Review: JLU three-packs: Cheetah/Luthor/Shade, Huntress/Superman/Galatea
Posted by Lindsay
As I said in my review of GL and Sinestro, I've been finding new and re-released JLU figures in the oddest stores recently. A few weeks back, Erin ran across these two three-packs at a local Conway. Conway is an odd chain, originally just in NYC, and mostly for discount fashion, but some have cheap toys stashed on out-of-the-way shelves. Of the six figures, the only repeats for our collection are Supes and huntress, which made these discounted packs a very good deal indeed. |
Appearance and Construction:
Cheetah pack: 7/10
Huntress pack: 5/10 Cheetah herself has awesome hands and feet, but the design of her face is missing a certain something. I like the subtle paint on her nose, and her spots. Her expression loses me, though. She's a fairly calm character in Justice League. Luthor looks pretty excellent in his broke-out-of-prison duds, although I'm not sure what the silver bracelets are about. Although, looking at the picture on the back of the package, they may be meant to be his manacles. They look more like something Wonder Woman should have, though. I do like the sneer. Shade looks perfectly decent, accurate to his animated design. |
Huntress is one of two variations released in this scale, I already had the other one. This one has more paint ops, which are more accurate to her design on the screen. I don't think they add much in this case, though, see the comparison shot below for how much is lost with inferior face paint.
This is a sad excuse for an extra Superman. Paint smears and problems everywhere. Galatea looks stretched. Something went very off in transferring her to 3 dimensions. Both short-haired ladies appear to have uncannily long necks, although the body mold is the same for all three. The standard female body really only works aesthetically with long hair, as seen on Huntress. Also Galatea's skin tone is too far off, the choice of outlining her belt buckle but no other details is weird, and her head just looks awful. |
On the construction front, when did Mattel start making these with inferior plastic? Compared to my existing collection, all the girls' limbs are really flexible and weird. This is not okay. In case you can't tell in the picture below, that's my older Huntress figure effortlessly bending back her counterpart's arm.
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Packaging and Accessories:
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All the ladies come with stands, that's one for Cheetah, and two for Huntress and Galatea. Unfortunately, the guys tend to tip over as well, especially guys like Shade who aren't balanced by a cape. I know it seems unfair, but the Cheetah pack gets an extra demerit here for missing more stands, despite the fact that the lack is based solely on the gender of the toys. Well, and the fact that Bruce Timm only designs women with really tiny feet.
Play and Display:
Cheetah pack: ----
Galatea pack: ---- These all have the standard JLU articulation, cuts at neck, shoulders, and hips, and an extra cut for Cheetah's tail. Huntress's neck is hampered by her hair, but given the aforementioned aesthetics, I can't complain about that. The ladies only stand with their legs firmly pegged in, and the angle on the hip cuts means you mostly want to leave them standing. Nothing special here. |
The bendy arms do mean Galatea can do this:
for about 5 seconds until they slowly snap back. I bet with hot water these would permanently bend into all sorts of weird positions. This is not exactly a plus. I miss when at least half the JLU girls came with the straight-legged stance body.
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Price Tag and Final Analysis:
Cheetah pack: 6/10
Galatea pack: 5/10 Not exactly top-quality toys here, but the paint ops may be better on other packs (that weren't in the discount store). We paid $4.99 per pack, which is still a decent deal, even considering that half of these guys are probably going right into the custom bait bin. I will eventually do more figures in the 4” scale. As far as customizing goes, I am a little worried about the softness of the plastic, it would make it difficult and dangerous to trim off Cheetah's elbow tufts, for example. Ah well. I guess if I need more 4” girls I'll head to eBay. |
If you drop by The Blue Fairy's Workshop and tell me how much you like my work, maybe I'll finally finish another project.
For something more current, check out The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf, where I talk about my non-toy-related compulsion, reading.
Or if you miss Erin's wit and wisdom, you could check out his blog.
For something more current, check out The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf, where I talk about my non-toy-related compulsion, reading.
Or if you miss Erin's wit and wisdom, you could check out his blog.