They say presentation is everything. I don’t know that I always agree with that old trope, but I think it applies to this version of Doomsday. This guy got a raw deal. After something like seven years of having a shrimpy Doomsday, the possibility was raised that we’d finally get a big brute of a figure in the Classics line. But when we finally saw that sweet, upscaled replacement, this dude was standing next to him; a perfectly good idea for a figure that looked amazing, but was being used as a straw man in what we all knew was a lost cause. It sucked nearly all the joy out of what was a pretty cool fig. Heck, it sucked most of the joy out of collecting DC figures in general.
What really got to me, was not the unnecessary mud slung at this figure for not being his unleashed brother, but that the going on behind the scenes, whatever they were – I’m not obsessed with speculating, became the perfect fodder for everyone with a beef with the line, real or imagined, to jump on. Discussion of this figure quickly turned inane. What is quickly got lost in a sea of what wasn’t.
I decided to enjoy my Doomsday and ignore the noise. I had thought that I would not even review them, either of the Doomsdays, because I didn’t want to reopen this particular can of worms. But, as I’ve learned from having this site for a few years, when I skip a figure from a line I cover pretty thoroughly, I get email after email asking where the review is. This was true for the Doomsday as well, so here we go.
The first thing about Doomsday is the size. That’s why he’s got revisited in the first place. The original, too small. The new one, probably too big. In a 6” line, the Doomsday as presented here, the initial appearance, should probably clock in around just 8” maybe a little under. This Doomsday is closer to 9.5”. I’m a little more forgiving for two reasons. One is technical, Doomsday has had a slow creep in size over his appearances. He just keep getting drawn bigger and the figure represents that. And, two, I guess like all those inaccurate comic book artists, I just kinda like him bigger.
The funny thing is this height comes entirely from the all-new legs. Despite being the more economical of the two Doomsdays, this figure has almost entirely new legs. Everything from the waist down to the ankles has been replaced with accurate parts to get the costume details just right. This is great because the legs on the original Kilowog buck (reused for Brimstone, Validus, & Arkillo) sucked. They weren’t as well articulated. These new legs, while providing quite a bit more height also feature two additional swivel cuts which really open up the figure’s poseability.
Above the waist, the new parts are a little sparser. Up top, the figure largely relies on Validus & Brimstone pieces, with only new forearms and the classic eerie masked head sculpt. The rest of the work is done by the ornate tubes and coils that make the containment suit function. Continue to Page 2…
Here’s the outside of the box:
I thought Brimstone was first, followed by Kilowog?
I *may* have been responsible for getting the Super-team that created the storyline a free figure for each of them, as I shared the first news of it to Mike Carlin for his opinion and he geeked out over it, seeing it for the first time. LOL I remember he shared it right away with Jurgens and Ordway, who were also hearing about it for the first time.
(also, wasn’t Klaus Janson involved in this story? I recently found out a loose connection with him, but I won’t share it publicly, as it was told to me in private. in three words: awkward wedding moment.)
This figure in itself looks good, big and solid BUT I always question the one-off appearance/look of characters that get toys over a more popular or “usual appearance” figure. Most know Doomsday as the spiky grey Hulk in shorts dude not the “Hazmat Hulk”. see also: “Super” Red Hood (one 4 issue arc) and X-23 fast tracked into getting a Marvel Legend (or TWO!) after one mini-series and a couple X-Evo cartoon episodes.
Then again, I still don’t have Ice or Fire, or several of the latter DCUC/DCIE figures, so that line pretty much fell off my radar, for the time being. also, all my stuff is in storage for last year and half. I should know in a few days whether I can pay it…or I lose everything all over again. 🙁
my attitude of late is: collect whatever makes you happy.
Nice! I passed on CS Doomsday because I wanted both versions or none at all. Of course, Mattel went and released the unleashed version, anyway. I was able to get that one, but CS still eludes me. Probably won’t get him unless I find a really good deal on him.
Well at time and local toy show changing locations cause dumb city decided to tear down Vets Memorial (yes as in War Vets) caused me to miss hunting for this guy. I woulda tried for both too. I just wonder why no still attached in sling/straightjacket arm wasn’t included. That was a powerful.scary moment how he tore thru the Justice league with one hand tied behind his.back literally.
If can get back to that show will indeed look for him and Unleashed.
Great review and did get a laugh out of the comics. Needed that thanks to two jerks yestarday.
Love the DC toys taking a stand by not doing an action pose. As much as I loved DCUC, they missed some heavy hitters like Maxima and Bloodwynd (and they would not have needed a lot of new tooling). In the end , I am glad we got both versions of doom…Nice end to the line.
Nifty figure and great review. Great-looking piece, but since I’m not a he comics fan, it would be wasted on me.
A lot of interweb users are very quick to shriek “CONSPIRACY!” at the first opportunity. I look at it like this: Because they have to work so far in advance, they already had the tooling for both figures when the plug was pulled on the project because of not enough subs. The, they went ahead and made Containment Suit Doomsday, because that seems to be S.O.P. on already-tooled figures which didn’t reach sub goals. Then, sales of the Containment Suit Doomsday helped pay for the release of Unleashed Doomsday. Collectors ended up seeing a release of both versions of Doomsday, which is what they were clamouring for in one way or another, anyway.
This is merely speculation on my part, but it makes a lot more sense than malicious baiting-and-switching and cover-ups and false advertising and premeditated lies and downright up-yours-ism, which the vocal majority would post IN ALL CAPS at every possible chance and forum they could.
That should’ve read “huge comics fan” in the first line.
Bah! Should have gotten this guy. I don’t have any special love for Doomsday, but I DO love the look of this, as a toy! When he came out, though, I didn’t have the money for him. Perhaps I should look ’em up on the secondary market and see what he goes for.
I love that shot of the Justice League members eating pizza and slushees. Where is that stuff from? Those pizza slices are awesome!
I love this figure. I’m a huge comics fan, I started collecting comics at a teenager in the 90s.
So Doomsday has always had two looks for me, CS and unleashed. I was always bummed that there was never a containment suit version in action figure form. This guy corrected that in a big way!
I have both versions, and love both versions.
Great review.
Great review for a really great-looking figure. I too always hoped that if Matty were to ever update Doomsday, they needed to have the containment suit variant, as well as the “unleashed” version. I really think they nailed both, so hats off to them.
As to how the bone extrusions fit in the suit, if i remember correctly Doomsday sort of starts out waking from his dormant stage as just a giant humanoid (like a gray Hulk. Or, like The Grey Hulk. Whichever.), but as he takes damage, his super-defense biology kicks in, and the bones pop out to protect him. So a blast to the eyes causes the little guards over the eyeballs to form, a punch to the face gets jaw-line bones, kick to the jewels gets…well, you get the picture.