Let's go over each figure one last time and discuss what BAF piece of Steppenwolf they each came with. Superman, who comes with the head and waist of Steppenwolf, is fine for fans that are in the market for a Superman that's got the bare minimum of what they want from a Superman figure: looking like the character, having a basic amount of articulation, and comes with a cloth cape. Beyond that, he's in need of a flight stand, more articulation, and alternate hands. Batman, who comes with the upper torso of Steppenwolf, is probably my favorite version of the character in terms of DCEU Batman offerings from Mattel, but that's not saying much considering how his articulation is still a little lacking and he could also go for a few accessories.
Wonder Woman, who comes with the right arm of Steppenwolf, is slightly better than the BvS version by having a less hideous face sculpt, but it's not a spot on likeness to Gal Gadot, neither are things like the articulation, feet, or how her hands hold her accessories any better. Aquaman, who comes with the right leg of Steppenwolf (and yes, for a good while, I had a Steppenwolf that wouldn't even stand up on a single leg), would have been decent had it not been for the lack of head movement or how bad the hips and knees work. It also doesn't help how his right-hand looks oversized compared to his left hand.
And now, we have the last two figures that took me a while to get for stupid reasons even I wish I knew. The Flash, who comes with the left leg of Steppenwolf, looks decent yet suffers from having weak elbow movement and double jointed knees that don't really bend as they should (doesn't help how the two-pack comes with even more accessories than him. And Cyborg, who comes with the left arm and weapon of Steppenwolf, has some decent sculpting and paint, though I wish he had the alternate head that came with his Walmart variant.
And with all that said, let's put this guy together so we can move on with our lives. Thankfully, assembling the BAF is easy to do, though attaching the shoulders can be hard to do because the shoulder pads obscure where you're looking.
And now it's time to cover this build-a-figure once and for all. Here we have Steppenwolf in-hand, and he's already quite the bang for your buck when you get the whole team. Now, is it neat to have a full team along with finally completing this guy? Yes. Is he a hundred percent worth the wait? Well, we'll get into that later. Let's first go over the things I like about the figure. The color scheme used on this toy is certainly accurate to the character design, and it looks gorgeous on him; the New God patina works wonders with this design, and as much as I dislike how lacking the articulation is for the DC Multiverse line, they do make up for it with the paint and sculpting. Almost every BAF piece comes with the same treatment, so he doesn't look as though he's got the same minimal paint seen on the regular Mattel toys from the movie. I've seen those in hand at discount shops when I tried looking for the JL wave of figures, and let me tell you that they looked very drab and almost like prototypes. This guy, on the other hand, is done wonderfully. The only parts that stick out like sore thumbs, however, include thumbs; the hands are not given the same drybrush look to them, making them look as though Steppenwolf's hands were never out in battle or are covered by gloves, meaning they don't match the way his face looks since they're also his skin. They also look kind of off in terms of proportions. I'm sure Steppenwolf has big hands, but these almost look like they're from those 12-inch things that kids get on Christmas. Aside from those, the paintwork looks great, as do the sculpting and proportions.
The face sculpt is done wonderfully that he looks more like Steppenwolf than the actual design does in Josstice (because his skin looked inconsistent and his eyes were a little too human to fit this alien). Plus, is it me, or did the promo content make Steppenwolf's face different from the movie (even if we set aside his different body in BvS, more on that later). Still, the transition from the grayish-blue to the blood-red stains on the horns of his helmet makes this guy look war-driven throughout the many years he was under the command of Darkseid, his nephew.
Articulation is on par with the rest of the figures in the line. The Head is on a ball joint, and it can also look down (which makes sense given how large he is). Shoulders move front and back as well as in and out (though the shoulder pads do restrict his movement). The biceps swivel, the elbows bend at 90 degrees, and his wrists rotate. The waist swivels 360 degrees, and he also has an ab crunch that helps him move back but not forwards. The hips move front and back as well as in and out (though they are heavily limited by the skirt armor), the thigh swivels, and the knees bend at 90 degrees. Finally, the ankles hinge up and down, though they do not pivot, like always with these Mattel figures. I guess it's not an entirely bad thing for this guy to have less articulation than everyone else, though it makes you wonder why the actual figures that come with each piece of Steppenwolf have more articulation.
The electro-axe that came with Cyborg can be held in his hand, though getting it on there is a little tricky, and because of how heavy the top part of the axe is, the wrist swivel couldn't hold the weight of it at all unless it's angled right. And that axe's deco is very lacking; it could have looked as though it was made of metal with some slick paint apps, but instead, he looks like he took it from a basic Steppy and grew its size to make it scale with him.
For anyone wondering what alternate BAF pieces are out there, this Aquaman comes with a new head for Steppenwolf. He's the shirtless version of the character, seen with these big tattoos and two pieces meant for Steppenwolf's head and helmet, which is what we got in Josstice when Steppen's helmet is all that's left of him from the Parademons. The helmet's coloring has the same red horns but everything else is pretty gray compared to the patina blue. This was likely made after Steppenwolf's fate was altered in the movie since he was originally supposed to be decapitated by Wonder Woman, but that was altered since the Warner Brothers consist of amateur post-production ideas.
I should mention that for anyone unaware of the DCEU continuity, the Ultimate Edition of Batman v. Superman and the theatrical cut of Justice League (the one we call Josstice) each have entirely different looks to the character. Steppenwolf was seen as a lot less human in comparison to the new design, which may seem as though it's cool since the more comic accuracy nerds would love the Josstice design, but this more alien look to the character would better fit with the established continuity. Maybe some could say that the new design would later be retconned as an older Steppenwolf (much like how Uxas looked different from his older Darkseid self). Who knows what will be chosen in the proper Snyder Cut, because it'll depend on what Zack decides will be the look chosen in the movie (likely it'll be the one from the Ultimate Edition)
For a size comparison, here is Steppenwolf with the other figures I have that would normally be seen in anyone's collection: a normal Voyager Class Transformer in the form of Optimus Prime from The Last Knight, and the previously reviewed Marvel Select Venom. Steppy's a pretty big BAF piece, and sadly, I don't have any of the Marvel Legends BAFs or whatever DC Multiverse once got. I'd love to have Onslaught, Abomination, comic Iron Monger, Apocalypse, Juggernaut, Thanos, MCU Hulkbuster, and the Blob in terms of Marvel Legends. For DC Multiverse, Killer Croc, Bane, Ares, and both a comic Doomsday AND a BvS Doomsday. TLK Optimus is a fairly tall Voyager, and Marvel Select Venom is taller than other Selects because of how tall he is compared to someone like Spider-Man or Captain America. Steppenwolf towers over everyone else at around 10-11 inches.
Here he is with foes, the Justice League, who thankfully don't consist of a carrot Aquaman, a Batman with a goofy smile and that dumbass "I don't...not..." line, a Superman with CG hands and a CG face, a Wonder Woman who doesn't get to decapitate him, a Cyborg talking about his legs, and a Flash that said Doestevsky or whatever that was. He's a pretty tall BAF, which is appropriate given how tall he is compared to the rest of his enemies, so much so that he's peering down on Batman.
Making this shot alone is more a lot more fun than watching that cringey Josstice cut. Steppenwolf's pretty neat to complete for fans that want to have this guy (assuming an average DCEU fan would collect these since most of them collect those damn Funko Pops). While the rest of the figures are not too great when priced at $20, and their prices kind of make for a BAF that's not too worthwhile, getting Superman, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman for 10 bucks, Batman for free, and finally getting Flash and Cyborg at the original prices just to get it over with makes this guy worthwhile. I don't think anyone else would exactly mimic how I got a hold of these things, though (and the same could be said for getting a decent Marvel team).
For anyone else wondering what the Justice League series of Mattel DC Multiverse figures has to offer, here are some pics of the other figures out of their packaging. For the big box retail, here are the Walmart-exclusive Motherbox wave (featuring a retooled Cyborg and a gunmetal gray Batman, each with halves of the Motherboxes) and the Target-exclusive Flash Page to Screen 2-pack (which features a translucent version of Ezra Flash (with a new head and hands) and a Rebirth version of the Flash; both of them come with lightning effect pieces and backdrops). If I could, I'd probably get the Walmart figures if they're somehow still on discount, but the Target 2-pack is a maybe since I don't have any plans to get the Rebirth version of the League. I also wish that the pieces that came with the clear Flash also came with the regular figure.
For Amazon and Toys R Us, here is Mera (from Amazon, and she would normally come with a pair of alternate hands and a staff), and we have a Parademon (who comes with a gun and no BAF piece) and the aforementioned shirtless Aquaman (also coming with the new head and helmet for the Steppenwolf). Mera's one I'd like to get, and the same for Parademon, Aquaman's a maybe, but to tell you the truth...
...I think I'm done with the DC Multiverse line...
The thing is, collecting these figures has been a weird roller coaster since 2016, when I first got BvS Batman and the Lego Batmobile back when the BvS hype was around. Even when I first got the figure, I was a little too unimpressed by it because of how weak the leg articulation is, and the lack of accessories ruined it for me. I couldn't find the other figures since I could only go to the Walmart near me at the time (my Target was closed down in 2015 and a Walmart that used to be near my Food4Less was closed down, too). I couldn't really find the other offerings, so my ability to collect the rest of the wave was not there (and the BAF was a grapnel gun and not someone like, IDK, Doomsday???). Justice League came around, and I was tempted to complete the whole team, but sadly, I didn't get a chance to buy them until 2018 (and it didn't help that Josstice was a sucky movie) where I got Superman from using a few gift cards at Best Buy, and I'd later find the Wonder Woman figure at my comic shop and just accept having a so-so display of the Trinity (along with having a Steppenwolf head and torso with no other purpose at the time).
Around the same time, I got to buy a better-done Wonder Woman at discount AND got Tactical Batman for free, each from different shops. This started to make me want to buy the rest of the Steppenwolf wave. also around that time, I got a Luigi, two Studio Series Transformers in the forms of Ironhide and VW Bumblebee, and three Tiny Turbo Changers.
For those that don't know, it was the monster that popped up from Martha Wayne's grave to show what a monster Bruce would become if he kept up with his lost mindset throughout the movie...it was also a crappy figure despite it having a neat design and paintwork.
And now I've gotten Aquaman for $10 and later got Flash and Cyborg each at the same price I would have paid at regular retail, completing my JL team. I'm afraid the latter two are going to be the last DCEU figures I'll get for the time being. I don't think I'd get the other characters from the rest JL figures and variants, the BvS variants, or the rest of the Man of Steel Movie Masters, and I'm not even fussed about hunting down the Multiverse figures from Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Shazam. Some say the Aquaman and Shazam figures have better actor likeness and accessories, but so should this wave. I'm also not tempted to get any figures from the older or recent comics, the Superfriends line, the CW stuff, Injustice, or whatever else is represented in the line. That sadly means not getting the Batman Forever version of the caped crusader, Returns Penguin, TDK Joker, etc. Hell, I'm not even INTERESTED in the McFarlane stuff, thanks to how out of scale they are with the rest of my Mattel stuff and how amateurly done the line seems (also because of the bad proportions of the DCAU figures when the show models had the characters look less stylized than McFarlane thought).
For all the criticisms the Marvel Legends and Star Wars: The Black Series lines have, at least they tend to be complete in terms of articulation and accessory count. Even the weakest figures from the line like the 2007 Ultimate Iron Man with its crappy design and Slave Leia with its disjointed look (thanks to how bad the almost nude body and the articulation joints blend together) feel a bit more complete than this wave of figures, and by extension, the rest of the DC Multiverse line. As much as I'm glad Hasbro is winning Power Rangers fans over with the Lightning Collection, at least Bandai's Legacy Collection had more articulation, and in some instances, more accessories than the DC Multiverse line. If these figures were priced at $10 because of how similar they are to the basic figures, it'd be fine (even though Hasbro made the differences between their basic figures and their collector figures in Marvel, Star Wars, and Power Rangers). If these were released in 2002, they'd be great for their time. Sadly, this isn't the 2000's anymore, and as much as I hate how high prices are for action figures, at least I'd get my value for money from what Hasbro or NECA does. I'm sure some will say that I should stick with the Mafex or whatever versions of the League are available in the Japanese import market, but I want to avoid quality control issues on 40-50 dollar figures as well as not buy a bootleg. All in all, this line has its own charms, but I'd rather move on from the DC Multiverse line and better spend my money on stuff like Transformers or Power Rangers. Unless I see a really, really, REALLY good discount on a DC figure I found, or if someone was willing to give me their stuff, I'm not going to do anymore DC Multiverse figure reviews, be it Mattel or McFarlane Toys. Still, I won't abandon my collection. Selling that BvS Wonder Woman was as far as I went (and IDK what happened to my Bat Monster). So to close up shop for now, here is my entire collection of DC Multiverse figures. Until the day comes where I review another DC Multiverse figure, my slate will consist of robots in disguise, defenders of the grid, and heroes from a different comic company.
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