If you follow Mattel rumors, DCUC13’s lineup had to be rearranged. Some say it was because DC asked for certain characters to be held back, but we’ll never know for sure. Still, the lineup seems devoid of an A-list play pattern. Superboy has the top spot, but I’m not sure how Donna Troy is supposed to pair off with him.
Minds out of the gutter, readers, as there are some connections. Superboy and Donna are both Titans, though decades apart and never in these costumes at the same time, and they’re both junior versions of top tier superheroes. So, there are a couple reasons why Mattel might pair these two up. It could also be simply because they rhyme (sorry about that title, btw). Nonetheless, the play pattern is back in DCUC14 (father/son) & DCUC15 (interwoven alien histories), so it does seem like something was fishy with this wave, but we can only speculate.
Donna Troy
Usually, I like to explain a bit about the characters origins in these reviews, but Donna’s past is really a tale of bad editing. When the Teen Titans were being crafted, Wonder Woman was sans sidekick. There had been a “Wonder Girl”, but it was simply a younger version of Diana. Still, this version ended up in Titans and a new back story had to be created – when Donna was a child, Wonder Woman saved her from a fire that also left her an orphan. She was raised on Paradise Island as Diana’s sister, taking the mantle of Wonder Girl and joining the Titans. Simple enough.
Then, after Crisis, Wonder Woman was rebooted and couldn’t have saved Donna anymore, so she was instead inspired by the United States flag (Really?). When Diana’s mother, Hippolyta, was briefly retconned in as the Golden Age Wonder Woman, she inspired Donna to become Wonder Girl. After that, it was back to the flag presumably. Later still, she was rewritten to be a mirror duplicate/playmate for a lonely pre-teen Diana. Shortly after her creation, she was mistaken for the real Diana and kidnapped. Donna grew up living a variety of alternate lives courtesy of her kidnapper. When she finally broke free, she again became an adopted Amazon and is, again, essentially the little sister of Diana. At least until last week, when Wonder Woman’s origins were (presumably temporarily) retconned. Once again, we’re left to ask “Who is Donna Troy?” I don’t think anyone really knows.
Did that hurt your head? I promise I’ll keep Superboy’s origin short and sweet.
Donna Troy is an entirely new figure, the teen female buck. At the outset, I’m going to say that I’m not really concerned about her proportions because I’ve come to terms with the thinness of DCUC women. Since Donna is being depicted in her 70s costume, she should be in her late teens and I presume this body is what a late teen DCUC woman would look like. I still think all the women in the line could use to be a little beefier, but we’ve got nearly two dozen female figures and I just don’t see any real chance for change in that area.
There are some good things about the sculpt – raised boots with sculpted zippers, raised bracelets, a separate belt piece (which plugs into three holes on her lower torso). There’s also a few annoying things like her gummy, attached lasso that juts out to the side, two closed fists, and the lack of raised detailing on her torso. The last part is probably moot in a buck line, but I think it would’ve really helped the figure. If nothing else, I’m rejoicing that the women of the DCUC are no longer stuck with the uniboob! Have I mentioned that I’d really like to get a redo on Starfire?
At first glance, I wasn’t happy with the head sculpt, but it’s really the paint that is causing me grief.
The paint. The costume details are pretty good. The stars are clean, and the lines between her skin tone and costume are fairly straight. Most of the painted details on her face are nicely done, but the eyes make a mockery of all that hard work. Donna appears to be zoning out while staring at the ceiling. I wanted to see if some lower eyes would look better, so I played around in Photoshop for a bit. It’s not my best work, but I think it looks better. Of course, if the factory ones could come closer to matching the 4H 2up, it certainly wouldn’t hurt.
In light of the few days I’ve spent mulling over this Donna review, I think I was a bit harsh on the Cheetah figure’s hip articulation. I did have to unfreeze a lot of hip joints between the DCUC13 ladies, so some of my derision is deserved, but the hips aren’t as unworkable as I originally thought. Also, while I criticize this hip design as having a soft, rubbery connector to the torso, any experienced DC Collectors know that they all have soft hip pieces. Like many of the girls, Donna’s is internal though. I think that’s the drawback here. Before I unfroze the joint, the hip peg preferred to twist and potentially tear instead of turning like it was designed to do. With that fixed, the figure scores somewhat better. The lack of rocker joints on DCUC13 is still an annoyance for the entire wave, but otherwise Donna has standard articulation.
Finally, we have the scale issue. I don’t have a problem with Donna’s height, but I’m still not sure exactly which version of the Titans Mattel would like us collectors to be putting together. Looking at the image above, I think you could conceivably put Donna, Starfire, & Cyborg together to form the nucleus of an NTT group. The upcoming Raven should fit right in with them. NTT fans would still need a taller Kid Flash, Changeling in his proper costume, and a proper version of Dick Grayson though. I don’t know if we’ll get all those. Continue to Part II: Superboy…
Mattel really needs to get on the ball with the Teen Titans. Dick is going to be a problem because I want a young one to go with Batman and an older one to go with the Titans.
There’s no way Mattel redoes Wally though.
If we’re only going to get one, I think I want a Robin on the Sinestro buck because
-it best represents his SP height.
-He’ll fit better with the Titans.
-I don’t like the little buck.
The little buck won’t be wrong – it’s the right height for the green/red Robin III in the 2pk and it would be right for an early Robin too, but at that size he’ll go with Kid Flash to make an original TT lineup. I don’t think we’ll ever get the original Donna Troy look (I’d want one though), so I’m against Mattel making any of the others in their original, younger costumes.
I kinda need a Dick Robin… One that can go well with Wave one Batman… But back unto these two… Kinda feeling the urge to buy a Superboy.
Superboy is one of the nicer figures in the wave. I’ve been having trouble picking a favorite.
For Robin, how tall are you thinking?
a Young Robin (Pixie boots green speedo), but not using the little buck cause it looks strange… I can’t quite put my finger on it but something looks off.
So the Sinestro buck is the better choice… small but not freakishly small.
Man, I want that Superboy, I only really want to collect the Superfamily and such for DCUC
That’d be a cool setup. Who else would you like to see? My biggest want right now is a Linda Danvers Supergirl (before they went the animated route).
They should have made Kon in the modern uni. The 90s one is a disgrace to the shield. But I do have to admit, the Four Horsemen captured the look well.
Awww. I love his original look, but I do have to say I like his modern design too. That’s rare for me.
Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think that Donna looks bad in her closeup. You should have more closeups too.
Superboy looks like the real deal. I’m gonna have to pick him up. The shot with the facing off against their DCD dupes would make a great wallpaper.
Yeah, I need more. That’s one of the reasons we came up with the layered pictures for Iron Man. Would you like to see something like that for our DC reviews?
I love the shot with all 8 together.
Actually a lot of your pics would make great wallpapers. You should do that.
I don’t know if they’re high quality enough, but I do take them fairly large…
You were far kinder to Donna then I was expecting. Superboy got some well deserved props though.
I think she teeters right on that edge where there are things that could make you like or hate her. Nothing makes you love her, of course.
That Reign of the Supermen line is one that DC Direct hit out of the park. It is too bad those figures command so much now on the secondary market. I know DC Direct doesn’t go back and do re-releases, but if they’ve got one series that demands it is this one. I wasn’t doing much collecting back in 04 when they came out so I don’t have any of them.
Agreed. They’d be perfect for a 4pk. I wouldn’t mind either since, while I enjoy the memories associated with them, there’s a couple reglued breaks in that picture. LOL
Wonder Girl looks like Megan Fox and Superboy looks like a young Charlie Sheen.
Do the sculptors do that on purpose?
Have you seen Blue Devil?
Good stuff. Nice touch with the mic Wonder Woman is holding. Funny.
LOL. I wish I’d thought of that angle when I was taking the pic, I’d have put a prop microphone in there. I had to photoshop in that mic when my idea for the pic changed.
I wish my Superboy’s head had good range. It can tilt down and return, but up from the starting position is impossible and I’m afraid he’ll decapitate if I try to swivel.
His hips only go up about halfway, too. Maybe three-quarters. They don’t seem to be stuck, so I don’t think it’s mine, but I haven’t seen anyone mention it. Is that a standard defect of the Sinestro body? His hip range is almost as bad as Harley’s.
Those pics remind me of how irritating it is that the Walmart Eradicator doesn’t have translucent shades in what was a bargain basement wave in the tooling department.
A lame thing about Donna? Goofy, gummy elbows that don’t bend past 45 degrees.
I don’t mind the eyes on mine, but the new cards’ large photos of the gorgeous two-ups make all of the actual figures look lacking by comparison, like buying a Burger with a photo of a steak on the wrapper. Still delicious, but…
Yeah I still can’t get over the elbows on the female teen body, most of the time I can’t even figure out which way to turn the arm so that the elbow is posed right since there’s so little definition.
Still, despite the bad reviews we usually see I do still want to pick her up. I’ve got Superboy already and he’s marvelous, though it’s also one figure I wouldn’t have minded giving a little character. How about that classic trademark smirk he used to have in the 90s? I think it would have captured the fun and silliness of that era. Well, the stuff that wasn’t brooding and dark and had “Death” or “Blood” in the title 🙂
Good point there. While it’s kind of silly, I love the character that the permanent expression gives to Copperhead. Keep the major characters stoic, maybe give them some expression in one of their endless variants. The lower tier guys who may be unknown to many could use some character! To their credit, they’ve done a nice job giving expressions or other extra details into more obscure characters that often end up outshining the big guns.
My Donna Troy’s hips were stuck…So i tried the freezer trick. I was working them, and herd a satisfying crack! I thought, oh her leg was only stuck! But then I looked and…He pelvis had cleanly broken on the seam on the bottom. The pegs were all there, and her belt holds it together. BUT the good thing is that now her hops move, and are not loose or anything because of the shape of the peg. This is one time I was actually glad a figure broke! 🙂
Great review!
a- did you swap those Eradicator specs with the DCD? or did the initial release have the clear specs? (I don’t think they did, the MC re-release are solid.)
b- you forgot to add the original Titans kidnapped “chosen” kids and trained them, only to give them time-locked memory blocks of their training, which is why Donna chose the name Troy. This also played into her “rebirth” in the DT mini (which also featured the first new DC ‘spinning star’ logo).
c- did the DCD Superboy have shades? I’ve still got mine on the shelf for now (no w13 up here, yet) and I guess I either left them in the package (& lost in storage) or lost them in the last move?
d- did you not take pics of the cardback origins for Donna or Superboy? does it even mention “Kon”? The issue he gets that name is one of a few I didn’t get before DiDio took over and ruined him as landlord of a brownstone. (WTF???)
e- I totally want some of those HyperCrisis Superboys, including Black Zero.
f- my vote for Robin I goes for the Sinestro buck (and again for Kid Flash do-over!). also, I wouldn’t mind them re-decoing the Flash into metallic red and changing Wally’s belt. better that than no Wally-Flash at all.
g- any chance those F DCUC arms could swap with DCD arms? I keep looking at “jazz hands” Donna (black/Infinite Crisis) and thinking they need to go.
h- rumored box set: Titans?
classic TT? Robin, Donna, Kid Flash (Sin.buck), Speedy, Aqualad
or NTT: FA Nightwing, Flash III, adult Donna (WW/F buck, Donna head), Changeling (red/white), Starfire/Blackfire, Cyborg (gold?), Raven (white), Jericho, Terra
(aka Judas Contract? = NW, Donna, Gar, Jericho, Terra)
or modern Titans: Nightwing, Donna (black), Flash, Arsenal (DCIH/Outsiders, altho I still want the yellow vest!), Tempest, Damage (FA)
i- need a life if I’m wanting an all Titans wave with CnC Mallah (Grodd redo) and Brain (reuse DCIH)
“our country?” But they’re Greeks. meh whatev