Me am not Bizzaro!?
Welcome to HiddenLevel Action Figure Review! The subject of today's review is DC COMICS SUPER-VILLAINS: BIZARRO ACTION FIGURE from DC Collectibles. This action figure depicts Bizzaro as he appeared in the DC's recent crossover, Forever Evil. It was an April release and is retail priced at $24.95US. Other figures from this line include members of the Crime Syndicate such as Owlman and Ultraman. 
In "The New 52" (a reboot of the DC Comics universe), Bizarro is seen in the "Forever Evil" storyline. As a part of "Villains Month" in Superman 23.1, or Bizarro #1, Lex Luthor attempted to splice Superman's DNA with human DNA and decides to inject it into a teenage test subject named Bobby in order to create his personal army of Supermans. Instead, Bobby is transformed into a hulking white-skinned monster with cryonic vision, incendiary breath, and immunity to Kryptonite. Deducing his weakness, Lex kills him with concentrated solar radiation that over saturates the Kryptonian cells causing him to explode. Lex then takes samples of the creature to continue his experiment. This time, Lex Luthor tries to clone a purely Kryptonian body. Five years later, a capsule labeled B-0 is shown. After the Crime Syndicate of America takes over the world, Luthor releases his new clone. Though his transformation has not yet been completed (Luthor comments it needed another five years), he kills a security guard named Otis on Luthor's orders. Luthor is pleased and uses Bizarro in his plan to take the Syndicate down.I included the above information about Bizarro from his Wikipedia page not only for those of you unfamiliar with the subject of today's review, but also for myself. Even though I've read every appearance that Bizarro has made in the New DC 52 Universe, I had a really hard time remembering what his deal is. It's kind of a common occurrence with these new character origins, mostly because the classic origins are so ingrained in my mind and partially because this is DC Comics, so his origin has changed a dozen times since his inception. Let's get right to the review, shall we?
Sculpt: This guy looks pretty bad, but in a good way. Bizarro's skin has rough cracked texture you would expect from this defective clone of Superman, but less of a fractured jigsaw appearance that the classic Bizarro had. He has much more of a zombie look to him. It looks really great and very accurate to the the way he has been depicted in the handful of comic book issues that he's been in.
As for his outfit, he is of course sporting his New 52 version of his costume. Gone is his purple and dark blue reversed Superman costume with tattered cape and #1 plaque around his neck. Instead we get something that is a bit of a combination between Superman's New 52 first appearance look and his current look. Bizarro's pants and boots are identical, including the color, to Superman's new armored look. The shirt he is wearing is meant to be a t-shirt like the one Superman would wear before he got his Kryptonian armor. The cape looks good and is in a fairly neutral position. The only thing is that they made a bit of an odd sculptural decision to make the logo a raised element. In the comic, Bizarro just happens to put the shirt on inside out, so what you are seeing is the inside print of the Superman logo. If anything, the logo should look a bit faded out like you are seeing it through the material of the shirt. In and industry that usually tries to get away with just printing a logo rather than sculpting it so they can reuse the part for other characters, this decision seems as backwards as Bizarro himself.
Verdict: 8/10 - Great looking sculpt with an odd choice for the logo.
Scale: The scale for this figure comes out to be somewhere around 6"(1:12) and 7"(1:10) scale. The figure is listed as being 6.75" tall which seems to be pretty accurate. He fits in with a lot of the newer DC Collectibles figures. Many of the older series including the the ones from DC Direct, had a sliding scale that varied from one figure to the next. Bizarro almost fits in with the Mattel DC Universe figures, he is just about a half head taller than the standard figure. If you put him in a hunched position, it's not really that noticeable. For now, I think this is the collection I'll be displaying him in. At least until I get any other figures from DC Collectibles that he can fit in with.
Verdict: 8/10 - Fits in well with the other figures in his line and can even work with other lines.
Paint: I have to say that the look of the paint job on this is really pretty great. The color choices are spot on, from the paint wash that was used to bring out the texture of the skin to the metallic blues and reds used for the lower body. Right out of the box he was just about perfect. Maybe even a ten out of ten. After a while, things changed.
I'm not sure what the problem with the paint is, but it's not holding up well. Some of the metallic colors have started flaking in spots and the blue of the shirt is rubbing off at the arm joints. The ab joint was completely stuck because of the paint, but once I got it to work there was quit a bit of paint rub. This was really disappointing.
Verdict: 6/10 - The colors are great but, the quality, not so much.
Articulation: For a DC Collectibles figure, heck, for any action figure the articulation is pretty damn good. DCC has really stepped up their game lately which is perfect timing to fill the void left by Mattel's DC Universe line coming to and end. There are joins in the following locations; neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, abs, waist, pelvis, upper thighs, double knees, and ankles. They all work very well (one the paint comes unstuck) and have a nice range of motion. I do wish the neck joint allowed him to look straight up so that you could put him in a nice flying position, but what he has isn't too bad.
Verdict: 9/10 - A better range of motion on the neck and some side to side articulation on the ankles would have made it a ten.
Accessories: Jack squat, nada, zilch.
Verdict: 0/10 - Nothing to judge here. A base and maybe some alternate hands would have been nice. Other than that, I'm not sure what they could have included.
Overall: I have to say, I really like this figure quite a bit. I when I saw him at a local comic book store that was having a buy one get one free sale on all action figures, I figured I'd pick him up. I'm glad I did and for the price I paid ($12.50) he was a steal. The lack of accessories didn't really sour my enjoyment of the figure, but the paint issues really hurt. I hope this is a QC issue that DCC has worked to correct, because if they make more figures like this one, then I'll be sure to add some to my collection.
- Brunpuppies
As for his outfit, he is of course sporting his New 52 version of his costume. Gone is his purple and dark blue reversed Superman costume with tattered cape and #1 plaque around his neck. Instead we get something that is a bit of a combination between Superman's New 52 first appearance look and his current look. Bizarro's pants and boots are identical, including the color, to Superman's new armored look. The shirt he is wearing is meant to be a t-shirt like the one Superman would wear before he got his Kryptonian armor. The cape looks good and is in a fairly neutral position. The only thing is that they made a bit of an odd sculptural decision to make the logo a raised element. In the comic, Bizarro just happens to put the shirt on inside out, so what you are seeing is the inside print of the Superman logo. If anything, the logo should look a bit faded out like you are seeing it through the material of the shirt. In and industry that usually tries to get away with just printing a logo rather than sculpting it so they can reuse the part for other characters, this decision seems as backwards as Bizarro himself.Verdict: 8/10 - Great looking sculpt with an odd choice for the logo.
Scale: The scale for this figure comes out to be somewhere around 6"(1:12) and 7"(1:10) scale. The figure is listed as being 6.75" tall which seems to be pretty accurate. He fits in with a lot of the newer DC Collectibles figures. Many of the older series including the the ones from DC Direct, had a sliding scale that varied from one figure to the next. Bizarro almost fits in with the Mattel DC Universe figures, he is just about a half head taller than the standard figure. If you put him in a hunched position, it's not really that noticeable. For now, I think this is the collection I'll be displaying him in. At least until I get any other figures from DC Collectibles that he can fit in with.Verdict: 8/10 - Fits in well with the other figures in his line and can even work with other lines.
Paint: I have to say that the look of the paint job on this is really pretty great. The color choices are spot on, from the paint wash that was used to bring out the texture of the skin to the metallic blues and reds used for the lower body. Right out of the box he was just about perfect. Maybe even a ten out of ten. After a while, things changed.I'm not sure what the problem with the paint is, but it's not holding up well. Some of the metallic colors have started flaking in spots and the blue of the shirt is rubbing off at the arm joints. The ab joint was completely stuck because of the paint, but once I got it to work there was quit a bit of paint rub. This was really disappointing.
Verdict: 6/10 - The colors are great but, the quality, not so much.
Articulation: For a DC Collectibles figure, heck, for any action figure the articulation is pretty damn good. DCC has really stepped up their game lately which is perfect timing to fill the void left by Mattel's DC Universe line coming to and end. There are joins in the following locations; neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, abs, waist, pelvis, upper thighs, double knees, and ankles. They all work very well (one the paint comes unstuck) and have a nice range of motion. I do wish the neck joint allowed him to look straight up so that you could put him in a nice flying position, but what he has isn't too bad.
Verdict: 9/10 - A better range of motion on the neck and some side to side articulation on the ankles would have made it a ten.Accessories: Jack squat, nada, zilch.
Verdict: 0/10 - Nothing to judge here. A base and maybe some alternate hands would have been nice. Other than that, I'm not sure what they could have included.
Overall: I have to say, I really like this figure quite a bit. I when I saw him at a local comic book store that was having a buy one get one free sale on all action figures, I figured I'd pick him up. I'm glad I did and for the price I paid ($12.50) he was a steal. The lack of accessories didn't really sour my enjoyment of the figure, but the paint issues really hurt. I hope this is a QC issue that DCC has worked to correct, because if they make more figures like this one, then I'll be sure to add some to my collection.
- Brunpuppies
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