Martian Manhunter review

Post date: Jan 30, 2011 2:46:23 AM

I was happy to find Martian Manhunter today in my mailbox. This is the first figure to show up of the fourth wave of Mattel's 8" Retro-Action DC Super Heroes.

This wave comes on nice light blue cards with the four members of the wave shown on the front: "Shazam!", Black Adam, Darkseid and Martian Manhunter. I thought having "Shazam!" is quotes with an explanation point is great since that is what he says, but his name is Captain Marvel.

The back shows all four posing in a similar style to the other waves.

I decided to open him right away since my Martian had a shoulder strap slipped off and wouldn't display well. He looks great out of the package. This wave is like wave 3 and uses the new improved body that has a ball joint between the waist and chest to keep him from flopping over.

The cape is a shiny synthetic fabric with some gold elastic to hold it in place and hold the color up. I wish the elastic was a bit tighter as the cape tends to spin to the front when handling him.

He has orange straps that are hemmed, similar to the later Lex Luthor outfits with a gold painted belt buckle.

I was surprised to find that the straps and shorts are a separate piece from the green suit. The shorts have a snap on the back to hold them on. I really like the light green body suit. The color is great: the suit, head, body, and hands all match perfectly. The suit is made of a very thin stretchy material that really shows off the body underneath. It has a single snap on the back. I really hope to see more body suits like this on future figures as its a great boon to kit-bash custom figures.

Overall I think Martian Manhunter is a must buy for any Mego collection. He is a popular character that Mego never made that fits right in. I can't wait to get the rest of wave 4 and hope this line of figures lasts a long time.

Update: I just realized that the green suit is separate so people can decide if they would rather have the body suit or not!

I think he looks better with the body suit on, but its great that Mattel is giving us the choice.