Some folks tend to avoid the internet on the weekends. If you’re one of them and you collect DC Classics, you might have missed a few important news items. On Thursday, we relayed Matty’s message about DCUC9 shortages and then watched as the prices on eBay climbed accordingly. We’re in between on how difficult this wave will be to find. Vault stumbled onto a case at his TRU on Wednesday and found the first half of his Chemo set. That filled the rest of with hope that this wave won’t be a repeat of DCUC5 which none of us ever saw at retail, but we won’t know for sure until the sightings dry up.
Matty also updated the schedule for MattyCollector.Com. A few things moved, but for DC Classics the main change is the delay of the Color of Fear 2pk. We were looking forward to that 2pk for October, but it’s been moved back a month. This also means Nov & Dec will be back-to-back 2pk months. We’re disappointed by the delay, but it may be a good thing…
Overshadowing the bad news about DCUC9, was the first retail sighting (& subsequent eBay sightings) of DCUC10. Yep, you read that right. DCUC10. Many DC Collectors are still on the hunt to finish up DCUC8 (released in July) and DCUC9 (released in August), but in the next couple weeks, we need to be adding DCUC10 to our need list. What’s more, the Superman/Batman: Public Enemies DVD drops in a week and we can’t imagine those figures will be too far behind. If you remember, preview samples of the PE wave were sent out at the same time as wave ten. That would seem to imply they’d be scheduled to hit about the same time. And, if that’s not enough for you, AFI will have preview samples of DCUC11this week. Remember when we saw DCUC12 photos and that wave seemed forever away? That was just last week.
It’s a crazy time to be a DCUC fan and many of us probably have empty wallets, angry wives, and more shelving in our future. That is, if we’re lucky.
While we’re on the subject of DC Classics, Noisy has one mini-review leftover from SDCC and it’s on a certain blue monkey, so we’re going to tack it on here.
This will be a small review for a small figure, but I wanted to talk about how lucky I am to own a Gleek at all.
I had two friends going to SDCC who were trying to hook me up with the Mattel swag, but neither of them were able to get Gleek or the Wonder Twins. I turned to eBay and found a reputable seller with a great rating and a reasonable BIN of the 2pk w/ Gleek. I grabbed it before the con was over, but when it arrived, there was no Gleek (and Paypal dismissed my claim, meaning no refund either). By the time that was all decided, the eBay prices had gotten really high and I was convinced I’d have to go without on this particular exclusive.
Even though I never win anything, I followed ActionFigurePics on Facebook to enter AFP’s Gleek contest. The random number generator picked me out of the seven hundred some odd people that signed up. I was floored. I’ve thanked some of the guys involved personally, but I want to give a public shoutout to Ron of AFP, the guys at Fwoosh, and ToyGuru for making that giveaway possible. I wouldn’t have this figure without them. Thanks again.
Now, on to the mini-review…
I really like this figure. The Four Horsemen nailed Gleek’s cartoon look, but gave him enough detail to be realistic – for a blue monkey, anyway. The paintwork is done well too. The symbol is crisp and even the tiny light purple areas are painted clean. It’s very well done for what would normally be just a pack-in figure. And Gleek is compatible with rest of the set. The eagle can clip on his arm, his left hand is sculpted to hold the bucket, and an open-handed DCUC figure can grab him by the tail. The fact that he can do more than just sit on the shelf really helps his play value. Mostly, I’ve been passing him around to the few open-handed DC Classics figures.
My only issue with Gleek is his articulation. He’s sports a cut neck and cut shoulders, but the articulation is embedded so it looks like it should have more movement than it does. The legs are separate pieces, but they don’t really turn on mine and, well, I’m not going to force anything on his figure. I don’t think Gleek needed to be super-articulated, but I would have liked to see ball shoulders and his tail be able to spin. Other than that, though, Gleek is well done.
Overall, if you’re lucky enough to snag one, you should be happy with it. The figure is a great rendition of Gleek. I can’t say it’s anywhere near worth the current secondary prices, but if you want one, you want one.
Mattel makes me feel as frustrated as pantsless Brainiac, that’s for damn sure.
When Zodak went up on Matty and there were a few site problems, the net went crazy for ten minutes. Then it slowed down, everything was fine, and everyone was a little unsure.
I think it might be like that with Wave 9, but I could be wrong.
Seriously, where are his pants!? He’s like NanaNaNaNOPANTS!naNanaNananaHahaha!Nanana
They have a thing for no pants, I’m tellin’ ya.
LOL
Let’s face it. Being a DCUC collector sucks.
I’ve waited decades for this toy line and I’m going to have to let it go because of stuff like this. 🙁
It’s not doom and gloom just yet, the prices will settle down on eBay (until it really is rare, and then they’ll shoot back up). If you time it right, you can grab everything.
And it still might show up locally.
Unless I’m willing to cough up ebay prices looks like I’ll completely miss wave 9 which thereby kills a lot of my excitement about DCUC. Well done, Mattel.
It would suck to happen to anyway, but to happen to a wave with Arrom, Canary, Black Adam, etc – sucks!
Oooo I wanted a Gleek so bad!!! Too much for me though.
I was lucky. I couldn’t pay that much for something so small.
I didn’t see one damn new DCUC on the pegs from March to August. Now, in the last few weeks three waves have hit???
Meanwhile, Mattel was happily chugging out rehash cases. It is only Mattels fault about 9. All the materials put into the cases clogging up the pegs at wallyword and target?? They were filling orders with those instead of wave nine! Yep, just like the make more Fire/Ice JLU debacle they kept producing old linekilling pegwarmers instead of new stuff.
Mattel you stole the BAF concept from TB. It works!! Stop effing it up with cases that don’t have whole BAFs in them.
I tend to agree. I think the Best of Cases are a big mistake. I like the rest of what they’re doing, but I hate those.
It’s too much DCUC at once. I mean, right now I havent found anything, but to be looking for two waves at once? Man, I can’t afford that.
agreed.
At least the two packs are moved back until after the retail waves! But I doubt that was on purpose.
It’s not that bad. It just depends on what you’ve found so far. I have wave nine already, so wave ten hitting is a lot less of a big deal.
That’s very true.
I think I’m out. In wave nine is like five and ten is on top of it. On the bright side, the money I get in return should be good.
I think about the second hand value a lot lately.
They can keep it coming, s’far as I’m concerned. As long as I can find them all, it’s better than the drought that came before.
Feast or famine.
I got lucky with gleek, as one of my friends who went to comic con is incredibly connected and he was able to ensure that I got one for base price… I still think it was a crappy thing to do.
I don’t know what I’m going to do about the rest of wave 9 or any of 10… hopefully after that BBTS will be as reliable as they usually are… *sigh* if they were any less cool and a dream come true as they are, I’dve dropped the line at wave 5…
BBTS got me 8 back in April. That was awesome.
I’ve only been able to get one complete wave since wave 2. It’s like collecting Toy Biz’s Marvel Legends all over again. The distribution sux.
I think people forget that ML was very spotty and had these ups and downs as well.
Well, he’s ugly. I mean, he’s not Elephant Man ugly, but he’s not attractive. Was his father ugly?