DC Icons Wave 5 Photo Review

DC Icons lives on! Wave 5’s Wonder Woman, Swamp Thing, and Deathstroke are now out, with the carry over of Static from Wave 4, along with Deluxe Cyborg. Waves don’t really count here, as they get put out individually and staggered, but this is the 5th “Round” of standard releases. This wave of figures refocuses the line a bit with varied sculpt, well executed paint and meaningful accessories. We’ve shot them all in detail, so read on for some additional thoughts and 150 HD images!

Quick Thoughts:

Static: Turned out great. Paint is sharp, electricity and manhole cover is well done. Only thing lacking is the stuff they removed from the original solicitation, the jacket, hand bolts and alt hands. But it’s regular price point and not deluxe now, so that’s a positive.

Swamp Thing: Fantastic sculpt. Paint is complicated up close. The taller size works. Cranius is a nice addition and appropriately gross looking.

Wonder Woman: Weakest of the bunch. The shield has a hard time staying in place on the back or arm with any movement. Sword does not fit snugly in hands. Head sculpt is different than original solicitation, and not as good. The one on the back of box and seen at Toy Fair 2016 is preferred IMO.

Cyborg (Deluxe): Winner of the bunch. Great paint, head to toe. Sculpt is solid. Alternate arm, hand cannons are great. Generator with plugs is awesome, but the wires and larger cable are difficult to bend and keep in position, it all has to be hooked up right for the generator to not pull off the ground.

Deathstroke: Really solid classic Deathstroke. Lines are great, slight metallic sheen to the light blue paint is sharp. Unmasked head is super clean. Sword and it’s mechanism to pop on the back well done.

Overall:
DC Icons carries on after a rocky patch. I personally was losing interest in the line after being super hyped when it started. Primary colors and lack of paint (or exciting paint) on previous releases coupled with it’s very similar body styles was getting repetitive. However, this round was significantly more fun. The paint execution on them all is awesome, Cyborg in particular reminded me of a NECA figure. The sculpts are still similar, using that long thigh and hip tech, that tight upper torso joint. But, the varied sculpt and better executed paint lessened it’s impact on this group. They felt overall more quality, more special, and that’s a good thing.

Now, we know they are slowing down later in the year, and focusing on event packs like The Death of Superman and the Super Sons packs, but whether or not we get those other singles already seen, or other standard releases after this is up in the air since they weren’t at NYTF 2017 and we haven’t heard much since their reveal at SDCC 2016.

Bottom line, if they slow down, and put out more quality releases, with focus on varied sculpt and better executed paint like these have, then I’m ok with that. The 2 packs look fantastic.

From a purely magic wand perspective, what I think should happen with Icons overall is…

Running change on overall height and bulk. Just slow fade them up another quarter inch or so, maybe bulk them out a tad too. Marvel Legends has grown and shrunk standard figure sizes over the years, Icons can do it too without scrapping or rebooting. They are currently a tad too small IMO.

The hips and legs – change the tech. They all feel bow legged, and lack of thigh cuts in this style limit posing. Just create a new standard, similar to Tamashii Nations running change on Dragonball figures. Doesn’t have to be exactly the same, but some upgrade for poseability and overall stance would be welcome.

High end paint, everywhere. Using matte or metallic sheen paint for all areas is welcome. I’d also suggest sandblasting the mold finely to remove the gloss from any non-painted skin areas. When done right, that helps the overall feel tremendously. Get rid of the gloss and reflection, I don’t want it looking like it was dipped in liquid rubber.

Tighten the joints up. This round was better, but overall when I go to pose the upper torso, I don’t want the lower half to lose it’s position. It’s a never ending loop of getting one top done, pose the bottom, messes up the top, fix the top, lose the bottom, repeat. The legs have more of that issue than uppers, and could be addressed in an overall hip/leg reconstruct.

I’m back in for the time being, let’s see how things play out!

Key shots here, check 150 shots below!