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<\/a>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.<\/p>\nMinds 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.<\/p>\n
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<\/center><\/p>\nDonna Troy<\/p>\n <\/center><\/strong><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n Did that hurt your head? I promise I’ll keep Superboy’s origin short and sweet.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 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?<\/p>\n At first glance, I wasn’t happy with the head sculpt, but it’s really the paint that is causing me grief. <\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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…<\/A><\/p>\n Superboy (Kon-El)<\/p>\n <\/center><\/strong><\/p>\n Short and sweet I said, right? Okay\u2026 when Superman died in the early 90s, he was replaced by 4 new Supermen. One of them, a partial-clone of Superman (& later, Luthor), broke out of his accelerated growing chamber early and took on the mantle of Superboy after the real Superman returned from death. Superboy has most of the powers of Superman, but due to his mixed up DNA, he’s missing a few while having a few others that Superman doesn’t possess. In recent years, his costume has been simplified to a black t-shirt and jeans. I want a figure of that too, but I’m happy to get this one first. And to just throw in some<\/em> complicatedness, his dead body is in the Fortress of Solitude while he\u2019s running around in the books right now.<\/p>\n Superboy is based on the Sinestro buck, but he has plenty of new pieces: calves, a leg belt, a regular belt, a jacket, new arms, and a new head. First, I should talk about the height. Using the Sinestro buck is exactly what I wanted Mattel to do. It may be just a tad bit tall, but it’s closer than the young teen body used incorrectly on the college-age version of the Tim Drake Robin.<\/P> Of the new pieces, I like most of them. All those wonderful 90s straps and belts are well done. The head sculpt and separate glasses look great right down to the raised eyebrow. You can’t pose him this way unaided, but if you push his head down and tilt the sunglasses so that he can look at you over the rims, you’ll see just how good this head sculpt is. I tried to snap a picture of it, but I just couldn’t capture it on the camera. Just don’t press down to hard on the glasses of course – we’re not responsible for broken toys! He is missing his earring, but I guess that’s okay in the larger scheme of things. Finally, the jacket and new arms have good detailing throughout and it’s a nice change to the mostly “spandex” line.<\/p>\n There is really nothing to report on the paintwork for this figure. Everything is pretty clean. Initial press pics featured a blue neck and shoulders, but Mattel caught it and had him fixed before he got too far along in production. On the back of the jacket, though, is a different odd paint choice. The symbol back here is a yellow emblem on a black background. It looks good and I like it, but to be accurate to the original look, it should be solid yellow with stitching details (as seen on the MOS figure on the far left). As I said, it looks good as is, so it’s a minor complaint.<\/p>\n Articulation is standard for the line with two things of note. One, the bicep swivels are sculpted to look like folds in the fabric which is pretty cool. And two, the head sculpt has some really good range. It’s not where I want it to be just yet, but he’s much improved over the previous couple waves which ended up with restricted swivel joints.<\/p>\n I’ll have to add a picture of the buttons later, because I forgot and because I know we all care so deeply about them. I haven’t been able to determine the origin of the Superboy button, which features an out-of-costume Superboy lifting the Kent\u2019s tractor over his head, but Donna’s button features cover art from New Teen Titans #1 (1980). <\/p>\n Overall, these two figures have different destinies on my shelves. Donna’s a couple mistakes shy of being a decent figure. Plus, she’s not in my favorite Donna Troy costume, and that’s going to leave her destined for the middle ranks of the shelf where I can’t see the attached lasso or her crazy eyes. <\/p>\n Superboy is from one of my favorite eras of comics and is part of one my favorite childhood storylines and he still managed to meet my expectations. I’m happy with the height, the sculpted details, and the head sculpt in particular. I really treasure my DC Direct Reign of the Superman figures.*<\/p>\n I initially missed the Cyborg Superman, but my future wife found him at a comic shop, still at regular price, long after his price had skyrocketed and grabbed him for me. I picked up the other three while I was working on my first big corporate assignment in Oklahoma City.<\/em><\/p>\n Because of my connection to the DCD ones and the sharpness of the DCUC set, I think I\u2019ll be keeping all eight figures out for display right now. The Mattel Cyborg Superman leaves a little to be desired, but the DCSH Steel makes up for him. This new Superboy finishes off that set and has earned a spot near the front of my DC shelves. The kid looks great.<\/p>\n![](\"reviews\/dcimages\/2010\/troy2.JPG\")
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