Official solicit:

DC Universe Classics Deathstroke the Terminator

Decorated military veteran Slade Wilson served his country one last time by volunteering for adrenocorticotrpic hormone experiments. These experiments were supposed to increase the brain-activity and reflexes of its subjects, creating super-enhanced soldiers… But the subjects died or like Wilson, were left crippled in a vegetative state. But Wilson began to recuperate, discovering that his strength, agility and stamina had all increased nearly tenfold! He assumed the identity of Deathstroke the Terminator, assassin for hire!

DC Universe Buy all 5 figures to build your COLLECT & CONNECT Solomon Grundy figure!

SEPTEMBER 2008
MSRP 10.99USD

During that weird period in the early 90’s when every other comic character was wearing a trenchcoat, quit shaving, and carried around a sawed-off shotgun, Deathstroke stood up and went a different route. Unfortunately that route was also part of that weird period in the early 90’s when every other comic character who was a villain suddenly became something of a good guy, and that’s exactly where Deathstroke stayed for awhile. A classy villain with a code, who was bound by honor to blah blah and kill people, and flip all those “lame” “square” heroes the bird while he did it!

Despite being a cog in the machine that was an industry-wide push for every book to be exactly like every third book, Deathstroke was a little better than others. Usually. And if nothing else, he had a very cool design to make up for all of it, as created by the masterful George Perez.

DC hasn’t had much idea of what to do with Deathstroke since the 90’s though, and I have no idea what his status quo is in the DCU now, but I do know the Mattel DC Classics figure if nothing else, looks cool.

The DC U figures all come packaged basically exactly the same, from Wave 1 all the way to Wave 6. The only difference of course is the promo art on the inside of the card, and the line images on the back. And of course, the individual characters packaged inside as well.

And as per each Wave of the DC U figures, they are all “Collect & Connect”, where every figure comes with a separate piece of a larger figure and once collected - look out! This Wave is Solomon Grundy, who as you all know, was born on a Monday. And while I haven’t been a big fan of any of the other C&C characters from any of the other waves, Solomon Grundy looks amazing.

It’s too bad I’ll never be able to have him, even if I wanted (but more on that later)…

Off card and out of his bubble, Deathstroke comes fully equipped and ready for battle. His array of weaponry includes his battle staff, a sword, a machine gun and a handgun as well. So much stuff for one little figure!

All of Deathstroke’s weapons are made of that flimsy rubber I hate so much, but Mattel keeps on using it. It’s so flimsy, it looks like my machine gun could use some viagra to get some rigidity back, because it just won’t keep its shape. Bah.

And what would a Mattel toy be without breaking on me almost immediately out of package? Just like my Movie Masters Dark Knight figure, Deathstroke can’t stand under the pressure of barely being played with without falling apart.

As you can see in the above pictures, the sword sheath which is attached to Deathstroke’s belt, just came right off. It looks as if there was some manner of glue holding it in place, or was melted/fused together, but not good enough. I’ve asked a bunch of other people who got this figure, and theirs seem to be holding up, so it seems I just got the one bad apple in the bunch, much like the Dark Knight figure.

Time for a rant.

And the problem with both figures is, that even if I wanted to exchange them for new ones, it’d be almost impossible to do so. Mattel has had the worst distribution with all of their figures of late, to the point that almost anyone who wants them has had to resort to ebay or another online vendor, because Mattel can’t fill any orders to retail due to some awful internal runnings within the company. All this from a line that is intended especially to be bought as a whole, to complete and assemble all of the Collect & Connect pieces to form the bonus figures - but good luck with that. I’ve seen exactly 3 figures of the DC line on shelves that weren’t from Wave 1 (which is the only Wave that seems to be out there, even though nobody has bought these for over a year now…), and that was over 4 months ago to boot. The availability on these is ridiculous, which sucks because these, like the Movie Masters, are actually really great figures. But while it pains me to say it, I’m at the point where I am hoping for Mattel to go under, so the license can go to someone else.

And also, because Mattel is just really, really asking for it. If you or I were this bad at our jobs, we’d be on the unemployment line. Hopefully there won’t be any government bailouts when (NOT if) Mattel goes under. HOPEFULLY.

Back to the figure at hand - poseability is the same for all the DC U figures, as they are all essentially the same base figure with some additions and different heads depending on the character. Also, as you’ll note, Deathstroke’s ammo belt has been removed for these pics too, and honestly, he looks so much better without it. It’d had been nice if the belt had been sculpted into the figure, rather than as an accessory, which ends up just being cumbersome and obtrusive for movement and looks too.

With around 24 points of articulation, these figures have massive a massive range of movement. The only thing holding these figures back are the crazy comicy muscled proportions, which can stop range by blocking areas with the ridiculously big chests, giant biceps, etc etc.

Other than that though, it’s a great looking figure, with plenty of detail, and even the paint apps are great too. If only Mattel really wanted to sell them to people though, right?

Even more accent on accessories, Deathstroke’s handgun comes in a holster that closes, and fits in just perfectly without looking too big or bulky. It’s a nice touch, which makes up for the ammo belts bulkiness too.

Deathstroke’s staff is the best accessory of them all though, and his most recognizable as well. Because of the range of movement on the figures, it really allows a lot of different ways you can pose Deathstroke with it, none of which look odd or out of place either.

And as you can see in the above far right picture, it even clips handily right to the back of the ammo belt, which is the ONLY good thing about that belt too.

Sword in hand, without sheath I guess, but Deathstroke even looks good with that. And with rubbery machine gun, from the above middle picture, which is something I am going to replace sooner rather than later with a better and more realistic looking rifle of some sort.

So at the end of the review, where do I sit? I’m completely done with Mattel, the last 18 months has done nothing but showcase what a horrible company it has become. From trying to kill our children with subpar materials, then trying to blame the poor chinese workers who were only doing what they were told to do from the start - that being use the cheapest materials they could to maximize Mattel profits. To now not even being able to get their product to customers anywhere, be it at the retail level or even actually from their own sources like the mattycollector.com or mattel websites. NOPE.

However, despite Mattel and their failings, this is a really great line and the sculpts are all really good and accurate. Not to mention the range of characters available, from classic DC superheroes like Batman, Hawkman and Green Lantern, to weird villains like the Gentleman Ghost. Sure, the accessories can be non-existent or made from garbage materials, they’re at least getting better about it.

I just wish anyone other than Mattel were putting these out. ANYONE.

ANYONE!