's price on these has skyrocketed $3 in a year, that drives me nuts because they have NO competition for them, Target & WM aren't carrying the line. This is almost as frustrating as the superior Corgi Batmobile line (which I never got to finish, damn WM and TRU shenanigans).

I would greatly appreciate the help on the Batwing. I can pick you up a Superfriends Batmobile no problem!

How stupid would Mattel be if they let this license die on them after ripping it out of Corgi's hands?!? But I suspect they won't let it die THAT easily, Mattel prefers to choke the life out of their licenses rather than let them starve to death.

Okay. I've done that thing that I hate... when someone on the internet asks a question that they could easily figure out just by searching a little. So, I fish around and find this...

http://www.hotwheelscollectors.com/n...px?news_id=969

Nice find. I figured we'd see something in July at comic-con.

I fainted at yet another go-round on the Adamwestmobile. Then I woke up, saw all the stupid Shumacher entries and fainted again. Then I saw the shielded Burtonmobile and fainted from finally seeing a good entry. Then I saw the Batskiboat and wondered WTF they were bothering for, since that rather underwhelming entry was WAY overmarketed back in the day. But at least I didn't faint.

Here's what I don't get about Mattel, they have a comic license because one of the original entries in the line was a sleekened version of the '40s Batmobile. Yet all they've done since is mine the entertainment versions, and reusing tooling over and over like Adamwestmobile, and now here they are stuck with a year that has 4 new underwhelming entries. I suspect this line is dead come 2011.

If I recall right, what Kenner did is it had 4 wheels, and 4 fakes where the rigging was visible as holding the wheel. So, when you flipped it over it looked like 8 wheels, but 2 on each side were actually static lumps. I remember the toy's bottom being several inches wide, and the wheels were pretty thin. Of course, the sides that split off had their own wheels.

I wish that jogged my memory, but alas, no. Sounds about right though.

It never occured to me that the tires were huge thick ones, I always assumed they were similar thickness to common car tires. Kind of funny, really. The rigging holding the wheels is so similar to what we ended up with on the Tumbler, making the Batpod like a Batmissile inspired mini-rig.

Oh yeah, I was thinking the same thing about the Batmissile being the progenitor to the Batpod, only sillier since it's got twice as many wheels. I love that they use HUGE tires on these cars, I love super wide tires like those on the Burtonmobile and the front of the Tumbler (the rear wheels are a different thing altogether, they're tractor-style tires). Also, by using the wheels inline on the Batmissile, it makes the missile itself seem sleeker, narrower.

[buddyfingers]

Public enemies on sale already? Wow, what are we talking 25% off or what? I love the sale items, much easier for me to justify spending the money when it's on clearance

[JediTricks]

It was I think 30% off.

[El Chuxter]

They were $15 and $25 at the Targets here. I know because I was asked to buy one, and thought they were still steep.