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So, it appears that today (October 4, 2019) is something called Force Friday, which is making all the Star Wars collectors want to kill each other to catch all the releases out today. Hopefully those of you who partook were successful in your hunts, and that there aren't too many with hurt feelings or broken bones.

 

Me? Well, I spent the day doing some work and generally just relaxing... with a looming Educational strike looming, who knows if and when I'll get quiet time in the next little while. Of course, this meant chugging along with my backlog, polishing off some photos, and writing down some of my thoughts. For this entry, I present to you, the reader, DC Icons 19: Wonder Woman - The Amazo Virus.

 

As you may have noticed, I don't actually buy many domestic figures, but there are instances where the design, sculpt, or something else catches my eye, and I keep my eye out for a good deal. I don't know anything about the DC Icons line, though based on the retail locations I'm guessing it's probably closer to Marvel Selects than Marvel Legends. I know who Wonder Woman is, but I haven't a clue what The Amazo Virus is, though I'm guessing it's a comic series of some sort. All I know is that in general, the Wonder Women from this Icons line all looked good, and I ended up buying the cheapest one I could find which came with the most accessories, because I was curious how this line of figures compares to the Legends stuff. Based on how action figures work, I'm taking a guess here that aesthetics may change, but the body style across the line is probably going to be consistent, and as such, would be an appropriate point of comparison.

 

I guess before I dive in, a bit of backstory on this particular figure. As mentioned, I don't know much about the line, but I do know that in general, the Wonder Women figures aren't exactly things you'd normally find MISB for $10 CAD from a dude in Orangeville, ON. The sculpts are overall, from what the pictures have shown, to be fairly decent and showcase the character quite well, no matter which DC figure subline she's in (comic/animated). This particular figure, however, is still readily available on Amazon, and it's most likely from the bad word of mouth received due to the change in head sculpt. In probably the biggest "final product may vary" change ever, the face on the box and the preview pictures you see online show a completely different sculpt than what was received. That was the biggest complaint from the Amazon reviews, which generally aren't that great if you want to actually learn about the product you want to buy, but are very good if you want one of those "only one chance to make an impression" types of comments.

 

So now that we have set the mood, on with the show.

 

The figure comes with a decent number of accessories, namely two open fists for gripping, her shield, her sword, and her trademark Lasso of Truth in both coiled and uncoiled forms. The figure is also adorned with three soft rubber parts, two of which are used for mounting the shield, with the belt on her waist having a small loop that you can insert the sword into. The hair has a slot built in to accommodate the mounting of the shield on her back. The set also includes an instruction sheet that not only doesn't explain everything about Wonder Woman, but probably applies the same level of half-assed ness to the other characters from the wave. I feel almost like Batfleck, going through the emails of Lexcorp and discovering the files on all the other Metas in the world.

 

The figure itself is about the same size as my Legends representative, Captain Marvel, so around the 6 inch mark. We can't really compare and contrast aesthetics, both being vastly different - Marvel looks positively frumpy next to Wonder Woman, but I know Legends can do sultry like what the White Queen EB Games exclusive that,if it wasn't for the $35 CAD price tag, I'd probably have purchased. So lets talk about the only thing that makes sense - articulation. Wonder Woman features the following points of articulation: rotating and pivoting ankles, double jointed knees, ball jointed hips that can be pulled down for some additional clearance/range of motion, waist pivot, mid torso ball joint, rotating and pivoting shoulders, bicep swivel, double jointed elbows, rotating wrists, and head at the top of the neck. The big hair gets in the way of rotation, unfortunately, so your actual head movement is rather limited. The only things that Captain Marvel has on Wonder Woman is that the Legends figure has swivel joint mid thigh does help with articulation, as well as the ability to pivot the hands at the wrist. Given the overall look of the Wonder Woman figure though, I think I can live without the ability to twist her leg so her toes point backwards or do a limp wrist

 

Next up, lets talk paint apps and other spit polish type things. I'll be honest - I'm actually quite impressed with the paint apps. From observation, the figure is predominately painted, with the exception of the soft rubber parts (hair, blue skirt, and brow rubber straps) and I think the navey blue parts of her gauntlets and boots. Colour matching, where applicable, is quite well done as there doesn't seem to be two tones of the same colour, though the abdomen doesn't quite seem as glossy as the chest portion of the armour. There are generally no areas of lumpy paint to mention, though it does get a bit rough around where the joints are, I imagine due to improper drying, and the use of a different type of plastic for its durability in these areas. Silver areas could have used an extra coat of paint or two, as you can see through them to the blue pastic below. Masking is.. hit and miss. Some isn't terrible, though some, like the stuff on her hands, are scary looking. But.. but.. she does have painted nails, which without sarcasm, isn't a bad touch at all. Surprsingly, the paint on her face is very good - it's crisp and not oversprayed. Decals for her eyes are not misaligned. It might actually be one of the cleaned Domestic figure faces I've seen, rivaling the grudgingly admitted good work from Mezco. The overall build itself is quite solid, not feeling flimsy at all in my hands, and the overall finish of the parts is quite acceptable. There aren't any misaligned limbs or wonky joints to mention. Solid, solid work all around.

 

Sculpting is our last stop on the discussion voyage, and I saved it for last because it's probably the most interesting.. at least for me. The overall sculpt is very feminine without looking like an Anime high school girl, providing her with ample curves along with a muscular and athletic build. There is good muscle definition on her body, though I feel her thighs ought to be bulkier.. which, lets face it, was never going to happen given the fact there was bound to be reuse of body parts across the board where possible. Just look at the other three figures in this wave, and tell me you can't see that the have the nutritionist. Speaking of reuse of parts, Wonder Woman's open grip hands are probably fine for most weapons, but they're way too big to actually hold her weapons without some fancy maneuvering. Finally, we come to the controversial head. We've already established that this isn't what was advertised. My guess is that there was some sort of fallout between the original artist and DC Collectibles, which resulted in the last minute reuse of a Wonder Woman head from another figure. The head itself is fine, as in it's A version of Wonder Woman, but there's not real mistaking who it's supposed to be.

 

But.. but.. the problems go beyond this. There are several reasons why I say this is a last minute switch. First off, as good as the head looks, it seems a bit undersized for the body. Not terribly undersized, mind you, but enough that I picked up on it. The bigger issue is the alignment of the of the head. If you notice in the boxed figure pic (or the figure in the tray.. either or) you'll notice that her face is pointed down at the ground. Well.. this is because the original body was only sculpted to accommodate the prototype head. You see, her neck, which is fixed, is sculpted with a slight forward lean, which is, well, normal. The issue is that because this new head has puffy hair, it prevents the head from being properly upright, and is always at a forward tilt. This problem is only further multiplied when the head sits on a neck that is itself forward tilting. So, long story short, the only way to get Wonder Woman to face forward is to arch her back like she's about to do a chest bump, which looks really, really strange from the side, to say the least. I'm guessing the original head had either shorter or hair that wasn't as bulky. Thank goodness that the figure has the necessary torso joints to make this work, as well as the stability to actually hold poses.

 

So, in the end, the Amazon reviews were right - the head really does change the entire game, but while most people were focused on the face, it's really the articulation restrictions of this head that hurts the figure the most. But I truly do feel that the pros outweigh the cons on this particular figure because the overall product is not bad at all. There are many other things to like about the figure, so in my mind if you're one with the flaws and imperfections of Domestic figures on the whole, there's no reason why there should be extra hate on for this particular figure. Not bad addition to your hoard, so long as you know the short comings.. stupid small sword hilt.

Done