Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Out of the Box: DC Super Hero Girls Bumblebee

The DC Super Hero Girls are a cartoon that involves teenaged versions of heroes and villains from DC comics in a high school setting.  Full disclosure: I haven't watched it, but even so it's been hard to miss the merchandise.  Mattel has put out two versions of the six main characters (Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Batgirl, Bumblebee, Harley Quinn) - an action figure and a fashion doll (which is being branded as an action doll).

This line seems to be bringing up a lot of the old discussions about the line between dolls and action figures (and about gendered toy marketing), which I'm thinking about making a separate post about, since it's such a huge topic.  But in the meantime, let's take a look at the action figure version of Bumblebee. I'd actually planned on picking up Batgirl, but they'd actually sold out of every other figure at my local store - although they still had all the dolls, which makes me wonder if the figures are benefiting from more of a crossover market.

The figures are carded rather than boxed, and are displayed on pegs in the store (unlike the action dolls which are boxed and shelved).

The front of the box.
The figure itself has 13 points of articulation: neck, shoulders, elbows, hands, hips, knees, and boots (rather than an ankle joint she has boots that can spin around). While she's constructed in such a way that it looks like she should have waist articulation, it's actually just a solid seam there. Her wings are also detachable, and stay on with straps that are reminiscent of a backpack (unfortunately they also throw of her balance - without the wings she stands easily, but with them on it's a real challenge to keep her upright.
She has to lean forward a bit to stand with the wings on.

She might not stand well but she sits nicely.
Showing off the braided half of her hair.
You can also see the honeycomb textured body suit here.
The figure is reasonable in-scale with figures from DC Collectibles and DC Direct. While she's slightly shorter and slimmer than the figures I compared her to, since these figures are meant to be young teens, the size difference makes sense. Interestingly, she's made of a slightly harder plastic than these action figures, which seems to make her reflect more light (it also seems to give her a slightly sweaty look in sunlight).
Between DC Collectibles John Constantine (L) and DC Direct Midnighter (R).
Overall she's a nice figure with solid detailing and a decent amount of articulation.  I know some people aren't fans of the style of this line, but I think there's definitely a charm there, and I look forward to checking out more of them (and maybe an action doll as well) in the future!







18 comments:

  1. That package sure opened right up. If I was forced to compare, I prefer the doll version I saw on Debbie's blog. The doll version looks tough and rather aggressive. The figure, is giving me a "Girl Power" vibe... not that there's anything wrong with that. As you said, she has a charm to her, almost adorable actually and I like female "super heroes" that are more rough and ready. LOL, I'm over-thinking this. She's cute!

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    1. She is cute, right?

      One of the action figure YouTubers I follow described the cute figures and fierce dolls as an attempt to get boys into dolls and girls into action figures. I was tempted to respond with a nitpicky "You mean *more* girls/boys", but as a generalization, I think he might have been onto something there.

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  2. Hi JS,
    I have been trying to not "get involved" with this doll line, but they are really nice in person. I picked up Wonder Woman the other day, but all of them looked tempting! It's nice to the see the action figures up close as I haven't seen them at the store yet. Great review! It's nice to see she has quite a bit of posability for such a small doll. My 3 year old loves little figures and I know she would have a lot of fun with these. :)

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    1. Heh, sounds like you're going to get more involved with them then! ;)

      I wonder if they haven't been stocking as many of the figures? I went to two local Targets and they both had piles of the dolls but seemed to have cleared out the figures almost immediately...

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  3. That was a great review!! I had no idea about the series or the figures, but it's good to see more female action figures out there targetted for kids

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    1. It's true, it's great to see them expanding their target markets like this, isn't it?

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  4. Hi JS,
    You always post an interesting review, although I am aware of Wonder Woman, Super Girl and Bat Woman, I have never heard of this character before now. She's interesting enough, but not for me.
    Hugs.
    X

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    1. The character used to be in Teen Titans, although I'm not sure where she's appearing now (aside from the cartoon, of course).

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  5. Oh I was hoping someone would get something from this line as I have heard about all the releases happening. Thank you for your review. I do like the detailing on this figure.

    I'm interested to hear your thoughts on the line between dolls and action figures so I'll forward to that post.

    I think Azone stray into this as well with their Picconeemo line using the fashion doll bodies with a action figure style head. So then is it a doll or an action figure. Very confusing!

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    1. It is confusing. I've seen people argue that cloth clothing makes something a doll, but that makes that all those Hot Toys and Real Action Hero figures dolls and the sculpted-clothing water Barbies action figures. Another one that people pull out is that sculpted hair means it's not a doll, but that would mean that nearly all the modern Ken dolls are actually action figures.

      It's just a blurry line, isn't it?

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  6. Hi JSarie! Thanks for the good review. Bumblebee action figure version looks really cute and adorable.
    The fashion doll version isn't bad at all. In fact she looks really fierce and powerful. Waiting for your review on her (if you ever get one)

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    1. Thanks! If/when I pick up one of the dolls, I'll definitely go into detail on her/them! :)

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  7. She's very cute and colourful! And reminds me a little of the little figures I found earlier this year!

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    1. I can see the similarity there! Did those ones turn out to be from a French cartoon in the end?

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  8. she's cute! i loved the WW & BG dollies i bought- the reimagined outfits were smartly done

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    1. They did a nice job on the whole line, didn't they? I'm going to need to pick one (or more) of the dolls one of these days...

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  9. I have a feeling my niece would love these!She's the only girl In the family that digs action figures and I'm sort of bonding with her because Of it.My daughters on the other hand will have none of it,lol!

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    1. Heh, nice! I wish I could get one of my nieces into figures - I'm hoping this line will have the cross-over appeal to bring them around. ;)

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