WWE RAW Super Show - EVE TORRES!

WWE Superstar #11 - Raw Super Show - Eve - from Mattel 2013

So far 2013 has been a crazy year for me finding WWE ladies on the shelves.  I'm not a big enough fan of wrestling to go out of my way to hunt any of these girls down, but when I see then, I can't resist their charms.  I've said this many times before, but the sculpting. construction quality, diversity of body types, and overall pricepoint make WWE easily the standout line in Mattel's current roster.  Sure, the MOTUC girls are amazing, but their only detraction is they don't fit in with other figure lines.  The DCU girls are getting a little boring with their spindly arms, too-tiny hands, bowed-legs, and sloppy QC.  The WWE lines, on the other hand, are consistently great.  I originally started buying them as potential custom fodder (since, again, I'm not an avid wrestling fan), but once I had my first figure in my hands, a Series 6 Kelly Kelly in pink, I was hooked.  Eve Torres recently retired from the WWE world, but not before winning an unprecedented three WWE Divas Championships.  Let's check her out below!

DC Direct's WONDER GIRL!

Cassandra Sandsmark from Teen Titans Series One - DC Direct 2004

I really miss the old DC Direct.  As a company, they put out an impressive array of beautiful action figures every month for more than a decade.  In my personal opinion, they produced the best looking superhero action figures of all time (I am not counting super high-end companies like Hot Toys).  This Wonder Girl figure has an absolutely stunning sculpt by the amazing Jonathan Matthews.  You would be hard-pressed to find anything like this today for under $25, but back in the heyday of DC Direct, this quality was commonplace (and honestly overlooked).  The Cassandra Sandsmark version of Wonder Girl has gone through a lot of great character development since her debut in 1996.  She started as a nerdy wannabe hero with powers derived from different magical objects, only to grow into a fierce, beautiful, courageous hero with self-contained powers bestowed by Zeus himself (who happens to be her father).  Cassie survived the New52 reboot and still has a solid place in the Teen Titans, however her powers have backtracked and are now back to magical bracelets, a bit of a downer in my opinion.   Let's check out this gorgeous figure below.

WWE Diva of the Year AJ LEE!

WWE Series 24 - AJ the Geek Goddess - from Mattel 2013

WWE's self proclaimed geekgirl makes a great addition to the prolific number of great females in the Mattel line.  This is a really interesting figure.  At first, I didn't like the face sculpt, thinking it looked goofy and the smile looked weird, but she has really grown on me.  One thing I especially like about the figure is her body sculpt.  Mattel's wrestling figures have this amazing systems of interchangeable body parts to re-create the physique of almost any wrestler.  AJ is different because she is so much smaller than the other in my personal collection.  This makes her seem.. cuter.. than the rest.  Which, in turn, makes the goofy face fit right in.  Some of her claims to fame are winning the 2012 Diva of the Year Slammy award and her distinction of having a genuine love of comics and video games, hence the "Geek Goddess" nickname (Apparently she's obsessed with Jean Grey).  The yellow of her outfit really makes her stand out from the bunch, too - I never realized how much pink, white, and black the Divas rely on.  Let's check out the figure below!

G.I.Joe: Retaliation's LADY JAYE!

G.I.Joe's Covert Ops Specialist, Lady Jaye - from Hasbro 2013
 
Lady Jaye has always been my favorite female Joe. She was consistently just as tough as the boys, she threw exploding javelins, and her outfit was much less "costumey" than most of her teammates. She also had a secondary talent as a master of disguise (which according to the blurb on the cardback, it looks like she utilizes in this upcoming film). What's not to love? In the movie she is played by Adrianne Palicki, who most of geekdom knows as Wonder Woman from the cancelled 2011 NBC show. I'm excited to see her take on the character. She looks very different from her cartoon counterpart, but not in a bad way, just different. This action figure is pretty decent. She comes with tons of accessories (but no stand), she re-uses the body of Renegades Scarlett (which is an amazingly articulated figure), but unfortunately the head suffers from an odd sculpt and overly-simplified paint. This is a shame since most (if not all) of the accessories are re-used and the body is a straight-up repaint of Scarlett. So the head is the only thing they needed to put effort into. Let's check her out in detail below.

Power Rangers Jungle Fury EVIL MELLE!

Your Favorite Evil Space Alien, The Evil Melle - from BanDai 2008

The Power Rangers franchise has had a lot of cool villains over the years.  With the relative similarities between the five heroes over all the numerous iterations, the villains are what really provide variety and excitement season after season.  The female Evil Space Aliens usually tend to look like humans with witchy outfits and crazy headgear.. honestly a little lackluster compared to the males with their awesome suits and fighting abilities.  That's why I love Melle.  She has an amazing design that is quintessential Super Sentai with tons of great detail and a thematic design.  In her case, a Chameleon.  She actually has my favorite costume in all of Super Sentai, Kamen Rider, Metal Heroes, and Ultraman combined.  The colours are great, the Chameleon details are consistent and fun, and the fact that they made her into an action figure is just icing on the cake.  The figure itself is extremely well made.  She is very detailed, well-articulated, and even has a "swatting" action figure.  Let's check her out below!

Arkham City TALIA AL GHUL!

Talia Finally Arrives in Arkham City Series Four - from DC Collectibles 2013

My first exposure to Talia was a very startling experience.  For Christmas one year, my Aunt bought me the Batman: Son of the Demon TPB.  I was nine and way too young to see Batman getting it on.  In my young mind Talia was a homewrecker there to spoil the pristine bachelorhood of my favorite hero.  Since those early "ewwww"s, I've grown rather fond of this character.  From comics, to the cartoons, and finally to this past Summer's Dark Knight Rises, she has become an amazingly deep and provocative character (despite having no defined costume!).  Not to mention her role in the world of video games.  Talia has been one of those characters that the Batman collectors have been pleading for since the hobby market really took off in the late 90s.  Sure, we got an animated version, but that wasn't likely to satisfy everyone.  Even this figure may still be a far cry from the comic version many envision.   But I honestly think this figure is a great representation of all her many incarnations and I'm so glad to add her to my bat-shelf.  Let's check out the review!

Gladiators UK - INFERNO!

The Gladiators UK Revival's Fiery Flirt, Inferno - Character Options Ltd 2008

There have been many attempts to revive the success that was The American Gladiators in the late 80s.  One of the more recent attempts was Gladiators UK which aired on Sky1 in 2008.  The US, UK, and Australian versions of the show were all revived that year, but I believe UK was the only one that had a toy line made to celebrate it.  Inferno, played by model/wrestler Jemma Palmer, was one of an impressive nine female Gladiators on the show, and obviously had some major appeal since she was the only one made in plastic.  Too bad the figure itself doesn't do her justice at all, because she is a beautiful woman.  These figures, made by Character Options Ltd, are actually pretty impressive.  They have very unique articualtion and scale, it's just unfortunate that the face sculpt is a little homely.  This may actually be a fun one to attempt to customize - if only she weren't so hard to get ahold of here in the US (I like to have a spare if I'm going to potentially ruin a toy).  Let's check her out below!

Go Speed Racer Go - TRIXIE!

Speed Racer's Main Squeeze, Trixie, from ReSaurus 1999

I never would have thought I would be so enamoured by an awkwardly-dubbed Japanese cartoon about cars.  But like most geeky guys I know, I caught an episode once in my adolescence and was instantly hooked.  I think a key factor in appreciating the show is being old enough to realize how goofy and weird it is, but not so old that you overlook it completely.  Speed Racer was bestowed with repetitive plots, laughably fast dialogues, and completely charming characters.  Trixie was the girlfriend of the main character, Speed.  The "M" on her shirt is the initial of her original Japanese counterpart's name, Michi (Likewise, the "G" on Speed's shirt is for his Japanese name, Go).  Trixie was a feisty rich girl who could hold her own in a fight, and conveniently owned her own helicopter with which to follow Speed's races with an eagle-eye view to report all the predictable traps, fallen bridges, rockslides, and oil slicks.  ReSaurus did a great job capturing the characters, although Trixie is a bit too pre-posed if you ask me.  Let's check her out below!