McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse JLA Plastic Man Wave Platinum Edition Aquaman Figure
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00:00And these little piggies went to the piranha pool.
00:03Here's a look at the McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse, the JLA's Aquaman.
00:31The son of a lighthouse keeper and Atlantean queen,
00:35Arthur Curry is the bridge between the surface world and his tumultuous realm of the sea.
00:39Monarch of the undersea realm of Atlantis and king of the seven seas,
00:42Aquaman is one of the most powerful DC superheroes,
00:45commanding a kingdom that covers three-quarters of the Earth's surface,
00:48including all the creatures contained within.
00:50Arthur Curry came from humble beginnings,
00:52as most of his life was spent exiled from his home, unaware of his noble origins.
00:57When he finally took the throne as an adult,
00:59he became the most legendary king in Atlantean history.
01:02You know, it's a real shame for Arthur that Amputate starts with A.
01:06Just before we get a close look at the JLA hookhand Aquaman,
01:09the tape measure is going to tell us that the figure stands about six and three-quarters of an inch in height,
01:14where Aquaman is going to stand at seventeen and a half centimeters tall.
01:18As for other figures with Aquaman,
01:19here's first what the figure looks like with the very first figure of four
01:22from the Plastic Man Build-A-Figure wave.
01:24This is the Blue Energy Superman.
01:26We have, of course, gotten a couple of other Aquamans in recent memories.
01:29The ones that come to my mind right now are the one we got from the Endless Winter Wave,
01:32which is actually a slightly bigger build of Aquaman
01:35than the one that we're getting here with the hookhand.
01:37We also, as well, got one from the Page Punchers line.
01:39Wasn't as big of a fan of that one.
01:41The scales on his chest look a little out of place,
01:43and he had a big shoulder pad on the side of his body.
01:45We also have a classic version of Aquaman, which up to this point,
01:49with my own hands, I haven't had the chance to pick up that one yet.
01:52Yeah, so before we chit-chat on why Arthur lost his hand in the first place,
01:55why don't we give him a hand by looking at the accessories that got packed along with him?
01:59First, at least, that the figure comes included with the trading card.
02:02Second, at least, unlike Energy Superman,
02:04at least it looks like a card that belongs to this particular character,
02:07that they didn't simply just randomly select any old image of Aquaman.
02:10Well, at least the front delivers.
02:12Unfortunately, the back sort of under-delivers
02:14by just giving us a very generic paragraph read.
02:17In fact, it's probably a little bit more than a paragraph.
02:19Just a very simple story, an origin story,
02:21of how Arthur Curry came about to being Aquaman.
02:24I feel like there should have been at least some mention.
02:26This is a pivotal moment in Arthur's life,
02:28whether it's been retconned or not.
02:30I think that some of it at least should have been mentioned on the back of the card.
02:33So, of course, it's me. I'll provide all the necessary 411 to that.
02:36But at least from the front of it, it's a nice-looking Arthur Curry card.
02:39The figure also comes included with a display stand.
02:41We're not going to spend a whole lot of time talking about this, what?
02:44Okay.
02:45It's got the DC logo branded down below.
02:48And then after that, it's got a little cornering peg
02:50that plugs into either one of Curry's boots.
02:52Done with that?
02:53Done with that. Okay.
02:54Move it off to the side.
02:55The figure also comes included with both arms for the Plastic Man.
02:58Of course, we were building Plastic Man through this whole time.
03:01Now, unfortunately about this, though,
03:02is that we only have gotten ourselves a torso.
03:04And the torso wasn't going to go anywhere.
03:06It didn't have legs. It didn't have arms.
03:07It certainly didn't have a head to see where it was going.
03:09We have a torso, at least, for Energy Superman.
03:11And then, of course, we've got the two arms.
03:13I don't think I'm going to add the arms just yet.
03:16There's a black suit Batman that's going to come part of this wave.
03:19That's also going to come with some silly spaghetti arms for Plastic Man.
03:22And I don't know how easy it's going to be to remove these arms.
03:25So I'm going to leave them off for at least right now
03:26until we get to the review of Batman.
03:28I'm going to promise on that.
03:30Before we get to the Batman and then before I decide from there
03:32which arms I'm going to use for Plastic Man.
03:34I'm sure the fact that we get two variations of arms
03:36means that these arms will be pretty easy to remove.
03:38But just based on that and with my luck that I've had in the past
03:41trying to remove arms without having to heat them up in the first place,
03:44I'm just going to leave them off.
03:45I'm going to leave them off.
03:46Promises.
03:47We're going to come back to it.
03:48Getting though a closer look at Aquaman.
03:50Now obviously one of the big notable things about this particular character right now
03:53is the fact he does have the missing arm.
03:55Depending on when you follow the exploits of Arthur Curry Aquaman in the comics,
03:59whether it be in like the mid-90s or so,
04:01or probably the biggest canon thing about this version of Aquaman with the hook
04:04is the original Justice League cartoon.
04:06Aquaman, granted, was introduced in the cartoon with both hands.
04:10But though through the unfortunately that one episode,
04:12he had to take the hand off.
04:14Which I mentioned at the beginning of this review.
04:16How do you spell amputate?
04:17It's with an A.
04:18Depending on the canon on which you'd like to follow for Aquaman losing his hand.
04:21In the cartoon though, he actually gets strapped to like a cliff face
04:26that gets zapped with a laser.
04:27And him and his baby child are also kind of falling down on the rock face
04:31down into the lava below.
04:33He frees though one of his arms, which happens to be this one here,
04:36because he's chained to both sides of the rock with it.
04:38But he can't unfortunately remove his arm on this side.
04:41Which was really strange because he was able to use the strength at least
04:43to break his arm off one side.
04:45But he didn't have the strength of both arms.
04:47Writing, I know that's a plot story,
04:49but with not having apparently the strength of both arms to rip away the chain,
04:53he ended up having to take, of all things, his little belt buckle A.
04:58Spelling amputate with an A. I'm here all day.
05:00He took that and he first tried to break the chain.
05:04He couldn't get it all the way through.
05:05So he had to do the next thing.
05:06And we cut away to see what the end result was.
05:08He ended up having to cut his arm right off.
05:10Or at least the hand right off.
05:12Depending on if that's your canon,
05:14the other alternate story of why Aquaman lost his hand actually was in the comics.
05:18I think it's Cerberus.
05:19Cerberus was actually getting Arthur Carter to show him
05:22how he could harness Arthur's ability to communicate with the sea.
05:24And Arthur basically stuck his hand into a piranha infested pool.
05:29And then the piranhas basically ate away at his hand.
05:31So there's a couple of different stories.
05:32I mean, obviously the cartoon's a little lighter.
05:34Cartoon's a little bit more of a self-sacrifice.
05:37So I think it's a little bit more of a better story
05:38of why Arthur lost his hand than maybe in the comics.
05:40Either way though, at the end of it,
05:42the short end of all of it,
05:43is the fact that Arthur had to lose his hand.
05:45And what we get instead is a hook hand.
05:47The hand itself, or what the hook is at least,
05:49is a pretty soft enough plastic
05:51that at least I don't worry that the plastic is going to break on this.
05:54I do like at least the way they painted this in gold.
05:56There's a few little indentations to it
05:58so it looks like it's not like a clean made hook.
06:01It looks like it's been hand forged.
06:03As for the actual head sculpt,
06:05I really think that this one's done really well.
06:07The only thing I'm not as crazy about though
06:09is the color they chose for the blonde.
06:11Now, the color that he has for his blonde,
06:13for at least his hair,
06:14I think is a little bit more of that dirtier yellow.
06:16Unfortunately though, I think it's upped too much of an ante
06:19when it comes to the brightness of what they've done
06:21with the yellow here for his beard.
06:23If comparing it, for example, to...
06:25Let's bring in maybe the Endless Winter version of Aquaman.
06:28Comparing though the two,
06:30I think this Aquaman has probably the better looking blonde
06:33at least on the front of his face.
06:34Granted though, his face was way too pale.
06:36I even mentioned that in the review of him.
06:38Of course, that gives us more classic looking Aquaman.
06:40Very much similar style of build too
06:42when you're looking at the two.
06:43Just one is a little bit more of a classic looking Aquaman.
06:46And of course, one is the one that they wanted to make Aquaman
06:48a little bit more of a tough guy in the 90s.
06:50So they gave him instead like this shoulder armor piece.
06:53But the hook looks really good on the character.
06:55It's not one, unfortunately...
06:56It's not a trait that lasts very long in the comics at least.
06:59But at least for the 90s,
07:01I mean, we had a lot of even video games and merchandise
07:03circulating around that time.
07:04And Aquaman always kind of appeared with the hook hand.
07:07But again, the head sculpt looks good.
07:09I think it's generally well painted.
07:10The only thing I'm not as crazy about
07:12is how bright they made the beard,
07:14the blonde in the beard.
07:15I think it's just way too yellow.
07:16Other than that though,
07:17I think that it's one of the better looking long haired Aquaman
07:20that we've gotten.
07:21With really, the only other example that we've gotten
07:23was also as well the page punchers.
07:25Which was again an okay head sculpt for Aquaman.
07:28Much more rosier in the cheeks there also.
07:31But I think it's of the bearded Aquaman
07:33and the longer haired Aquaman,
07:34this is the best one that we've gotten so far.
07:36The paint is generally handled well here.
07:38I mean, of course the shoulder part armor that he has here,
07:41it's kind of more of like a very dark black.
07:43It isn't even really black.
07:45It's almost got like a slight bit of brown to it.
07:48The gold also that they've done here for the belt areas
07:51matches pretty close in fact to his hook here.
07:54And again, that's been pretty generally well painted.
07:57There's a few little areas
07:58when you're looking at the green, for example.
08:00Now he's got these green stripes
08:01down the sides of his legs that only have,
08:03this is the only area that really has
08:04any sort of suggested idea of scales.
08:06That's painted fairly well here.
08:08Although just getting to the top area of the belt,
08:11there's a little bit where you can see
08:12it's bled onto the underneath.
08:14My guess is that they probably painted the belt first
08:16and then when they painted up the green,
08:18the green sort of has just unfortunately bled onto the gold.
08:21So it's a little bit of a paint problem.
08:23But I mean, if you're looking at it from the front,
08:25you would really never even notice it.
08:26Even if you were looking at it from the side,
08:27you probably wouldn't even spot it either
08:29unless I pointed it out to you.
08:30Again, you got the printed on scales.
08:32They look decently.
08:33You got the little fins there on the backs of his legs.
08:35The figure all in all looks really good.
08:37I think it's one of those characters
08:38that you're likely gonna be picking up
08:39like Energy Superman,
08:40even if you really have no plans at all
08:42to build Plastic Man,
08:43just because this might be your Aquaman
08:45that you grew up with.
08:46Again, whether it be the Justice League cartoon,
08:48whether it be the comics when he lost his hand in that.
08:50Either way though,
08:51it's one of the more notable things about Aquaman
08:53before he jumps ship literally
08:55over to being the classic look with the orange top
08:57and again, the green pants down below.
08:59Now for his articulation,
09:00it's gonna be a little bit more limited
09:02just because he's got the longer hair on the back,
09:04although not limited enough
09:05where even just to rotate the head around
09:07is not really where you're gonna have the struggle.
09:09You're probably gonna have more of a struggle
09:10if you try to tilt the head up.
09:12As you tilt this up,
09:13you can kind of almost even feel
09:14like the plastic on the back of his hair
09:16starts to separate from the back of his forehead.
09:18Would that be the back head?
09:19I guess because that's the forehead,
09:20that would be the back head.
09:21Either way, it looks like it does separate
09:23when you're trying to lift the head up.
09:24That's the only hindrance
09:25that the articulation gives you.
09:27The head look granted looks down a lot easier
09:29and of course,
09:30you can also move it back and forth as well.
09:31Aquaman's arms do rotate on both sides.
09:34You can bring those arms out at 90 degrees.
09:36No problems there.
09:37The figure does have a swivel in the bicep,
09:39a double hinge on the elbow.
09:41And I would normally have said hands,
09:43although in this case, he only has one hand.
09:45This hand rotates all the way around.
09:46It hinges also as well back and forth.
09:48This hook hand though does have rotation too.
09:51So if you didn't like it,
09:52I mean, like if for example,
09:53you wanted to have the hook facing the opposite way,
09:55you could do that.
09:56You could just turn this around.
09:57I mean, I probably would end up
09:58having the hook anyways up this way.
10:00So it's like the curved part
10:02is the part that's facing upwards,
10:03but you could rotate it if you want to.
10:05Upper torso is going to be on a ball joint.
10:07The lower abdomen area is also on a ball joint.
10:10Legs do split out.
10:11No problems there at all.
10:12You can take the legs, move them forward,
10:14move them back.
10:15There's a swivel at the top of the thigh,
10:16double hinge on the knee.
10:18And again, you've got your articulation
10:19where it counts in the ankle.
10:20So you can rock it back and forth this way.
10:22And the figure does have,
10:23always appreciate the fact
10:24they have toe articulation on them.
10:26All in all though,
10:27it's one of those figures where I really,
10:29even though we have gotten countless,
10:30I mean, what, five Aquaman?
10:31Five Aquaman.
10:32I think we've gotten a couple of other variations.
10:34I know, of course, in fact,
10:35we did get the page punchers,
10:36so I want to bring him in.
10:38I guess I really only have
10:39like the long-haired Aquaman,
10:40which is somewhat ironic.
10:41Again, we've got the endless winter Aquaman
10:43and the page punchers
10:44booked in on either side of him.
10:46I think really of the two,
10:47at least of the long-haired variety,
10:49the one that we get here with a hook hand
10:50is probably the best painted Aquaman.
10:52With that being said though,
10:53even though I think the face
10:54is the best of the three,
10:55I think things like the problems
10:57with the coloring of the yellow
10:58is a little jarring, I feel,
10:59when you're looking at the face for Aquaman.
11:01I think it's just way too yellow
11:02though on the beard, too bright.
11:04I think they need to, you know,
11:05just tone that down a bit,
11:06but the rest of the body looks good.
11:07And again, this is the only time,
11:09the only instance we've gotten ourselves
11:10a hook hand Aquaman,
11:12and it looks really good,
11:13I have to admit.
11:14I do think it's funny
11:15what exposure we get to certain characters
11:17depending on what age we are.
11:19Aquaman, I really knew very little of as a kid,
11:21only just the stuff on the surface.
11:22Any appearances like he would have
11:24in the Challenge of the Superfans.
11:25He was always like that hero
11:26that if there was ever a water mission,
11:27you would always really rely on Arthur Curry.
11:29He was the guy that was talking to fishes.
11:30He was the one that was riding around
11:31on giant seahorses.
11:33And of course, I had a superpower as Aquaman,
11:35but that was really about it.
11:36In fact, the real time I was hooked in
11:38by this character, no pun intended,
11:39was actually when I was really heavily
11:41into collecting comics in the 90s.
11:42By then, I had branched out
11:44from just simply collecting
11:45Batman and Superman comics,
11:47well into collecting
11:48Wonder Woman, Green Lantern,
11:49and Arthur Curry's Aquaman.
11:51And by that point,
11:52the character had already had his hook hand.
11:54In fact, I still have that issue
11:55where Aquaman loses his hand
11:57and eventually adopts the hook.
11:59By this point, too,
12:00merchandise really picked up.
12:02It seemed as well for DC characters,
12:04and that this version of Aquaman
12:06then would appear in the
12:07Total Justice action figure line
12:09and a subsequent video game as well,
12:11to which I really very vividly remember
12:13renting frequently at Blockbuster Video.
12:16Even though, again, it's a look that
12:18now looking back on it,
12:19people don't tend to remember as much.
12:20When you tend to say Aquaman,
12:22people think right away
12:23of the scaly orange shirt
12:24and the green tights.
12:25But at one point,
12:26Arthur Curry was a tough guy.
12:28He is still a tough guy,
12:30don't get me wrong.
12:31But at one point,
12:32they really wanted to sell this guy
12:33as not just the guy
12:34that would swim underwater
12:35and talk to fish,
12:36but this was a guy
12:37that you could really think
12:38was a potential threat.
12:39A hook in his hand,
12:40a guy ready to go
12:41with long hair and a big long beard,
12:43which I think from a figure standpoint
12:45translates really well
12:46with what we got here
12:47from McFarlane's release.
12:48Granted, with the hook hand,
12:49we're probably not going to get
12:50many other appearances
12:51of this particular character,
12:52but I think for what we get here
12:54in this release,
12:55it's well painted
12:56and it looks a lot like
12:57the Aquaman I remember
12:58from the 90s.
12:59The paint, generally,
13:00for the most part,
13:01is pretty handled well.
13:02I mean, the only thing
13:03I would still say is
13:04the coloring to the beard
13:05is maybe a little too bright
13:06of a yellow,
13:07but all in all though,
13:08from top to bottom,
13:09from hand to hook,
13:10it's one of the best Aquaman
13:11we've gotten.
13:12It just so happens to be
13:13an Aquaman from the 90s.
13:14What do you think of this figure?
13:15Let me know down below
13:16in the comments section.
13:17Is this also the time
13:18that you got introduced
13:19to Aquaman,
13:20whether it be through the comics,
13:21whether it be
13:22through the Justice League cartoon?
13:23Do you very vividly remember
13:25this version and this look
13:26of Aquaman?
13:27Let me know down below.
13:28If you guys, though,
13:29in the meantime,
13:30did enjoy this video,
13:31I want to throw it a like.
13:32If you guys love this content
13:33and want to certainly stick around
13:34because we are now down
13:35two characters
13:36from potentially a four.
13:37We are still going to be looking
13:38at the Jon Stewart
13:39and we're also going to be looking
13:40at the all-black Batman.
13:42And with those two figure reviews,
13:44of course, we're going to be
13:45continuing our build
13:46of Plastic Man
13:47and definitely looking forward
13:48to doing that.
13:49And of course, as always, guys,
13:50thanks for watching.
13:51See you guys next time.