{"id":24343,"date":"2017-08-06T00:00:21","date_gmt":"2017-08-06T04:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/?p=24343"},"modified":"2020-10-19T04:54:40","modified_gmt":"2020-10-19T08:54:40","slug":"minimate-mini-review-339-watchmen-series-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/2017\/08\/minimate-mini-review-339-watchmen-series-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Minimate Mini-Review #339 - Watchmen Series 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

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#339 - Comedian\/Nite Owl<\/h3>\n

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Finally we get some DC Minimates again!<\/p>\n

Secretly the vigilante known as The Comedian, Edward Blake continued to work for the government after his crimefighting career, performing various classified and unpleasant tasks. When the highly dangerous killer is himself killed, his old colleagues Nite Owl and Rorschach are driven to investigate.<\/i><\/p>\n

Comedian's movie costume came straight from the books: a black leather tactical suit with patriotic shoulder pads - one blue with a star, the other red with a stripe. The pads are molded as part of his web gear, but you know what's not? What the single most iconic thing related to Watchmen<\/i> as a concept is? His button. He doesn't even get the yellow circle Mattel<\/a> made. There isn't even a flat spot on his gear that you could paint yellow yourself. Not cool! Of course, this one is already superior to Mattel's by virtue of having pistols and working holsters, so maybe that's a sacrifice worth making? He doesn't have a shotgun or a flamethrower, which we're fine with, but why no alternate heads? The one we get is good, with a big grin and stubble and gray hair on his temples, but why no version painted with his scar? At least if you got the Pulp Fiction<\/i> sets, you can give him the Gimp's<\/a> mask. And you can steal a shotgun from that set as well!<\/p>\n

Nite Owl upgraded from the comics' costume to one that seems to take its cues from Batman Begins<\/i> - it's more like armor than cloth. They also changed his colorscheme, so now instead of a brown cape over a gray suit, he's all tones of browns and bronze, with a golden belt. The tampographs are crisp and clear, if nothing else. And those are definitely colors that an owl would be. His cape is unique to him, since it's molded with his particular angular collar, and his owl mask is a separate piece because that was the only way to make its little ears (they also molded his goggles while they were at it. If you want to take his mask off, the set includes hair for him, and his face<\/a> is painted with a look of depression, which seems appropriate.<\/div>\n
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#340 - Dr. Manhattan\/Rorschach<\/h3>\n

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Ernie Kovacs has a troubled mind, and will go to great lengths to protect the innocent as Rorschach. When someone kills an old colleague, his investigation into the death brings mysteries to light and puts him back in touch with the world's only known super-powered human - Dr. Manhattan.<\/i><\/p>\n

Remember when Mattel was making Watchmen<\/i> toys and Monkey Boy chided them for not doing anything interesting with Dr. Manhattan<\/a>, like casting him from blue glow-in-the-dark plastic? Chalk one up for the Minimate, which does exactly that. Remember how he said Mattel should have included a hover stand? The Minimate gets that, too. This figure is basically a refutation of every previous Dr. Manhattan figure. We ask you: has any other Manhattan ever been nude? No it has not! There's no paint there - the body has simple lines to create the anatomy everywhere else, then things conspicuously drop out just as you get to the main event - but the Minimate crotch block always looked vaguely like a wiener anyway. If you're squeamish about phantom genitalia, the set does include an alternate set of hips, this painted solid blue to represent his drawers. If nothing else, you know<\/b> the figure he shares the tray with will be more comfortable if Doc has some pants on.<\/p>\n

Rorschach gets a new trenchcoat and new fedora, despite the fact that molds for both those pieces of clothing already existed, because the style he wears is different from everyone else. The coat has a belt cinching it shut and the collar flipped up, and the hat has no hair attached, since he's wearing his mask. He's got stripes painted on his purple pants, and his torso block is just the same brown as his coat, since you're not meant to remove it. We do get an alternate unmasked head<\/a> for him, showing Kovacs unshaved, bruised, and generally filthy, as is usual. Shame we couldn't get a couple more masked heads with various expressions. The hair comes from various existing Eddie Brocks, which means it wasn't designed with his coat collar in mind - but you can pretend that the way it tips his head forward just represents his being uncomfortable in normal human interactions. He does have his grappling gun, though, and it gets silver and gold paint apps.<\/div>\n
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#341 - Silk Spectre\/Ozymandias<\/h3>\n

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So those four figures were all available in a single set through comicshops. However, there's one set at Toys Я Us that can be had nowhere else, and you kind of need it to complete the lineup.<\/p>\n

A second-generation crimefighter, Laurie Juspeczyk followed in her mother's footsteps as Silk Spectre. Although she was never close with the super-intelligent hero Ozymandias, their paths would cross again when someone begins a campaign to kill or discredit former vigilantes.<\/i><\/p>\n

Most of the characters in the movie kept their costumes from the comics, but Silk Spectre is the one who changed the most. Gone is the see-through dress<\/a> over a black unitard, replaced by a latex bodysuit that manages, as Artemis said<\/a>, to be entirely un-sexy. Go figure. On the plus side, that makes painting this Minimate easier - the only molded piece she needs is her hair<\/a>. Her visible skin is limited to the face and legs, and the color is different enough from the yellow of her suit that you can tell which is which.<\/p>\n

Ozymanidas' visual was much truer to the comics than Silk Spectre's was. Yes, he traded in his purple blouse and gold tights for a more form-fitting purple costume, light purple trunks, and gold accesnts on the boots and arms, but he still had the giant collar and the flowing cape. It's a bit surprising (though welcome) that they didn't make the bands on his arms a separate element, since lining up a tampo all the way around a bodypart can be tough - remember, that's the reason we're always given for why figures get two heads instead of just one with faces on opposite sides. Ozymanidas has a second head like that, allowing you to choose whether he should be wearing his domino mask or not.<\/p>\n

So those are the Watchmen<\/i> Minimates. Good offerings, if coming out oddly long after the movie. I mean, yes, it was a great film and successfully adapted a story that was supposed to be \"unfilmable,\" but the internet at large has decided we're all supposed to hate it, right? Oh well. Hopefully these will sell well and DST will use their license to release more figures. Original Silk Spectre and original Nite Owl. Hooded Justice and teen Comedian. \"Date night\" Dan and Laurie. Moloch, Bubastis, Mothman, Captain Metropolis, Silhouette, Dollar Bill, Bernard and Bernie... the license probably doesn't cover the comics, just the movie, but there's still a lot that could be done - and hopefully will be!<\/p>\n

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As a bonus, here's the text from the back of the four-pack release:<\/p>\n

After the Keene Act was passed, outlawed crimefighter Rorschach went underground. But when vigilante-turned-government agent The Comedian is killed, Rorschach seeks out his old partner Nite Owl to get to the bottom of a conspiracy that may involve the world's only known super-powered human - Dr. Manhattan.<\/i><\/div>\n
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