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Comments of the new 50th Anniversary Super-Foes:
Things that apply to all the figures: Each still has the limited knee movement, but hopefully that can be corrected before too long. Everything else is fine. The heads are amazingly well done. The vintage re-dos are dead on, and the paint jobs are honestly better than any of the originals I’ve had. The paint on all of them is clean, clear and sharp; they look great. The re-use of Barry’s head for Zoom has drawn some criticism around the web, but it is exactly what I would have expected Mego to do back in the 70’s, so it definitely works here if not just because of that. All the suits are well done, with the printing being as crisp as the paint on the heads. Textures and feel are all really close, much like the first wave.
Reverse Flash: I know he’s the most controversial, as he’s definitely not the Mego era version (and I’m pretty sure that’s a problem courtesy of DC). But it’s really only the eyes and the chest symbol that push it into the modern realm. I actually did give him new eyes over his red orbs, and a new chest symbol would basically give me classic Eobard Thawne. The costume is basically Barry’s in reverse, but the boots are different. These are a harder plastic, more like the standard boots, and, honestly, they feel more like a Mego that way. The softer boots and gloves didn’t come along until almost the end of the lines, and weren’t used on many super figures. This feels like the Green Goblin, who had distinct, unique boots but still in the hard plastic. It works here.
Penguin: He’s pretty much the best reproduction of the group. They got everything down, including the wonky way the lapels on the jacket are put together. He is on a new fat version of the new body, and it’s in just about perfect scale with a similar classic type 2 body. Everything fits as one would expect, and his jacket sleeves are the right length. He’s a bundle of nostalgia in a stout 8” container.
Joker: Again, pretty much nailed it as far details and materials go. The jacket feels like the original, the suit looks right. The only problem is the one everyone saw from the start: the jacket sleeves are a little short. Not a lot; it doesn’t look like his jacket shrank in the wash or Atom hit it with some white dwarf energy. You can see just a bit of arm above the wrist when he’s at rest. Not horrible, but I’m not sure why Penguin’s sleeves are just about perfect, and Joker’s aren’t. The torsos are different, but the arms are identical. It’s basically the only strike against the figure, and the change to the all-white body is a good one. It would have been a good move even without the sleeve shortage, as you would likely still see some arm depending on how it was posed, and the neck could easily show depending on the pose, as well.
Riddler: Not much you can do to mess this guy up, honestly, and Mego definitely didn’t. The suit is well done with nice, clear question marks galore, and the color seems REALLY close. The Bat belt is a bit on the dark side compared to the original, but that’s a small nit to pick. He was a very simple figure (only beaten in simplicity in the superhero department by Spider-Man, I believe), and they kept it that way. For Mr. E. Nigma, that works perfectly well.
So these continue the all the good parts of the heroes, and in some ways capture the originals even a touch better. I think we may keep running into the Bronze Age Mego era vs. the modern DC version of character that weren’t made in the original line (the pic used to announce Bizarro has his darker, more modern color scheme), but, as stated above, I think that’s coming from DC on high and Mego is kind of stuck. It’s frustrating in cases like Reverse Flash, as it’s so close to being exactly what Mego would have done 50 years ago. Here’s hoping DC can be convinced to let Mego just do their thing and give us true Mego era versions of the characters we have wanted for five decades.
Things that apply to all the figures: Each still has the limited knee movement, but hopefully that can be corrected before too long. Everything else is fine. The heads are amazingly well done. The vintage re-dos are dead on, and the paint jobs are honestly better than any of the originals I’ve had. The paint on all of them is clean, clear and sharp; they look great. The re-use of Barry’s head for Zoom has drawn some criticism around the web, but it is exactly what I would have expected Mego to do back in the 70’s, so it definitely works here if not just because of that. All the suits are well done, with the printing being as crisp as the paint on the heads. Textures and feel are all really close, much like the first wave.
Reverse Flash: I know he’s the most controversial, as he’s definitely not the Mego era version (and I’m pretty sure that’s a problem courtesy of DC). But it’s really only the eyes and the chest symbol that push it into the modern realm. I actually did give him new eyes over his red orbs, and a new chest symbol would basically give me classic Eobard Thawne. The costume is basically Barry’s in reverse, but the boots are different. These are a harder plastic, more like the standard boots, and, honestly, they feel more like a Mego that way. The softer boots and gloves didn’t come along until almost the end of the lines, and weren’t used on many super figures. This feels like the Green Goblin, who had distinct, unique boots but still in the hard plastic. It works here.
Penguin: He’s pretty much the best reproduction of the group. They got everything down, including the wonky way the lapels on the jacket are put together. He is on a new fat version of the new body, and it’s in just about perfect scale with a similar classic type 2 body. Everything fits as one would expect, and his jacket sleeves are the right length. He’s a bundle of nostalgia in a stout 8” container.
Joker: Again, pretty much nailed it as far details and materials go. The jacket feels like the original, the suit looks right. The only problem is the one everyone saw from the start: the jacket sleeves are a little short. Not a lot; it doesn’t look like his jacket shrank in the wash or Atom hit it with some white dwarf energy. You can see just a bit of arm above the wrist when he’s at rest. Not horrible, but I’m not sure why Penguin’s sleeves are just about perfect, and Joker’s aren’t. The torsos are different, but the arms are identical. It’s basically the only strike against the figure, and the change to the all-white body is a good one. It would have been a good move even without the sleeve shortage, as you would likely still see some arm depending on how it was posed, and the neck could easily show depending on the pose, as well.
Riddler: Not much you can do to mess this guy up, honestly, and Mego definitely didn’t. The suit is well done with nice, clear question marks galore, and the color seems REALLY close. The Bat belt is a bit on the dark side compared to the original, but that’s a small nit to pick. He was a very simple figure (only beaten in simplicity in the superhero department by Spider-Man, I believe), and they kept it that way. For Mr. E. Nigma, that works perfectly well.
So these continue the all the good parts of the heroes, and in some ways capture the originals even a touch better. I think we may keep running into the Bronze Age Mego era vs. the modern DC version of character that weren’t made in the original line (the pic used to announce Bizarro has his darker, more modern color scheme), but, as stated above, I think that’s coming from DC on high and Mego is kind of stuck. It’s frustrating in cases like Reverse Flash, as it’s so close to being exactly what Mego would have done 50 years ago. Here’s hoping DC can be convinced to let Mego just do their thing and give us true Mego era versions of the characters we have wanted for five decades.
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