This is a great line with another great lineup.  The packaging is standard for the DCUC and I hope they don’t decide to change color or styles again like they did with the DCSH line.  The packaging allows the figures to really stand out, making this a nice line for MOC collectors.  I also like the background being pictures of the various characters in the wave.  

Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) - Hal Jordan was a test pilot with Ferris following in his father’s footsteps. One day while in the hanger he was covered in a green light which transported him into the desert to a crashed spacecraft. Inside the craft was a man with purple skin who was dying. The man told Hal who he was and handed him a ring and a lantern. To Hal’s amazement his jumpsuit was replaced with the same costume as the alien. Hal became Earth’s Green Lantern: a fearless hero whose ring was, at that time, only vulnerable to anything yellow. After some time the yellow weakness of the ring was discovered as a being called Parallax, which took over Hal after he lost the city he called home at the hands of Cyborg Superman. Hal went on a rampage and killed all of the Corps and the Guardians and become the villain Parallax.  After being rescued by a new Corps led by Kyle Rayner, Hal has returned to the DCU a hero.

I feel like I'm 5 again when I open this figure. I have to resist the urge to squeeze his legs to make his ring finger pop up. Hal is very well done, and I know there have been some complaints about his paint, but I think this one is almost flawless. The colors are crisp and he has another amazing sculpt. The body is thin but really fits the character.  I think the only thing I would criticize is the inability to hold his ring hand so that it looks like he is charging his ring with his other hand out in front of his body holding his lantern.  I think it would make for a cool pose but it looks awkward. I think his broad chest makes this pose difficult, unlike Sinestro who is a little smaller and can hold this pose easily.     

 

Sinestro - Every hero needs a villain, and Sinestro is Hal’s most famous and ruthless enemy. But as things often happen, they were friends first. Forced by the Guardians, Sinestro trained Jordan and through this experience they became close. Hal returned to Sinestro’s home planet of Korugar and saw him for what he was, a power hungry madman.  With the help of the Green Lantern Corps, Hal and the Guardians banished Sinestro to the anti-matter universe, Quard, where Sinestro would forge his own yellow ring. In the present Sinestro has returned with a Corps of his own to defeat Hal and his Green Lantern arrogance.  

As the second of my Demanded Characters it was nice to see Mattel not only gave us a classic look, but a modern one as well. Sinestro is one of the characters that I have been waiting for a long time to get.  Whenever you get heroes as toys you want to have a villain to go against him, both while playing with them or displaying them, and Sinestro is long overdue.  While I know most people will complain about the height issues with this figure, I think putting him on a flight stand above the heroes or villains does two things: it takes away the height issues and also shows off his arrogance.  This is not a factory error like some of the other issues, this is how DC approved him and he will stay. I think if he was taller that would be a factory error.  The differences in the costumes in the original and the variant are well done, he even has different eyes.  The other nice touch is that unlike other figures of the past with rings or jewelry, his yellow ring is not painted on but rather a sculpted piece of his hand. 

 

Nightwing - Though now known as Nightwing, Richard John Grayson was a boy when his parents were killed in a trapeze accident.  This tragedy was witnessed by many, but one member of the audience felt a feeling of deja vu watching a boy lose his family.  Bruce Wayne felt it was his duty to help this young man and decided to take in the young Grayson.  As time went on Dick found out that Bruce was the crime fighter known as the Batman and joined him as his sidekick Robin. For years the two fought the likes of the Joker, Penguin, and the Riddler; and Robin even helped to start a team of sidekicks, the Teen Titans. When Dick grew up he decided to venture off on his own, becoming his own man and with some advice from Superman, he took on the name Nightwing. 

When I heard Nightwing would be in this wave this went to the top of my list as the best wave ever.  I was happy to have the only Nightwing from the 2 packs in my display, but always wished the Four Horsemen had a shot at this character.  He was my first Demanded Character when I started working on the Fwoosh E-zine, and he was my top want for this new line. He does not disappoint.  You expect him to be full sized and not scrawny, and as an acrobat I would expect him to have a larger upper body and he does. The figure is not made teen size, and I am happy to say I think he could be one of the simplest yet best figures of the line.  In the package he is very awkward because he comes with the head and torso of Grundy, that piece should have come with a smaller figure like Robin or Sinestro, but hey you’ve got to let him out of the package anyway so what's the difference.  Another nice thing about the figure is that has a wide range of motion.  I think he can get into most of the famous Nightwing poses, and that lifts him up another few points, making him one of my top figures in my collection.  

Robin - Tim Drake is the third boy to take on the mantle of Robin, and is arguably the best one to date.  Robin was originally the light to Batman’s dark side, but time has turned that around making him the junior Batman of the DCU.  His detective skills are on their way to being as good as Batman’s; he is becoming a skilled fighter, and is building his own networking in Gotham. As leader of the Teen Titans, he continues the bat family legacy of leading the teams of the DCU.  

Tim is a figure that was long overdue for a remake.  Like the other figures in this wave, he is in his current costume. While some may complain, I like the idea of building the current DCU, because it gives the line a longer life.  His sculpt is spot on and he is well painted.  I think that this figure also shows that, with the exception of Lobo, Mattel is doing scale right.  He is smaller then Nightwing and has to look up when facing off against Deathstroke. This is promising because I can’t wait to see other teen characters like Kid Flash or some of the younger Titans in this line.  My only hope is that with Mattel redoing Robin a new scale-accurate Joker is close behind?

Deathstroke - Slade Wilson is one bad man, and he has it in for the kids of the DCU known as the Titans.  Time after time Slade has challenged the Titans, young and old, to many contests, sometimes for evil and some times for his own twisted sense of right.  He has put in a mole with in the team, tried to destroy them to give his daughter a home, and tried on multiple occasions to kill them. With enhanced senses and reflexes, as well as the ability to use almost anything as a weapon, Slade is one person that most heroes in the DCU dread going up against. Bottom line, he is one of the deadliest villains in the DCU, even going so far as to impersonate Batman.  

Right off the bat I found a variant figure, and that is great with the past distribution and variant problems.  The next big plus that Mattel seems to be keeping consistent is the pack-ins with certain figures.  Deathstroke comes with his sword and holder, a machine gun, hand gun, and staff.  While these are made of soft plastic like other weapons and bend easily, it is nice to see that we have a well armed Deathstroke.  From head to toe Deathstroke is easily the most intricate figure we have seen to date in the DCUC.  From his sculpted boots, to his armor-like abs and arms, to the detailed bands on his arms and legs, Slade is a great figure.

I know there have been complaints of paint, scale, and plastic problems, but one thing I thought of last night as I was trying to take good pictures, is that these are still just toys.  Yes they are collectables to us, but at the end of the day they are in the toy department of most stores, which means one of the largest markets is kids.  We may not like the softer feel of the plastic, but when you watch a kid beat on toys you know in some cases they hold up better then the hard plastic figures.  Also, minor paint issues are something that I have learned to deal with, whether they happen from keeping them in a box or they have some rare marks from falling off the shelf: they are toys and when they are used, they chip and peel a little.  I think even with all the minor problems these are still some of the best toys out today.  

Overall, this is my favorite wave to date.  Between the character selection, the initial availability, and the ease of getting variants, this will be a hard wave to beat.  I hope that the accessories continue, especially with the Green Arrow rumored to be an early 09 wave. Ollie vs Slade is a shelf match up I can’t wait to pose.