{"id":3034,"date":"2009-12-21T06:24:24","date_gmt":"2009-12-21T12:24:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=3034"},"modified":"2012-04-16T03:55:42","modified_gmt":"2012-04-16T08:55:42","slug":"retro-review-dc-classics-wave-6-kalibak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=3034","title":{"rendered":"Retro Review: DC Classics
Wave 6 (Kalibak)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continuing our series of Retroviews as we work to complete our DC Classics Review Archive<\/a>, today we bring you DC Classics Wave 6, the Kalibak Wave.<\/p>\n

Wave six first hit retail at the very end of 2008 and became more available over the first few months of 2009. The set reviewed here showed up at a Wal-Mart in early January. That Wal-Mart had never carried DC Classics before and didn’t receive another case until the fall reset. While I was lucky enough to run across my wave six locally, all of the other IAT staffers had to make toy runs to a remote Wal-Mart about 45 minutes north of here throughout the Winter – it was the only one within an hour that maintained pegs for DC Classics. That was indicative of the odd distribution of wave six, at least, at first. <\/p>\n


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Our Target finally got the wave themselves in the spring and many of those wave six figures are still at our Target right now. Our Wal-Marts, in that aforementioned fall reset, added DCUC pegs to nearly all of the local stores, but quickly filled them up on a hybrid wave 6\/KB exclusives case. While the figures languished at Target, they sold through at Wal-Marts (except for the Sonic Arm Cyborg – he’s still anchoring those pegs while Christmas empties the aisles around him).<\/p>\n

While I’m sure there are some fans out there who had trouble finding wave six, it still ended up one of the better distributed waves for all of 2009 and leaves Kalibak one of the cheapest C&C’s to obtain on the second hand market. For this retroview, we’ll take a quick look at the individual figures that were part of Wave Six.<\/P>
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Hawkman<\/strong><\/h4>\n


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Hawkman was surprise for me. He’s one of those characters that I forget I like, but having the figure in my hands really brought back memories of my Super Powers Hawkman. My grandfather once removed his legs and set him up in pinewood derby car. He was later rescued and his legs restored, but he forever had red paint splotches on him. I didn’t mind, it just meant he’d taken a beating when I played with him from then on out. That Super Powers figure is really recaptured here. Part of this is likely because they’re both accurate representations, but it seems like something more than that too. He just looked like the SP one was used as model – and recent developments with the line have convinced me that was the case. I was planning to just pick him up and add him to the ranks, but he quickly became one of my favorite figures.<\/p>\n

Hawkman is built with a mostly standard buck, but his torso is unique. It has the straps molded to the back (the front straps are a separate piece), the plug for the larger wing harness, and nipples! I’m glad they’re there – I’m not fond of B’Wana Beast’s Ken Doll chest. He features new, accurate boots, a belt with a sword loop, and a great set of wings. The picture below shows them fully spread so you can get an idea for how big they are compared to the figure. The paintwork on mine was sharp too – vibrant colors with sharp lines.<\/p>\n


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One more great thing about this figure was his accessories. Unlike the majority of DC Classics who come with one or none, Hawkman came with a Kalibak C&C part and three accessories: his shield, his mace, and a sword. All of the weapons have good paint apps and a ton of molded detail. When you put him with Hawkgirl, you end up with a great medieval arsenal. Continue to Page 2…<\/a><\/p>\n


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Killer Moth<\/strong><\/h4>\n


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According to the Mattel product numbers, Killer Moth was planned to be his post-Neron Charaxes version, but the giant semi-realistic killer moth didn’t cost out for the wave and they decided to do the classic Killer Moth instead. While I’d like to see Charaxes in the line too, they did a great job on this figure. He’s downright garish. He’s made from a standard buck with his unique head, wings and a belt w\/ holster for his pistol. The nature of his helmet causes the toy’s antenna to be warped out of the package, but it’s an easy fix (As long as you’re careful, they’re fragile) with some hot water. The paint lines were really important for this figure and the ones on mine are excellent. This is one of the best examples of the 4H taking a character that probably shouldn’t be in the line (sorry, Scott!) and knocking it out of the park to make a great figure. I should point out that he does tower over the rest of Batman’s rogues, but not so much that it looks out-of-scale.<\/P><\/p>\n

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Regeneration Superman & “Mullet” Superman<\/strong><\/h4>\n


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To be honest, I’ve never been sure which Superman was supposed to be the variant. The back of the box pictures the black Regeneration Suit version so he should be the regular figure, but I always seemed to run across the “mullet” version more. Both of these versions of Superman come from the tail end of his Death\/Return story. He’s first seen alive in the black regeneration suit and his hair has grown long while he was dead\/stasis\/whatever. When he returns to active duty, he leaves the long hair and fans dubbed him “Mullet” Superman. Personally, I don’t mind this look, but I never did like the resulting Clark Kent with a ponytail look.<\/p>\n

Both of these figures use a standard buck with the same new head. Superman gets his trademark boots and belt while the black Supes get the wristbands (the big toe armor is painted on). Paint apps are good on both. While the Black Supes all seem to have sharp lines, I do remember a lot of thin Superman tampos on the mullet version at the time so that’s something to watch out for. The mullet version of Superman would later be released with a short haired head twice (with normal eyes and with heat vision eyes). While both of these versions of Superman have their place, neither is really the iconic version and both probably end up more towards the back of the shelf.<\/p>\n

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“Shazam!” (a.k.a. Captain Marvel)<\/strong><\/h4>\n


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I’ve always felt bad that Captain Marvel can’t have his name at retail, but calling him Shazam! does at least call back to Super Powers when they also had to call the figure by his magic word instead of superhero name. Shazam is another figure in the wave with a decent chunk of new pieces: the head, the lapelled torso, the cape, the squared-off shoulders, the forearms, the sash\/belt, the shins, and the feet (most of this tooling will be later used on Black Adam). Captain Marvel had some paint issues as his symbol tapers off the upper chest and his face paint is a little glossier than most, but his paint apps are otherwise solid. I usually hate the mixing of gold and yellow on comic book figures – I prefer all or nothing – but it doesn’t clash as much with Shazam as it did on Dr. Fate, so I don’t mind the dual colors here.<\/p>\n

Captain Marvel by any other name is still Captain Marvel and this figure does a great job of recreating the character right down to his grin. Wave 9 included Black Adam and Wave 12 will have Mary Marvel (referred to Mary Batson) which has us getting closer to completing the family. I’ll be content with Captain Marvel, Jr – but I’m secretly hoping to get a Wizard and a Tawky Tawny someday. Continue to Page 3…<\/a><\/p>\n


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Doctor Impossible<\/strong><\/h4>\n


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Normally, I’m not happy with fans who think that “classic characters” deserve some priority over newer characters. I’m generally of the mindset that I’ll take whichever characters I can get, but Dr. Impossible really tests that theory. Impossible was an easy variant of Mister Miracle (basic buck + MM cape + new head). This guy was the creation of Brad Meltzer and I’m not really sure what the character did that was important before he died (or should be dead with the rest of the New Gods) because I tend to avoid Meltzer’s comic work (some good novels though!). Still, even if I don’t care about the character, the construction works for him and the complicated paints apps were done well on the figure I received, so at least he’s a good figure I don’t care about instead of a bad one. <\/p>\n

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Mister Miracle<\/strong><\/h4>\n


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For me, Mister Miracle was the centerpiece of this wave. I like a lot of the figures in it, but Mister Miracle is heads above the others. Despite using the basic buck, his costumes details are captured with new gloves, boots, belt, cape, and his head. His feet are also unique and have sculpted circuitry to show the retracted aero-discs in the soles. The paintwork on my Mister Miracle is mostly crisp though some of the yellow paint could be thicker. In addition to his C&C piece, he also sports four accessories. You get the fully opened aero discs for his feet, a classic pair of handcuffs for him to break out of (reminiscent of the Super Powers figure, but in a classic Kirby style), and a motherbox (you might miss the motherbox out of the package, it comes hooked to his belt behind his cape).<\/p>\n

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Kalibak<\/strong><\/h4>\n


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As much Super Powers goodness as this wave represents, it does not translate to Kalibak. I’m of two minds about this. On the one hand, Kalibak is another sharp DC Classic. This particular costume translates into figure form well. On the other hand, now that we’ve got Desaad with his vibro-shocker on the way, and Steppenwolf, Mantis, and the Parademon in Super Powers versions – it’s a little disappointing that Kalibak didn’t (and is unlikely to) receive the same treatment. But when you look at the figure, you can’t help but be happy with him. He’s a completely unique sculpt and the one I found has good paint work except for the yellow stripe at his ab crunch. The left hip is a little loose on mine causing him to sag a little bit. I’ve thought about picking up a Captain Marvel from Target to get a cape fro Black Adam and a new left leg for ol’ Kalibak.<\/p>\n

Kalibak was initially shown with three accessories: a pistol, a club, and his beta club. In the final figure, only the club came in under budget and the other two were dropped. Undaunted, the Horsemen repurposed the accessories for the Parademons. The pistol was reused with an attachment to clamp onto the Parademon’s hand and the beta club was given a harness that allowed the Parademon to hold it. That weapon splits into two pieces so you can give Kalibak his classic Super Powers accessory if you so desire.<\/p>\n

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In Conclusion…<\/strong><\/h4>\n


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Overall, wave six is still of my favorite waves. If you get all of them, you have three New Gods, a major JLA member, two versions of Superman from the classic Reign storyline, a Bat villain in figure form for the first time, and Captain Marvel. That’s a good run. I’m a bit biased as many of my favorite characters appeared in the wave, but it’s more than that too. The new parts are more plentiful than in other waves. The paints apps are mostly solid. And other than a loose joint on Kalibak there weren’t any really joint problems to speak of. The wave was readily available for most collectors either through the initial release or the subsequent refresher cases, so there’s not much drama involved for this wave. I’m sure most collectors wish all the waves would have been this plentiful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","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":[6,369,34,10],"tags":[376,351,323,375,377,139,50],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pObc6-MW","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7246,"url":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=7246","url_meta":{"origin":3034,"position":0},"title":"Most Requested Figures: JLU Kalibak","date":"July 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Today's nominee comes to us via e-mail from reader JasonS. Jason wrote in to tell us about the quick sellout of Lobo and what he wants it to mean for the future of JLU. In short, he's ready to pick up more oversized characters via MattyCollector. And he knows who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Requests"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10162,"url":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=10162","url_meta":{"origin":3034,"position":1},"title":"MattyCollector for December Buzz-Off, Superman, & Kalibak","date":"December 15, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"know, I know... Greapons is lame, but it's late\/early and in my sleepy state that's near hilarious. Plus, I might not be laughing in the six hours when the latest MattyCollector Sale begins! What are you after today? What would you hate to miss? What do you think will sell\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "MOTUClassics"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":767,"url":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=767","url_meta":{"origin":3034,"position":2},"title":"It’sAllTrueReview: DC Classics Parademons!","date":"August 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Fourth in our five part series featuring the eighth wave of DC Universe Classics, this review covers the red and green Parademons. To be completely forthcoming about my red Parademon review, I need to tell you all something. Tomorrow, I'll be 29 years old. 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Come in and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Requests"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2380,"url":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=2380","url_meta":{"origin":3034,"position":4},"title":"It’sAllTrue.Net Custom: DC Classics Super Powers Mr. Freeze","date":"November 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Today, I thought I would take the opportunity to show off one of my DC Classics customs: Mr. Freeze in Super Powers Colors. While Mattel has recently upped their committment to Super Powers from variants to the outright placement of Cyclotron in wave thirteen, there are some decos that I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Customs"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26955,"url":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=26955","url_meta":{"origin":3034,"position":5},"title":"Toy Fair ’14: Armchair Coverage Super Powers Returns!","date":"February 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Event Coverage"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3034"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3034"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18043,"href":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3034\/revisions\/18043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}