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Shazam! Series One

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  • TRDouble
    Permanent Member
    • Jul 10, 2012
    • 2525

    Shazam! Series One

    I finished opening these yesterday, which basically meant opening Mary Marvel and Captain Sivana. Group shot!...

    FTC Shazam Wave 1.jpg

    A couple of closeups...

    FTC Shazam Wave 1 CM Closeup.jpg FTC Shazam Wave 1 CMJr Closeup.jpg
  • Starroid Raiders Dagon
    Persistent Member
    • Apr 28, 2013
    • 2162

    #2
    Very nice!

    Comment

    • TRDouble
      Permanent Member
      • Jul 10, 2012
      • 2525

      #3
      Some thoughts...

      Captain Marvel came out pretty good. The head sculpt is great, and I think I am finally used to it enough being displayed with the rest of the group. My lightning bolt has some bleed of yellow into the red, but it's not distracting. The belt is great because of the extra length, you can really adjust it to hide the waist seam in the suit. The cape is mostly very nice as well. It has a wire in it for posing; if only it had a longer collar with the wire so you could flip it down... But's really nice quality. If FTC sells it separately, I will buy one to swap the elastic for a yellow rope. Solid figure.

      Captain Marvel Junior is also a solid figure. I've mentioned CM and CMjr elsewhere, but just to reiterate, FTC really did a great job a great, modern head sculpt without losing the Mego feel of the figure. The Korak body should now be the defacto teen body, and it's great because you don't have the arm tension issue that the regular adult bodies have. The cape has the same issue with the collar (they all do), but that also means the overall quality is pretty good too. Perhaps we will get a new version with a red cape and longer collar.

      Captain Sivana. Wow, that noggin is pretty big. It actually looks better to me on the small body, because it accentuates the cartoonish nature of the character. An okay figure that looked better in megowgsh's pictures than in person.

      Mary Marvel. Oh, she will get her own post

      Comment

      • TRDouble
        Permanent Member
        • Jul 10, 2012
        • 2525

        #4
        Mary, Mary, Mary. Mary Marvel. Where do I begin...

        Over all, it's a nice figure. The plastic head wrap is of nicer quality and material than Starfire's and keeps the hair nicely in place. Her head is recycled, which is a shame considering Raven and Starfire got new head sculpts. I think it works, but it doesn't up the ante like the rest of the Marvel Family or the New Teen Titans figures.

        There are a couple of quality issues. First, the body is eh. You can get it out of the hunched over position, but it takes some work to get her posed and standing. Second, the suit is a little frayed in the chest area on her left side, facing her:

        FTC Shazam Wave 1 MM Closeup.jpg

        It's hard to see in the picture, but it could cause the suit to unravel if not careful. Besides that, it's a nice suit; much nicer than the Kresge Mary. The yellow trim is cloth, not plastic like on the Mego Captain Marvel (and Kresge Mary). And the costume is much better tailored to the body. I think there is more collar to Kresge Mary's cape, which I wish Shazam! Mary had. Maybe if the cape was sewn a little higher on the suit, it would have had the collar:

        FTC Shazam Wave 1 MM Comparison 3.jpg


        (EDIT: tllgn pointed out that the Kresge Mary is probably on a Doc Mego body and I probably did swap bodies out at some point because of the FTC female hunched torso issue. Thanks, tllgn!)

        And a side-by-side comparison of Shazam! Mary and Kresge Mary:

        FTC Shazam Wave 1 MM Comparison 1.jpg

        It looks like Mary Marvel and Grandma Marvel to me.

        The suit issue obviously bothers me, the body could be a bit better in quality, and a new head sculpt like the other's in the set would have been very welcome. But it's not a bad figure. I still prefer the baby doll head sculpt to the Invisible Woman head sculpt.
        Last edited by TRDouble; Jul 26, '16, 11:16 PM.

        Comment

        • jwyblejr
          galactic yo-yo
          • Apr 6, 2006
          • 11141

          #5
          For some reason,Cap's head sculpt reminds me of Bruce Campbell.

          Comment

          • tllgn
            Persistent Member
            • Feb 6, 2010
            • 1690

            #6
            ^^ That kresge Mary looks like shes on a dr mego/emce body ,Did you change her over ,Both my Mary marvels have the same FTC made in china body .i
            have a couple dr mego bodys like that that i used on some of their older figures ,just like that.Their shorter

            Comment

            • TRDouble
              Permanent Member
              • Jul 10, 2012
              • 2525

              #7
              Originally posted by tllgn
              ^^ That kresge Mary looks like shes on a dr mego/emce body ,Did you change her over ,Both my Mary marvels have the same FTC made in china body .i
              have a couple dr mego bodys like that that i used on some of their older figures ,just like that.Their shorter
              Kresge Mary was in the package, but I probably did slip her out and exchange bodies... opps

              Thanks for that. I am updating my write-up above. I knew I liked the FTC female body better that Doc Mego's (when they are strung correctly), but I never knew by how much. What a difference between the bodies!

              Comment

              • tllgn
                Persistent Member
                • Feb 6, 2010
                • 1690

                #8
                ^^^i agree the new made in china body is closer to what mego did ,the doc mego body is to short and squat ,its ok for the emce/bif bang pow female figures .
                but i never really liked them ,Some people dont like the new made in china bodies,but i do .if they change the style their not like Megos,which is the why
                dr megos bodies for the girls dont quite fit the bill.

                Comment

                • jacoblb
                  Persistent Member
                  • May 7, 2009
                  • 1128

                  #9
                  I think they look decent. I do prefer the Mattel costume of Captain Marvel with button and flaps ( I forget what the uniform is called,) but the FTC head sculpt look like genuine CC Beck.
                  I'm not very familiar with the Shazam family.
                  Good review. I agree the baby face Mary looks better. I think if FTC would consider molded hair on the ladies they might land a better likeness, as it stands neither lady looks like they blend in with the rest. One looks like something out of Archie and the other looks like granny--what you wrote.

                  Comment

                  • MIB41
                    Eloquent Member
                    • Sep 25, 2005
                    • 15631

                    #10
                    Great review and pics! I really like this series. So just for clarification, the Korak body IS an entirely different body from the standard FTC China body ? Is it a shorter body? I can't tell from the shots because Shazam is standing in front of Junior. Are the New Teen Titans on THAT body or the conventional FTC one? My thinking is if the Korak body is the new Titan Body maybe the original Titans (like Kid Flash) can be upgraded into those without scale issues on the head. Of course the outfits might be another story. I think the boots would have to be changed out, but everything else might work...maybe.

                    I really like the head sculpts on the new Shazam series. It's nice to finally have a true comic book interpretation. They really nailed that one. Junior also looks great. With Sivana, I think I'll always be of the opinion that he is cartoony in nature so the head will sort of cater to that impression for me. Thanks again for the pics and review. I was hoping to see these out of the package instead of the prototypes on the FTC website. I'm definitely getting these now.

                    Comment

                    • ovenmitt
                      Persistent Member
                      • May 26, 2009
                      • 1448

                      #11
                      I was hoping Kresge Mary would have Super Gals head and Shazam Mary would have a new head. Lois Lane needed new head, too.

                      Comment

                      • Brown Bear
                        Still Old School
                        • Feb 14, 2008
                        • 7057

                        #12
                        Those all look great! Love Shazam!
                        Check out my website: Megozine Covers - Home

                        Comment

                        • TRDouble
                          Permanent Member
                          • Jul 10, 2012
                          • 2525

                          #13
                          Originally posted by MIB41
                          Great review and pics! I really like this series. So just for clarification, the Korak body IS an entirely different body from the standard FTC China body ? Is it a shorter body? I can't tell from the shots because Shazam is standing in front of Junior. Are the New Teen Titans on THAT body or the conventional FTC one? My thinking is if the Korak body is the new Titan Body maybe the original Titans (like Kid Flash) can be upgraded into those without scale issues on the head. Of course the outfits might be another story. I think the boots would have to be changed out, but everything else might work...maybe.

                          I really like the head sculpts on the new Shazam series. It's nice to finally have a true comic book interpretation. They really nailed that one. Junior also looks great. With Sivana, I think I'll always be of the opinion that he is cartoony in nature so the head will sort of cater to that impression for me. Thanks again for the pics and review. I was hoping to see these out of the package instead of the prototypes on the FTC website. I'm definitely getting these now.
                          I think the Korak body is about the same height as the regular FTC body, maybe a touch shorter. I will try to get a side-by-side picture of CM and CMjr tonight. The Korak body is slimmer. The New Teen Titans are on the conventional FTC body. They might have worked on a Korak body, especially an slimmer athletic type like Nightwing, but having Nightwing in hand, I cannot think of anything I would change on him... except for less tension in the bands! The Morak body should work great for Superboy and would be great for the LOSH too. It's enough to show you that they are young, but not exactly kids, like the Mego Teen Titans figures, which are just too small.

                          As for just moving the TT heads to a Korak body, I think the head scale of the TT figures is too small to work on anything besides the Lion Rock body. The outfits would have to be all new.

                          Comment

                          • TrekStar
                            Trek or Treat
                            • Jan 20, 2011
                            • 8355

                            #14
                            The Shazam head sculpt matches the Mego box/card art from back in the day, the one they used a.k.a. Peter Parker
                            A E head would have been a better choice for a Billy Batson if they had made an A E Billy Batson.

                            Comment

                            • Figure8
                              Museum Patron
                              • May 18, 2016
                              • 114

                              #15
                              Very nice sculpt on Jr. I like the C. C. Beck approach for the Captain Marvel head, but I guess I'll have to hold him in my hand to really judge it. I'm still glad I got the Kresge Mary. I'm not sure why but somehow I really like that figure. The IG sculpt just works better for me than the dollface.

                              Comment

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