Justice Wave 5: Thumbs Almost Up.....

Justice Wave 5 deserves more praise than it seems to be receiving. Perhaps it's just been overshadowed by all the Toyfair Buzz, but it's probably also one of those funny realities of we fickle collectors - we tend to broadcast our unhappiness much more than our pleasure.

I was a bit iffy about these figures from the solicits - the paint apps looked way to shiny for a start. In person however they work fine, although Red Tornado and Green Arrow have more of a sheen than figures from previous waves. The three heroes fit in brilliantly with the heroes from previous waves, so no additional scale angst is being added into the collection.

The Great: I love the scale of Martian Manhunter. He's taller than the rest as he should be but not a mountain like the McG J'onn. The translucent MM (got him but no pic sorry) is also quite impressive.

Koko the monkey attaches to Brainiac via a magnet but it's a way better job than Dr Midnite II and Charley the Owl from JSA. Very secure.

Despite disliking it from the solicit pics, GA's headsculpt is awesome. In general I usually prefer the whited out eyes but this works for me. He's an excellent figure.

The Jury's Out On: Green Arrow's snap-on arrow backpack. A nice idea but it's almost a bit big, I think. I like Brainiac's brain prop but the scalpel is very small and stays in Brainiac's hand about as well as Zatanna's magic wand stays in hers - not at all.

The truly awful: Luthor, Luthor, Luthor. Essentially a Luthor head on top of a purple see-through body with sparkles with macaroni glued on it at equal intervals. Mort of the Month? Try the Millennium.

The botch: It wouldn't be DCD without some almost-fatal flaw. I was pleased when I got these to see that there was only one twist tie - the waist restraint - making it easier to unpackage, however the legs, especially Brainiac and Luthor, seemed to be a bit warped on opening and they've both done a number of shelf-dives in the last couple of days (resulting in the loss of Brainiac's scalpel which the cleaners will probably suck up before I locate...). The three heroes have the ever-useful 360 degree calf and foot rotation feature but they're quite loose making posing a little bit challenging.

To sum up: I can't decide if GA or Brainiac is my favourite of the bunch. Yes, Ross' need to redesign all the villians is an irritation and yes, it's a travesty that we don't have a SA Brainiac yet, but objectively it's a really, really nice piece.

The glitches are annoying and typical of DCD QC but not deal-breaking in this instance. These are better than JUSTICE Wave 4 by a country mile and deserve some praise - so here it is.

Now I'm off to find a generic businessman AF in 6" ish scale with a black suit to stick my Lex Luthor head on..........