Wave 4 Pictures!

[Astronut]

The overall concensus seems to be Shazam head = bad. I have to agree. He looks like Adam Corolla. Darkseid's head really should have been done with a more prominent brow ala Kirby. At the very least. It's almost as if the person who did the sculpt was trying to be as non-Kirbyesque as possible! Hard to believe since even the newer animated series got that right.

I hope the following assortments give us better than this.

[Doctor Flarb]

Question for the Doc: Will Shazam's tunic unbutton from the front, or is that front button sewn on as a decoration?

[weatherwizard-Corey]

Shazam! what a face...

Looks more like Billy than Shazam. May have to buy Shazam and take the outfit and put it on Capt. Pike that comes out around the same time. I think it would look better. Manhunter definately is the best one and pretty good up at the top of the whole Retro line with Lex and Wonder Woman!

[Gremlin517]

I'm hoping that these are just preproduction heads and mattel will redo them.
Everything is hit and miss, but Mattel usually seems to have the money to throw at retooling a head and not leave me crying like I do everytimne I see the upcoming Capt Pike head.

At least the figures will have good outfits for customizing.

That is what everybody hopes each time and that never happens--its almost always exactly the same as what we see at this point. I just hope that they come up with better boots and that both his and Adam's necks aren't so long...

But I'm not holding my breath...

[Gremlin517]

Yeah I was thinking the same thing about the gold elements... Not very Mego-like however I think if the company went on to continue the WGSH line eventually it would have introduced those kinds of fabrics/materials...?

Yeah, too Alex Ross, if you ask me...

Grem-why don't they contact fans who have made better customs...wouldn't that save them money?

[The Bat]

Honestly, I don't see a single Figure in Wave 4 that makes me want to buy it. As for Darkseid...I'd rather have Brian Leitner make me one...his is TEN TIMES better.

[ribefex]

They are prototypes but remember that Wave 2 was finally produced as the prototypes shown on Toy Fair, no matter how much people complained here about their quality. So, expect to see on stores this deformed Captain Marvel neck and this Darkseid full monstrosity.
This line are not improving from one assortment to the next one as it should do. I´m really disappointed about that, specially when we are enjoying such lot of wonderful 8" figures from little companies. From the body to the heads, the boots, the emblems, everything looks improvised on this line, cheap, ugly, not very professional. A wrong, poor idea of how a retro figure has to be.

[Astronut]

What I can't understand - other than bad head sculpts - is, why would Mattel not create a "bulk" body type? (for Darkseid) Other figures would be applied, say Doomsday. Not doing a bulk body type tells me the company must not have a lot of faith in the longevity of this line. I **really ** hope that is not the case.

[Trappy Trek Freak]

I like them and what I don't like I know I can alter to make it better thats what makes them fun. I will used a UFC big body for Dark Seid.

[MIB41]

I'm just curious how these designs/sculpts are developed. Who approves them and is there any thoughtful research utilized (like Toybiz did) that would ensure the target audience will buy these versions? After all I don't see any research applied given the expression on Captain Climax...

[Earth 2 Chris]

I must admit I'm not as excited about this wave as previous waves. Black Adam captures the old Fawcett look of the character well, but Captain Marvel's eyes are throwing things off. The classic, cartoon Captain always had squinty eyes. I think seeing his pupils is what is making him look less than sane.

Martian Manhunter looks nice. Darkseid looks fine, but I wish we got a bulky body sculpt.

Chris

[huedell]

Honestly, I don't see a single Figure in Wave 4 that makes me want to buy it. As for Darkseid...I'd rather have Brian Leitner make me one...his is TEN TIMES better.

Brian is really talented and I own some of his work... but if I had him make a
DARKSEID for me, I'd have to track down the stretch material on my own
because from what I've had in the past of his blue's (material)
his stretch material has been a bit too "clothy" for my tastes while
MATTEL has been pretty Mego accurate or Mego compatible in that
regard.......as it is, I may eventually hit him up for a DARKSEID head
if I feel to unsatisfied with MATTEL's ---currently I'm thinking
it's gonna be passable....the rotocast certainly helps in it's favor.

[thoriron]

i'm sorry but there are some custom best of these

[huedell]

i'm sorry but there are some custom best of these

You don't have to apologize....we prefer what we prefer and shouldn't feel
afraid to express that...and, personally, I think MATTEL have given
us Mego-type-custom lovers some GREAT stuff to work with in this wave,
as they have in ALL their waves.

[MIB41]

Did some of my own research to see if I could figure out something on this Shazam concept and came across some interesting matches. The head sculpt they are using appears to be a mock up (conceptually) of the REJECTED sculpt DC Direct originally was going to use for their 13 inch deluxe figure. THANKFULLY the company LISTENED to the complaints and released him with a more serious expression. But you will notice, even with the rejected version, they gave him squinted eyes. The consensus was it still played too much into the camp era of the hero. So, in effect, what we're getting is a minority opinion held by the product development crew at EMCE and being force fed the leftovers of that idea with a flawed paint scheme on the eyes.

The rejected sculpt:



And the approved, considerably better, sculpt:



A good review of the approved figure with some background on it.

DC Direct 13 Deluxe Collector Figure Shazam! - DC Comics - ToyNewsI.com