{"id":22820,"date":"2013-02-25T00:11:08","date_gmt":"2013-02-25T06:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=22820"},"modified":"2013-02-25T00:12:13","modified_gmt":"2013-02-25T06:12:13","slug":"dcclassics-com-batman-unlimited-super-powers-penguin-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=22820","title":{"rendered":"DCClassics.Com Batman Unlimited
(Super Powers) Penguin Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>There are figures you really want and then there are figures you inexplicably must have. The classic Penguin is one of those figures for me. I have a lot of wants for the 6\u201d DC line. I want more characters. I want more tooling. And yet here I am geeking out over a same-character repaint.<\/p>\n

If pressed and given a choice between another character and a Penguin repaint\u2026 I\u2019d almost always have to go with a new character. I\u2019d love it if the Batman Unlimited line were catered a little more (well, a lot more) towards me. Prometheus. A classic Ra\u2019s Al Ghul. The Ventriloquist. Alfred. I have a lot of DC Classics figures, my list of wants is quite long, and somehow the Batman Unlimited line does just about nothing to trim it down. Well, almost nothing…<\/p>\n

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Despite my love for never-before-plastic characters, I\u2019m just as excited to have this particular Penguin repaint as I am any of those. This is the Penguin I\u2019ve been needing\/wanting ever since I bought the original way, way back in the year 2008. That Penguin was good. The arms seemed a little long (or simply not stubby enough?) but the figure looked great overall and had an appropriately gnarled face sculpt for old Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot. But it just never struck a chord with me. <\/p>\n

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The reason was simple: I\u2019m a Super Powers kid. The figures came out right around the time I was getting old enough to actually remember which toys I had. And while I had many loves as a kid (as evidenced by the way-too-wide-berth this site tries to cover, not to mention my wallet), Super Powers will always be foremost among them. And so my Penguin has always been a guy that delights in his villainy, is subject to the never-ending \u201cblue was the highlight color\u201d debate, and carries a primary color umbrella that turns a pukey purple color when you spin it around. <\/p>\n

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As Classics went on, and particularly when it went deep into its Bronze Age \/ Super Powers lovefest, that first Penguin stuck out more and more to me. The Joker was all Bronze Age. The jumpsuit Riddler, though never a Super Powers figure, also took me back to those good old days. The Silver Age Catwoman joined them to make a sweet \u201cjust like you remember\u201d trio. And that Penguin, while technically correct, just never fit in for me. This was the Penguin I needed.<\/p>\n

Mattel tossed this classic Penguin into their booth some time ago \u2013 SDCC 2011 maybe? It was back before the great line implosion of 2012 for sure. Larfleeze was coming to retail as part of a new DCU All-Stars line and Penguin\u2026 well, I was soon crushed to discover that Penguin was just there. He didn\u2019t have a home. <\/p>\n

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I have a special place of rage that I go to when a toy company shows me something they\u2019re not going to make. I mean, I want to know\u2026 it\u2019s cool to know what goes on behind-the-scenes, but I also don\u2019t want to know. Hasbro\u2019s Sigma Six Scarlett & Joe Colton? Ugh! The MO2K figures that never were? Even with Classics and the Stactions, I still<\/em> want some of the figures Mattel displayed in the \u201cWe\u2019re not making these\u201d case. And then there\u2019s Zebra Batman. I\u2019m still mad about that. <\/p>\n

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For awhile, I was worried that Penguin would end up with the same fate. <\/p>\n

Luckily, after more than a year of waiting (and some major reshuffling from Mattel), this classic Penguin found his way to retail. He\u2019s an odd man out in the line, mixed in with two nU52 figures in the first wave, but I don\u2019t care one bit. He\u2019s here\u2019s. He fab. And I\u2019m happy. Continue to Page 2…<\/a><\/p>\n

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As he should, Penguin largely reuses the body of the original Penguin from Wave 1. Over the years of my requesting this figure, I insisted that he only need a new head. Luckily though, the 4H\/Mattel put a little more investment into him and gave him an all-new, and toy accurate torso so that he would better match the original figure. It\u2019s little details like that the sell the figure.<\/p>\n

Atop that torso also rests the much-needed new noggin\u2019. I still lament that the production process requires Oswald\u2019s nose to be a separate piece, but it\u2019s unavoidable. Overall though, the sculpt is true to the original figure while bringing it up to a more detailed level. Some have lamented that the sculpt is too cartoony, but I disagree. It was sculpted as a love letter to the Super Powers figure and I\u2019m receiving it as one and I think they nailed it. He\u2019s a sharp homage. <\/p>\n

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The articulation is a little different than we\u2019re used to, mostly due to the reuse of the non-standard buck. Most of what I like to see is there: ball-joints at the neck & shoulders, hinges at the elbows, knees, & ankles, and swivels at the biceps, wrists, & waist. The legs try to be more articulated than they functionally are. While the thigh swivels are gone, the hips are still on double hinges \u2013 they just don\u2019t work very well. They didn\u2019t on the original either and it seems a tad worse here. There isn\u2019t much back & forth movement and the outward movement is so tight that it makes you doubt there\u2019s a hinge in there. <\/p>\n

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The paintwork on my Penguin was pretty good. The pinstriping on the pants was sharp except for one small section while the yellow paint on the cummerbund was a tad sloppy. The face paint is sharp though and it makes me really overlook the other two bits. <\/p>\n

Penguin included one accessory and it\u2019s the one part of the figure I\u2019m not particularly satisfied with. To be fair, I have way too much affinity for the original. Honestly, if you asked me what my Top Ten figure accessories were, the SP Penguin\u2019s umbrella would make the list. I love the colors. I strangely enjoy spinning it around. I love the telescoping\u2026 icepick? Blade? Whatever. It\u2019s cool. <\/p>\n

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The modern umbrella? Not so much. It\u2019s a shame that wasn\u2019t room for Mattel to spring for a new accessory here. The original Penguin\u2019s umbrella is an okay piece and it definitely looks sharper in the primary colors, but it\u2019s really undersized \u2013 about the same size as the SP version despite the noticeable different in scale between the figures. I\u2019ve also never really appreciated the clip-on machine gun part (though it comes handy to keep the umbrella from sliding down into Penguin\u2019s hand). It\u2019s okay. It completes the look, but it\u2019s just not as cool as the original. What I really need to do is track down an in-scale closed umbrella too. Though I\u2019m not sure how I\u2019d paint it\u2026 <\/p>\n

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The undersized umbrella and restricted hips aside, I still love the figure. I love how it looks and I love the feelings that it invokes. The 4H did a great job updating the pieces on the figure that needed updating and the colors are sharp and true to the original overall. I know the original Penguin is also technically a \u201cclassic\u201d Penguin, but it just never quite fit for me. This is the Penguin the line needed and this look appeared in so many places that I think it\u2019s a good fit for DC fans that don\u2019t love Super Powers like I do. <\/p>\n

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More DC Universe Classics Reviews:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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For all our DC reviews, check out our
\n DC Universe Classics Collector’s Guide<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are figures you really want and then there are figures you inexplicably must have. The classic Penguin is one of those figures for me. I have a lot of wants for the 6\u201d DC line. I want more characters. I want more tooling. And yet here I am geeking out over a same-character repaint.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[6,34,10],"tags":[70,1870,2557,20,1869],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pObc6-5W4","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":20335,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=20335","url_meta":{"origin":22820,"position":0},"title":"Ask Mattel August 15th & Link Round-Up","date":"August 16, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Ask Matty - August 15th Edition DCClassics.Com Asks: Did the Death staction have enough of an impact that Mattel will look into moving forward in that scale? It did very well, but how and if this line will continue has not been decided. MOTUClassics.Com Asks: We know that Granamyr can't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ask Matty"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22147,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=22147","url_meta":{"origin":22820,"position":1},"title":"Ask Mattel December “15th” & Link Round-Up","date":"December 17, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Ask Matty - December \"15th\" Edition MOTUClassics.Com Asks: Octavia's tentacles have us worried about Squeeeze, but we noted that Mattel's NautKeLoi from the GL line featured a great internalized articulation design. Is something like that possible within MOTUC's budget? Anything is possible, but we simply don't have a Squeeze in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ask Matty"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31970,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=31970","url_meta":{"origin":22820,"position":2},"title":"NYCC 2015 Armchair Coverage: DC Classics lives as Dark Knight Returns","date":"October 12, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "DCClassics.Com"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28208,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=28208","url_meta":{"origin":22820,"position":3},"title":"DC Multiverse 4″ Batman Returns Penguin Review","date":"June 10, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "DCClassics.Com"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20202,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=20202","url_meta":{"origin":22820,"position":4},"title":"Details on Waves 2 of the Batman & DC Unlimited Lines","date":"August 11, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"So, I\u2019m in the middle of three-too-many projects at the moment, but Vault got my attention today with a simple text, \u201chave you seen the new DC figures?\u201d I had no idea what he was talking about. Apparently, new DC & Batman Unlimited figure pics had been circulating all day.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Toys"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29587,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=29587","url_meta":{"origin":22820,"position":5},"title":"Batman Retro 1966 TV Series Wave Three","date":"November 5, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "DCClassics.Com"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22820"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22820"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22825,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22820\/revisions\/22825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}