Since the Justice League movie came out in November I've been getting back into DC comics a little bit more. Reading the phenomenal Doomsday Clock, replaying the Batman Arkham games, and watching the latest animated series Justice League Action. I enjoy the new cartoon quite a bit actually. It's a lighthearted, fun, action adventure cartoon that doesn't take itself too seriously and plays with absolutely everything in the DC Universe.
Gone are the days of a deep, dark superhero action show like Justice League Unlimited, but I feel like Justice League Action strikes a nice balance between new and old. It's not as comedy focused as Teen Titans Go!, and strikes a nice mix of action and comedy. It's certainly a step in the right direction. I kept running into the accompanying Mattel action figures online and since I enjoy the show I decided to pick up a handful. Here's a quick rundown of the Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Joker action figures.
THE GOOD
I have to say, this is a solid line of cartoon tie-in toys. They have great sculpts, solid paint, plenty of articulation, and an action feature gimmick that doesn't interfere with the figures really at all. They did a great job of translating the cartoon character designs from 2D to 3D form, and the articulation works pretty well with the sculpts. The have ball jointed shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees with a swivel waist and neck. The neck could be ball jointed, but it's really hard to tell. I really like that Mattel is continuing with the cloth capes, I'm not always crazy about cloth cloaks but superhero capes are perfect for soft goods.
Each figure also comes with a couple action accessories, the idea being you can mix and match pieces between figures. The only trace of the feature on the figures themselves is a large peg hole in the characters backs, which I'm absolutely okay with. Joker and Wonder Woman have the best accessories, because they relate to the characters nicely. Wonder Woman's shield and spear are great, and Joker's pogo stick and hammer are a lot of fun.
THE BAD
There aren't really any big deal breakers. The only thing that would make these figures better would be if they had wrist and ankle articulation. It is a little tricky to get them to stand on their own, however they do have peg holes in their feet. Unfortunately, that peg hole is really narrow and none of the generic bases I had would fit. Wonder Woman by far has the hardest time standing, not only because she has such small feet and is wearing heels, but also because her skirt restricts her hip articulation. She's also top heavy with that hair, and it's design restricts her neck articulation. But she still looks great.
THE UGLY
Poor Joker. This is a fantastic Joker figure, I love the facial expression, and any time Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy are voicing Joker and Batman it's a treat. But the purples of his costume are wildly miss matched. It's hard to tell in the photographs, but parts of the suit are more pink (torso), while others are more purple (arms and legs). It wouldn't be a problem if his pants were a consistent color, and his jacket another. Maybe next time. One side note, in the photos Superman's head and neck look very inconsistent color wise, but it's not noticeable in person.
OVERALL this is a fantastic line of action figures. They have a ton of playability, great designs, great paint, and great articulation. These guys stand just a hair short of Mattel's older Justice League Unlimited line, but I think they would still fit in nicely together. It's really nice to see the consistency in the scale between the animated series figures. Hell, they'd fit in with the Batman The Animated Series toys from the early 1990's!
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