REVIEW: MCFARLANE TOYS DC MULTIVERSE YEAR 1, PART 1 (FIRST WAVE 1-YEAR ANNIVERSARY)!
TOYFARCE REVIEWS:
MCFARLANE TOYS DC MULTIVERSE YEAR 1, PART 1 (FIRST WAVE 1-YEAR ANNIVERSARY)!
It’s Wednesday. You know what that means… ToyFarce review!
About a year ago, give or take a few days, the first wave of McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse figures started to hit Walmarts all over the US. It was supposed to come out on either Jan 19th or Jan 24th,2020 but lots of stores ‘broke street date’ and had them out before, which caused panic and FOMO all over social media, with people paying way over double retail to secure the figures mere days before the actual release date (Yes, it was very silly. I wonder how the guy that paid $100 for a Batman who Laughs feels today).
It seems that figures from that wave are still popping up in stores to this day (a year later), because I’ve seen people post pictures of the Animated Series Superman figure, saying “SCORE! Did you guys know this one was coming out??” while it is a year old, so here’s a look at the full entire first wave (minus the Bat-Raptor vehicle, which I wasn’t interested in).
(Not on the pic: Comic book Superman and Unchained Superman)
When Todd McFarlane announced that he would be picking up the license for DC Comics at the ToyFair in 2019, I was very excited since I’ve always liked McFarlane Toys figures, and have been collecting DC Direct/Collectibles items for a long time. 11 months later, the first wave came out. This will be the first part of a 3-part review of the first year of the DC Multiverse line.
BATMAN (DETECTIVE COMICS 1000):
First off, the first Batman figure released by McFarlane Toys. At the time, we were all innocent and did not know there was going to be 20492 more coming after that. This figure had a pretty divisive reception, people either loved it or hated it. It still does have great articulations and is pretty nice for a basic Batman. My only issue with it is the squinted eyes, but it makes him look like taken from a Jae Lee design. Comes with a grappling gun and batarang.
Comparison with DC Direct/Collectibles Arkham Asylum, Hush, Designer Series Greg Capullo, Essentials and Icons Batman figures
Comparison with DC Collectibles Designer Series Jae Lee figure (see what I meant?)
SUPERMAN (ACTION COMICS):
Now this is a Superman figure! The sculpt, the face, everything is great with that one. It comes with a flight stand so you can display your Supes up, up and away. I haven’t seen a single complaint about this one, and I understand why. A solid Superman.
Comparison with DC Direct/Collectibles Infinite Crisis, Designer Series Greg Capullo, Essentials and Batman: Hush Superman figures
HARLEY QUINN (CLASSIC):
Now that one left me a bit puzzled. She is supposed to look like the comic book version, but looks more like the animated series version at the same time. The facial expression and paint is very simple compared to the other figures, and I do not know why. This is the weakest one from that first wave for me. Also, she’s the same size as all the other figures, which a lot of people hated about her, calling her “Giant Harley”. The accessories are nice (mallet, gun with a “bang” flag), the articulation is great, but that face…
Comparison with DC Direct/Collectibles Essentials, Animated Series, Icons, Hush and Kotobukiya Animated Series Harley Quinn figures
GREEN ARROW (TV SERIES):
That TV show was great for about 3 seasons, and then went downhill until it ended. Stephen Amell did do an amazing job in the show, though. I had the DC Collectibles figures from the Arrow series, so I was curious to see what the McFarlane version would bring to the table: a bit more articulations (double elbows and knees). The jacket is made of a soft rubber, which restricts the posing a bit, but it still looks pretty good. The textures of the costume are very nice. The likeness? Close enough… Comes with a quiver filled with arrows, and a bow (that looks kinda crappy).
“You have failed this city!”
Comparison with DC Collectibles Arrow figures season 1 (x2), Flash/Arrow two-pack and season 3 Green Arrow figures
BATMAN (ANIMATED SERIES):
Now that one got a lot of people confused and angry. To my understanding, it is a Batman, as he would look in the Animated Series if designed by McFarlane Toys. It’s an interpretation of the design from the Batman from the Animated series from Todd McFarlane/the team at McFarlane Toys. People got so mad that it didn’t look EXACTLY like the designs from Bruce Timm (like we didn’t already get half a dozen of perfectly accurate figures from DC Collectibles in the last decade…). They gave it their own spin, and I am fine with that. It’s a great figure (and I’m tired to pretend it’s not, Murray!). Great range of articulation too! Comes with a pair of extra hands, grappling gun and batarang.
Comparison with the DC Collectibles Animated Series, New Adventures of Batman and Justice League Batman figures
SUPERMAN (ANIMATED SERIES):
That Superman goes on par with the Batman, it’s once again a “stylized” version of the Animated series design by McFarlane Toys. Same as Batman, great range of articulation. The only nitpick would be that it didn’t come with a flight stand like the other Superman, which would have been great. He comes with a couple of extra hands and a piece of bent steel.
The paint on the face is a tad too shiny compared to the neck…
Comparison with DC Collectibles Animated Series and Justice League Superman figures
(yeah, Superman hasn’t really been gifted when it comes to Animated series figures…)
GREEN LANTERN (JOHN STEWART - ANIMATED SERIES):
Another stylized Animated series figure with a ‘modern’ John Stewart. The figure comes with great accessories (constructs made of green lantern solid light, I mean!). Once again, a flight stand would have been amazing, but I’m fine with it that way too. Those 3 animated figures are very decent and quite big.
Comparison with DC Collectibles Justice League John Stewart figure (Ouch… And I thought the Superman looked bad…)
BATMAN (HELLBAT SUIT):
Now for the big boys! To quote Todd McFarlane: “That’s a lot of plastic!”. A great big figure, with huge wings that can be folded. This is the first time the Hellbat Suite was made into a figure, and it looks amazing. The shiny paint job on parts of the armor looks ridiculously good. More of that, please!
Comparison with various Armored Batman figures: DC Collectibles GCPD Batman, Mezco BVS Armored Batman, and DC Collectibles Thrasher suit Batman figures
SUPERMAN (UNCHAINED):
Another big boy with the Unchained Superman from the comic book of the same name. Jim Lee’s design was already amazing in the comic book, and the figure looks like it just came right out of it. It has a pair of wings that can be folded to look like a cape, or open. A beautiful piece of toy-engineering. (No comparison shots, due to lack of other armored Superman).
THE BATMAN WHO LAUGHS (BUILD-A-BATMOBILE):
The following 3 figures came with a piece of a Batmobile, à la “Build-a-figure” from other toy lines (this one comes with the left side of the car). The Batman who Laughs is the only brand new character from that wave (in the sense that there had never been any other action figure version of him before this one came out), and what can I say: McFarlane Toys sure know how to do creepy! It looks just like the Greg Capullo designs from the Dark Night: Metal comic books, and comes with a big knife and a scythe. What else?
BATGIRL (BUILD-A-BATMOBILE):
A very nice figure of ol’Barbara Gordon, coming with the right side of the Build-a-Batmobile. One of the best figures from that wave, with decent articulation allowing great poses. We need more Batgirl figures. She comes with a grappling gun and a batarang.
Comparison with DC Collectibles Essentials and Designer Series Greg Capullo Batgirl figures
NIGHTWING (BUILD-A-BATMOBILE):
Last but not least, Nightwing, aka Dick Grayson, formerly known as the boy wonder, Robin, coming with the center part of the Build-a-Batmobile. A very nice sculpt on this Nightwing (maybe a bit too emo-ish on the expression). A highly articulated Nightwing (double elbows, knees, all the works…) was long overdue. He comes with his Escrima sticks.
(Slightly blurry) comparison with DC Direct/Collectibles Hush, Essentials and Designer Series Greg Capullo Nightwing figures
BUILD-A-BATMOBILE:
Here’s the Build-a-Batmobile, when you combine the 3 parts from The Batman Who Laughs, Batgirl and Nightwing. I really like the design they chose for this Batmobile. I really hope there will be a few more in the future, even though it seems they have favored Build-a-figures rather than vehicles in the waves after that.
For a first wave, it was a very satisfying wave that the folks at McFarlane Toys gave us (not that I had any doubt about it, since I’ve been buying their product since the very first Spawn figure nearly 25 years ago). Little did we know that new figures would be announced every couple of weeks and be released soon after that, totalling in 49 figures released in 2020 alone (with already 35+ announced for the first half of 2021…yikes).
The McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse Year 1, Part 2 review should drop very soon (I am unsure yet if I want to drag this over 3 weeks, so I might release them at different times, as ‘bonus reviews’). Part 2 will most likely deal with the waves up to the Dark Nights: Metal wave.
More news at 11:00… That’s a lot of plastic!
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