Mezco Wonder Woman Review

For some reason, this Mezco Wonder Woman piece took forever to write. I was looking at the pictures yesterday, and I started taking them in July. I think I received her in the mail well before that. I guess I’m burned out with a lot of things.

Normally when I get in this funk, I abandon whatever project I am working on until something brings me back. I try to let that happen organically. However, with as few options as we have for Wonder Woman figures, especially 1:12, I decided I needed to do this.

For all of us.

Because I’m a giver. Like a friendly truck stop lady with “bills to pay.”

You can’t toss a stick at a stocked (lol… “stocked… remember when stores did that, collectors?) toy aisle without hitting a Superman or Batman figure. I bet several of you have a lot of space dedicated to quality Batman or Superman figures.

I would take the money I win from that bet, and bet you that you probably don’t have nearly the same space dedicated to Wonder Woman.

Boom.

Now I’m a millionaire. This is where this god-forsaken website finally pays off.

It’s all coming together for ol’ JC.

Until that happens though…

I don’t believe your lack of quality Wonder Woman figures is because you dislike Diana. On the contrary, there’s a reason she’s the third branch of the DC Trinity. She’s beloved by far more than not.

Why don’t we have more figures? GOOD figures? I don’t know. I can’t say it’s sexism. I’m not looking up any hard numbers, because you’re not the boss of me, but I wonder how much revenue she brings in to Warner’s total (across all mediums and products) vs Superman and Batman?

My guess is in terms of DC related sales, Warner Brothers has three categories: Batman, Superman, and Everyone Else.

Or maybe Kenner didn’t sell a lot of Wonder Woman Super Powers figures and toymakers have held a grudge ever since? I don’t have that data. I had the figures, but not the data.

In my defense, I think I was 10, so my head wasn’t really in that place at the time.

TIME FOR A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE!!

1986/1987 was a formative time in my comic collecting journey. I am sure there were guys annoyed with the initial Crisis reboot the same way I’m annoyed with the current DC shenanigans.

DC doesn’t care now, and they didn’t care then.

But I’m saying that’s good. I can’t honestly say that if the status quo had remained, I would have stayed as invested as I was/am.

Why?

I was born in ’73. There were great comic stories during that time, but for the most part, the comics that made it to the spinner racks I was allowed to get were not those stories. At least not entire runs.

More succinctly, I found all of the “true identities” in DC to be almost interchangeable. Watch the old Super Friends, Super Powers cartoons and tell me I’m wrong. That was the public conception of the characters, and mine as well.

Sure, I was a child, but besides a few differences (Bruce Wayne liked the ladies, Clark Kent was a bumbling goof), they were all “good” guys. In my head, I could have dropped Barry Allen into Hal Jordan’s life with no real issues.

Again, I was a child.

Where am I going?

Crisis changed that. All of a sudden, in my 13 year old head, I was on the ground floor of something HUGE. Sure, I could read golden/silver age stories if I wanted, but now that didn’t matter. Because this was the start of everything. To prove that, DC followed up Crisis (after a quick few issues to allow Silver Age Kal to mourn Kara) with a reboot of the Trinity. Superman, Batman, and yes, Wonder Woman, all got the ground zero treatment.

It’s impossible for me to put into words what those stories meant to me, how they shaped my perception of storytelling, and my need to now know all the minutia. All I can say is that I hope one day maybe my kids will accidentally read this, and get interested in what helped shape their old man.

Mind you, I’d be a liar if I said I wasn’t already a mega fan of George Perez. If I had my way, everyone would own a piece of his art in their homes. Not that I wasn’t already going to purchase the Wonder Woman series anyway, but owning something one of my comic heroes was going to draw AND write?

Yes, please.

This brings me full circle… my lack of Wonder Woman figures.

Is the Mezco Wonder Woman figure worthy of the Goddess of Truth? Let’s find out.

What’s in the Mezco Wonder Woman box?

Wonder Woman (in my head, that sounded JUST like the Linda Carter theme song)! The Mezco Wonder Woman figure comes with way more than I had any right to expect (had I not looked at the solicits, of course). My ideal Wonder Woman figure (said the 47-year-old man) would have a nice head sculpt, some fists, some neutral hands, lasso holding hands, and of course, the Lasso of Truth.

Homina homina homina did we get more than that.

Also worth noting, even I am not old enough to have “homina homina homina” in my vernacular, but besides my baby brother, there were no kids where we grew up. Consequently, I only spoke to adults.

So there!

What did we get?

There are two excellent head sculpts. A neutral expression:

Then an angry sculpt.

There are four sets of hands!

Open hands.

Fists.

Holding hands

Slightly bigger holding hands…?

There’s a lasso to put on her hip.

And a noodle to slap folks with!

They gave us a shield…

And a spear…

An excellent sword.

A badass battle-ax.

3 magnetic bullet ricochets.

Shoulder armor.

Neck armor.

A cape!

Last, and definitely least, are the standard Mezco display base and stand, that I neglected, despite taking two months, to photograph. Fortunately, I did take a lot of other pictures for you. Here are a few!

What doesn’t work with the Mezco Wonder Woman figure?

If your plan is to have Diana look up in your display, you may be out of luck. Because of her hair sculpt, she can’t really move her head back. I’m not sure how they could have prevented that though. I’ve seen hinged hair before and… not a fan.

My figure managed to get her skirt wrinkled in a very unflattering way. I laid it flat for a while, but that didn’t seem to help a lot. I was afraid to get it wet. I’m not sure how the fabric or the stripes and stars would react.

The bullet ricochet is cool and all, if not a direct replica of what arrived with the Mezco Superman figure. I found it challenging to get them to where I wanted them due to the magnets repelling each other in some instances. I have to admit though, when they aren’t the focal point of the picture, they looked pretty cool.

Speaking of the bullet ricochet, I was very concerned while trying to use the forearm twist. The pegs that insert into her bicep look to be about the same thickness as the pegs on the Mafex Iron Spider figure. The ones I managed to twist right the ^%$# off ten minutes out of the package and then spent some effort getting a refund from what was an entire release issue.

What you see in the picture is as far as I was comfortable spinning it. If you’ve had better luck because you just went for it, let me know. My hats off to you. My concern was I’d be left with an amputee Wonder Woman and no way to get a replacement.

I consider her bracelets crossed to be a very iconic image. Displaying her like that would be cool.

Seriously, no double-jointed elbows? Seriously? I mean… seriously? No double-jointed knees? Please… stahp.

Her articulation was lacking overall, I found. Ankle pivot is almost non-existent. I’ve already mentioned the neck/head situation as well as the elbows and knees. Toy manufacturers need to figure out a better recipe for women.

I’m on the fence about the posable “lasso” because it’s not a lasso. I’ve seen Diana use it to wrap around an arm or a leg, or what have you, but what’s up with the spiked ends?

I was also not a fan of how my lasso buckle wouldn’t stay “latched.” It was a little like hanging out with a toddler that keeps trying to take off their diaper.

What works with the Mezco Wonder Woman figure?

Right out of the box, I feel like the Mezco Wonder Woman has two great headsculpts. They seem to capture her classic beauty with just the right amount of aggressiveness in one, and a softness in the other.

Her armor and weapon detail is amazing.

The outfit itself looks to do a pretty decent job of representing Diana in her post Rebirth look. A look I really enjoyed. It seemed to nod heavily to her classic look while adding much more modern sensibilities.

With the armor, the multitude of weapons, and the cape, you really get three different looks out of one figure. I think that’s pretty fantastic, but maybe I’m weird?

Maybe?

Probably.

Should you purchase the Mezco Wonder Woman figure?

Sure, Wonder Woman is one of the three characters the Todd Father is committed to making, but those are 1:10.

If you want a really good 1:12 Wonder Woman, the one Wonder Woman to rule them all, you really only have two choices. The Mezco Wonder Woman are both of them.

If you like the classic, bikini bottom look with a blue cape, you can have it.

I just wasn’t a fan of how the cloth bottoms looked on her. I’ve never cared for the tiara on the outside of her hair. Ultimately, I found the skirted Rebirth version to have more places in my display than I would a more classic Earth 2 figure (tiara wise)

No disrespect to those that picked her up.

In case you’re oblivious to where I am going with this, my answer is, a resounding yes. You should purchase her.

I know I probably say this a lot, and then two years later regret saying it, but I am hard-pressed to imagine us getting a better comic book Wonder Woman figure in this scale.

She can still be found here:

I honestly found her to be a joy to play with and photograph. I’m glad I didn’t toss this project aside. I hope you all enjoy these pictures. I also hope I wake up tomorrow super-rich and petty.