McFarlane Toys Page Punchers Gold Label Edition Black and White Black Manta Figure
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00:00David Hyde had colors. Here's a look at McFarland Toys DC Directs the Gold
00:05Label Collection Black and White Black Manta.
00:10Considered one of Aquaman's greatest enemies, Black Manta has a singular hatred for the
00:34King of Atlantis. Black Manta has always inflicted a special kind of pain upon his archenemy,
00:39cementing his reputation as one of the most ruthless and driven supervillains in the DC
00:44universe.
00:45Well, at least he can still keep his name.
00:47Just before we get a closer look at the McFarland Toys Page Punchers Black and White version
00:50of Black Manta, the tape measure is going to tell us first that the figure is going
00:54to stand about seven and a quarter inches in height, or this variation of Black Manta
00:58is 18 centimeters tall.
01:00So the story behind this figure and where I found him from. Originally, he was part
01:04of the Aquaman Page Punchers wave. This was the regular version, by the way, but I always
01:08had my radar always had my radar set on the getting the black and white, but the prices
01:16for what he was going online, I didn't want to pay that.
01:18I just happened to go to my local comic book store a couple of weeks ago and they were
01:22clearing out through things that I didn't even think they had in the first place.
01:25Of the things that they had, the one that caught my interest the most was the black
01:28and white version of Black Manta.
01:30I don't know if you know me enough, certainly watching my exploits here on this channel,
01:33that I'm a big sucker for Black Manta.
01:36In fact, he makes my top five favorite supervillains.
01:39Finally having this guy, in fact, the price that he was going for that they were selling
01:42was probably about $15, $15.
01:47Again he was though part of the Black Manta or the Aquaman wave of Page Puncher figures.
01:50Here's the original Aquaman.
01:52Not a great to be all honest, not a great Aquaman.
01:54I mean he was fine for the face, the lower legs and that actually was pretty good.
01:58I wasn't really happy with the way they scaled the top of his torso.
02:02That same though wave gave us a superior looking Ocean Master and also gave us a pretty good
02:06looking Aqualand.
02:09Also my collection of Black Manta figures doesn't just obviously encapsulate the ones
02:14we're getting from Page Punchers.
02:16There was also an equally cool, probably I would even say cooler version of Black Manta
02:20that was part of the Aquaman movie wave.
02:22Have that one as part of my collection as well.
02:25So admittingly looking at this figure a tad bit later, we'll look at the accessories first
02:29that come in clue with Black Manta.
02:31First the figure comes in clue with a comic.
02:33The original comics obviously would have been done all in color.
02:35The one that we're getting here though with the black and white version of Black Manta
02:38is all done with all the colors removed.
02:40There's Black Manta right there.
02:41It's a little harder to make things out because there's no real colors to separate one character
02:45from the other.
02:46Ocean Master's over here.
02:47We've got Aqualad down here and in front and center we've got Aquaman.
02:51Nice front cover and of course if we flip through the comic pages, I'm not going to
02:54flip through and read this to you guys.
02:56If you have this comic, I'm sure you already read it for yourself.
02:59Nice artwork on the inside.
03:00I just wish that Aquaman would have lived a little bit more up to what we actually get
03:04inside the comic.
03:05He looks good in the comic.
03:06I just didn't think he looked as good as the figure.
03:08And there's my boy right there.
03:09There's Black Manta.
03:10Just a cool looking figure.
03:12Cool design of the character as well.
03:15Of the other accessories that come included with him, he also comes included with his
03:18trading card.
03:19I wanted though to bring in the trading card that came as part of the regular release so
03:22you guys can see the differences.
03:24The style and the drawing is exactly the same.
03:27What's different though is obviously this one has color.
03:29This one does not.
03:30But both though have Black Manta down below.
03:32If you were to flip around it, you'll notice that the changes are also staying the same
03:35when it comes at least to his read up.
03:37You can see that it has Black Manta.
03:39His real name is David Hyde.
03:40And then there's a fairly small to read paragraph.
03:43You can either pause and read either one of these for yourself.
03:45Although I think if you're going to read one, you might as well just read one and skip the
03:48other because it's the exact same read up.
03:50Moving those cards out of the way, the figure also comes included with a display stand.
03:54Nothing different about the display stand.
03:57Sometimes we do get ourselves the McFarlane treatment where they brandish this in white.
04:03That would be nice considering that of course we get a half and half black and white treatment
04:06here for Black Manta.
04:07Adding that also to the display stand would have gone a long way, but again, we get ourselves
04:10a display stand.
04:11No complaints there.
04:12The figure also gets himself his trident and the trident is cast in pretty much the same
04:17black plastic.
04:18The only thing that's different though is that the original trident would have had silver
04:21done for the blades on the top.
04:22This one now does the blades.
04:25Just kidding.
04:26The blades now are done here in white, but other than that, it's the exact same mold.
04:29The figure also holds it in the exact same way.
04:31The thing though about it is like the original Black Manta, he only has one gripping hand
04:35on this side here.
04:37This side actually does have a closed fist.
04:39I suppose you could consider these as one other accessory.
04:42The figure also has these blades on his gauntlets.
04:44Now I will tell you, I don't like the blades myself.
04:47If you like the blades on Black Manta, that's fine and good.
04:50In fact, they actually kind of look really good here on the black and white release.
04:53For the version, the colored version of Black Manta, why is he standing like this?
04:56I'll change that in a second.
04:58For this version of Black Manta, actually a lot of times, this one's already fallen
05:00off.
05:01I usually remove the blades.
05:02The blades are very easy.
05:04You just detach them like that.
05:05There's a peg.
05:06You see that?
05:07There's a peg right there and that basically fits inside the hole.
05:09If you leave it off, it doesn't necessarily make it look like it's left behind something,
05:14like the figure's missing an accessory.
05:15In fact, the way I've got it displayed on my shelf, I usually have it like Black Manta's
05:19shooting something from his arms.
05:21You can kind of double it up for what he's actually doing with his arms.
05:24It doesn't always have to necessarily be blades.
05:26The blades are fine and good if you want to maybe have one blade attached to his arm and
05:29then the other blade looking like he's doing a pew, pew, pew.
05:31He's actually shooting from the gauntlet, firing lasers.
05:34I think it's a really nice way of displaying the figure.
05:36In that same vein, you can also do that as well with this version of Black Manta.
05:40You basically just go and reach from the side and you just pull these out.
05:43Again, you've got a tiny little peg and you do the same thing on the other side.
05:48When you do these enough times though, and I've done this enough times, you notice after
05:52a while that they don't really stay properly in place.
05:54It's probably just the fact that once you break the seal, so to speak, they never really
05:57stay properly.
05:58Although this one's actually fitting a little bit better than the original Black Manta that
06:01I had, but basically these just detach.
06:04Like though with Manta, you actually get a little bit of black that's shadowed on the
06:07bottom of it.
06:08The rest of actually the blade is just all left in white.
06:11We'll just leave those off to the side for right now at least.
06:14Of course, from the head sculpt standpoint, everything really from the head down to the
06:18feet are exactly the same casting as the original Black Manta.
06:21Just to bring in the original one so you guys can see the hoses, the backpack and everything
06:26in between.
06:27I guess everything in between would just be the front of his torso, but everything though
06:30from the top to the bottom is exactly the same.
06:33The thing though, I think is that while I do like the black and white treatment of it,
06:37I feel like it loses some of the personality of the original mold.
06:41I'm not sure though, like looking at it, maybe it is a case that Black Manta is known for
06:45having these really large optical eyes on the front of his helmet.
06:49By losing some of that and only replacing it in white, it looks then a lot less like
06:54Black Manta and it kind of looks a little bit more like an owl.
06:58Now taking of course this core idea of using this mold again, I'm not sure if they ever
07:02entertained the idea of actually doing this mold released again, but I think it would
07:06be pretty cool if they could release it in a blue color scheme.
07:10Not that this one was originally blue, but if you go to look at the card again, let me
07:13just grab the card.
07:15See on the card there's, well it's not really so much blue as it is gray, but if they took
07:19the core idea of taking this mold and maybe taking even like the white aspects of it and
07:24flipping it instead to change it to blue, I think a really nice interesting aspect of
07:28this would be like a blue.
07:30Sometimes they've done this as well with other McFarland toys, DC multiverse figures where
07:33they make it kind of black and white and then they take like an accent color.
07:36I think an accent color on Black Manta would be then of course the red eyes and then maybe
07:40swap the white out in favor of maybe a blue instead.
07:43I think for what it is, it looks good though and I'm not disappointed at all I got the
07:46chance to finally pick this guy up.
07:48Of course with the light kind of, I guess it would be hitting on this one side here.
07:53Everything the light is basically touching is all the parts that are in white.
07:56Everything that's in black though is basically just where the light's bouncing off.
07:58So you still have some remnants of light reflecting off his armor in here and here.
08:03Got some on the shoulders, got some on the gauntlet, but mostly the majority of his body
08:06all is on black on one side and the white then on the other.
08:10He still manages though to have the white in his eyes.
08:12I guess that's one thing they didn't want to change.
08:14I suppose though if I want to be a stickler for details, if the light's hitting it this
08:18way then he really should only have a little bit of white on this side of his eye.
08:22But I think it works much better obviously if you're just playing this guy on the show.
08:25You wouldn't want to have a black eye manta on one side and then a white eye on the other.
08:29I think I'm willing to excuse the idea that obviously even though that light's hitting
08:33in only certain areas, I'm happy though that they've actually made the eyes completely
08:37white instead of like one white, one black.
08:40The molding though, it's kind of lost on the back of the figure's body.
08:43With now removing everything, it basically made the figure so charming in the first place.
08:48Like his thrusters that he has on the back of his body, the little parts that attach
08:51the hose to the back of his helmet, all would have been initially done in silver, unfortunately
08:56all left behind in black.
08:57So even though the mold's really still there, it doesn't give any idea, any suggestion of
09:02exactly what exactly he has on the back of his body.
09:05So even though the hoses are there, the little thrusters that he has are there, even though
09:08we already know the way this attaches onto the back of his helmet, it just feels like
09:11it's lacking something by not painting something on there.
09:15But again, like if you're looking at it from what it's supposed to be, you're only really
09:18going to be getting the light from the front.
09:19It makes then logical sense that the whole back of the figure's body is going to be completely
09:22all in black.
09:23He has though a few markings on the sides of his legs, he's got it on this side here
09:27a lot more.
09:28So there are still areas where the light still gets a chance to kind of bounce off and show
09:31some of the details on the figure.
09:33The figure looks really good and the figure looked really good the first time I picked
09:36them up.
09:37But maybe looking at it though now with only the black and white, I feel it does lose honestly
09:42a little bit of the details that made the figure so charming in the first place.
09:46With that being said though, the detailing certainly from the head sculpt standpoint,
09:49we'll get a closer look at that before we jump over to the articulation on the figure.
09:53It's a nice modern take to Aquaman's biggest baddie, obviously Black Manta.
09:58Even though he really isn't part of the same universe, I bring in the movie Black Manta,
10:01still one of my favorite Black Mantas, look at that.
10:03I don't know why they haven't yet used this one or even for that matter why they haven't
10:07done a classic Black Manta.
10:09I would love to get another version of this guy.
10:10I mean anytime that McFarlane could release another Manta, yes, where do I pay?
10:16I would basically be picking one up in a heartbeat.
10:19Love the details that he's got on the front of his chest there, again you've got some
10:21abdomen muscles there sculpted nicely.
10:24The majority of his armor, even though really it's all in black, you can really see though,
10:28hopefully with the light doing justice to it, how they've textured all the surfaces
10:31to the plastic.
10:33So really even though it lets it down a little bit in the paint end of things, there's still
10:36a lot of sculpt to take in for the figure.
10:39Now for the figure's articulation, if you already had the original Black Manta, this
10:41one's really no different.
10:42The head's going to be on a bulge, right, so it rotates.
10:44I would normally have set all the way around.
10:46I wouldn't want to rotate this all the way around because obviously you've got a hose
10:49here and a hose that attach to the top here.
10:51Pulling this and rotating this all the way around is only going to ultimately rip these
10:54off and you don't want that to happen.
10:57Not only is it going to affect his breathing underwater, but it's also going to affect
10:59your feelings of the figure, knowing that you were responsible.
11:02You were the one that broke the hoses in the first place and you'll be like crying in
11:07the corner.
11:08Head looks down.
11:09The head looks up.
11:10I kind of like the idea of having the head a little bit lower down, kind of giving this
11:13ominous look.
11:15But the head again can also rock back and forth as well.
11:17There is no neck articulation.
11:19The neck, by the way, though, it does look like it's a little bit lighter of a black
11:22than the rest of his body.
11:23There are a few little areas.
11:24In fact, I look at the figure and I see like there's some lighter patches, but it's mostly
11:28more in the neck that I notice it than anything else.
11:30I don't know if they've actually maybe started this as a white neck, but it doesn't really
11:34make much sense to me.
11:35Would it be not easier just to cast this all in black and just only make the few little
11:38markings there in white?
11:40Notably, though, it is a lot whiter, though, than the rest of his body.
11:43For the arms, the arms do come out.
11:4490 degrees may be the harder thing to pull off just because you've got these shoulders
11:48on the tops here.
11:49You would be able to pull off a little less than 90 degrees.
11:51The arms do rotate all the way around, rotate all the way around.
11:55The figure does have a bicep swivel, a double hinge on the elbow, like with the original
11:59one, and the hands rotate all the way around.
12:01The upper torso is going to be on a ball joint, a very, very good ball joint.
12:05And the lower abdomen area also does the same.
12:08The legs do split out.
12:09You can take the legs and move forward, move them back, and of course, rotate at the top
12:13of the thigh.
12:14The figure does have a double hinge on the knee, articulation, of course, where it is
12:18where it counts in the ankle.
12:19You can rock it back and forth as well.
12:21And the figure does also have the much appreciated, always welcomed toe articulation as well.
12:26All in all, though, am I disappointed in getting this figure?
12:28Not at all.
12:29I feel like I would be disappointed if I got this figure for the prices of what I was seeing
12:32this guy going for online.
12:34I think since then, it always seems to be the case.
12:36It's like buying a brand new car.
12:38You buy that car and then all of a sudden you're starting to see all the same cars driving
12:41down the street.
12:42I feel like the same thing has happened with Black Manta, not that he's driving a car,
12:45but the moment that I bought this one, then I looked online and it seemed like all the
12:48prices started to drop.
12:49I guess maybe just the people that were selling were realizing that this guy was interested
12:53in getting this guy here, and they kept the prices really high.
12:56Though getting this figure and then, of course, displaying him with the original colorized
13:00version, if given the choice, I would still be choosing the colorized version.
13:03I think the regular release is not a superior looking figure, but it brings more to the
13:08charm, I think, to the mold that loses some of it when you get to the black and white.
13:12The black and white give us still a really nice ominous look to Black Manta, and that's
13:16one of the things that kind of lured me into liking Black Manta in the first place.
13:18It's always just the notion of a big bad guy has a big giant helmet with these large red
13:23eyes on the front.
13:24By not having the red eyes on the front, it does lose a little of the appeal of Black
13:27Manta, but at all, no, not at all, I'm not disappointed that I picked this figure up
13:31in the first place, even though this version of Black Manta has been on my radar for a
13:34while.
13:35Bling, bling, bling, stop that.
13:38I was in any hurry, though, to grab him.
13:40I figured it would be one of those cases where somebody was just selling one.
13:43I happened to find a cheap one online, even though I wasn't finding anyone's online cheap.
13:47I happened, though, Lady Luck was smiling down on me, she says, you know, you've had
13:50a bad day.
13:51Here, here's a black and white Black Manta.
13:54Everyone is striving for better things in life.
13:56I just apparently wanted a black and white Black Manta, I just happened to go to my local
13:58comic book store.
13:59I've been there regularly enough, and they just happened to have a table, just happened
14:03to have a table of all the things they were clearancing off, and of all the things that
14:06they had, a marked down black and white Black Manta, exactly the thing this guy was looking
14:11for.
14:12$15, I think, was what it was all said and done.
14:14Well, obviously, tax was tacked on top of that, but that's a lot better than what I
14:18was seeing this guy going for online, $50, $60.
14:22You know, it's, again, ironic, the fact that after I picked this guy up, I looked
14:26again online, you never really want to do that.
14:29If you walk away with a deal, leave it at that, don't ever then start looking online
14:33and seeing if there are better deals out there, because sure enough, the prices of this guy
14:36started to drop a little bit.
14:38What I'm happy, though, is that I finally have this figure on display.
14:41The black and white does do wonders for the mold, although the one thing that kind of
14:45made the character charming in the first place, Black Manta is always known for what?
14:48Two things, a big ominous helmet and big ruby red eyes.
14:51He still has the ominous helmet, but he's lacking some of the red now in his eyes.
14:56Everything is now done here in a half and half black and white treatment.
14:59It still makes the figure look good, but I'm missing some of the aspects of the red.
15:04I still have the original figure, so no harm, no foul.
15:07The figure still looks good, but obviously, even though the mold is so good on the figure's
15:11body, it does lose a little bit of something when you're seeing it from the back.
15:14When displaying this guy, not likely going to be displaying, well, I don't know, I might
15:18display him with all my other Black Mantas.
15:20The way I have it set up right now is that the modern Black Manta, I've got displayed
15:24with all my DC villains, all the villains right now.
15:27The movie version of Black Manta, I've got displayed with my movie collection, so I don't
15:30know really whereabouts I'm going to be putting this guy, whether I want to put him still
15:33with a regular page punchers, or if I want to display him with the movie page or the
15:38movie version of Black Manta, or this guy might just stand on his own.
15:41The neat thing that's always been the case with this figure is that you can also remove
15:44the gauntlet blades.
15:45You don't like them, you don't need to have them.
15:47You can remove them, they're just easily detachable from the forearms.
15:50So right now I've got the figure displayed with his trident in one hand, the arm blade
15:53on the other.
15:54And he might just stay this way.
15:55It's a pretty cool looking pose.
15:57I mean, one of the benefits of these McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse figures is that they are
16:00pretty poseable.
16:01So if you have a pretty cool looking figure, check.
16:04You have a pretty poseable figure, check.
16:06You can get this guy in some really cool, neat looking poses, like I've got him displayed
16:09right now.
16:10In the end, I'm glad I found this guy.
16:12In the end though, I'm glad I found this guy at $15.
16:15He's going to go well with the rest of my, not even just the DC Multiverse, I got actually
16:18a whole bunch of DC Direct and well, one of these days I really should show you guys
16:22my Black Manta collection.
16:23What do you guys think of this figure?
16:25Let me know down below in the comment section.
16:26Do you like the idea that the colors were all stripped away in favor of black and white?
16:29Do you like the regular version though a little bit more?
16:32What other characters, or I guess what a better question to ask, what better, what other DC
16:36Multiverse figures have McFarlane released that would work really well with a black and
16:40white treatment?
16:41Let me know down below.
16:43If in the meantime you guys did enjoy this video, I want to throw it a like.
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16:58As always guys, thanks for watching.
17:00See you guys next time.